A scam worth about Rs 8.81 crore has been detected in the Food Corporation of India (FCI) godown at Dumroan in Buxar district. While assistant manager of the godown Umakant Dubey has been suspended by senior area manager of FCI Sandipan Chattopadhyay, an FIR has been lodged with the Dumroan police station in this connection. According to Chattopadhyay, the FCI has been running two popular schemes -- Karif Marketing Season (KMS)...

Neither celebrity nor politician, Sita Murmu, is extraordinary because she is the great survivor of that `other India'. She is not a beneficiary of the job guarantee scheme MGNREGA and doesn't have a BPL card. In her 60s, she lives in a Bhubaneswar slum and describes herself as a tribal widow without any land, regular income or schooling but "surviving —that itself is enough". Railing at the false promises of...

Despite its seminal success in beginning a process of addressing issues of poverty, starvation and empowering the poor, the MGNREGA needed a general election to breathe life into it. However, the disproportionate influence of the middle class on social sector policy has led to the same set of pre-election prejudices resurfacing. "What use is the MGNREGA to the economy at large?" asks the businessman, one eye fixed apprehensively on the share...

While the rest of Punjab has performed poorly under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, Faridkot district is setting an example. As part of a project to clear all link roads of encroachments, the district will employ some 30,000 villagers under the MGNREGA. This scheme was kicked off on Tuesday at Ramoowala village by Deputy Commissioner Dr S Karuna Raju, who said, “the basis of this act is to...

Off With Their Rights...     * As many as 3 lakh slum dwellers in Delhi were evicted before the Commonwealth Games     * When a family is evicted, each member loses many rights—the rights to livelihood, shelter, health, education etc     * Of some 60,000 beggars on Delhi streets, more than 50,000 were removed for the Games *** Forget the razzle-dazzle and the hype over the recently concluded Commonwealth Games (CWG) in Delhi. The human...