“Take again Section 124-A of the Indian Penal Code. Now so far as I am concerned that particular section is highly objectionable and obnoxious and it should have no place both for practical and historical reasons, if you like, in anv body of laws that we might pass. The sooner we get rid of it the better.” —Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in Parliament during debates on the first amendment to...
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In Orissa’s poorest villages, questions over money spent on ‘jobs never given’ by Debabrata Mohanty
Last fortnight, the Supreme Court agreed allegations of misappropriation of NREGS funds in Orissa are not without basis. Debabrata Mohanty tracks the scheme and the controversy it is in: FACT HUNT In May-June 2007, the Centre for Environment and Food Security (CEFS) surveyed how an MGNREGS programme was being carried out in the 100 poorest villages of Orissa’s “hunger bowl” of KBK (Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput) districts, as well as the districts of Nuapada, Nabarangpur...
More »Labour shortage hits jute mills in West Bengal by Jayajit Dash
After sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh, it’s now the turn of jute mills in West Bengal to reel under shortage of labour. This has forced many jute mills to reduce their production hours and go for production cuts. The 52 working jute mills in West Bengal employ around 400,000 workers and the labour shortfall is about 30 per cent. “The workers are more interested in getting engaged in different government schemes like...
More »Left govt pursues parallel school system, future of 18 lakh at stake
The Bengal government today pushed through a controversial bill that will empower the state panchayat department to create a parallel school education system with nearly 20,000 rural schools. The West Bengal Panchayat Board of Education Bill had fuelled widespread concern at its conception itself but the Left government bulldozed the legislation through the Assembly today in the face of a walkout by the combined Opposition. At the root of the overdrive appears...
More »MPLADS norms’ revision hits hurdles by Asit Ranjan Mishra
State governments as well as Central agencies have opposed a proposal to use money from the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) for building community centres under the Union government’s flagship Rural Jobs guarantee programme. Officials said managing accounts for such a diversion would be difficult and could lead to the misuse of funds. A meeting of state government representatives and district collectors, meant to revise MPLADS guidelines to make...
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