-The Economic Times Last week's acquittal by the Patna High Court of all the accused in the Bathani Tola massacre of 1996 - in which 21 Dalits, including women and infants, were killed by members of an upper-caste/landlord militia called the Ranvir Sena, in this area of central Bihar - is shocking testimony to the ineptness, and worse, of the police and the administration in prosecuting the guilty. Given the fact that...
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NREGA: Wages are often denied or delayed, with corruption rife-Inayat Sabhikhi
-The Economic Times Shibu Joseph ( Why I am Quitting my Job, ET, March 29) suggests, tongue-in-cheek, that he should quit the drudgery of corporate life and, instead, enjoy the "freebies" given to the aam aadmi, like the right to work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). I am not going to write on behalf of the crores of people who work in this programme, because I am...
More »Did officials pocket Rs2.83 cr paid to buy bhoodan land from tribals?
-The Times of India YAVATMAL: Information released under right to information (RTI) has revealed that the state government has paid Rs 2.83 crore to acquire land distributed to tribals and landless labourers under the Bhoodan movement to rehabilitate Pahur villagers displaced due to Bembla River Irrigation Project. Concerns are now being expressed that some government officials pocketed this compensation along with five land owners by forging documents and sale deeds. Sarpanch Ainuddin...
More »PTI to shut for 30 hours as staffers go on strike over wages-Nikhil Kanekal
The latest Majithia wage board has recommended that salaries be increased, in some cases to 200% of prevailing rates The Press Trust of India, or PTI, India’s largest newswire, will be shut for about 30 hours from Saturday as its employees go on strike to protest the non-implementation of the wage board recommendations to significantly increase their salaries. The Federation of PTI Employees’ Unions said in a notice that the employees will...
More »Flagships adrift -Jayati Ghosh
The ICDS' plight is symptomatic of the problems plaguing the Union government's flagship schemes for the poor all over the country. INDIA may be the only country in the world where we describe the ensuring of the basic socio-economic rights of the people in terms of “flagship schemes” that are seen as the benevolent contribution of governments. One problem with this approach is that the delivery of basic services is...
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