-Outlook Giving a big push to Prime Narendra Modi's ambitious Clean India mission, the government today proposed a major hike in funds provided for constructing household toilets in rural areas and providing better sanitation facilities in schools and anganwadis. In yet another move, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, who is also in-charge of the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, announced the decision to delink MNREGA from toilet construction programme, saying that the...

-The Telegraph Tura: The Meghalaya government is working out modalities to declare horticulture and agriculture yields as "organic certified". Farmers are being encouraged in organic production and the government is assisting in the certification process. Director of the horticulture department Daniel Ingty told The Telegraph, "Nearly 90 per cent farms in Meghalaya are organic by tradition. However, these are yet to be certified. The government has embarked an ambitious programme on mission organic...

-The Tribune The UPA's flagship programme MGNREGS changed the employment scene for the rural poor. While 100-day job guarantee was a novel step, loopholes and poor implementation rendered it a liability. The Modi govt hopes to gradually reinvent the scheme, if not entirely scrap it. Midway through the Congress-led UPA's second tenure - believed to be largely the courtesy of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) -...

-The Indian Express The scheme should be refocused towards creating durable assets in agriculture. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has a significant influence on agricultural operations and cultivation costs. If its present focus on community works can be reoriented to proactively promote improvements on the landholdings of small and marginal farmers through the creation of durable assets, it will be beneficial for agricultural productivity and incomes. Critics say that...

-The Times of India   THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The latest Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report has come down heavily on Kerala Water Authority (KWA) for not providing safe drinking water to people of Kerala, especially when sufficient funds were allotted under various drinking water and sanitation schemes. "Test results by the KWA had shown that 34% of total water sources tested in Kerala was contaminated with heavy presence of iron, fluoride, saline, nitrates, deadly...