-The Telegraph The flow of farmers to fill up forms for land return in Singur thinned to a trickle today, the “lack of hurry” attributed to yesterday’s Supreme Court stay on distribution of plots. Pulak Sarkar, the block development officer (BDO) of Singur, said only 106 forms were submitted between 10 am and 7pm today. “Yesterday, we had received 250 forms. Altogether, 1,590 forms have been submitted since Sunday,” he said. The 15...
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When paddy turns poison by Jaideep Hardikar
When he drank poison on January 11, farmer Hargovind Harne’s run-down hut was bursting with freshly harvested paddy. Yet he was neck-deep in debt. Even the bottle of pesticide that he used to take his own life had been bought on credit, as the bill shows. His large stock of grain wasn’t the only puzzle in the 47-year-old’s suicide. Vidarbha is infamous for continuing suicides by cotton farmers but Harne grew food,...
More »Monsoon brings hope for Bihar's drought-hit farmers
-IANS Mahesh Sharma is a happy man. A farmer in Naubatpur near Patna, he was pushed into near destitution after facing two consecutive years of drought. But with showers lashing Patna and many parts of Bihar for the past few days, the rain gods have given him the Indian farmers' staple diet - hope. "Rains are like gold for us. We welcomed the showers by preparing a sweet-dish. Unlike the last...
More »Food Security: Messy Jam, But Here’s a Map by Ashok Gulati
Ensuring food security to all is one of India’s top policy agendas today. Given a large mass of poverty in the country, it is not surprising and no one would perhaps disagree with the need to achieve this as soon as possible. But the varied policy instruments that can be used towards achieving this goal draw sharp differences among the stakeholders. What is food security? The World Food Summit of 1996...
More »Farmers want hospital or land back by Sarat Sarma
Thirty sugarcane cultivators of Ujoragaon, a village located 15km from the district headquarters, today asked Dispur to resume construction of the 30-bed hospital for which they had donated four hectares 21 years ago or return their land. The donors plan to approach Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and the Congress legislator from Nagaon Sadar constituency, Durlav Chamua, soon.In 1990, the AGP-led state government had proposed to construct a 30-bed hospital...
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