The case of each areca grower who has taken loans from cooperative societies or banks will be studied individually to determine whether the farmer is genuinely unable to repay the loan. This decision was taken at a meeting of areca growers with Deputy Commissioner Subodh Yadav and officials of various departments on Thursday. Mr. Yadav made the suggestion after listening to a delegation of farmers, most of them members of the Karnataka...
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Bonus turns bane for MP's farmers by Rukmini Shrinivasan
As Madhya Pradesh begins to harvest a bumper wheat crop, the state is finding that measures put in place to ensure that the powerful do not game the system are having the unintended effect of keeping out the most marginalised. In anticipation of a bumper harvest, the MP government announced a Rs 100 bonus that it would pay wheat farmers above the central government-fixed Minimum Support Price of Rs 1,120. "It...
More »Make public expenses of PM's relatives on foreign tours: CIC
The Prime Minister's Office has been directed by the Central Information Commission (CIC) to provide details of the expenditure incurred on the PM's relatives accompanying him on visits abroad. The CIC rejected the PMO's argument that it did not have such records. The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and the Protocol Division of the External Affairs Ministry have both stated they do no have these records with an RTI application shuttling between the...
More »Activists on Sonia-led NAC come out in support of Bhushans by Himanshi Dhawan
Setting aside their differences with the Anna Hazare team over the Lokpal Bill, civil society representatives on the Sonia Gandhi led-National Advisory Council (NAC) have come out strongly to oppose they called a systematic attempt to slander the reputation of Shanti and Prashant Bhushan. NAC members and their comrades banded under the National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI) with Aruna Roy, Harsh Mander and others endorsing the viewpoint of...
More »Make Sure The Cure Isn’t Worse Than The Disease by Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey
Itself the outcome of a bottom-up movement, the Jan Lokpal bill ironically proposes a centralised framework against graft. Without checks and balances. There was never any doubt that India needs a strong Lokpal Act. The protest has paved the way for its enactment. With the exultation over the anti-corruption campaign’s ‘victory’ quieting down, it’s time to take stock. Nuanced arguments—and indeed substance—have to recover lost ground to take the discourse...
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