These days, Jhum cultivation also known as ‘slash and burn method of cultivation’, ‘shifting cultivation’ etc has been under continuous scanner for its productivity and ecological viability. This form of cultivation is followed widely in almost all the North Eastern States including the hill areas of Manipur. There are those who consider jhum cultivation as unproductive and ecologically disastrous so that people (understood as tribal people of the hill areas)...

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, UPA’s flagship aam admi scheme, turns five on Wednesday. However, more than 30% of the rural India working under the right-to-work act would continue to receive wages below the guaranteed minimum as per the minimum wages act. On January 14, the ministry of rural development issued a notification revising the wage rates under the MNREGA from Rs 100 per day to between...

It pays to keep away from private-public partnerships, especially if you plan to ‘only’ create awareness on a topic that complements the business you are in. Last week, foods giant Nestle was probably chewing hard on this thought. The company found itself in an uneasy position in India, when  it received unfavourable media coverage for a nutrition-awareness programme that Nestle India had launched in schools in association with universities such...

Allotment of gram sabha land to private persons illegal Ponds, tanks which served communities for years encroached upon Taking a serious view of illegal and unauthorised encroachments on government poromboke land, the Supreme Court has directed all the State governments to prepare schemes for eviction of such occupants of gram sabha/panchayat/poromboke/shamlat land and restore them to the gram sabha/panchayat for the common use of villagers. A Bench of Justices Markandey Katju and Gyan...

The country’s top court has warned states against allotting gram sabha land to private persons and commercial enterprises and then “regularising” such illegal encroachment in return for money. In a ruling last week, the Supreme Court said such land was for the common use of villagers and directed chief secretaries to prepare schemes to evict “unscrupulous” trespassers who had grabbed land using muscle power or political clout. “In many states, government orders...