Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday cleared the decks for a huge fund outlay which is set to bolster Bihar's rural infrastructure. Speaking to journalists here, Mr. Ramesh said the Union Rural Ministry would pump in Rs. 2,500 crore for laying of over 6,500 km of rural roads across the State for fiscal 2011-12. “Bihar is a top priority for us with Rs. 8,000 crore being allotted from the Central...

Worried at the prospect of having to match the arbitrary minimum wage rate fixed by the states, the central government is considering changes in the law to specify a separate wage norms for its flagship rural employment guarantee scheme that is undergoing a complete makeover under minister Jairam Ramesh.  The centre has already contested in the Supreme Court a Karnataka High Court interim order directing it to align wage rates under...

-PTI Assam government has prepared a draft proposal to revise minimum wages for workers and employees engaged under NREGA under the relevant provisions of Minimum Wages Act, 1948. The minimum rates of wages fixed for different categories are Rs 208 per day for skilled work/clerical work and Rs 150 per day for semi-skilled/unskilled supervisory work, said an official release here today. A minumum rate of Rs 130 per day was proposed...

Rajnish, a ninth grader of an English-medium school, wanted a medical certificate to do a bunk from school for some days. When doctors refused to certify he was ill, a quack obliged. The fee: Rs 50 Surajit Ghosh, a Construction firm employee, defaulted on his insurance premium for 18 months. While reviving his policy the insurance office asked him to get his medical status approved by a doctor. Help was close...

SHEILA DEVI, 54, of Nangal Kalan village in Haryana’s Sonepat district cannot comprehend how Taneja Developers and Infrastructure Ltd (TDI) procured her two-acre plot in 2004, ‘signed’ with thumb impressions of her husband Narender Singh, who died in 2002 and his brother Bhupender, who went missing the next year. The documents are obviously forged. But how did a farmers’ family get cheated in Haryana, where the land acquisition policy formed in...