VoxPop


Sonada Children’s Lives Are Being Put to Risk

The construction of the school was handed to a group of boys from the locality. These boys are affiliated to GJMM (Binay faction). Their motive is just to earn profit. The old structure was dismantled but the cemented flooring of the old building was not touched. New pillars were erected but if you dig the floor you will not find any tie bim below.


6th Schedule – A Panglossian Political Quick Fix or an Opium for the Masses?

6th Schedule of our constitution makes separate provisions for the administration of tribal areas in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. These provisions have been made in exercise of the enabling provisions given in Articles 244 (2) and 275 (1) of the Constitution. The objectives are to maintain a distinct identity and exclusiveness of tribals.


Crime against Women and its Larger Ramifications

Protests have escalated all over the country on the backdrop of recent Hyderabad rape-murder case. A 25-year-old veterinarian doctor was abducted, raped, murdered and burnt. This is just one heart-wrenching case among thousands of such crimes. National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data shows that cases of rapes have reduced from 63 per million in 2016, to 52 per million in 2017, but a total of 3.5 lakh cases of crime against women were registered (these include murder, rape, dowry-related death, acid attack, cruelty against women and kidnapping, etc).


NRC – A Damp Squib

It was the government’s job to identify illegal immigrants but they failed and they failed miserably. Now through NRC, they are clandestinely shifting their responsibility on to us. Why do we have to prove our citizenship to the Government once again? It was the Government’s job to identify illegal immigrants, not ours. The burden of proof should, therefore, lie with the government and not with the people.





The Curious Case of Article 243m(3): Raju Proposes, Neeraj Disposes

The father of our nation Gandhiji once said, “Panchayat Raj represents true democracy realized. We would regard the humblest and the lowest Indian as being equally the rules of India with the tallest in the land.” He had envisioned Ram Rajya through village republics where real freedom began through self-reliance and people’s participation in self-governance.


Three-Tier Panchayat in Darjeeling – A Context

We, the people of Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts, wholeheartedly welcome the initiative to initiate Constitutional Amendment to implement the three-tier Panchayati Raj in these two districts. Panchayati Raj has been the backbone of Indian democracy. It envisaged incorporating all the villages and its population in the nation-building processes. Further, as the majority of the population lived in the villages it was an endeavour to make them equal stakeholders in the decision-making the process and the developmental activities. Panchayati Raj system came into existence when the Community Development Programmes failed due to the lack of governance and monopoly of the few. Panchayati raj was implemented to decentralise democracy.