-India Today Jaipur: After being stopped from entering Jaipur to register their protests against the Vasundhara Raje-led BJP regime, Rajasthan Kisan Sabha has decided to give the government a taste of its own medicine. The farmers, who had decided to lay siege around the Vidhan Sabha on February 22, have now threatened Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje that she and her ministers will not be allowed to enter villages in the state. Rajasthan government,...

-Down to Earth The All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee says that the state government arrested farmer leaders on Tuesday to preempt an upcoming protest   In order to pre-empt a farmers' protest around the legislative assembly February 22, the Rajasthan government cracked down on farmer leaders, according to a statement by the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC), an association of 194 farmer groups across the country. The state government arrested...

- The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy Aadhaar's principal goals were to end fraud and reach welfare to the poorest. But in practice it has achieved neither. The claimed elimination of bogus cards has been found to be exaggerated. On the other hand, the insistence on the Aadhaar card has led to the brutal exclusion from welfare of the very poor and the homeless — for reasons such as...

-The Indian Express Linking it to ration cards ends up denying poor their rightful entitlements In September 2017, 11-year-old Santoshi, resident of Simdega district of Jharkhand, succumbed to starvation. According to her mother, she died “asking for rice, but there was not a single grain at home”. She was deprived of her subsidised ration as her family’s ration card was cancelled because it was not linked to Aadhaar. Marandi in Jharkhand met...

-The Indian Express Yavatmal, known to be the suicide capital of Vidarbha, has also shown a drop from last year’s 272 to 225 this year. The district had registered 386 suicides in 2015, an all time record for any district. Nagpur: Even as the ruling and Opposition parties slug it out in the state legislative Assembly, and outside, over farmers’ suicide, government statistics have shown a trend of decreasing numbers for the...