-Accountability Initiative/ RaghuBytes Unless you have a blocked nose, I strongly suggest that you do not drive from Bhubaneshwar the capital of Orissa, to Kandamahal, a remote tribal district, particularly in the evenings. At twilight, when you begin to wind into the interior, you are greeted with the sight of the behinds of the entire population squatting on the roadside, faces turned away and shitting. We quickly wound up the windows...
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In Haryana’s poorest part, subsidies go to the dead & fake -Sandali Tiwari
-The Indian Express Mawat (Haryana): Farmers Hatti, Ibrahim and Hurmat, of Dhana village in Haryana's Mewat district, died several years ago - the first two in 2001; Hurmat in 2006. But according to the Haryana Horticulture Department, they applied for - and received - subsidy under the National Mission on Micro Irrigation (NMMI) in 2011. "When we went to the district horticulture department office to claim subsidy in 2013, we were told...
More »Narendra Modi pursues 1980s plan to solve India’s water shortage -Archana Chaudhary
-Live Mint One of the Modi government's bigger initiatives will be to start implementing a three-decade-old plan to connect 30 rivers New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying to make good on his promise to tackle India's water woes. He isn't the first Indian leader to make such a vow. Indira Gandhi was among the previous prime ministers who have tried, even though she was skeptical of mega dam projects. She...
More »Bringing migrants back home -Pramathesh Ambasta
-The Hindu The Odisha government has made the right announcements to improve the plight of migrant workers, but a lot more needs to be done In December 2013, a labourer chopped off the palms of two migrant workers from western Odisha. He had paid them an advance for working in the brick kilns of Hyderabad and did not take kindly to their arguing with him about the payment and place of work....
More »Think clean and then build toilets, let's not flush the opportunity away -KumKum Dasgupta
-The Hindustan Times India's record, when it comes to sanitation, has been most unsanitary. Of the estimated billion people who defecate in the open across the world, more than half are here. Poor sanitation impairs the health of Indians, leading to high rates of malnutrition and productivity losses. According to the World Bank, India's sanitation deficit leads to losses worth 6% of GDP. In such a scenario, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's...
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