Farm labourers and sharecroppers stopped work at the site of a Rs 5,000-crore fertiliser plant in Burdwan’s Panagarh claiming they had not been paid their share of the land compensation and demanding construction jobs. The political links of the protesters at the 500-acre plot acquired by the government and handed over to the Mumbai-based Matix Fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd last year were not immediately clear. But Bengal industries minister Nirupam Sen,...

A Central government-sponsored watershed development programme has given a new lease of life to the farming community in Ayalur in Gobichettipalayam block in Erode district. The programme has helped the farmers to adopt best water management practices and take up integrated nutrient management to enhance crop yield. These initiatives have also helped improve the quality of life of the farmers. Ayalur was one of the nine model watershed development projects sanctioned...

When we talk of India's mammoth work force, be it in rural or urban scenarios, what comes to mind is the 'unorganised' sector. They form the multitudes that do not 'belong' to a sector governed by a slew of measures in accordance with labour laws or employment terms defined by policy measures. These are the multitudes, which fall outside the ambit of Central Government legislation pertaining to wages and salaries....

The Jharkhand Police has arrested seven persons for reportedly siphoning off Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme funds. The FIR, filed on Tuesday at the Lapung Police Station, accuses assistant post master Binod Jaiswal, SBI’s accountant Anil Kumar Sinha, and five officials of the Block Development Office — programme officer Samir Sagar, Rojgar Sevak Sanjay Oraon, Panchayat Sevak Mansa Kachhap, junior engineer Bindeshwar Singh and assistant engineer Rahul Kumar...

Tamil Nadu: The north-east monsoon, 50 per cent in excess in the State, claims over 200 lives and destroys crops and infrastructure.A SERIES of weather systems, including a cyclone that missed Chennai narrowly, saw the skies open up over Tamil Nadu between November 4 and December 5, the period when the north-east monsoon is most active. Most of the 561 mm of rainfall that the State received between October 1...