-Down to Earth Even after an order by the Supreme Court, the government has not released the payments The flagship scheme for rural employment generation, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), is facing severe fund crunch this year, resulting in unpaid dues of Rs 3,066 crore in wage payments in 19 states. Around 87 per cent of the scheme’s budget for this year has already by exhausted. A civil...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra has asked the National Human Rights Commission and State Human Rights Commissions to move appropriate courts if their directives relating to protection of human rights and award of compensations are not enforced by the authorities concerned. Addressing the 24th foundation day celebrations of the NHRC, the CJI lauded the sustained efforts made by the commission towards promotion and protection of human rights,...

-NDTV Over 600 farmers have been affected by pesticide inhalation in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region. They skipped wearing protective gear while spraying pesticide, officials claimed Mumbai: Twenty nine-year-old Inder Rathod, who works on cottons fields in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region, had sprayed pesticide on the crop last week. That was the last time he saw the lush fields and fluffy cotton crop. "After the spray, I couldn't see anything. It was so sudden,"...

-Livemint.com For the people of India and their “faith” in the Sardar Sarovar dam, it’s really a matter of public finance Optics is as air for politicians. It is no different for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and what is commonly known as the Narmada Dam. But even air can sometimes get dense with rhetoric. On 17 September, Modi inaugurated the Sardar Sarovar Dam, the largest project of the Narmada, or Sardar Sarovar Project,...

-Press release from NREGA Sangharsh Morcha For the past five days, hundreds of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) workers and their supporters from across the country have gathered at Jantar Mantar to demand the implementation of the employment guarantee act in letter and spirit. They are demanding a substantial increase in the NREGA wages, timely payment of wages, implementation of local plans, expansion of existing entitlements and adequate budget for...