Lucknow/Simla, June 8, 2012: Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh give contrasting pictures of the sanitation story in the country. While the latter swears by subsidised toilet building, the latter gave up the subsidy offer route long before. And, while UP is far away from total sanitation, the latter has declared itself Open Defecation Free.

Bhadeshar Mau, a village in Malihabad tehsil of Lucknow, was feted by the central government in 2008 for its work in sanitation. About Rs 3.5 lakh was spent in constructing toilets here. It has about 300 families.

Mumbai, June 10, 2012: NCP chief and Union minister Sharad Pawar requested the Maharashtra government to make a provision of Rs 100 crore for providing proper sanitation for women.

"The state government should make a provision of Rs 50-100 crore for constructing toilets for women in villages, at ST stands and at all the public places," Pawar said after launching 'Rashtravadi Yuvati Congress' (RYC) at a function here marking the thirteenth foundation day of the party.

Bhopal, May 23, 2012: State Cabinet here on Wednesday took several important decisions. It decided to constitute Madhya Pradesh Water Corporation (MPWC) for implementation of group piped water schemes in rural area. The corporation will avail loans under prescribed procedure to run these schemes and other fiscal management.

Chennai, May 22, 2012: The Union human resource development (HRD) ministry has issued advisory to state governments for development of a grievance redressal mechanism at the local level to monitor implementation of Right to Education (RTE) Act.

Mumbai, May 22, 2012: The school education department has realized that implementation of the new reservation policy for school admissions to the first standard under the Right to Education (RTE) Act may not be possible this coming academic year. For, the department had delayed promulgating an order on 25% reservation for children belonging to weaker sections as well as disadvantaged groups of society.

A bottom-up view of the health conditions and services in six states – three performing and three not-so-well performing ones – was arrived at through a study by a multidisciplinary team with varied experiences in health research. This paper presents the results of a Public Report on Health that was initiated in 2005 to understand public health issues for people from diverse backgrounds living in different region-specific contexts.

New Delhi, May 23, 2012: The Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja has said that as ‘Land’ and ‘Colonization’ are State subjects, it is the primary responsibility of the States to provide housing and sanitation facilities to all the economically poor and marginalized families belonging to the Scheduled Tribes including those who are not even listed in the Below Poverty Line (BPL) Index.

Lucknow, May 23, 2012: Lucknow Municipal Corporation's decision to rope in experts from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur to examine the works done under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, one of Centre's, is likely to put the centrally-appointed monitoring committee under a scanner. This is because all the works carried out in the state capital went through the monitoring of the committee appointed by the central government. And, it was on the basis of the monitoring committee's reports that funds were released by the Centre.

Nagpur, May 18, 2012: While the Maharashtra government has decided to implement the Right To Education (RTE) Act in the state from coming academic session, school managements are finding it tough to act immediately.

The Act requires all schools, except unaided minority one, to reserve 25% seats for students from weaker sections. However, schools in Nagpur have either finished their admission process for Std I or are on the verge of completing it. Accommodating these 25% now would require them to begin anew which is not possible.

Varanasi, May 17, 2012: The member of the National Commission for Safai Karmacharis (NCSK) Shyoraj Jivan accused the state governments of misleading the Supreme Court regarding the abolition of manual scavengers.

"The state governments have given affidavits to the SC regarding the abolition of the system of manually removing night soil in their respective state. But it is far from the truth, and the state governments are misleading the Apex Court," he said while talking to media persons in the city on Thursday afternoon.