The Delhi High Court on Wednesday said rights of labourers working on Commonwealth Games projects here in the Capital cannot be violated and appointed a four-member committee to look into alleged violation of their rights. “You are in so much hurry (to complete the projects) but workers’ right should not be affected and it has to be taken care of,” said a Bench headed by Chief Justice A. P. Shah while...

Most central ministers have signed at the end of last year a performance-tracking document, the sweeping nature of which has started to sink in only now. Although the ministers say they have no quarrel with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s objective of improving governance, some resent that their performance will now be assessed by a set of bureaucrats. “We are now at the mercy of some babus in the cabinet secretariat who have...

The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has sanctioned Rs.1.15 crore from its Farmers Technology Transfer Fund to the National Agro Foundation (NAF), NABARD’s Managing Director K.G. Karmakar announced on Saturday. Speaking at a function in Illedu village, Kancheepuram, to observe the birth centenary of the former statesman, C. Subramanian, he said the funds had been sanctioned to the NAF to help farmers access new technologies. NABARD was interested...

During the last 10 days two land acquisition notifications have been set aside. The Punjab and Haryana High Court (HC) has quashed a Haryana government’s 2002 notification for inappropriately releasing land to private developers. Similarly, the Allahabad High Court has repealed a UP government’s notification under which land was acquired for a private project in 2005. Both notifications have been cancelled on account of procedural lapses. However, these rulings highlight...

The state government is contemplating building multiplexes in some selected gram panchayats to make urban entertainment available to the rural populace. Provisions starting from video parlours to indoor games, community halls and auditoriums will be available in these rural multiplexes. Besides, there will be at least 40 shops in each of the rural multiplex, which will be built on public-private partnership (PPP) mode. The proposal was discussed at a meeting chaired by...