Soon SMS will be used by the government to check whether mid-day meal is being delivered to children in government schools across the country. In an effort to improve the delivery system and bring in transparency in the mid-day meal scheme implemented in government schools across the country, the HRD ministry has decided to establish an interactive SMS-based system by June 2012.
“The system is being on a pilot basis in Uttar Pradesh the government plans to implement it in Bihar this April and extend it to the entire country by June,” said HRD ministry joint secretary (mid-day meal and teachers’ education) Amarjit Singh. The mid-day meal scheme reaches approximately 10.5 crore children.

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Mahout wins confidence of ‘killer’ elephant
AGE CORRESPONDENT
Satpura Tiger Reserve, Jan. 30

Sahulal is a mahout (elephant rider), who has befriended and won the confidence of Siddhanath — the huge elephant that was kept chained till a few years ago at the same spot in Satpura Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh for a prolonged period after it had crushed to death two chara (grass) cutters on being “transferred” to this habitat from the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve.
Elephant Siddhnath was transferred from Bandhavgarh to Madhai in Satpura Tiger Reserve along with his mahout Kuttappan and chara-cutter Hetram.

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Kerala backs nurses’ fight on exploitation
THUFAIL P.T.
NEW DELHI, JAN. 30

In the wake of recent upsets in the nursing sector, the Kerala government is all set to take the baton from the Malayali nurses employed across the country to push their battle against exploitation by hospital managements.
A standing committee of the Kerala Assembly, after holding public hearings outside the state, is preparing to bring a “comprehensive” legislation to resolve the problems faced by nurses and to “push it at the Centre.”
According to the Nurses Welfare Association, more than 90 per cent work force of the country’s nursing-sector is originally from Kerala, with majority women. A large chunk of them are single women, below age 25, from the rural-middle class families of Kerala.

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Sc notice to centre,telecos on spectrum
AGE CORRESPONDENT
NEW DELHI, JAN. 30

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Centre and various telecom companies on a petition alleging that many operators were given spectrum beyond the sanctioned limit of 4.4 MHZ and 6.2 MHZ as the case may be.
A bench of justices G.S. Singhvi and S.J. Mukhopadhaya issued the notices on a PIL on the issue to ministry of finance, DoT, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, and various telecom companies.
The PIL was moved in the apex court by advocate Yakesh Anand after the Delhi high court had declined to intervene in the matter.
He alleged that by allowing private players to use spectrum beyond the sanctioned limit, the DoT had caused huge loss of about `37,000 crores to the exchequer.