The National Advisory Council, headed by Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi, may have grudgingly settled for a much less ambitious National Food Security Act than previously envisaged. But a proactive Sonia now plans to push for a full-fledged ministry of food security, carving it out of the agriculture ministry headed by NCP chief Sharad Pawar. Sources said she had been advised by stakeholders in the party and outside that the ministry of...
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Orissa: Child rights body calls on stake holder to expedite RTE execution
Chairperson of National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) Santa Sihna on Sunday called upon the Orissa Government, civil society and all the stakeholders including children to play a key role in aiding the commission so as to bring changes in lives of each and every child through Right to Education (RTE). Attending a State level convention jointly organised by NCPCR and Orissa Alliance on Convention on rights of the...
More »Pawar rules out free foodgrains by Vinaya Deshpande
Union Minister for Agriculture Sharad Pawar on Saturday dismissed the possibility of free foodgrains distribution. “The government already spends Rs. 66,000 crore on foodgrains subsidy. We buy wheat from farmers at Rs. 15 a kg, but sell it to the Antyodaya population at Rs. 2 a kg. How can we sell any cheaper than that?” He was speaking at a meeting of the Maharashtra Pradesh Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Free distribution of foodgrains...
More »Revenge attacks by Lyla Bavadam
In Maharashtra, attacks on citizen-activists have increased with the greater use of RTI; four activists have been killed in the last seven months IN the late 1970s, a woman named Shobha Shirodkar was the victim of a hit-and-run in Mumbai. It was no accident. It was a case of murder because Shobha, who was the principal of a prestigious school in the city, had opposed the land mafia and was believed...
More »No More Excuses To Eliminating Child Labour by Ananthapriya Subramanian
What do three members of the National Advisory Council, two members of the Planning Commission, Editors (including the editor and executive editor of this magazine), MPs from across the political spectrum, CII members and the NCPCR have in common? One single demand: no child under 14 should be engaged in child labour. Forty-five eminent members of society from very diverse backgrounds have thrown their considerable weight behind an ongoing campaign...
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