Farm Labourers and sharecroppers stopped work at the site of a Rs 5,000-crore fertiliser plant in Burdwan’s Panagarh claiming they had not been paid their share of the land compensation and demanding construction jobs. The political links of the protesters at the 500-acre plot acquired by the government and handed over to the Mumbai-based Matix Fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd last year were not immediately clear. But Bengal industries minister Nirupam Sen,...

Over the past decade, as crops have failed year after year, 200,000 farmers have killed themselves Naryamaswamy Naik went to the cupboard and took out a tin of pesticide. Then he stood before his wife and children and drank it. "I don't know how much he had borrowed. I asked him, but he wouldn't say," Sugali Nagamma said, her tiny grandson playing at her feet. "I'd tell him: don't worry, we...

Some 10 lakh to 30 lakh migrant labourers take up skilled or semi-skilled work in Kerala. THE State Bank of India has a branch near the Raj Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram, in a by-lane on the avenue leading to the Kowdiar Palace, the residence of the former maharajas of Travancore. It is a cosy little place on the first floor of a nondescript building, and the clientele includes the rich and...

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has been hailed as a landmark initiative to alleviate poverty and generate productive wage employment, even if for only 100 days, for unskilled rural labour. Given its historic features, it is a pity that the rollout of the programme in many states has been less than satisfactory, and leakage of funds has become rampant. More worryingly, it has begun to have...

Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar on Friday said that farmers' leaders should be included in the committee which decides sugarcane payments for the crushing season. "Their participation in the process would help solve the deadlock on payment issues which obstruct smooth running of the season," Pawar said. He was speaking at the annual general body meeting and annual meeting of the governing council of the Vasantdada Sugar Institute here. There...