-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar is leveraging his politically 'unattached' status to seek higher wages for his people under the Centre's rural employment guarantee scheme. Kumar, being wooed by the Congress after he parted ways with the BJP, has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying that the state plans to raise NREGA payments to align them with the statutory minimum wage. "Notification of lower wage rates...
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Prestigious scheme but a pittance for those in charge-Rukmini S
-The Hindu For a scheme that the Central government has declared an essential arm of its educational and nutritional objectives in the last three days, both the Central and the State governments have shown a remarkable lack of concern for the 27 lakh workers, most of them women, who administer it. The tragedy that killed 23 children in Bihar's Chapra village last Tuesday has shone a rare spotlight on India's mid-day meal...
More »Six people who pulled strategic levers to open up political parties' finances -Soma Banerjee
-The Economic Times If India is now debating opening the books and operations of political parties to the public, it's because of these six people who pulled strategic levers and applied relentless pressure. Soma Banerjee traces a four-year effort that converted intent to action Balwant Singh Khera, a politician from Hoshiarpur in Punjab, is not a name that will strike a chord in mainstream politics or social discourse today. It might in...
More »Activists slam political parties for anti-RTI stand -Himanshi Dhawan
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Civil society members and RTI activists sharply criticized political parties for their reluctance to accept the Central Information Commission (CIC) order bringing them under the RTI Act. In a reflection of their cautious stance, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) - the main applicant who had sought information on donors to political parties - filed a caveat on Tuesday with the court to prevent any...
More »Floors Wet With Sweat -Pragya Singh
-Outlook Labour is bought cheap, treated cheap-in India's garment factories as at Bangladeshi ones Even as the world remains morbidly fixated on the tragedy in Rana Plaza on the outskirts of Dhaka-the collapse of the textiles sweatshop three weeks ago buried 1,127 workers and sparked off a global outrage-it is business as usual at India's textile hubs. And you don't have to travel far from the city centre to...
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