-The Times of India KOLKATA: While the country celebrates the seventh anniversary of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), Bengal continues to be one of the poor performers. The Paschimbanga Khet Majdoor Union alleges that a group of vested interests, "comprising landed farmers, industrialists and a section of the intelligentsia" were working in tandem to subvert the positives of NREGA in the state. The union, which has criticized both the...

-Outlook A new land acquisition bill readies for budget session. How will it fare? Bill Of Blights     Defines “public purpose” too broadly, allows govt to acquire land for PPPs     Less landowner consent required for PPPs than private-only projects     The bill’s compensation norms likely to face strict challenges in the courts     States have been given R&R powers but could lead to arbitrary outcomes     Doesn’t consider govt projects where compensation, R&R are neglected *** The...

-DNA Mumbai: Even as the deadline nears for the implementation of the Right to Education Act on March 31, Schools have not yet begun admissions for the 25% quota seats. Reason? They are waiting for the RTE notification for 2013-14, which has been pending for the last three months. Realising that they have to wait for a fresh notification for admissions to 25% quota for 2013-14, the education department withdrew the common timetable...

-The Indian Express The deafening silence from official circles on the Verma committee recommendations is in sharp contrast to the widespread well-deserved appreciation that the committee has received. It is common for governments to form such committees to buy time and take the heat off themselves. Perhaps that was the government’s intention when it set up the committee at the height of the protests in the wake of the brutal gangrape...

-IANS Minister of State for human resource development Shashi Tharoor Friday said the right to education (RTE) does not apply to nursery admissions. "The RTE doesn't apply to nursery admissions as the law specifies eight years of compulsory Schooling from the age of six to 14. Nursery children are younger than that," Tharoor said at a programme organised by television channel Headlines Today. "As a social mechanism, a School's admission policy...