The Kisan Swaraj Yatra, a nation-wide mobilization drawing fresh attention to the “continuing agricultural crisis in India”, and calling for a comprehensive new path for Indian agriculture, will reach Chandigarh on December 2, 2010.   The bus-Yatra started at the Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram on October 2, and is passing through 20 states before reaching Rajghat, New Delhi on December 11. KSY is organised by all India network of over 400 organisations named...

‘Several interventions for high risk groups have been taken up in Bagalkot' There is an urgent need to involve elected representatives, especially women at the gram panchayat and taluk panchayat levels to conduct awareness programmes on HIV/AIDS, according to Ravi Kittur, a social worker and councillor at the ART Centre in Bijapur district hospital. Mr. Kittur attributes high prevalence of HIV/AIDS in a large number of people in Bijapur and Bagalkot districts...

The undersigned demand that the plan to link the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) to Aadhaar (or UID) be revoked immediately. This is an extremely dangerous move that threatens to cause havoc in MGNREGA's fragile structure. The Ministry of Rural Development has put out a tender (dated October 11, 2010) worth Rs.2,162 crore to engage “service providers” for MGNREGA under a “public private partnership” model. The contract includes...

The Centre will send "monitors" to Madhya Pradesh to look into alleged financial irregularities worth crores of rupees in several works done under its flagship rural employment guarantee scheme.   Official sources said the action came after several non-government organisations and self-help groups approached Rural Development Ministry, nodal agency for executing work through under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGA), regarding alleged corruption in the programme meant for people living...

Jharkhand embarked on its first panchayat polls in three decades on an encouraging note today, recording an impressive turnout in defiance of a few determined efforts by Maoist groups to disrupt the process at various places. Voters queued up from early morning, helping the state to notch up a poll percentage of 64.7 per cent with chief minister Arjun Munda’s home district of Seraikela-Kharsawan recording the highest turnout of 79 per...