While there is all-round concern about how the NREGA funds are being utilised at the grass-roots level, the Union rural development ministry has initiated the process of inducting technology to streamline the delivery system under NREGA. This will have a revolutionary impact on programme delivery. With about 50 million people working on site in 2,50,000 panchayats all across the country, the magnitude of the task is daunting. However, once the initial...

In the last few years in different parts of India the issue of land acquisition has become politically explosive.  This isn’t surprising as land, one of the few assets possessed by large numbers of people, particularly in rural India, is rising disproportionately in potential value as commercial and industrial development picks up, as there is never a dearth of real estate magnates, land speculators, local mafia, their political patrons and...

In three districts of Haryana, they have been agitating against the land acquisition policy of the State government. WHEN farmers of western Uttar Pradesh took to the streets protesting against the acquisition of their lands and demanding a just compensation package from the State government, the central leadership of the Congress was quick to cite the example of Haryana, where, according to United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi, the best policies...

Farmers have a reason to cheer because the cabinet on Tuesday gave nod to the developed land compensation scheme of Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB). The scheme will do away with giving cash as compensation to land losers. Instead, they will get a whopping 9,583 sqft of developed land per every acre of land acquired by the KIADB. The compensation deal has been brought on par with the BDA...

The human resource development ministry is planning to set up colleges, Kendriya Vidyalayas, secondary schools and girls’ hostels in Naxalite-affected areas. The ministry’s higher education department, in a letter written on August 20, has asked the home ministry for details of Naxalite-hit areas. “The information will help in planning how and where to set up new institutions. We will also explore how to provide more grants to institutions in those areas through...