The central government is finalizing a series of decisions to increase military presence across the Naxal belt in east and central India. Among them is a plan to raise the first Territorial Army battalion comprising local tribals. While sources insisted that the strategy was to increase military presence and no operations were planned, the move could deny many local advantages enjoyed by the Naxals. With a locals-only 'Home and Hearth' battalion...
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MIHIR SHAH UNVEILS A BOLD NREGA-2
MGNREGA, which entitles millions of workers enrolled under it to at least Rs 100 a day for 100 days of work in a year, is undergoing an overhaul based on a set of recommendations of a committee headed by the Planning Commission member Mihir Shah. Encapsulated in The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 - Operational Guidelines 2012 in what is being called “MGNREGA 2.0”, the recommendations aim for...
More »Pits of horror by S Dorairaj
The alleged incident of two quarry workers in Tamil Nadu's Villupuram district being forced to swallow faeces draws attention to larger issues. NORMALLY the villages and hamlets in and around Thiruvakkarai in Tamil Nadu's Villupuram district are woken up by the loud noise and vibrations caused by the blasting of rocks and the pounding of boulders with sledge hammers, apart from the rattling sound of tipper lorries transporting stones from 40-odd...
More »Dr Abhijit Sen, Member-Planning Commission of India, interviewed by Ajay Vir Jakhar and Paranjoy Guha Thakurta
Dr Abhijit Sen is Member, Planning Commission of India. He is a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Cambridge (currently on leave as Professor of Economics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University) and has also taught at the Universities of Sussex, Oxford and Cambridge. Besides serving various think tanks in the states and at the centre, Dr Sen has been a consultant with UNDP, ILO, FAO and various other multilateral...
More »Jharkhand’s tribals want CNT Act to stay as it is by Rashmi Verma
Tribal leaders outrightly rejected any move to change the CNT Act and lambasted some of the tribal leaders and political class that have advocated changes in century-old Land Act. Called by the CNT Act Bacaho Suraksha Samiti (committee to save CNT Act), veteran tribal leaders and activists gathered at Morhabadi Ground on Sunday where they threatened to launch a Statewide agitation if amendments in the Act were proposed by the Government. Addressing...
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