Warning that delays in wage payments were crippling the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in Chhattisgarh's maoist-affected districts, Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh outlined his Ministry's latest attempts to jumpstart development in these areas. In the past, Mr. Ramesh has spoken of prioritising development in the country's 60 ‘Left Wing Extremism' [LWE] districts as a crucial prong in his government's battle against the guerilla army of...
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'Had panchayats been bolstered,naxals could have been checked'
-PTI Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh today said that had the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act been implemented properly, the naxal menace would not have become so big in Chhattisgarh and other places. Talking to reporters after his tour of the naxal-affected areas of the state, Ramesh said that PESA was brought in in 1996 to strengthen panchayats of scheduled areas, but it was not enforced in the right...
More »Shun maoists, you will get all, Mamata tells Purulia residents by Ananya Dutta
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee told the people of the maoist-hit areas of Purulia district on Friday that “you shall get whatever you ask for, provided you don't support the maoists.” “You shall have colleges, schools, hospitals, stadia, sports academies and even a medical college. Whatever you ask for, we shall provide it. But you must make only one promise — you will not support the maoists,” she said, addressing...
More »Jangalmahal: Receding Prospects of Dialogue
-Economic and Political Weekly Mamata Banerjee concurs with P Chidambaram’s counterinsurgency strategy. She revels in rhetoric – Mamata Banerjee’s word of honour was parivartan (change). A large section of the people of West Bengal desperately wanted change, so parivartan brought her to the helm at Writers’ Building, with its Corinthian facade carrying over from the heyday of the East India Company, now, of course, the office and secretariat of the chief minister...
More »RSS-Anna links go back a long way, says RSS chief Mohanrao Bhagwat by Jayanta Gupta
Laying speculation to rest, RSS Sar-Sanghchalak Mohanrao Bhagwat said that his organization and Anna Hazare go back a long way. If Bhagwat is to be believed, it was the RSS that urged Anna to go in for a movement against corruption but the organization never took active part in it. "If the RSS is asked by Anna to join the movement, we shall do so. But, no such request has...
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