-The Hindu Business Line Registration committee favours review of each pesticide in 10-year intervals New delhi: The Anupam Verma Committee, set up to review the continued use of 66 pesticides that have been barred/restricted for use in farming in other countries, has recommended a ban on 13 ‘extremely hazardous’ pesticides, phasing out of six ‘moderately hazardous’ ones by 2020, and review of 27 pesticides in 2018. The six pesticides suggested for phasing out...

-The Indian Express Jaitley says UPA govt left scheme in ‘pitiable’ state, Manmohan says Modi govt killed its ‘soul and spirit’ The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) completed 10 years on Tuesday, sparking a political slugfest as both the Congress and the BJP rushed to take credit for its “success”. While Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the Narendra Modi government had given the scheme, allegedly in a “pitiable” state...

-The Indian Express As it completes 10 years, there is enough evidence to show that India needs the MGNREGA Nearly a year ago, the prime minister made a statement in Parliament about the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). He said: “My political understanding tells me, don’t ever stop MNREGA… because MNREGA is a living monument to your [the Congress’s] failures. After 60 years of independence, you had to...

-The Hindu Documents on PAC deployment were ‘weeded out’. Meerut (Uttar Pradesh): The Uttar Pradesh police destroyed documents that could have helped to prove the involvement of the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) personnel in the Hashimpura massacre of 1987, even while the trial is still pending, it has now emerged. Last year, a delhi court acquitted 16 PAC men, who were among the 19 charged with abducting 42 members of the minority community...

-NDTV NREGA, today celebrating its 10th anniversary, has received a hostile reception from the current political dispensation. The Rajasthan Chief Minister questioning the need for a law, the then Rural Development minister's suggestion to limit NREGA to a few districts, and the Prime Minister's speech in Parliament in 2015 reveal the BJP's hostility and double standards (NREGA was passed unanimously in 2005). Yet, it would be wrong to lay the entire blame...