To facilitate larger lease holdings of land for agro-based units The amendment allows the lease period for 15 years instead of five years Accounts of the panchayati raj institutions placed under the purview of CAG Rajasthan has amended its tenancy laws to facilitate larger lease holdings of agricultural land for longer periods by entrepreneurs who are interested in setting up agro-based products. The move takes into account the big potential the State has...

Cash award given to full sanitation coverage with defecation-free environment Only 2,808 gram panchayats, one block panchayat have been chosen for 2010 award Number of awards peaked in 2008 with 12,144 panchayats, 112 blocks, 8 zila parishads winning The incentive award the Ministry of Panchayati Raj gives annually to the Panchayati Raj Institutions to take up sanitation promotion schemes somehow doesn't seem to be a motivating factor anymore with the number of panchayats...

Why are the erstwhile RTI campaigners so alarmed five years after it became law? Why so many dharnas, rallies, conventions and hunger-strikes all over again? Part of the reason is that the silent revolution that the RTI has spawned needs to be defended from surreptitious alterations and manipulations, and partly because the RTI activists are being threatened, harassed and assaulted by the corrupt and the powerful, often with the connivance...

As the demand for a ban on Endosulfan in India is gaining pitch and Karnataka being the latest state to ban the pesticide, the Pesticide Manufacturers and Formulators Association of India (PMFAI) is going around crying foul. They are leaving no stone unturned to save endosulfan. Press meets across the country and plugged newspaper reports maligning studies that have indicted endosulfan in the past is a desperate attempt to save...

Ashok Gehlot's Budget speech lays emphasis on social welfare measures Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's Budget speech in the Rajasthan Assembly here on Wednesday laid emphasis on “positive results” of the State Government's work during the previous year for development of various sectors, and made a number of announcements for the welfare of different sections of society. In a significant declaration, Mr. Gehlot said a State-level Advisory Council would be constituted shortly in...