-The Hindu   The Right to Food CAMPAign on Tuesday appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to set aside the government draft of the Food Security Bill which “minimises government's obligations, restricts people's entitlements and is devoid of any accountability”. Rejecting the government's draft Bill, the CAMPAign gave a national call for action. In an open letter to the Prime Minister, the CAMPAign said the draft Bill approved by the Empowered Group of...

Important draft legislation was recently unveiled in Rajasthan that would impose serious punishment for ‘witch-hunting’. Getting legislators to sign off on the bill, however, will prove difficult. Over the years, the women’s movement in Rajasthan has had some success in making violence against women into an important political issue. Activists have forced political parties and governments to demonstrate that they are addressing this constituency, which the media has dubbed ‘Mahila Sangathan’....

Faced with lack of awareness about the provisions of Right to Education Act, a massive 100-day CAMPAign involving community mobilization will be launched from November 11, the national Education Day. The decision was taken last week in the meeting of National Advisory Council of RTE. A task force headed by Kiran Karnik, former chairperson of Nasscom, gave a report on community mobilization for RTE. Karnik said knowledge about RTE, "a...

-IANS   Farmers from Greater Noida on Sunday demanded a compensation at the rate of Rs.10,000-11,500 per square metre for their acquired lands, a village headman said. The demand is a part of a charter to be given to theGreater Noida Industrial Development Authority and filed in the Allahabad High Court, which is hearing the farmers' petitions against land acquisition. On the direction of theAllahabad High Court to reach an accord for an...

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government’s proposed land acquisition law, a politically sensitive and critical piece of legislation that could potentially remove a big roadblock to industrial investment, aims to address rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R), providing safeguards for both land owners and livelihood losers, while clearly defining the “public purpose” for which land can be acquired by the government. “This draft Bill seeks to balance the need for facilitating land acquisition...