The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has cornered the state government, which had recently demanded a special package of Rs 2,500 crore for frost-hit farmers, in its report tabled in state Assembly today. The CAG has found gross irregularities, non-implementation of schemes, weak budgetary and expenditure controls in both original and supplementary budgets, rush of expenditure at the close of the financial year and underutilisation of central assistance. “The targets...

CPM Politburo member and Kerala Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has assets worth Rs 76.65 lakh, according to the affidavit filed by him on Thursday as part of his election nomination papers for the April 13 assembly polls in the state. Balakrishnan, who filed his nomination from Thalassery assembly constituency in Kannur district, declared that he has Rs 36.20 lakh worth assets and his wife Rs 40.45 lakh. He said that he has...

On a day the Bokaro district administration went on an overdrive to tighten the noose around unscrupulous MGNREGS contractors, the state government claimed in the Assembly that the death of worker Subal Mahto wasn’t remotely connected to rampant corruption in the Centre’s flagship rural job scheme. Reprimanded by Union rural development secretary B.K. Sinha over the recent killings of the Bokaro labourer and MGNREGS crusader Niyamat Ansari, the government today made...

Rising food prices pushed tens of millions of people into extreme poverty last year and are reaching "dangerous levels" in some countries, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said Tuesday as he released new data showing that the cost of grain and other staples is near a historic high. The costs of some key commodities such as wheat have doubled in the past year, and a World Bank index of overall food...

The daughter-in-law of a Right to Information (RTI) activist who exposed a pension scam in Haryana was allegedly murdered by the village council head involved in the scam. Sonu was killed when she tried to rescue her father-in-law, Jagdish Sharma, after the village head, Dharambir Malik, crushed Sharma’s legs under the wheels of his car near Bhuna in Fatehabad district, around 50 km from here. A murder case has been registered against...