Six items prioritised for Prajapatham The State Cabinet has identified six priorities for this year's Prajapatham mass-contact programme proposed to be held from May first week to solve the people's identified problems. They are drinking water supply and sanitation; implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) with emphasis on arresting migration of labour; social security benefits like pensions and ration cards; disbursement of arrears to self-help groups under Pavala Vaddi...

Former Chief Justic of India KG Balakrishnan does a U-turn on disclosing his assets. Justic Balakrishnan has informed the Inecome Tax Department that he does not want to disclose his assets because it is not related to public welfare in any way.   Under intense pressure, former CJI and the current NHRC chief had early this month agreed to publicise details of his assets. The ex-CJI has faced allegations that he has wealth that...

The probe into the killings of Maoist leader Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad and freelance journalist Hem Chandra Pandey in an alleged shootout in July last year will be handed over to the CBI , Andhra Pradesh told the Supreme Court Monday. The apex court bench of Justice Aftab Alam and Justice R.M. Lodha was told that the necessary notification about the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe would be issued by...

Itself the outcome of a bottom-up movement, the Jan Lokpal bill ironically proposes a centralised framework against graft. Without checks and balances. There was never any doubt that India needs a strong Lokpal Act. The protest has paved the way for its enactment. With the exultation over the anti-corruption campaign’s ‘victory’ quieting down, it’s time to take stock. Nuanced arguments—and indeed substance—have to recover lost ground to take the discourse...

“Quartz grinding is one of the deadliest occupations” “Slowly, but surely, every one of us who has been to the factories in Gujarat will die, and there is nothing we can do to change that,” Buddha (45) of Undli village says bitterly. Buddha lost his 18-year-old-son Mohan to acute silicosis a year ago. His 16-year-old daughter Ghamma is still suffering from the disease. Silicosis, the deadly scourge unleashed upon migrant labourers of...