-Livemint.com Parliamentary panel blames ministry for not utilizing budget in full, demands tightening of administrative steps New Delhi: A parliamentary committee has criticized the government for cutting funds for the environment ministry and asked it to revise the allocation since the ministry is tasked with arresting environment degradation. The committee also blamed the ministry for not utilizing its budget in full, and demanded that it tighten its administrative mechanisms. A report by the...

-The Indian Express Rahul Gandhi will help farmers more if he focuses on how policies are implemented   On April 30, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi undertook a padyatra of about 15 km in the Vidarbha region to register his sympathy and concerns for farmers. Vidarbha has been reeling under agrarian distress for many years, and has also been an epicentre of farmer suicides. Cotton being one of the primary crops of this...

-Hindustan Times Sheopur: The tribals of 106 villages in Madhya Pradesh have either demolished government made toilets or are using them as storerooms, say government officials, admitting that one of the reasons behind this was faulty design. This happened just 450 kilometres from Bhopal in Sheopur district villages where the government had built about 13,000 roofless, waterless and three-walled structures’ in the name of toilets in 2008-09 under its rural sanitation scheme. Many...

-The Hindu MACHILIPATNAM (Andhra Pradesh): The Department of Science (DST) has roped in Krishna University to conduct disease mapping and documentation of geospatial data on health hazards owing to indiscriminate usage of pesticides in Krishna and Guntur districts. The study, which began at Ayyanki in Krishna district, will cover seven mandals, including Thulluru and Amaravati in Guntur district, where use of pesticides has been excessive. In Krishna, it will cover Diviseema region....

-The Indian Express Policy played a major role in helping the state claim no. 2 spot in wheat procurement. Vidisha: For Sandeep Baghel, the spanking state-of-the-art silos about 8 km from the mandi here are symbolic of the sheer transformation in the infrastructure for procurement and storage of grains, from the chaos of the past when farmers like him spent days on end to sell their wheat to state agencies. But the awe...