-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Congress trumpeted the constitution of seventh pay commission as another of its welfare measures in line with land and food bills, in what appeared a thinly-veiled attempt to milk the olive branch to government employees at the upcoming state and Lok Sabha polls. The surprise decision on the pay commission targetting middle-classes comes on the back of legislations to win over the poor and the...

-The Hindu The huge deficit in blood availability outside urban centres must jolt the government into legalising unbanked blood supply Twenty-year-old Putul, living in a village 70 km from a district headquarters town in Chhattisgarh, had been in labour for two days and a night. It was her first pregnancy. In order to hasten labour, the local quack administered several injections that increased her uterine contractions. Forty hours after the onset of...

-Outlook An RTI exposes how the Sikkim govt has blatantly misutilised funds meant for quake relief Whose Money Is It Anyway! Of the Rs 60.45 crore allocated for construction of roads and bridges, the state government gave only Rs 30 crore Another Rs 52.64 crore was allocated, of which the government again spent only Rs 3 crore On the other hand, the...

-Frontline The government pushes through the Land Acquisition Bill, but critics say it will take away more than what it purports to give. CLOSE on the heels of the passing of the National Food Security Bill, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government pushed through its other game-changer initiative, the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2013, or LARR Bill, ostensibly to address the injustices...

-The Indian Express Manual scavenging laws will need to be supported by better sanitation policies. The recent passage of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Bill by Parliament is a welcome, long-overdue step in the right direction. The bill replaces the outdated and rarely implemented 1993 law, which purported to abolish manual scavenging. It has been passed primarily due to a sustained campaign by thousands of former women...