“When I told a government official that Pesa allows us to determine our policy on liquor trade in the village, he shot back, ‘Are you trying to teach me the law? If you are so knowledgeable about the law, why are you living here in your village in the forest? Why don’t you go and speak in the Orissa assembly?’” Fulsingh Naik, resident of Mandibisi (Rayagada, West Orissa), December 2009, recounting...

ALMOST all the maladies afflicting the Indian mining industry have manifested themselves forcefully in the mineral-rich State of Jharkhand. Indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources, large-scale displacement of tribal people, and the rise of a mining lobby with immense political clout are only a few of these. Of course, in the last decade the State has also witnessed the rise of a number of people's resistance movements against displacement and environmental degradation...

The Lokayukta is the “government’s conscience”, an anti-corruption ombudsman organised at the state-level and born out of a need felt among the country’s statesmen to instill a sense of public confidence in the transparency of the administrative machinery. Legal experts say that the “best and the worst” of the Lokayukta organisation is that the success of the entire mechanism depends solely on the “personal qualities such as the image, caliber, drive,...

Agricultural credit flow by cooperative and public sector banks exceeded the target by 13% in 2009-10 financial year. “The flow of credit to the agriculture sector increased significantly and banks have surpassed the target by extending Rs3,67,000 crore worth of loan to farmers,” an Agriculture Ministry official informed. The banks including public sector, cooperative and regional rural banks (RRBs), were set a target to lend Rs3,25,000 crore of credit to farmers last...

Over 11,000 acres of land has been brought under organic farming in Punjab and Haryana under a scheme sponsored by the Union Government. While 6,050 acres has so far come under organic farming in Punjab, Haryana too is not lagging behind as 5,000 acre has been brought under organic farming. To promote organic farming in Punjab and Haryana, farmers are being provided technological inputs including training and farm-level advisory services according...