-The Hindu More needs to be done to enforce the law banning manual scavenging. This monsoon, India's Parliament passed a law of enormous social significance prohibiting and punishing manual scavenging, which remains the most degrading form of untouchability and caste discrimination in the country. This is not the first time this practice was outlawed: untouchability and forced labour were forbidden in the Constitution itself and, in 1993, a law was first passed...

-The Hindu Monthly season tickets and passengers in suburban trains exempted from hike While exempting almost half of its passengers from additional burden, the railways have increased fares by roughly 2 per cent to offset increased fuel expenditure. However, those travelling in Duronto will have to pay as much as Rajdhani passengers with effect from Monday. The railways have also increased freight charges by 1.7 per cent across the board from next Thursday. With...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: Four months after the proposal was first mooted, the Planning Commission has finalised the draft of a bill that seeks to set up a tribunal to resolve disputes arising in public-private partnership (PPP) projects. The commission presented the draft of the dispute resolution bill to the Prime Minister's Office last week, a senior official at the commission told ET. "We have sent the final draft to the PM...

-The Hindu Most of the acquisitions by the Central government and public sector companies in the country's resource-rich State are under laws that bypass the new land Bill The UPA has claimed the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Bill 2013 passed by both Houses will reduce forcible acquisition and help tackle Naxalism in mineral-rich areas. But with Coal Bearing Areas Acquisition and Development (CBA)...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: As many as nine central government departments, including the railways and the ministries of finance, commerce and petroleum, could be in the dock for flouting employment laws governing contract workers. The Central Labour Commissioner has sought compliance reports for contract workers deployed in several ministries, including the commissioner's own office in the labour ministry, which uses the services of 20 contract employees via a private software firm. The...