The Member of Parliament Local Area Development [MPLAD] scheme is all set to become disabled-friendly. The Centre has decided to expand the scope of the scheme to allow MPs to provide assistance to the physically challenged in their constituencies, up to Rs. 10 lakh a year from their MPLAD fund. The change will come into effect from June 1. Announcing this, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, which is in charge...

Senior United Nations officials today stressed the need to promote the participation of women in decision-making, noting that democracy and gender equality are interlinked and mutually reinforcing. “While women’s political participation improves democracy, the reverse is also true: democracy is an incubator for gender equality,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his remarks at a roundtable held at UN Headquarters on gender equality and democracy. “It provides public space for discussion of human...

The arrest of Suresh Kalmadi on 25 April marked yet another scene in the prolonged drama surrounding the Commonwealth Games held in Delhi in October 2010. Yet the general media focus on Kalmadi may have served to distract attention from the many other acts of omission and commission that mark the sordid history of that extravagantly planned and deeply flawed public show. In these other actions, there are stories of funds...

MP and AICC General Secretary Oscar Fernandes said Food Security Bill will be tabled before the Parliament at the earliest. Speaking to presspersons, he said the Bill will help in distributing rice at Rs 3 per kg and wheat at Rs 2 per kg for BPL families in the country. “Ombudsman and private agency will be strengthened to make a study on the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme....

Joint drafting panel on Lokpal Bill holds second meeting; public consultations after agreement on basic principles In the second round of discussions in the joint drafting committee on the Lokpal Bill here on Monday, members of civil society invoked the United Nations Convention on Corruption to stress that the underlying principle of the anti-corruption law should be to have an independent body that covers the highest executive and the judiciary. The...