-Express News Service   On the eve of the meeting of a high-level Congress panel on UPA flagship monitoring, party general secretary Digivijaya Singh has written a letter to Union Rural Development Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh seeking action into the alleged NREGA scam in Sonbhadra district. In his letter, a copy of which has been marked to Chief Minister Mayawati, Singh has asked for strict actions against officials involved in the “NREGA scam...

-The Hindu   Farmers join hands with Greenpeace to seek ban on the company The Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS), a farmers' organisation, on Monday joined hands with Greenpeace and sought an immediate ban on all open field experiments of Genetically Modified (GM) crops in the country by Monsanto (a bio-technology company), in the wake of alleged violation of bio-safety norms by the multinational seed firm in Bijapur. The KRRS' demand comes in...

As expected, the government and the Anna Team have disagreed on vital points. The question of inclusion of the Prime Minister within the ambit of the Lokpal is being falsely blown out of proportions by the government’s apologists. The Prime Minister, though the head of government, is only first amongst equals. In a democratic country, political vacuum does not arise as the Cabinet has a collective responsibility. Also, our past...

-The Asian Age   The draft Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill being vetted by the Union law ministry maintains the 70:30 formula — a private developer has to acquire at least 70 per cent of the land, the remainder to be done by the government. This goes against the National Advisory Council proposal that the government acquire 100 per cent of land, while West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s stand is that...

-The Hindu   More than half of these children are illiterate The streets of Delhi are home to more than 50,000 children, according to a census conducted by non-government organisation Save the Children and Institute for Human Development. Conducted in July and August last year, the findings of the census have been compiled into an extensive report titled “Surviving the Streets” which was recently presented to Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. The study used...