-The Hindu Bengal doctor’s association writes to Mamata saying the order will only fatten wallets of insurance firms A prominent association of doctors in West Bengal has written to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, asking her to revoke a recent order that makes it mandatory for patients to use the Swasthya Sathi card while seeking treatment in government-run hospitals. Swasthya Sathi is the Trinamool Congress Government’s insurance scheme providing a cover of ₹5 lakh...

-Down to Earth The families depended on forest produce but have been moved far away from forest land The eviction of residents from 222 villages on the Godavari river basin for the Polavaram dam project tells the story of India’s tribal families fighting a losing battle for their land and forest rights.  On March 27, 2021, Bariya Nagaraj’s was among 72 families forcefully shifted from their home in Agraharam village in East Godavari...

-IndiaSpend.com Punjab has seen more than 71,000 incidents of paddy straw burning this year, negating hundreds of crores spent on subsidies on straw management Machines and awareness campaigns. Experts say farmers need financial incentives to take up stubble management, and must be encouraged to shift away from paddy cultivation. Chandigarh: Harbhajan Singh returned to Sadhanpur village in east Punjab's SAS Nagar district from two days off over Diwali, to find the paddy...

-Down to Earth Promoted by the government, short-duration varieties now dominate Punjab’s paddy landscape and allow farmers enough time to clear the field without setting them on fire. Why then are straw burning incidents still on the rise? Gursimran is somewhat dejected as he oversees a combined harvesting Machine working his paddy fields. “Though the yield is better than what it has been in the past two years, it is still not...

-CounterCurrents.org In a society divided along caste and class lines, violence against the marginalised groups either does not attract the attention of society at large or the oppression per se tends to be seen as normal. The pattern of silence is in favour of the dominant groups. There is no abnormality seen in violence perpetrated by the dominant groups either directly or through the use of state Machinery. Instances of responding...