Articles by Anil Kumar Vaddiraju

The mandal system came into existence as an administrative reform, as part of reducing the size of erstwhile taluks and making them more effective and manageable. The decentralisation of taluks into mandals was done with a two-pronged strategy of modernising the revenue administration, record-keeping as well as further decentralising the panchayati raj system. It was hoped that the division of erstwhile large taluks into mandals could make them more manageable, and also that the administration of the state government, especially the revenue administration, will become modernised.

The right to the city means more than just access to its resources. It suggests that people, particularly the marginalised, not only have the right to inhabit a city, but also the right to design, reshape and transform it. An analysis of urban governance in our country keeping in mind this overlooked human right.

The conditions that the authors of “Commission Agent System: Significance in Contemporary Agricultural Economy of Punjab” (EPW, 7 November 2015) recount also hold true of other states. In Telangana, the commission agents, adthidars, virtually control agrarian markets.

This is with reference to the editorial “Burying Grass-roots Democracy” (EPW, 10 October 2015).

The resistance and refusal of private schools in Karnataka to admit children applying to them under the right