ICDS to be extended to every child under six by March 2012

October 12th, 2009 COCHIN - Labour Minister Mallikarjun Kharge has stressed on the need to eliminate child labour, a social evil still widely prevalent in the country. Inaugurating the 29th national conference and plenary of the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC) here on Sunday, Kharge said that the labour law has been extended to 271 districts having high concentration of child labour.

June 24th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The government will spend Rs.1,100 crore (Rs.11 billion) annually till 2012 to provide subsidies and upgrade technology to the textile sector, Textiles Minister Dayanidhi Maran said here Wednesday. The Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS), which was launched to improve competitiveness and overall long term viability of the industry, has been extended till March 31, 2012.

June 1st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde today said that the government has set a target of providing electricity to 1,18,000 villages in the country under Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojna by 2012. Assuming his charge on Monday, he said that more than 61,000 villages already been have been electrified under this scheme.

April 1st, 2009 GHAZIABAD - Three people were arrested here Wednesday after a kidnapped child was recovered from one of them, the Ghaziabad police said, adding efforts were on to find out if they were running a large-scale racket of abducting children and forcing them to beg. The police traced Priya, a four-year-old child abducted March 6, and recovered her from Muskan, in her in 20s, and arrested her as well as her accomplices Roshni and a male who was yet to be identified.

April 1st, 2009 AHMEDABAD - A local court here on Wednesday extended the police custody of former Gujarat Minister of State for Women's Welfare, Mayaben Kodnani, and Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader, Jaideep Patel, till April 4. Metropolitan Magistrate G M Patel extended their police custody after the Special Investigation Team (SIT), appointed by the Supreme Court to probe some of the riot cases afresh, asked for further remand.

March 31st, 2009 NEW DELHI - The term of the commission probing the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was Tuesday extended for the 48th time by three months, a home ministry statement said. The term of the commission inquiring into the destruction of the Ram Janma Bhoomi-Babri Masjid structure at Ayodhya Dec 6, 1992, would now expire on June 30, 2009, the statement said.

March 27th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The tenure of Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta, who was to retire March 31, has been extended by three months, a home ministry official said. Gupta will hold office till June 30.

March 25th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Delhi High Court Wednesday asked the state government to rehabilitate rescued child labour and pulled it up for its callous attitude towards them. A division bench headed by Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah and Justice Sanjeev Khanna lashed out at the the labour department of the Delhi government for not taking steps to rehabilitate rescue child labour.

March 22nd, 2009 CHANDIGARH - A court here Saturday extended the police remand of tainted Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Saji Mohan, who was caught in a narcotics racket, by one day. On March 14 the court had sent Mohan to police remand for seven days.

March 18th, 2009 NEW DELHI - A six-year-old child, who is languishing in the Tihar Jail for the last two years with his undertrial father, will now be able to attend school following a court order Tuesday. A city court directed the jail authorities to get the child admitted to a school, out of the Tihar prison, with the direction that the father be allowed to meet the child once every month.

March 2nd, 2009 NOIDA - In a case straight out of a Bollywood script, a man kidnapped a couple's one-year-old child, claiming the baby was born out of his relationship with the mother. The police Sunday said the man has been arrested.

February 16th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The interim budget for 2009-10, presented in the Lok Sabha Monday, has brought down allocation of various child welfare programmes as compared to previous years, says a budget analysis done by a city-based children's rights organisation. 'On issues of health, education, protection and nutrition, the children have either received less in 2009-10 or their share has remained the same,' says the analysis report by Haq: Centre for Child Rights.

February 15th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The government has allocated Rs.1.31 trillion (Rs.131,317 crore) for its flagship programmes in the coming fiscal. External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, while presenting the interim budget for 2009-10 to parliament Monday, said Rs.301 billion (Rs.30,100 crore) would be made available to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) for the next financial year.

January 21st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Around 32 million children in India in the 0-6 year age group do not have access to basic education and healthcare services, says a report called 'Status of Children in India 2008'. 'The worst affected children in this age group are those who belong to the marginalised sections of society,' said Enakshi Ganguly, co-director of HAQ: Centre for Child Rights, the NGO that has brought out the report which will be formally released here Friday.

January 19th, 2009 KOLKATA - Despite the global economic slowdown, the cost of making ships has not come down which has made Shipping Corp of India (SCI) decide not to place orders for new vessels till March, a top company official said here Tuesday. 'While we are sticking to our long-term plan to buy 40 ships by 2012, we are not going to order any till March as the cost of building ships is still high,' said SCI chairman and managing director S.