For the first time, the ongoing Mazdoor Satyagrah at Statue Circle here, brought together various nomadic and marginalised communities in the state on a common platform on Thursday. Representatives from the Kalbeliya, Garia Lohar, Banjara, Kherua and other communities came together, sharing the platform with NREGS workers demanding minimum wages. "These are communities that don't even have an identity card to prove themselves, a proper residential facility, schools for their children or...

MP H Vishwanath expressing disappointment over the slow progress of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in the district, asked the officials to work in co-ordination with each other to ensure that the Scheme reaches as many beneficiaries as possible. Addressing the District Vigilance Committee meet on Tuesday, he said that the programmes are made by the Government for the people. All the programmes will fall meaningless if it...

Ahead of the Central government's proposal to table the land acquisition amendment bill during the winter session, representatives of over 300 villages in Delhi are congregating to push the demand of abolishing the archaic rules, which they claim are against farmers. The mahapanchayat, which will be held at Mahipalpur on Sunday would largely talk about how the existing laws, including the Delhi Land Reforms Act, give absolute power to the government...

The Union government is reneging on its legal obligation to pay minimum wages, even to the most deprived sections of the population, in the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. If anyone wants to study the capacity of India's policymakers to turn a progressive piece of legislation upside down, the wage policy under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is a good place to...

As POSCO hits green roadblocks, the mega project seems doomed THE ODISHA government is trying hard not to sound defensive, after the Meena Gupta Committee report pulled it up for violating the local people’s forest rights while giving the nod to POSCO for setting up its proposed $12 billion steel plant. Earlier, a joint committee of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) had reached the same conclusion, and reported several...