There’s suddenly a flurry of activity in Karotia, a nondescript village in West Bengal’s Burdwan district. Lately, a lot of politicians and state government officials have been visiting the village, and they say work on a nearly forgotten 14km irrigation canal is going to start soon. It’s been nearly 36 years since the state government first proposed to dig the canal, recalls Azizur Haque, the local panchayat chief. It was to...
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Can we achieve 4% farm growth? by T Nanda Kumar
The prime minister, in his Independence Day address said: “I am happy that the growth rate of our agriculture has increased substantially in the last few years. But we are still far from achieving our goal. We need to work harder so that we can increase the agricultural growth rate to 4% per annum” . Is it possible? If so how? The production shortage of wheat in India in 2006...
More »Vedanta on mine hunt, Cong testy
Vedanta has initiated efforts to get mining rights in other areas of the state to run its 1-million-tonne plant at Lanjigarh but the Congress has vowed to block the handover of at least one of the alternative sites. The company’s rethink crystallised after Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi hinted on August 26 that the Niyamgiri hills would not be given for mining to Vedanta Alumina. During the past two days, the chief...
More »NAC meet tomorrow to discuss draft of food security bill by Smita Gupta
Food grain entitlement programme to start in the 150 poorest districts in the first year The Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) is yet to reconcile the government's assurance of a monthly provision of 25 kg of foodgrains for every family with its desire to enhance it to 35 kg. Nor has it been able to resolve the contentious question of dual pricing — Rs. 3 a kg for the poor...
More »Food security — by definition by P Sainath
Maharashtra ended famine forever by passing an Act that deleted the word ‘famine' from all laws of the State. Maybe the government, the National Advisory Council and other assorted enthusiasts of the Food Security Bill can learn from Maharashtra about moving towards ending hunger altogether. In 1963, the government of Maharashtra ended famine forever in the State. It did this without adding a morsel to anyone's diet. It did so simply by...
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