-The Hindu Forging Gram sabha resolutions clears the path to lucrative mining... Such fictions manufacture on file the legal requirement of villagers’ participation and consent. Over 12,000 villages across Odisha conserve their community forests, says a 2013 Odisha Jungle Manch study. In a visit last October to seven villages in Keonjhar district’s Gandhamardan range, Munda communities showed me their forest protection rosters. Each roster listed four villagers for every weekday to roam...

-The Hindu Mumbai: Accusing Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of ignoring his warnings on the severity of the drought impacting Marathawada, where the local police had to invoke Section 144 to prevent violence over water, Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav on Saturday said 31 per cent of the Gram panchayats in drought-affected districts had not shown any expenditure under MGNREGS, according to official data, till March 31. Mr. Yadav said his organisation...

-PTI New Delhi: The Rural Development Ministry will carry out a pilot study on environmental benefits and green outcomes of rural flagship scheme MGNREGA in seven states with the help of United Nations Development ProGramme. The project will be conducted in 14 Gram panchayats, two each from seven agro-ecological zones of the country -- Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Guajrat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Watershed Support Services and Activities Network (WASSAN),...

-The Hindu Kolkata: Ms. Banerjee declared in her affidavit that her movable assets amount to Rs. 30,45,012. Her assets in September 2011 was Rs. 15,84,189. The assets of Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee have nearly doubled in the past five years after she assumed office of Chief Minister of West Bengal. Ms. Banerjee, who filed her nomination papers on Friday to contest from Bhabanipur Assembly constituency in the city, declared in her affidavit...

-The Hindu Business Line How Uttarakhand has roped in top scientists to popularise science among schoolchildren Twice each year, the sleepy town of Gangolihat in Pithoragarh district, Uttarakhand comes alive as hundreds of school students from nearby areas throng the campus of the Himalayan Gram Vikas Samiti (HGVS) to have their scientific curiosities addressed by top scientists from prestigious research institutes. These month-long events have been held annually during April-May and October-November...