Following the recommendations of the Shanta Kumar Committee report on restructuring of the Food Corporation of India (FCI), there are signs that the Central Government is in a hurry to replace the Public Distribution System (PDS) with cash transfers. The Government's intention has been revealed in two official letters (one dated 10 February 2015 and another dated 11 February 2015) that were sent from the Joint Secretary at Department of...
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Fighting adversity, innovatively! -KM Dayashankar
-The Hindu KARIMNAGAR (Telengana): Fighting adversities is part of human survival and villagers of the interior Veernapalli and other villages in Yellareddypet mandal have been doing that for quite some time. Saving their standing crops from wild animals has become their top priority what with the decreased area of cultivation due to water shortage. They cannot afford technological support, but that has not deterred them from devising their own plan to keep...
More »Lost livelihood -Harsh Mander
-The Hindu The Adivasis of Central India, who settled in the tea gardens of Assam decades ago, are still devoid of their basic rights. The even greater tragedy of the coordinated murderous December 23, 2014, attack on unarmed Adivasi forest dwellers in Assam, which left dead more than 70 people including children and women, is that the assault targeted one of the most oppressed and dispossessed communities in that entire region. A meticulously...
More »MFP welfare plan for tribals floundering in the first year of its implementation -Nidhi Sharma
-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The minimum support price for minor forest produce (MFP), an initiative conceived as the next MNREGA and a welfare plan to cover about 100 million tribals, is floundering in the first year of its implementation. Two of the nine states, where the ambitious programme had to be implemented, have still not agreed to do away with the established system of procuring MFP and introducing the new procedure....
More »Drought in Marathwada: Ground water levels dipping every year, focus shifts to conservation -Kavitha Iyer
-The Indian Express Mumbai: Of the 76 talukas that comprise Marathwada, 61 show a drop in ground water levels compared to the previous year's post-monsoon data. But with monsoon 2015 having provided just over 53 per cent of the already poor average rainfall of 779 mm in the region, the dip in ground water levels is hardly surprising. The more alarming news, say officials, is the continuing dip in water tables in...
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