The Dangers of Digging Up the Truth in India

clipped from news.yahoo.com Last autumn, when New Delhi resident Ajay Kumar saw that private buildings were encroaching on government land under the aegis of a local politician, he asked the city authority to look into the matter. He was just being a law-abiding citizen. He couldn't imagine his query would put him in the hospital. Using India's 2005 Right to Information (RTI) Act, which empowers any citizen to ask for information from any level of government, from village leaders to the Prime Minister's office, Kumar asked the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) why homes and shops were built on land not zoned for private construction. "Neither the police nor the people helped me," says Kumar, who was struck in the head with an iron rod, blood covering his face and shirt. And yet despite the attack, Kumar still believes that "RTI is the only tool that can bring an end to a corruption in India

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India launches biometric census

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8598159.stm

The full results of India's national census will be released in mid-2011

India is launching a new census in which every person aged over 15 will be photographed and fingerprinted to create a biometric national database.

The government will then use the information to issue identity cards.

Officials will spend a year classifying India's population of around 1.2 billion people according to gender, religion, occupation and education.

The exercise, conducted every 10 years, faces big challenges, not least India's vast area and diversity of cultures.

Census officials must also contend with high levels of illiteracy and millions of homeless people - as well as insurgencies by Maoists and other rebels which have left large parts of the country unsafe.

President Pratibha Patil was the first person to be listed, and appealed to fellow Indians to follow her example "for the good of the nation".

"Everyone must participate and make it successful," she said in Delhi.

'Unstoppable'

This is India's 15th census and the first time a biometric element has been included.

Current population: 1,139,965,000 (2008) Fifteenth national census since 1872 "House listing" begins on 1 April Physical count of residents takes place from 9 to 28 February 2011 Every person above the age of 15 to be photographed, fingerprinted and given 16-digit identity number; new National Population Register Full census results in mid-2011

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Posted via email from Todays World

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8598159.stm

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