-The Hindu Manoharpur (Jharkhand): Deep inside the Saranda sal forest, Thalkobad lies at the core of what was a CPI (Maoist) "liberated zone" in Jharkhand's West Singhbhum district along the Odisha border. Thalkobad, along with 24 other villages, was reclaimed by the Indian state after a massive military operation - Operation Anaconda-I in August 2011 to destroy the CPI (Maoist) Eastern Regional Bureau and several training camps inside Saranda. The village...

-The Hindu Aruna Roy's decision to terminate her relationship with the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council has returned the spotlight to the ideological divide within the ruling establishment on welfare spending. As the civil rights activist noted in her letter to the Congress president, the rupture came over the Manmohan Singh government's refusal to pay statutory minimum wages to workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act -...

-Firstpost.com After the UPA-II released its self-congratulatory 79-page ‘Report card to the People', National Advisory Council (NAC) member and leading social activist Aruna Roy has come down heavily on the government for its poor performance in the social sector. Roy, an instrumental force behind the Right to Information Act, criticised the government for stalling on essential legislations such as the Food Security Bill, the Land Acquisition Bill and the Lokpal Bill. Roy spoke...

-PTI NEW DELHI: Social activist Aruna Roy has decided not to continue in UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi-led NAC after her term expires on Friday, criticising the government for not taking up recommendations of the council on minimum wages to workers under MGNREGA. Roy has written to Gandhi requesting that she should not be considered for another term of NAC that sets the social agenda for the government and the UPA Chairperson has...

-The Hindu Chennai: The Tamil Nadu story concerning the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) appears to be no different from some other States, when it comes to irregularities in payment of wages, even though the amount involved is much less here. The report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG), presented in the Assembly on Wednesday, talked of misappropriation of funds in three ways - inflating the number of workers,...