-The Indian Express The villagers’ ire is rooted in being isolated from the rest of the district for seven years. Tindharay: Fifty kilometres from Darjeeling town, roads snaking through tea-laden hills lead to Tindharay. It’s a nondescript village like many in the Darjeeling hills. But Sunday, as North Bengal voted, Tindharay did not do so — or at least not for any political party. The single polling booth in the village, located in...
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In Jangalmahal village that once went hungry, ‘parivartan’ takes the form of affordable rice -Sarah Hafeez
-The Indian Express For Bedoni, whose family lost members to hunger in 2004, the supply of affordable rice to Amlasole village in Belpahari on the Jharkhand border means a less frantic struggle for food. Amlasole (West Bengal): The first thing Bedoni Sabar mentioned when asked what the government has done for her was, “Oi, du takaye chaal (You know, that rice at Rs 2).” The 38-year-old mother of five sat plaiting...
More »Pretending to be pro-poor, little change over UPA -Arun Kumar
-The Tribune While giving concessions worth Rs.1,000 crore in the direct taxes paid by the rich, the government plans to net an extra Rs. 19,000 crore in indirect taxes, which are contributed by all. This reveals a regressive intent. Like all Union budgets, this one also is long on promises but hides the real dynamics, namely, how the resources are to be raised for the promised very substantial expenditures. The budget is...
More »A budget for Bharat can reset the narrative -Anil Padmanabhan
-Livemint.com Pro-poor and yet not populist can be the single defining strand of this year’s Union budget The run-up to this year’s Union budget, especially the past one week, has taken place in the backdrop of an unprecedented, vicious political confrontation between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the opposition. Together with the hit-wicket tendencies of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), it probably exaggerated the magnitude of every challenge...
More »12 important Bills that our lawmakers will seek to pass this Budget Session
-The Hindu The Budget Session of the Indian Parliament will be held from Feb. 23 to May 13, 2016 with 31 sittings in all. The agenda for this government, caught in the midst of various political storms such as Rohith Vemula’s suicide and the crisis at Jawaharlal Nehru University, would be to draw consensus among all MPs for 12 essential Bills. Most of them — listed below — have already been...
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