By stopping social security pensions, the Karnataka government has put the lives of over 10 lakh poor in peril. Naveen Basavaraj Kuntoji is nine years old and suffers from cerebral palsy. His movements are greatly restricted, and it looks like he is in great pain every time he valiantly wills his body to do something. When he is hungry, he slowly lifts his hand and points to his mouth. When this...

Sitamarhi, June 16: The Union rural development ministry has approved construction of 6,000km road in Bihar under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) during the current financial year at a cost of Rs 3,200 crore. Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh made this announcement after a review meeting with officers at Sitamarhi circuit house today. The minister, who is on a two-day visit to the state, told reporters that the ministry...

It is mostly caused by deliberate neglect and designed failure of the way we manage water and land It’s drought time again. Nothing new in this announcement. Each year, first we have crippling droughts between December and June, and then devastating floods in the next few months. It’s a cycle of despair, which is more or less predictable. But this is not an inevitable cycle of nature we must live...

A Comptroller and Auditor-General of India report has expressed dismay over the rising share of funds disbursed by various ministries to local bodies and NGOs in 2010-11. The CAG report on the accounts of the Union government was tabled in Parliament on Tuesday. "An analysis of plan expenditure revealed that 77% of the total plan expenditure was in the form of grants-in-aid payment,'' the report stated. "In five of the ten...

Difficult times call for difficult measures. Pushed into a corner by an unsustainable fiscal deficit and various sectors and programs (including the proposed food security legislation) screaming for a greater share of the budget pie, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in India has been forced to do what it might not have otherwise—reduce its marquee job guarantee scheme’s allocation in a big way for the first time.  In one...