NEW DELHI: Thousands of farmers from western Uttar Pradesh descended on the capital on Thursday and blocked all key roads leading to Parliament. They were protesting against the Mayawati government for carrying out land acquisition for the Yamuna Expressway project. Though traffic movement in central Delhi areas was affected for a few hours, the protest was peaceful and no untoward incident was reported. Traffic movement was affected at Rajghat, Jawaharlal Nehru...
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Martyrs to transparency by Venkitesh Ramakrishnan
In the five years of the Right to Information Act, activists who use it have faced reprisal across the country. OCTOBER 2010 marks the fifth anniversary of the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The Act and its implementation have been described in both administrative circles and civil society as “revolutionary” , “a blow for transparency”, “a check on corrupt practices” and “a people's intervention tool with tremendous impact”. Social activists and...
More »School kids cut CM to size, Mayavati shrinks to Mavati by Tapas Chakraborty
Mayavati had better do something quick about the state of schools in Uttar Pradesh if she wants children to spell her name right. An NGO assessing the District Primary Education Programme and Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, a national programme for universalisation of elementary education, asked 16 students of Classes III and IV of a government school in Joar village near Lucknow to write the name of their chief minister in Hindi. Mavit and...
More »Reluctant migrants by Mahim Pratap Singh
Bolangir district in Orissa, facing drought conditions since 1965, sees an annual mass migration of farmers to other States in search of work. SURESH GOHIR of Bhotapada village in the backward Bolangir district of Orissa consumed pesticide two years ago after his paddy crop failed. He survived the suicide attempt but found life doubly difficult as debt had mounted. Suresh was forced to migrate to neighbouring Andhra Pradesh in search of...
More »Court to decide on 100 p.c. quota for STs in tribal areas
The Supreme Court on Thursday referred to a Constitution Bench for hearing an important question of law as to whether 100 per cent reservation in posts for teachers could be made in favour of Scheduled Tribes in schools in scheduled areas. A Bench, comprising Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma, referred the appeal to Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia for posting it before a Constitution Bench. The special leave petition...
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