New Delhi, Aug 3 : A report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) says that school dropout rates for students from Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) have gone up.

In a performance audit of the Educational Development of SC and ST in India, the CAG has highlighted among other things, alarming gaps in the Government''s policy implementation as far as Universalisation of Elementary Education (UEE) for SCs and STs is concerned.

According to report, the Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) And Gross Dropout Rate (GDR) displayed an adverse trend in respect of SC and ST boys and girls.

New Delhi, Aug 3 : The University Grants Committee (UGC) committee has recommends an additional 735 universities during the 11th Plan ending 2012.

The committee, comprising Professor Duraisami of Madras University and Professor Sudhansu Bhusan of National University of Education Planning and Administration, has said that more universities will be needed to increase the gross enrolment rate.

According to reports, the committee set up to suggest reforms on the affiliation system and monitoring of education in 11th plan. It has worked out a formula of 20,000 students per university to achieve the target.

New Delhi, Aug 3 (ANI): The funeral of veteran CPI (M) leader, Harkishan Singh Surjeet, will take place today at the Nigambodh Ghat at 5 p.m.

The funeral procession will start at 3 p.m. His body will be kept at the CPI (M) headquarters and people will be allowed to pay their last respects to the departed leader from 10 a.m.

Surjeet passed away on Friday. He was 92. 

He was admitted at the Metro Hospital in Noida where he was treated for respiratory problems. Earlier, he had slipped into coma.

New Delhi - At least 33 farm workers were killed and 17 hurt when an overloaded truck carrying them plunged into a small river in India's eastern state of Bihar, police said Sunday.

The accident occurred as the vehicle carrying 50 workers veered off a curve in the state's Lakhisarai district some 150 kilometers south-east of the state capital Patna on Saturday night.

A police spokesman said the workers were returning home to the nearby Khagaria district with sacks of food grain they earned as wages.

"The driver lost control of the truck as hit a pot-holed stretch of road near the curve, causing the vehicle to fall into the Gorhi river," Lakhisarai Superintendent of Police SP Shukla said by telephone.

Colombo, Aug 2 : Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh today urged all eight SAARC nations to stand united against terrorism.

Terming the recent attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul and serial blasts in Bangalore and Ahmedabad as gruesome reminders of barbaric acts of terrorists, Dr. Singh told the opening session of the 15th SAARC Summit that terrorism is the ''single major threat'' to the stability of South Asia.

The region cannot afford to lose the battle against the ideologies of hatred and fanatism, he added.

Srinagar, Kashmir - Army troops marched through the streets in India's northern Jammu and Kashmir state on Saturday after violent protests over land for a Hindu pilgrimage site claimed two lives and wounded 21 people, officials said.

The army was deployed in the southern Jammu district after Hindu protestors attacked government offices and torched a police station on Friday. Two protestors were killed in police shooting and 8 injured as the protests spread to Samba town, police said.

Jammu, a Hindu majority region in the mostly Muslim state has been on the boil since the state government cancelled its earlier order allotting 40 hectares of forest land to a trust that organizes the annual pilgrimage to the Amarnath cave.