-ANI The statistics for farmer suicides in India are as striking as they are shameful. One farmer suicide every 30 minutes in 2009, screamed a NYU School of Law report earlier this year. If one accepts that many suicides also go unreported, even this shocking statistics is perhaps an under-estimation. Why, then, would another three suicides, this time in Madhya Pradesh's Hoshangabad District, be newsworthy? For one, the suicides took place during the...

The building collapse in Uttam Nagar that killed four people last week has again exposed how the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) as well as the state government are mired in large-scale corruption. The major cause of the incident, in which four people were killed, was reportedly the flouting of construction norms by the builder. Officials from MCD told Tehelka on condition of anonymity that the number of illegal buildings goes...

School education laws in the state will soon undergo an overhaul. The Maharashtra government has set up a committee to synchronise all laws in School education with the centralRight to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 .  Formed recently by the state's School education department, it will be led by a retired Bombay high court judge and will have experts in education.  While the committee will look at all laws in...

-The Times of India   Neighbourhood private Schools in Gurgaon would soon be identified as part of a state-wide exercise under the Right to Education Act (RTE). After identifying the Schools, the tuition fee and other funds meant for the poor and needy children studying in them will be refunded.  Haryana education minister Geeta Bhukkal made the announcement while addressing the grievances of the people in her constituency, Jhajjar, on Sunday.  While cities like...

The Centre has decided to include the Scheduled Tribes as a category that will, by law, be provided subsidised food grains through the public distribution system under the proposed National Food Security Bill. The final draft also provides for supply of “ready cooked hot breakfast” to eligible School children in addition to the mid-day meals under the Integrated Child Development Scheme. Highly placed sources told The Hindu that that the Union...