-The Times of India SHIMLA: Nand Lal Sharma was a Class VIII student when 71 bighas of land owned by his family in Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh was acquired for the construction of Bhakra dam. Today, Nand Lal, now in his 70s, is heading a movement to ensure the proper settlement of Bhakra dam oustees since the majority of people who gave their land for the "new temple of resurgent...
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Coming home after Phailin-Vasudha Chhotray
-The Indian Express October is the month of Durga Puja and like in the rest of the country, a warm festive spirit hangs in the air in Odisha. There is a sense of life at its fullest. Memories of Friday the 29th this same month in 1999 temporarily retreat to the background amidst the hope of celebration. Is it surprising that an event 14 years ago should at all be a...
More »Won’t let the killers walk free: Bihar Dalits -Dev Raj
-The Hindustan Times Lakshmanpur Bathe: Lakshman Rajvanshi has a question for the Patna high court: "Did we murder our own families, including kids not even two months old?" A landless labourer from Lakshmanpur Bathe in Arwal district of Bihar, Rajvanshi was reacting to the court acquitting 26 upper caste persons accused of massacring 58 Dalits, including 27 women and 10 children, while he stood terror-struck behind a wall on December 1, 1997. Rajvanshi...
More »Government working on new index to fix rural wages -Dilasha Seth & Yogima Seth Sharma
-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The government is working on a new index based on the consumption pattern of rural landless labour to fix wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, a move that is set to result in slower annual wage hike increases under the government's flagship social welfare programme. Rural wages under MGNREGA are at present based on the consumer price index for agricultural labourers (CPI-AL), which...
More »Neither small, nor green-Parineeta Deshpande-Dandekar
-The Hindu Some hydel projects that claim exemption from environmental clearance on the basis of size provide a misleading picture of their impact Why would more than four gram panchayats, environmental activists from three States, the presiding swami of the Subramanya Temple, botanists, fisheries scientists, and institutions like the Indian Institute of Science oppose a small hydel project in a remote corner of the Western Ghats in Karnataka? Aren't small hydel projects...
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