The ends may justify the means, but let's be clear - in rural India, extremes of coercion are being used to encourage toilet use Robert Chambers recently wrote that community-led total sanitation is leading to a development revolution, especially in south Asia. I agree with his assessment of sanitation's importance. In practice, however, the success of community-led efforts often hinges on the use of outright coercion. In my experience, the measures...

-Express News Service   Reacting to Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh's concern over use of force against villagers opposing land acquisition in Orissa for the Posco steel project, a pressure group on Sunday said that the minister should withdraw the illegal clearance given to the company. Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) said: "The minister appealed to the Orissa government to respect 'democracy and dialogue' and refrain from coercion in taking over...

-PTI   The Congress today launched a campaign to counter the anti-graft movement by Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev and accused a section of civil society of trying to weaken democratic institutions. "The Constitution has given the power to legislate only to Parliament and the state Assemblies. If 5,000 or 6,000 people dictate from outside what the Parliament ought to do, this will weaken democracy," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told a press...

Minister for Municipal Administration and Rural Development K.P. Munusamy on Saturday distributed Rs. 22.36 lakh as compensation to 834 farmers whose crops were damaged by wild elephants. The farmers who got the compensation cheques are from Krishnagiri, Hosur, Royakottai, Jawalagiri and Denkanikottai ranges. Four hundred and ninety nine farmers in Denkanikottai forest range, who were the worst affected, got Rs. 11,12,300. In Jawalagiri forest range 239 farmers received Rs. 7,65,950 as...

Sonia Gandhi has told the Congress it is the party’s duty to ensure that all welfare schemes introduced by the government are “fully implemented” on the ground. In a letter published in the latest issue of party mouthpiece Congress Sandesh, Sonia wrote: “The UPA has worked hard to fulfil the strong mandate to govern it received from the people in 2009. Since then, the synergy between the government and the party...