Vikasa organisation, a wing under the National Child Labour Project (NCLP), has taken up a special drive to identify child labourers, in tribal and fishermen areas, and in areas where SCs and weaker section population lives in East Godavari. The identified children in age group of 7 to 14 years (both boys and girls) would be admitted to bridge Schools run by NCLP, to equip them to join normal Schools. The...

The budget session of the Parliament began with President Pratibha Patil’s address. All indications point to a normal functioning of this session, unlike the wasted winter session.  This is because the UPA 2 government has agreed to constitute a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to look into the 2G spectrum allocation scam. If the government were to have done this in the winter session itself, then precious time and resources would...

Even four years after the Sachar Committee Report revealed that Muslims were one of the most economically backward and socially disadvantaged communities, nothing much has been done to address the development deficits of this community. The Constitution of the republic of free India was crafted in troubled but idealistic times. The Indian people were still reeling from Partition bloodshed and the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, in the dark shadows of politics...

More than 10,000 tribals in the area covering 15 villages along the Andhra-Orissa border held peace rallies on Friday seeking kidnapped collector Vineel Krishna's release. Though no bandh call was given, normal life was paralysed in tribal-dominated areas on both sides of Andhra-Orissa border as Schools, colleges, offices and shops remained closed for the second day in a protest against the kidnapping. Hundreds of tribals in the Balimela reservoir area staged a...

After farmers threatened to commit suicide protesting grant of mining leases in Bichwa and Tekadi villages in Saoner tehsil, two mining officials visited Bichwa to take stock of the situation. TOI on February 17 reported how four affected farmers from Bichwa threatened to commit suicide after forcible acquisition of farm land for dolomite and manganese extraction. Conservationists also said mining activity will pose threat to tiger corridor, especially against the backdrop...