Why is the ruling party unable to pass 3 very important bills? The National Advisory Council draws its exalted status from the fact that UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi heads it. But its inability to get its way on three new Bills indicates that its influence is waning. A couple of weeks ago, the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) cleared the drafts of two significant Bills — the Food Security Bill and...

-The Times of India   Farmers in Sivaganga district have alleged that funds to the tune of Rs 8 lakh was misappropriated under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) in Vengalur panchayat in Devakottai taluk. Villagers alleged that a panchayat clerk had siphoned off the money allotted for desilting a tank, a key source of water for agriculture in the locality. Based on a report on the alleged...

-Express News Service   On the eve of the meeting of a high-level Congress panel on UPA flagship monitoring, party general secretary Digivijaya Singh has written a letter to Union rural development Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh seeking action into the alleged NREGA scam in Sonbhadra district. In his letter, a copy of which has been marked to Chief Minister Mayawati, Singh has asked for strict actions against officials involved in the “NREGA scam...

The mid-term appraisal of the rural development programmes during the ongoing 11th Five-Year Plan points out several holes in the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in Uttar Pradesh. This not only reaffirms the public perception of poor performance of UP, but also sets aside the defence put up against scathing criticism of her government by chief minister Mayawati time and again. The development has come...

-The Hindu   More than half of these children are illiterate The streets of Delhi are home to more than 50,000 children, according to a census conducted by non-government organisation Save the Children and Institute for Human Development. Conducted in July and August last year, the findings of the census have been compiled into an extensive report titled “Surviving the Streets” which was recently presented to Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. The study used...