The disease has claimed 861 lives so far with 470 in U.P. alone

Concerned over the high mortality and morbidity because of Japanese encephalitis (JE) and acute encephalitis syndrome (AES), the Group of Ministers (GoM) held its first meeting here on Monday to discuss short, medium and long-term measures needed to deal with the disease. Already 861 lives have been lost to the disease – with over 470 in eastern Uttar Pradesh alone.

Concerned over the large number of child deaths due to measles every year, the Centre has launched a massive anti-measles vaccination drive. More than 13 crore children are expected to be covered under the Measles Catch-up Campaign, irrespective of their previous measles vaccination status.

This Education Day (November 11), the principal of each elementary school in India will receive VVIP mail -- a letter from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Contained therein will be a highly personalised message of the PM for the children of the country, who have long been guaranteed the Right to Education (RTE) by law, but who may not still know of it.

Concerned about the lack of awareness about the legal entitlement to basic education for children up to the age of 14, the human resource development ministry has planned out a yearlong community awareness and mobilisation programme. The Shiksha ka Haq Abhiyan (Right to Education campaign) will be flagged of on November 11, which is observed as Education Day, from Mewat district in Rajasthan, which has among the lowest education performance parameters in country.

The Centre has sanctioned over 11,000 primary and upper primary schools in Uttar Pradesh under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) in pursuance of the notification of the State Right to Free and Compulsory Education Rules issued by the government in July.

On May 30, as the joint drafting committee of the Lokpal Bill met for the fifth time in the conference room of the ministry of finance in North Block, trouble was already brewing. In the last four meetings, the contentious issues had been put on the backburner and the government’s representatives, led by the formidable Pranab Mukherjee, had discussed the broad principles of the proposed legislation. However, this time, within minutes, the finance minister dropped a bombshell. The prime minister, he said, would not be placed under the ambit of the proposed bill.

Sparring Points

Besides Lokpal Bill, politicians have sparred with civil society on four key pieces of legislation

Claiming overwhelming support for its version of the Lokpal Bill in a ‘referendum’ conducted by itself, the civil society group led by Anna Hazare on Monday attacked the Prime Minister and questioned whether the government still represented the people of India.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has announced that it will set up the National School Sanitation Awards to reward schools for ensuring cleanliness in the institution premises and improving students

New Delhi: Now, schools will be rated and awarded for the sanitation they maintain.