The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has been hailed as a landmark initiative to alleviate poverty and generate productive wage employment, even if for only 100 days, for unskilled rural labour. Given its historic features, it is a pity that the rollout of the programme in many states has been less than satisfactory, and leakage of funds has become rampant. More worryingly, it has begun to have...

Majority believe environment, livelihood are at stake Region falls in seismic zone III, which is not suitable for nuclear plants Villagers contest NPCIL claim that 626.527 out of 938 hectares acquired is barren It will be a mistake to construe the people's struggle against the proposed Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project as an agitation for higher compensation, says a social impact assessment report prepared by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. A majority strongly believe...

Chandrababu Naidu has managed to do outside the Andhra Assembly what he couldn’t within its four walls — train the national spotlight on the plight of farmers crippled by successive national calamities and inadequate compensation. The Telugu Desam president, who has been on indefinite hungerstrike at the new MLA quarters since Friday demanding higher compensation for farmers, was today forcibly taken into custody in the wee hours after a seven-hour drama...

Distressed over the crop losses in the recent rains, seven more farmers died of shock in the state in the last 24 hours. While three farmers died in Guntur district, West Godavari, Krishna, Prakasam and Nalgonda districts accounted one death each. Thota Apparao died of shock at Rentapadu in Sattenpalle mandal, while Mukteshwar Rao died of cardiac arrest at Attota in Kollipara in Guntur. Hanumantha Rao collapsed in his field on...

Farmers affiliated to the Trinamool Congress whose agricultural land was acquired for a railway project are threatening a major agitation if their family members are not provided with jobs immediately. Their land was acquired for the proposed 20 km Dankuni-Furfura Sharif track in West Bengal and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee had promised a job for every family whose land was taken.Agricultural landowners of Furfura Sharif, a major Muslim pilgrimage site...