The Right to Information Act was the great white hope of Indian citizens who are consistently denied rightful information. Not only does it specify that most information in the public domain would be provided to citizens by right, but it also ensured that failure to do so by the bloated bureaucracy would result in penalties for erring officials. Trust the government, though, to subvert its own good intentions. The state government has...

On the basis of fact finding report from the Union rural development secretary B K Sinha on rampant corruption and irregularities in operation of rural job schemes in several districts in Jharkhand under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MGNREGA), the Centre has discontinued in releasing funds to seven districts in the state in the current financial year 2011-12. MGNREGA commissioner in Jharkhand A K Singh confirmed that seven districts –...

-The Telegraph   Rural job scheme activist Niyamat Ansari was beaten to death by Maoists as a group of middlemen stood and watched, a report on the March 2 killing has pointed out, indicating once again that implementation of MGNREGS in Jharkhand leaves a lot to be desired. Armed with the report, a committee constituted by Union rural development ministry today met chief minister Arjun Munda and his deputy Sudesh Mahto, requesting...

Government undecided on criteria to identify families below poverty line A survey by the Indian government in 2002 to determine households below poverty line (BPL) left out many poor families. Nearly a decade later, the Union Ministry of Rural Development (MORD) is trying to set the wrong right. But it is unable to decide on the criteria for identifying poor households. As a consequence, the BPL survey that was to...

“Quartz grinding is one of the deadliest occupations” “Slowly, but surely, every one of us who has been to the factories in Gujarat will die, and there is nothing we can do to change that,” Buddha (45) of Undli village says bitterly. Buddha lost his 18-year-old-son Mohan to acute silicosis a year ago. His 16-year-old daughter Ghamma is still suffering from the disease. Silicosis, the deadly scourge unleashed upon migrant labourers of...