Results of an investigation report filed by senior government of India officials have confirmed largescale anomalies in the implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MG NREGS) in Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh. The investigation was conducted in the first week of January, in response to a series of complaints filed by Sanjay Dixit, member, Central Employment Guarantee Council, in August, 2010, that pointed to widespread misuse of...

India’s rulers have found a new vocation – maligning environmentalists and questioning the very idea of regulating industry for pollution. Thus, faced with criticism of Lavasa, an artificial gated city of the super-rich near Pune, in which his family has invested crores, Agriculture Minister, Sharad Pawar, lashed out at well-known activist Medha Patkar and other “vested interests” for obstructing this “pioneering” project. Lavasa’s promoters built the project without seeking environmental clearance...

Activists hope that a popular agitation against the setting up of a factory to manufacture asbestos products in the eastern Bihar state will result in a nationwide ban on the large-scale import into this country of the deadly mineral fibre. Following six months of agitation against the setting up of the factory in the Chainpur-Bishunpur area of Bihar’s Muzzaffarpur district, state chief minister Nitish Kumar sought to lay blame on the...

To keep a check on the implementation of various Centrally-sponsored schemes, a meeting of the District Vigilance Monitoring Committee of the Congress was held under the chairmanship of local Congress MP Pradeep Majhi on Wednesday. District Collector Sibabrata Dash, PD, DRDA, Dhruba Charana Panchbhaya, Executive Engineers of RD, RWSS, SOUTHCO, AEs of PWD, MI and LI and other district officers, besides members of the committee,were present. Detailed discussions on the various Centrally-sponsored...

At least 10 RTI applicants have been killed over the past two years, with many others facing threats in their bid to expose corruption On a Republic Day when India celebrated 61 years of justice, equality and liberty, Amar Nath Pandey says he encountered the darkest moment of his life. In late evening on 26 January, a lone assailant leaped from the folds of darkness in the street outside his house in...