-The Telegraph The cabinet secretariat has issued a circular instructing all ministries at the Centre to “mandatorily” consult the national commissions for SCs and STs on any policy concerning the two sections. The Centre seems to have woken up to the wanton violation of this rule by its own ministries and the states. The circular, issued on February 16, said: “The ministries/departments are advised to ensure that the National Commission for SCs or...

Odisha village gets pattas after nearly half a century. Land reform programmes get jumpstart They say home is where the heart is, but that’s not always true. Ask Arakhita Pradhan, resident of Chilipoi village in Odisha’s Ganjam district. On a cold evening some 44 years ago, the authorities forcefully shifted him and his neighbours to a place where no civic amenities existed. Reason: the state had built an irrigation dam that...

-Express News Service The Orissa State Scheduled Caste-Scheduled Tribe Youth and Students’ Council has drawn the attention of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) about the increasing torture of the dalits in the State. Council president Haladhar Sethi discussed the matter with NCSC chairman PL Punia and invited him to visit Kamadhenukot village in Dhenkanal district where 22 houses of the dalits were burnt after the first phase of the panchayat...

-The Hindu Inclusive growth can be possible only in an inclusive society, Bhalchandra Mungekar, president, Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, said on Monday. Scheduled castes and tribes, and minorities constitute a majority among the people below poverty line, accounting for one-third of the country's population. Existence of 40 crore people below poverty line even 60 years after Independence was a cause for immense concern, Dr. Mungekar said, cautioning that the situation was...

-The Business Standard Implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), a flagship programme of the Central government to alleviate poverty, has resulted in an increase of up to 20 per cent in the cost of farm production in Karnataka. It has also created a shortage of labour in the agriculture sector in the state. According to a study conducted by the Bangalore-based Institute for Social and Economic Change...