-The Telegraph New Delhi: A year after the Supreme Court pulled up 19 states, including Bengal, that did not have a commission to protect children's rights and directed them to set up one, most of these panels exist only on paper. All states/Union territories are required to have a child rights commission under Section 17 of the Commission for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005. Twenty-three states now have the panels -...

-Newsclick.in With sixty percent children malnourished in the state, the implementation of the Integrated Child Development Services, the largest scheme to provide nutrition to children in the country, is nothing but a sham. SITting outside her semi-pucca house in Bilgram block, Kasturi says, "My children get five fistful of panjiri once a month from the Aanganwadi Centre." Thirty-three year-old Kasturi has never, in her parents' village or her in-law's village seen an...

-The Hindustan Times Misunderstandings about the World Trade Organization (WTO) are pervasive. The media coverage of the recent WTO meetings at Bali has added to the confusion. The bone of contention was the government procurement of the food grains in India under the National Food Security Act. The final outcome is a stopgap arrangement that has bought the Indian government some time; most importantly, it does not have to undertake any...

-The Hindustan Times Kolkata: President Pranab Mukherjee will meet shortly two groups of people who will give him the lowdown on the deteriorating law and order SITuation in West Bengal, the state he represented for more than 40 years in Parliament. The All India Democratic Women's Association, the women's wing of the oppoSITion CPI(M), is planning to approach him on the rising incidents of crime and violence against women and the alleged...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: In the election year and with more complaints of "poor condition" of highways pouring in, the road transport ministry wants finance ministry not to reduce the allocation for road maintenance. The ministry has asked finance minister P Chidambaram to avoid reduction of "non-planned" expenditure since the allocation of Rs 2,000 crore for upkeep of highways is inadequate. Sources said that highways minister wrote a letter to...