Today is 20th March and it was this day in 2009 when the new form of Right to Information Act (RTI Act) was enacted in J&K by Omar Abdullah led Government soon after coming to power. Prior to 2009 we had an RTI law passed by PDP Congress coalition Government headed by Mufti Mohammad Syeed in 2004 (J&K RTI Act 2004). The 2004 version of RTI Act was much weaker...
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In Delhi's nursery classes, Muslim children are a rarity-Bindu Shajan Perappadan Rana Siddiqui Zaman
-The Hindu Low Muslim representation appears to be a striking feature of this year's admissions to nursery classes in Delhi's private schools. Of 92 schools which provided some sort of information on their websites, as many as 20 (or their branches) admitted no Muslim child while 17 admitted only one Muslim child each. While the sketchy nature of available data – with only a few schools willing to reveal the numbers of...
More »Is this the end of the road for MGNREGA?-Niranjan Rajadhyaksha
In an interview with Mint in February, Jairam Ramesh, minister of rural development, was asked whether the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) would be rolled back in the upcoming budget as part of a plan to reduce the fiscal deficit. “How can we roll back a demand-driven programme?” Ramesh had replied. But that is precisely what seems to have happened. On Friday, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee announced a...
More »Poverty line: BJP demands debate in Rajya Sabha
-CNN-IBN The Planning Commission's latest report on poverty rates declining has raised a storm in Parliament. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has demanded a reply from the government in the Rajya Sabha on the latest numbers. The Planning Commission on Monday said that the poverty in India has come down in the country during the 2009-2010 period. According to its latest report, the Commission said more than 8 per cent of India...
More »Forget Rs 32, if you earn Rs 28 a day, you are not poor
-PTI Planning Commission on Monday further reduced poverty line to Rs 28.65 per capita daily consumption in cities and Rs 22.42 in rural areas, scaling down India's poverty ratio to 29.8 per cent in 2009-10, the estimates which are likely to raise the hackles of civil society. An individual above a monthly consumption of Rs 859.6 in urban and Rs 672.8 in rural areas is not considered poor, as per the controversial...
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