Flaying the Punjab government for its “poor performance in the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) and other welfare schemes, Union Minister for Rural Development and Panchayats P C Joshi said: “By doing so, the Punjab government is denying its poor their due.” In Ludhiana to preside over a meeting of the district-level vigilance and monitoring committee, Joshi said: “Punjab fares even lower than my district, Bhilwara,...

After a lull for over a month, farmers of Tappal area in Aligarh district came down on the streets to protest the arrest of their leader, Manvir Singh Teotiya, on Tuesday evening. Hundreds of farmers blocked the Aligarh-Delhi Highway in Tappal demanding immediate release of Teotiya who was arrested earlier in the day. Angry mob raised anti-government slogans and hurled expletives at the District Magistrate and the SSP who reached the...

A committee set up by the government has suggested freeing the prices of urea and inclusion of the fertiliser in the new nutrient-based subsidy scheme to discourage its excessive use, stem soil degradation and reduce government subsidy. The panel, led by former agriculture secretary T Nanda Kumar, also recommended a “comparatively higher level” of subsidy for critical nutrients like sulphur, zinc and boron to make them affordable to farmers.   The nutrient-based subsidy...

The long and heavy monsoon has taken a toll on Himachal Pradesh's vegetable production, say farmers. The production of tomato, capsicum, cabbage, potato and cucumber, among other vegetables, is significantly lower this time. The excess rain has either triggered the spread of diseases or the standing crops have simply rotted away due to excess moisture, say farmers. Vegetables are largely grown in the mid-hills of the state which fall in Solan, Shimla, Sirmaur,...

Peeved at being paid just Re. 1 as their daily wage for the labour they put in under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), workers of Gudlia Gaon under Rupbas Panchayat of Tonk district in Rajasthan are set to tread Bapu's path to protest against the injustice meted out to them. These workers will stage a Satyagraha in Jaipur on October 2 and return the entire money that...