The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) completed five years this month. Pandurni village, in Nanded district in Maharashtra, is in high spirits. It has won the award for best performance in implementing the Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme for 2009-10. Around 1,500 people from this village are registered under this scheme, and over 800 have benefitted from it. Yahswant Suryavanshi is one of them. This owner of two hectares of agricultural land says...
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Noted jurists express dismay at Prime Minister’s NREGA statement
Say there is no way the workers can be paid less than the minimum wages Open Statement on Prime Minister’s Assertion that the NREGA Wage Rate is ‘Delinked’ from the Minimum Wages Act We the undersigned are shocked at the Prime Minister’s statement in a letter to the Chairperson of the National Advisory Council that ‘statutorily the wage rate under NREGA is delinked and independent of the provisions of the Minimum...
More »Predatory EU pacts by Latha Jishnu
EU is pushing India and Canada to sign free trade agreements that will hurt their generic drugs—and the outrage is global After months of prevarication, the European Union has stated publicly that the free trade agreement (FTA) it signs with India will include provisions for data exclusivity because “it is extremely important for research and innovation’’. That’s what European Union ambassador Daniele Smadja told journalists in Delhi on January 21. Smadja’s...
More »UP farmers reap a bitter harvest by Samarth Saran
Roza Mandi, the biggest grain/paddy market in Shahjahanpur distrtict of Uttar Pradesh, is always bustling with traders, farmers and mill owners. However, there is one spot in the market where there is not much activity. And that is the government procurement centre, where farmers are supposed to sell their crops. Amrish Tiwari, a farmer from Shahjahanpur, harvested 1,000 quintal of paddy crop this season. Considering he should have sold around 850...
More »Wayanad tribals are soft targets for sterilisation by Shahina KK
JANAKI KNOWS well that it is hard for her to rear more than four children. Yet she is not willing to go to the sterilisation camp. Her husband would be of no help in taking such a decision. “He drinks heavily, beats me up every day,” she says. Janaki is not able to express her fears in clear terms, but it is difficult to imagine her summoning up the courage...
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