-The Economic Times   The ninth and final session of the Lokpal Bill drafting committee dispersed with little meeting of minds between civil society representatives and their government counterparts. Forget the six points on which differences have been enumerated; the basic disagreement is on the essential nature of the proposed ombudsman. The civil society representatives seek to create a new body that is all-powerful, gets appointed with minimal participation by the...

Karnataka has among the worst track records in the country in meeting the rights of tribal communities, the latest figures with the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs reveal. Recently, the State Government opposed Unesco's nomination of the Western Ghats as a heritage site on the grounds that tribal rights could be violated, and that forest dwelling communities could even face eviction. However, Karnataka features at the bottom of the ranking of States...

Convention on Domestic Workers recognises rights of domestic workers as worker rights “People will throw us out, rather than give us all these rights”: a part-time domestic maid Trade union activists and those working with the informal sector may be rejoicing over the historic Convention on Domestic Workers adopted by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) last week recognising the rights of domestic workers as worker rights and specifies standards for regulation of...

It will also discuss Communal Violence Bill and condition of endangered Jarawa tribals BJP and other right wing groups are against the use of word ‘minority' in Communal Violence Bill The Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) hopes to finalise its Working Group's draft of the Food Security Bill, take the discussion on its Communal Violence (CV) Bill draft further and hold a discussion on the plight of Jarawas in the Andaman...

Orissa’s Jagatsinghpur district administration today indefinitely put on hold the land acquisition process for the 12-million-tonne Posco steel plant. “The dismantling of betel vineyards for land acquisition in Dhinkia gram panchayat has been suspended till further instructions. However, officials have gone ahead with other work such as clearing the fruit-bearing trees from the project villages in two other gram panchayats,” said Paradip additional district magistrate Saroj Kanta Choudhury. On the other hand,...