-IANS Around 1,500 villagers on Saturday laid siege to the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu to demand immediate cessation of all work at the site, said an activist. " This morning, around 10 people from West Bengal came to Kudankulam and asked for directions to the plant site. When villagers enquired about their mission, they said they were Labourers hired by a contractor to carry out...

-The Hindu   A Fast Track Sessions Court here on Friday acquitted 11 of the 14 persons arrested from Kota, Baran and Jodhpur in the aftermath of the May 2008 Jaipur serial blasts. The court did not find any evidence that could connect the accused with the alleged crime. The Anti-Terrorism Squad of Rajasthan police had claimed that all the accused, who it said were members of the banned Students Islamic Movement of...

-The Daily Bhaskar   Sarpanchs and secretaries in Damoh, on Friday, have threatened to stall work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) protesting administration's decision to seek details via text messaging of the daily work being undertaken. The sarpanchs have said this was unjustified as it would incur additional financial burden. They added as many of them were not tech-savvy, they would not know how to message. However, district...

-The Indian Express   Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Friday came out in support of NCP leader and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar’s suggestion to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the UPA’s flagship rural job guarantee scheme (NREGS) should be suspended for “at least three months in a year” so that agricultural Labourers are available during the peak season of agricultural operations in various parts of the country. “He (Sharad Pawar) is a...

In the first high-level red-flag against the UPA government’s flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that while assets created under the NREGA “may or may not have productive use”, the programme was “adversely” impacting the agriculture sector by “drawing out agriculture Labourers from agricultural operations”.   In a letter sent to the prime minister late last month, Pawar is...