-The Times of India DALTONGANJ: For the 22-odd tribal families living on the Jaigeer hill area, 3,133 feet above sea level and surrounded by hills from four sides - life means total confinement. This village is bereft of roads and electricity as well as drinking water and irrigation. There is only one school. Deprived of basic infrastructure, these families have been asked to relocate since their village and several others fall under...

-Tribune News Service Notwithstanding the marginal decline in spendings under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) over the past two years, Himachal has the best performance indicators, putting it in the league of top-performing states. The total expenditure under the scheme came down from Rs 556.55 crore in 2009-10 to Rs 516.34 crore in 2010-11 and further fell to Rs 509.43 crore in the last financial year. However, the number...

-The Times of India   YAVATMAL: Information released under right to information (RTI) has revealed that the state government has paid Rs 2.83 crore to acquire land distributed to tribals and landless labourers under the Bhoodan movement to rehabilitate Pahur villagers displaced due to Bembla River irrigation Project. Concerns are now being expressed that some government officials pocketed this compensation along with five land owners by forging documents and sale deeds. Sarpanch Ainuddin...

The National Green Tribunal's decision to suspend the environmental clearance given to Posco vindicates the project's critics. ON March 30, the Principal Bench of the newly formed National Green Tribunal (NGT) delivered a momentous decision suspending the environmental clearance (EC) given to the South Korean transnational corporation, Posco, to set up an integrated steel plant at Paradip in Odisha's Jagatsinghpur district. The former Union Minister for Environment and Forests, Jairam...

Rural India has been denied access to globalisation, penalising farmers and farm labour. For the farmer, the government's policy is best described as Dhritarashtra's embrace. After the Mahabharata war was over, the old king met his nephews, the victorious Pandavas, and embraced them, one by one, in a gesture of forgiving and affection. When, Bhima's turn came, the loving embrace was so tight that it crushed a metal dummy of the second...