-EPW   The draft Food Bill is in a mess; a simple solution is available to make it an effective legislation.   The union cabinet’s inability to clear the National Food Security Bill (NFSB) on 13 December is both a concern and an opportunity. It is a concern because every passing day is a chance lost to bring hunger to an end. It is an opportunity because the Bill is in dire need...

-The Hindu   Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Tuesday expressed her “strong opposition” to the draft Food Security Bill, 2011 and urged the Centre to exempt Tamil Nadu from the purview of the Bill. In her letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, she said the proposed Bill was replete with “confusion and inaccuracy.” The proposed classification of target groups into priority household (PHH) and general household (GHH) for delivery of food entitlements would surely invite...

Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh, in an article on left-wing extremism (“From Tirupati to Pashupati?” The Hindu , October 14, 2011), observed candidly: “It is not the naxals who have created the ground conditions ripe for their ideology — it is the singular failure of successive governments both in the States and the Centre.” There lay the main cause of the festering sore of naxalism, often characterised as left-wing...

Residential schools in the state are the latest additions to the bandwagon of private elite schools contravening the provisions of the national Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009. TOI did a reality check by calling them impersonating as parents and going through their websites. These schools are Planning to hold a screening procedure in the form of interactions with parents of students seeking admissions at the elementary level and in primary...

-PTI Strongly opposing the draft National Food Security Bill, Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa today said it was replete with "confusion and inaccuracy" and asked the Centre not to attempt encroaching into the domains of states. In a strongly-worded letter to PM Manmohan Singh, she said the Central government "should not attempt or be seen to attempt encroaching into the domains of the states" and sought exemption of Tamil Nadu from...