I solicit your personal intervention in the matter to ensure that para-wise comments on the reports of Sanjay Dixit (member of Central Employment Guarantee Council who's come out with a scathing report on the implementation of NREGA in Uttar Pradesh) and pending complaints are attended on priority basis. - Rita Sharma, union secretary (now retired), rural development, in a letter to Atul Kumar Gupta, chief secretary, Uttar Pradesh, on January 13....

Dismissing notions that readers are not interested in development issues or rural reportage, editors and activists Monday stressed that the media perspective on the issue needed a change as “society is no longer passive”. ‘Can rural reporting be sexy?’– this was the topic of discussion at an event organised by the Foundation for Media Professionals, an independent organisation by a group of Indian journalists, here Monday. “The time has come for rural...

When Gadchiroli Collector Atul Patne and his predecessor Niranjankumar Sudhanshu accept a special medal from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tomorrow in New Delhi for their NREGA performance, they will rebut a widely held belief that good government work can't be done in Naxal-affected areas, a belief that's often used as an alibi for inaction. Gadchiroli, which became the biggest hotspot in the Red Corridor in 2009 with three police ambushes...

The United Progressive Alliance’s flagship scheme, National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), could have saved the day for India when the world fought against rising job losses on account of century’s worst ever recession , says a report by the International Labour Organisation. “There has been much progress in extending social protection through NREGA, which helped in maintaining levels of consumption and poverty,” the report on Global Employment Trends 2010...

Activists realise it takes a fight to translate democracy from thin paper to thick action In the winter of 1997, advocate Ashok Agarwal filed a petition in the Supreme Court opposing the nearly 400 per cent hike in school fees. This was the year the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations were implemented and the salaries of teachers shot up. Parents trying to cope with the overall price rise were suddenly hit by...