-IPS News SUNDARBANS: November is the cruelest month for landless families in the Indian Sundarbans, the largest single block of tidal mangrove forest in the world lying primarily in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal. There is little agricultural wage-work to be found, and the village moneylender's loan remains unpaid, its interest mounting. The paddy harvest is a month away, pushing rice prices to an annual high. For those like Namita Bera,...
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Bengal govt amends Land Reforms Act
-The Indian Express Kolkata: The government on Wednesday passed the West Bengal Land Reforms (Amendment) Bill, 2014, in which the ambit for exemption has been widened. In addition, the government has also been lenient with industrialists who have plans to sit idle with their land. Earlier, while industriaists were allowed to keep the allotted land unused under Section 14Y for a maximum period of three years, under the new law they will...
More »BJP-ruled states slow in linking Jan Dhan with Aadhaar -Sandeep Singh
-The Indian Express New Delhi: Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) a flagship programme of his government, BJP-ruled states seem to be lagging behind in linking these accounts with Aadhaar - the first step towards enabling direct benefit transfers. Among the large states which accounted for over 10 lakh Jan Dhan accounts as on November 12, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh top the list,...
More »Union Government Limits MGNREGA to 69 Taluks -M Venkatesh
-The New Indian Express BengalURU: The Narendra Modi government, which has recently cut the funds to the state for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), has now limited the scheme to cover just 69 most backward taluks. According to an official source, the Union Ministry of Rural Development has sent a communication to the state government asking it to focus on the most backward taluks, instead of all...
More »21 states, UTs join Centre in fight against honour killings -Himanshi Dhawan
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh have joined 18 other states to empower the Centre to bring a legislation against honour killings, in what could be a turnaround moment for the effort to curb the powers of caste and community bodies which seek to be the final arbiter of social mores and arrogate unto themselves the power of judiciary. In its affidavit to the Supreme Court the Union...
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