Free healthcare at state-of-the-art hospitals will soon be within reach of even those with meagre resources. The Jharkhand chapter of National Rural Health Mission is mulling a massive tie up with public sector units to provide free medical care to over 25 lakh people of the state who are living below the poverty line. State mission director Aradhana Patnaik, confirming the development, informed that major PSUs operating out of Jharkhand, including CCL,...

Hunger striking Indian activist Anna Hazare has called for mass protests by his supporters against corruption. The 72-year-old campaigner is on the fourth day of a fast to push for stringent new anti-corruption laws. He wants his followers to "fill India's jails" in a mass campaign of non-violent civil disobedience on 13 April. Thousands of people have joined Mr Hazare's protest. In recent months India has been rocked by a string of corruption...

The watchdog risks becoming “a sinecure for retired persons” This May, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is due to appear before the International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in Geneva for its re-accreditation as an ‘A' grade institution. Ahead of this process, a consortium of non-governmental organisations released a report here on Wednesday on the compliance of the NHRC with the ‘Paris...

The Supreme Court today wondered whether faulty development practices were the “root cause” of the Maoist insurgency in Chhattisgarh, and asked the state how many agreements it had signed with multi-nationals and how it was using the state’s financial resources. It also asked the state government to explain how and under what rules it recruited and armed the Koya commandos — special police officers (SPOs) fighting the Maoists. “How many MoUs (memoranda...

The CPM today came out in support of Anna Hazare but, in doing so, found itself on the same page with the BJP, a party with which the Left wouldn’t want to be associated with, especially in election season. Prakash Karat pledged support to Hazare over the Lok Pal Bill from Coimbatore, where he was campaigning for the Tamil Nadu polls on April 13. Polls in Left-ruled Kerala and Bengal also...