NGOs differ on Jan Lokpal, pick on Team Anna’s shortcomings Conflict Amongst NGOs?     * Great response to Anna seen as success of civil society     * NGOs agree on wiping off corruption in government, not on solutions     * They celebrate the middle class finding voice; but mourn lack of reach among villagers     * Divergence in views seen as healthy for debate; onus on govt to take final call *** First the good news:...

-The Times of India   Students, teachers and educationists unanimously demanded that the state frame rules under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act to make schools free of corporal punishments and mental harassment to children. People raised the demand at a public hearing organized by Mathews Philip, representative appointed by National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) for Karnataka to monitor the implementation of RTE Act, at...

Maharashtra Minister launches “Save the Girl Child” campaign to curb sex-selective abortions In a packed cultural hall in Chandrapur, poor acoustics did not take away from a serious play on female foeticide. The voices of the actors went high and low as mikes were pushed hastily towards them. At the end of the play, there was a poignant appeal from an unborn girl who asked for a chance to live. On Sunday...

Over the last few days, as a desperate government tried to tide over the Lokpal Bill crisis, it received over half-a-dozen variants of the draft legislation. On Saturday, both Houses of Parliament took up the subject and though the debate was mostly confined to the Jan Lokpal Bill, it made the political point that while an effective law should be devised to tackle corruption, Parliament’s supremacy must be maintained. The...

Congress negotiators and Anna Hazare's associates repeatedly shifted the goalposts through the four-and-half-month stand-off on the shape and structure of the Lokpal Bill. The Anna group flagged as many as 40 issues during the many rounds of discussions in the joint Lokpal drafting committee set up after Mr. Hazare ended his April 2011 fast in Jantar Mantar here. Of these, 34 were more or less resolved by the time negotiations broke...