Niyamat was brave. But Bhukhan wants to live. The brutal killing of MGNREGS crusader and Jean Drèze aide Niyamat Ansari has triggered an exodus from his native village of Jerua in Latehar’s Manika block. And alarmed co-worker Bhukhan Singh, whose house was also targeted on that fateful March 2 night, is leading this unnerved group. In fact, the horror isn’t just limited to Jerua, rural job scheme activists in several neighbouring villages...

The Right to Food Campaign on Monday announced its decision to launch a country-wide protest against the National Advisory Council's framework for the proposed National Food Security Bill, which, they said, fell short of people's expectation of a comprehensive food security bill that addressed nutrition and livelihood issues. “Even the budget proposals show no commitment to food security of people,” Campaign Convener Kavita Srivastava told journalists here. Failed to seize opportunity “By proposing...

Social priorities have received scant fiscal attention There is good reason to feel let down by this year’s budget for the advancement of social sectors. The disappointment is more given that the Union finance minister opened his speech by stating that “we are reaching the end of a remarkable fiscal year” and followed it up by immediate assertions that “growth in 2010-11 has been swift and broad-based”, that “the economy...

Delhi will soon get rid of problems related to scarcity and adulteration in kerosene oil being used by lakhs of poor families for cooking every day as new scheme is coming up replacing kerosene stoves. The Delhi government, along with the union government, has been giving final touches to a scheme which will replace kerosene oil stoves with LPG and further provide subsidy through banks to the poor. This will make...

In a unique move to curb corruption in the public distribution system (PDS), ration coupons in Bihar will be bar-coded from June. The next set of PDS coupons —a for June 2011 to May 2012 — has gone into print and will have bar code to prevent duplication. A bar code is a group of thin and thick lines printed on products you buy in a shop, and which a computer...