Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on the occasion of completion of one year of the UPA Government in its second term said on Monday that the flagship programmes launched by his government are progressing well. "I will briefly highlight some of the important steps we have taken over the past year and also the pressing challenges that confront the nation,' Dr. Singh said during his opening remarks at the national...
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Missing the woods, the trees by Mani Shankar Aiyar
The government has a panoply of legislative measures that can counter Maoists more than strengthening security measures against the ‘criminals’. Principal among these is the provision in paragraph 3 of Part A of the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution which vests in the Centre the right to ‘issue directions’ to states with regard to administration in the Maoist-affected tribal areas. Invoking this provision becomes imperative in light of the failure of...
More »PESA: Government's sheathed weapon
In the least remarked upon move by the government to take on the development challenge in left-wing extremist (LWE) areas, Sudha Pillai was elevated to member-secretary of the Planning Commission on the eve of her retirement from the IAS. A topper in her batch, Sudha was initially posted to her home state of Punjab and then moved to Kerala after her marriage to her batchmate, present home secretary Gopal Pillai....
More »All GPs to have offices for MGNREGS in Kasargod
The District Planning Committee meet has resolved to construct office buildings with conference halls for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in all Gram Panchayats (GP) and Block Panchayats (BP). Scheme Joint Co-ordinator V Madhusudhanan said that Rs 10 lakh each will be sanctioned to GPs, while Rs 25 lakh each will be allotted to BPs for the construction of ‘Bharatha Nirmana Kendra’. While 115 sq ft buildings...
More »Food security not by food alone
Politics runs the risk of being reduced to the art of the passable — it has to be approved by the legislature, by the omniscient television anchors, by sulking editorial writers forced to cede ground to the TV anchors, and, most crucially , by Sonia Gandhi. The food security Bill was drafted for Ms Gandhi’s favour and has been shafted by her displeasure. Food security, hostage, in any case, to...
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