The much-awaited National Food Security Bill, 2011, which makes cheaper foodgrains a legal entitlement to 63.5 per cent of the country's population, was tabled in the Lok Sabha on Thursday. The Bill was introduced by Food Minister K.V. Thomas in the presence of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who has been keen on ensuring that the law is enacted. It seeks to “provide food and nutritional security by ensuring access to adequate...

The setting aside of 50% of seats in the proposed Lokpal for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, women and minorities, triggered a sharp debate within parties today around a central, normative question: should social diversity, especially inclusion of minorities, weigh in an empowered body to “fight corruption?”   While the BJP has opposed it and Team Anna, caught off-guard on a sensitive political issue, has declined to comment, legal experts...

-Express News Service   Virtually forced into drafting it, the government today introduced a bill in the Lok Sabha that aims to fight corruption via the Lokpal at the centre and Lokayuktas in the states, an unprecedented oversight body whose members are selected, and which is set to be dominated by members of the higher judiciary. The singular theme emerging from the proceedings of the house today was the unease across the political...

-The Times of India   Armed tribals on Wednesday blocked the Bhanjanagar-Dasaplla road at Gayaganda in Ganjam district in protest against the arrest of 29 tribals from Ambajahari within Tarsingi forest range. Forest personnel raided the reserve forest and arrested these people for constructing their house by encroaching upon forest land and chopping trees, divisional forest officer, Ghumusar (South) B B Behera said. Behera said the encroachers tried to attack the forest personnel...

-The Times of India   The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) on Tuesday asked the state government to take stringent action against those schools who were violating the Right to Education Act, 2009. Taking suo motu cognizance of a TOI report, 'Residential Schools Violate RTE Norms' published on December 20, which talked about how elite residential schools like Mayo College,Mayo College Girls (both in Ajmer), Delhi Public School (Jaipur), Neerja...