Corruption and government apathy may not be hurting MNREGS as much as well-intentioned tinkering There is growing concern that the Centre’s allocation for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) is dropping off. Correspondingly, the average number of days of work created in some of the states is dropping sharply. This decline in the spending of MNREGS money is not a one-off event but has been happening over the...
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Children, parents talk of school daze by Santosh K Kiro
As many as 100 girls from Gusai Baliya in Barkagaon block of Hazaribagh district can’t study as the nearest school is about 15km away The primary school at Belamundwar village in Hazaribagh Sadar block has 155 students but no permanent teacher. It needs at least five trained teachers, but is struggling with two para-teachers The primary school at Simgra in Khunti district has only one teacher for 101 students Halwai Tola primary school...
More »Standing up to the state by Anupama Katakam and Lyla Bavadam
Police officers who have stood up for the truth are made to pay for it. IF there is anyone who can nail the perpetrators of the anti-Muslim riots of 2002 in Gujarat, it is the State's police officers. Witness to the worst communal violence seen in recent times, these officers have first-hand knowledge of the complicity of politicians in the riots and the degree of brutality and negligence of duty that...
More »A tale of two reports by V Venkatesan
There are two serious points of disagreement in the reports of the SIT and the amicus curiae, Raju Ramachandran. THE Ahmedabad Metropolitan Magistrate, M.S. Bhatt, on February 15, rejected pleas seeking copies of the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team's (SIT) report on the 2002 Gujarat carnage until March 15 on a technicality – that the SIT needs more time to submit its full report along with all documents, evidence and other...
More »Tenuous lives by Vikhar Ahmed Sayeed
Conservation measures have taken away the traditional livelihoods of nomadic tribes in Karnataka. AT a short distance from the world famous monuments at Hampi is the village of Hulihaidar in the fertile region of the “rice bowl of Karnataka” in Gangavathi taluk in Koppal district. Local residents say it was an important town in the Vijayanagara empire (1336-1646 C.E.) and the seat of a local lord. Today it is home to...
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