-The Hindu “Why apply brakes on rickshaws, not on killer cars?” The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a Delhi High Court order holding that municipal authorities could not cap the number of licences for cycle rickshaws as putting any such restriction or fixing a ceiling would amount to denial of the people's basic right to earn a livelihood. A Bench of Justice G. S. Singhvi and Justice S. J. Mukhopadhyaya, dismissing an appeal...

-Express News Service On Wednesday, Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi lost his job for doing what two of his immediate predecessors — one of them his own party boss — could not. After 10 years, fares of passenger trains were finally increased in the rail budget that Trivedi presented, with the aim of pumping in much-needed funds into the financially ill national transport utility. Rolled out in two forms, the “fare rationalisation” models...

Often, municipal corporations carry out flawed projects which go against public interest and only suit vested interests. Use of RTI can help unearth such irregularities. Here’s a startling example... The Mula-Mutha rivers in Pune resemble stinking nallahs, yet the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) had a brainwave of implementing a river navigation project on a 25-odd km stretch from Ramwadi to Kharadi, envisioning boat rides as one of the activities to save...

India’s decision-makers seem to find it difficult to see that there are children in the country. Being unable to see them, they are unable to perceive that they are hungry. In an age when we are able to use euphemisms like ‘under-nutrition’, this is perhaps not surprising. But it is disgraceful none the less.   This country has a large population of children. Fortyone per cent of its total numbers. The national...

The Scheduled Castes and Tribes have been denied over one lakh crore rupees during the Eleventh Plan, says the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights. Uttar Pradesh has been most efficient in the allocation and utilisation of the funds. During the Eleventh Plan period (2007-12), a whopping Rs 1,00,215 crore has been denied to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes under the Sub-Plans of the Government, according to National Campaign on Dalit...