-The Indian Express Oorugonda/ Warangal: Twenty -two kilometres from Warangal, a narrow road from National Highway 202 leads to Oorugonda, a village of around a thousand farmers in Atmakur mandal. An eerie silence hangs around it, with a few middle-aged men sitting under a tree looking up inquisitively at visitors. They are not done grieving for 40-year-old Modanti Krishnamma. Last week, she killed herself after the cotton crop she and her husband...

-Economic and Political Weekly     Sustained and focused efforts have to be made by the Tamil Nadu state government to provide relief and rehabilitation to the drought affected people of the state. S Rajendran (myrajendran@gmail.com) is with the Department of Economics, Periyar University, Salem, Tamil Nadu. Due to the failure of the north-east monsoon in December 2013, Tamil Nadu is witnessing drought like conditions this year, leading to poor agricultural productivity, rural distress,...

-The Hindu To have a say in beneficiary selection THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has said that the government is considering delegation of powers to the grama sabhas to recommend beneficiaries for various welfare programmes of the State and Central governments. The Chief Minister was discussing follow up action with Collectors of eight districts, where mass contact programmes had been held, through a video conference. Mr. Chandy said the grama sabhas were in...

-The Hindu   Neha Khator narrates the story of an NGO that transformed a backward village into a bustling city, with funds, of course, but also by fostering a sense of duty in its residents. Vimla Kanwar, a 70-year-old widow, had a problem. After her husband, a handloom yarn spinner, died of cancer, the officials at the Khadi Gram Udyog took away his charkha. Concerned about finding a means of survival at her...

West Bengal: An agrarian crisis looms over the State as farmers commit suicide in spite of a bumper crop. THE topic of suicide figured repeatedly in Safar Molla's conversations with his neighbours a few days before his death. The 18-year-old marginal farmer from Kaltikuri village in Bardhaman district's Bhatar block talked about it quite casually, in fact even jocularly. Everybody in the village knew he was up to his neck in...