Sainath cautions West Bengal that it is in a very fragile situation ‘Eastern India fares better in agrarian crisis compared to Western States' Warns against following practices of corporate-led agriculture Even though West Bengal is one of the only three States in the country that has seen a decline in the rates of farmer suicides over the last 15 years, the situation in the State as in the rest of the country is...

At least 10 RTI applicants have been killed over the past two years, with many others facing threats in their bid to expose corruption On a Republic Day when India celebrated 61 years of justice, equality and liberty, Amar Nath Pandey says he encountered the darkest moment of his life. In late evening on 26 January, a lone assailant leaped from the folds of darkness in the street outside his house in...

Magsaysay Award winner and activist Sandeep Pandey has decided to return the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) achievement award along with the cash award of Rs. 44,000 that was presented to him in February 2009.   In a letter to Rural Development Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, he said that he is returning the award as no action has been taken yet in a 2009 incident in which dalit workers were beaten...

In a mark of protest against the administrative "bias" over an attack on labourers last year, Magsaysay Award winner and activist Sandeep Pandey today returned the Employment Awareness Award presented to him by Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Pandey said that he had returned the award to protest against attack on labourers by Ghanshyam, husband of a village head, in Era Kake village on January 14 last year. He alleged that the incident...

A leading Indian social worker has returned a prestigious government award in protest against corruption. Ramon Magsaysay Award winner Sandeep Pandey was honoured for his raising awareness about the government's jobs-for-work scheme. One of the world's biggest social welfare schemes, it guarantees 100 days of work a year for every rural home. Mr Pandey returned the award in protest against "embezzlement" of funds meant for the poor in Uttar Pradesh state. In a statement,...