-IANS TISSA, Himachal Pradesh: When a right to information (RTI) activist in Himachal Pradesh exposed misuse of public funds some years back, he did not expect that his fight for truth would expose him and his family to threats and social boycott. Manjur Mohammed, 26, who hails from remote Naila village in the Muslim-dominated Kalhel panchayat of Tissa block of Chamba district, has been facing the wrath of his fellow villagers....
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Dalit empowerment still a distant dream- Elizabeth Roche and Arundhati Ramanathan
-Live Mint Almost two decades after the Panchayati Raj Act was notified, a key aim of the legislation remains unfulfilled Papapatti/Madurai district: S. Muruganadam, 38, is the Dalit president of the Papapatti village panchayat in Madurai district and a post-graduate in political science. His term ends in 2016 and he has made up his mind not to run for re-election. "I think a panchayat president's post is an important post because only...
More »Panchayats under the shadow of the ‘khaps’- Sahil Makkar
-Live Mint Despite being declared unconstitutional by SC, ‘khaps' continue to hold sway in parallel with the state machinery Rohtak/Bhiwani: Ravinder Gehlawat and his wife Shilpa had been married for less than four months when they were marched out of their village-Dharana in Jhajjar district of Haryana-by men of the local community and warned never to return. Their fate was sealed on 24 April 2009 when the local khap panchayat, which translates...
More »Panchayats: hope for dalit rights- George Mathew
-Live Mint Panchayat-related caste violence continues unabated and has become a part of the social reality today In ancient India, the panchayat system was based on the age-old caste system, social status and family. Although the local self-government concept was introduced in 1882, it took more than 100 years for the local self-government institutions to become a part of the Indian Constitution. While tremendous possibilities have been opened up in the...
More »The curious case of 5,984 Kalawatis in Sahara list -Appu Esthose Suresh
-The Indian Express By May 2, Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Ltd (SIRECL) has to prove the "genuineness" of all its investors to the Supreme Court. It has a difficult task on its hands: the name ‘Kalawati' figures 5,984 times on that list, same names appear against different locations, and geography takes a giant leap with ‘Jaipur Nagpur Maharashtra' and ‘187 Aurangabad Lucknow UP' mentioned as addresses. SIRECL had given the list...
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