-The Hindu Mumbai: Accusing Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis of ignoring his warnings on the severity of the Drought impacting Marathawada, where the local police had to invoke Section 144 to prevent violence over water, Swaraj Abhiyan leader Yogendra Yadav on Saturday said 31 per cent of the gram panchayats in Drought-affected districts had not shown any expenditure under MGNREGS, according to official data, till March 31. Mr. Yadav said his organisation...

-FirstPost.com Aurangabad/Latur: In recent times, the Drought in Marathwada has been reported, discussed and debated, but all from a safe distance. News reports, television debates, social media commentary and even judicial pronouncements have been made regarding the situation. Firstpost reporters spent a fortnight travelling through the arid region and witnessed the devastating social, political and ecological impact of three years of Drought. It’s not just the local economy, agriculture and rural structures...

-Business Standard 2,170 million person-days planned for FY17, compared with 2,391 million person-days last year At a time when nearly half of India's 676 districts are grappling with a second consecutive year of Drought, the government expects a decline in the demand for work under the flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in 2016-17. The estimated number of days when people in rural India will be offered work under MGNREGS...

-PTI New Delhi: The Rural Development Ministry will carry out a pilot study on environmental benefits and green outcomes of rural flagship scheme MGNREGA in seven states with the help of United Nations Development Programme. The project will be conducted in 14 gram panchayats, two each from seven agro-ecological zones of the country -- Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Guajrat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Watershed Support Services and Activities Network (WASSAN),...

-Down to Earth Are people more important or IPL, Court asks associations of Drought-hit Maharashtra and Mumbai The Bombay High Court has rapped the Mumbai and Maharashtra cricket associations for scheduling 19 of the 60 matches to be held during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2016 in Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur even as the state reels under severe water scarcity. The court stated that Maharashtra ought to prioritise its water usage according...