Amid technical and infrastructural constraints, Maharashtra has rolled out 1.2 million Aadhaars, but the beneficiaries have been able to make little use of these numbers Ashok Bhil, a 25-year-old graduate from Navalpur, 7 Km from Tembhli, is disappointed with the way the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is rolling out Aadhaar in Maharashtra. Last September, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government chose Tembhli, a small village in the predominantly tribal Nandurbar...

Meghalaya will set up an agency to ensure there is no delay in payment of wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). "The State Rural Agency of Meghalaya (SRAM) would be responsible in ensuring there is smooth flow of fund in the implementation of the MGNREGA in the state. We have approved the proposal submitted by the Community and Rural Development (C&RD) development for constituting of...

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has taken cognizance of the killing of MGNREGA activist Niyamat Ansari in Latehar district and requested authorities in India to probe his death as also the death threats issued to rights activist Bhukhan Singh. The UNHCR urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Union home minister P Chidambaram, Chief Justice S H Kapadia and chairman of the special investigation team, Supreme Court of India, R...

Rising from ashes, Bihar is India's new phoenix. Recently it impressed the World Bank resulting in an aid worth several hundred crores for development of the state. And it has a number of lessons for neighbouring UP. In 2002-03, when census data was notified, UP fared better than Bihar. But, now the tortoise (read Bihar) has metamorphosed to hare, leaving UP behind. Consider figures from the National Rural Health Mission. Number...

A week after The Hindu first published allegations that security forces burnt close to 300 homes, sexually assaulted three women and killed at least three men (two are still missing) in three villages in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district, the State government finally broke its silence and blamed the atrocities on Maoist guerillas. Speaking in the Vidhan Sabha, Home Minister Nankiram Kanwar admitted that 327 troopers of the Chhattisgarh Police and the Central...