-The Hindu Reckless use of pesticides led to high incidence of diseases, say farmers KADALANGUDI (NAGAPATTINAM, Tamil Nadu): Yellow blades of paddy grass bereft of tillers glisten against the scorching noon sun. For the farmers of Vada Kadalangudi in Orkudi panchayat, the 80-100 day pesticide-infested paddy crop will not make up even for good fodder. Vast stretches of directly-sowed fields of Keezhvelur block here, lie wilted under mealy bug attack. The story stretches across...
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Health and education must be country’s central agenda -Sitaram Yechury
-The Hindustan Times The current electoral discourse shows an amazing disconnect with the actual reality of the deteriorating livelihood conditions of our people. The other day, the BJP PM aspirant thundered in Bangalore that the BJP seeks to create confidence and not fear among the people. The 2002 Gujarat communal pogrom makes this sound incredulous. There is nothing in the BJP's campaign pitch that offers any solution or a methodology for...
More »Jairam Ramesh seeks to minimise budget cut for rural development -Jitendra
-Down to Earth Gives details to finance ministry on the impact of revised budget estimates on individual schemes The steep cut in budgetary allocations for social Welfare schemes in an election year seems to have become a great cause of worry for Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh. He has shot off a letter to finance minister P Chidambaram, expressing displeasure over the proposed Rs 15,000 crore funds cut in rural development...
More »Funds for social welfare cut drastically in revised budget estimates -Jitendra
-Down to Earth Ministers write protest letters to prime minister and finance minister, saying it would greatly impact ongoing schemes The Congress-led UPA government has been harping on its pro-poor schemes in the run up to the elections early next year. But it has effected a drastic cut in budgetary allocations for social Welfare schemes. The move is reportedly prompted by the urgent need to contain current account deficit (CAD) to below...
More »Not at home in their homeland -KumKum Dasgupta
-The Hindustan Times I remember her face but not her name. She was one of the 30 people I met one winter afternoon in 2009 at Basaguda village in Chhattisgarh's Maoist-hit Bijapur district. A thin, tall woman, she stood at the edge of the group, listening attentively to her neighbour who was narrating an incident of an armed attack on the village that had left them homeless for months. When my...
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