The Punjab Cabinet on Wednesday rolled back its decision on payment of power bills by farmers and restored the facility of free electricity for their agricultural tubewells with immediate effect. The state government had, earlier this year, introduced a system under which farmers were made to pay a part of the power bills which were to be reimbursed to them as “productivity bonus”. The proposal to roll back the decision was not...

Union Minister K V Thomas’ pro-endosulfan speech is just a tip of the iceberg. It shows a smaller part of the Union Government’s policy of making profit by gambling the lives of common people. A Government of India enterprise itself is producing endosulfan in Kerala for the past three decades though it is not known much to others. The Government’s indifferent attitude towards the endosulfan-hit State is reflected in the factory standing...

Never mind wishful thinking by the government and RBI. Food will never be cheaper than what it is today. Not this year. Or in future. The reason is simple. Growing food in India has become extremely expensive. Crops are pricier even before they reach the market and face the pulls and tugs of rising local demand and exports. The farmer’s single biggest cost now is labour. Farm labour wages have doubled...

Block vehicular and railway traffic across Punjab, demand relaxation of paddy procurement norms Various factions of the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) and organisations of landless labourers blocked the railway traffic at Moga and ten other locations in Punjab on Friday. They also halted the vehicular traffic on many highways, demanding relaxation in the procurement norms of paddy. The protesters claimed that adverse weather conditions had affected the quality of grains, and said...

Bharti Wal-Mart Pvt. Ltd, the 50:50 wholesale retailing joint venture between Wal-Mart Stores Inc. of the US and India’s Bharti Enterprises Ltd, plans to enlist about 35,000 farmers in the next 5-year to source fresh produce as it opens more stores. Currently, Bharti Wal-Mart sources fruits and vegetables from more than 600 farmers in Punjab and other states. Last week, it opened its fourth Best Price Modern Wholesale store in Kota...