The United Progressive Alliance government on Friday unveiled its second draft Bill addressing the burning issues of land acquisition as well as rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R). The National Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2011, as recommended by the National Advisory Council, will make it mandatory that gram sabhas are consulted and the R&R package is executed before the acquired land is transferred. Union Minister of Rural Development Jairam Ramesh...

Even as academic circles debate whether schools should do away with the detention policy (pass-fail system) as well as examinations that put pressure on students, the West Bengal government is yet to notify the Right to Education Act nearly 15 months after it came into force all over the country in April 2010. Recently, School Education Minister Bratya Basu said the government was considering a proposal to do away with examinations...

Darool Uloom Deoband's new Vice-Chancellor Maulana Abul QasimNomani has said that the Islamic seminary will oppose theRight to Free and Compulsory Education. Speaking at a programme organised by the Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind in Delhi on Thursday, Nomani described the Right to Education as an attack on the sovereignty of madarsas and other minority institutions. The Human Resource Development Ministry, however, described these apprehensions as baseless. "The seminary will strongly protest the...

Several primary school teachers in West Midnapore’s Jungle Mahal area have sought transfer in the face of Maoist “threats and extortion”. Since Mamata Banerjee’s government assumed charge on May 20, anti-Maoist operations in Jungle Mahal have stopped, allowing the rebels the opportunity to regroup and “start atrocities against teachers again”. In the past 15 days, at least 26 teachers have submitted applications to the district chairman of the primary education board seeking...

In the past six months, five-year-old Shivam has learnt a useful lesson, that perseverance is a great leveller - of shoes. Shivam is both the means and the end of his father's dream to give him a good life. Masseur Prem Pal Singh, 37, who left his UP hometown years ago, has seen enough of Dakshinpuri's poor lanes, and been pushed around often enough to know the value of education,...