Over 200 families in this district of Madhya Pradesh continue to bear the brunt of caste discrimination.Vidisha, a thriving trade centre of ancient India, finds glorious mention variously for Emperor Ashoka's governorship, for featuring in Pali scriptures and Kalidasa's romantic epic Meghdoot, as a premier tourist destination in glossy brochures of Madhya Pradesh Tourism and as the parliamentary constituency of Sushma Swaraj, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok...

Persons with disabilities are the last identity group to enter the workforce, not because their disability comes in the way of their functioning, but because of social and practical barriers that prevent them from joining work, a study on the ‘Employment Rights of Disabled Women in India' carried out by the Society for Disability and Rehabilitation of the National Commission for Women (NCW) has said.The barriers include lack of proper...

Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today made all deputy commissioners accountable for implementation of governance reforms in a time-bound manner within their respective districts. They would also be expected to speed up NREGA-related projects. Sukhbir said their performance on these fronts would reflect in their annual appraisal reports. Reviewing the progress of administrative reforms in a meeting of all deputy commissioners, Sukhbir said that DCs of each district would be designated...

The Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) on Saturday urged the Centre to coordinate with all State and local governments and also Central government departments, including the Railways, to ensure that the pernicious practice of manual scavenging is fully abolished the latest by the end of the 11th Plan period. This, it said, would require a new survey in every State and Union Territory, with wide public involvement, of the remaining...

After taking on Suresh Kalmadi and Co on the Commonwealth Games, Rajya Sabha MP and former panchayati raj minister Mani Shankar Aiyar has now trained his guns on the UPA government and the Planning Commission for bureaucratising all flagship programmes like the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the National Rural Health Mission. In a free-wheeling interview with ET, Mr Aiyar said instead of relying on panchayati raj institutions for better...