-Hindustan Times The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has witnessed the sharpest year-on-year increase in employment generation in its history in April 2021, government data shows, in a sign that the second Covid wave has caused major reverse migration adding to rural economic distress. According to rural development ministry data, around 22 million households have got work under the job guarantee in the month of April 2021, which is...

-The Hindu Government hospitals in Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri have taken selective cover under the ICMR ‘Cause of Death’ protocol to undercount COVID-19 deaths DHARMAPURI/ KRISHNAGIRI: On Wednesday, the Government Dharmapuri Medical College Hospital administration was on a fire-fighting mode, fighting off queries on “rumours of 47 COVID deaths on a single day on Tuesday at the hospital.” It started off with an unverifiable WhatsApp message that was subsequently denied by the hospital administration....

With the rise in Covid-19 daily new cases and daily new deaths since March this year, media reports (please click here and here) on migrant workers returning back to their native places (i.e. places of origin) from migration destinations (i.e. workplaces likes cities and large industrial towns to where the informal and low skilled workers from the marginalised sections of the society migrate seasonally, and sometimes for a longer duration,...

-The Hindu While officially numbers have fallen, several cases of undiagnosed illness and deaths are reported across districts Unnao: As per official figures, the number of daily cases of COVID-19 in Uttar Pradesh have started declining. On Tuesday, the State recorded 20,463 new cases and 306 new deaths as against 2.33 lakh samples tested. However, in its villages there is a growing sense of alarm due to a spurt in not only positive...

-The Hindu U.P. govt. ill-prepared to deal with spread of infections in rural areas, says Allahabad High Court The Election Commission, the higher courts and the government failed to fathom the disastrous consequences of permitting the elections in a few States and the Panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh, the Allahabad High Court has noted. The Uttar Pradesh government is having tough time in controlling the spread of COVID-19 in urban areas and it...