Decoding the 'mystery' behind Maoists, the Centre has for the first time brought out in open many facts that have hitherto remained in official papers and urged aam aadmis to expose true colours of Red rebels in whatever ways they can, including use of social media like Facebook and twitter. In a document, brought out in the form of frequently asked questions (FAQs) last week, the Union home ministry has classified...

The Right to Information Act (RTI) can be used in different ways not only to expose corruption in government offices and public sector enterprises but also to force private NGOs and societies under Section 2(f) of the act to cough up information. Using the tool, noose can be tightened around those private agencies that try to fool people in the name of being associated with government-sponsored schemes. The option available in the...

-IANS Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Friday expressed concern that the government's Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC) is being seen as a "token sanitation campaign" and rued that women were demanding mobile phones but not toilets.  "Women demand mobile phones, they are not demanding toilets... Sanitation is the much more difficult issue," Ramesh said at the launch of Asia-Pacific Regional MDGs (Millenium Development Goals) Report 2011-12.  Ramesh said women's self-help groups (SHGs) should...

-The Hindu “If Shyam Benegal [film director] can come up with a toilet version of Manthan[movie that focused on milk cooperatives] we can break a certain social barrier” towards solving a problematic issue like sanitation, felt Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister of Rural Development. Launching the Asia-Pacific Millennium Development Goals report of the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific, Mr. Ramesh recalled howManthan that featured Smita Patil had changed women's...

-The Telegraph The state rural development department has asked for a report from the Latehar district administration on Wednesday’s death of a 14-year-old girl while she was working in a well being constructed under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). In a letter issued today after The Telegraph carried a report highlighting the tragedy and its overall implications on the tardy implementation of the Centre’s job scheme in Jharkhand, rural...