-Down to Earth The rural development ministry had recently demanded an additional allocation of Rs 5,000 crore to maintain the momentum of MGNREGA Civil society has supported the demand made by the Union Ministry of Rural Development to the Ministry of Finance to provide Rs 5,000 crore for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Generation Scheme (MGNREGS). Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the United Progressive Alliance’s employment generation flagship scheme,...

-The New Indian Express BHAWANIPATNA:  Hundreds of Dongria Kondhs of Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district resolved not to accept PDS rice at a meeting at Parsali under Kalyansinghpur block of Rayagada district on Saturday. The Dongria Kondhs of Lanjigarh, who attended a meeting chaired by convenor of Niyamgiri Surakhya Manch Lada Sikoka at Rayagada, refused to the accept rice under National Food Security Act (NFSA). The meeting was also attended by senior members Dadhi...

-The Telegraph Bhubaneswar: The Naveen Patnaik government has decided to extend the cheap lunch scheme - Aahar - to all the district headquarters and 16 select urban local bodies from March 1. The government now plans to provide the cheap meals to nearly one lakh people across the state in the first phase, sources said. The move will coincide with the launch of centenary celebrations of Biju Patnaik. Final touches to the plan...

-Livemint.com With banks and ATMs under water, people were able to draw cash from Aadhaar-enabled micro-ATMs New Delhi: When heavy rains marooned large parts of Tamil Nadu, banking correspondents (BC) armed with Aadhaar-enabled micro-ATMs fanned out to help people retrieve cash from their bank accounts. The flood swept away many belongings including the bank pass book, debit card and other identification documents of S. Sangeetha, 28, who lives in Anumandai village in...

-The Hindu Business Line A CAG audit shows that the Centre and State governments have been criminally remiss over disaster management The unprecedented and continuing rains that have broken a 100-year record and have wreaked havoc in Chennai for over a week, highlight both elaborate Rescue and relief efforts as well as gaps in the existing policy on disaster planning. It is true that swift deployment of the armed forces to evacuate...