The Orissa government finds itself in the midst of an embarrassing controversy following allegations of official relief being distributed in bags emblazoned with conch, the election symbol of the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD). Miffed at the ruling party’s bid to make political capital out of the relief operation, flood-affected people in Nadiabarei village of Kendrapara district refused to accept dry food packets containing flattened rice (chudda) as they bore the...

Degraded soils, depleting groundwater, and chemical pesticides are playing havoc, placing agriculture in terrible distress. I haven’t forgotten that night. Sitting with a group of farmers in a village in Ludhiana district in Punjab, at the height of the Green Revolution, a farmer showed me a bag of fertiliser that he brought from the market. “Why are you showing me this bag”, I asked. “Wait”, he said, and began to open the...

-DNA   The Centre's debt relief scheme for the farmers has given anything but relief to the poor farmers. Despite the Rs 65,318.33-crore Agricultural Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme (ADWDRS) launched by the UPA with much fanfare in 2008, nearly 43.42 million (48.6 per cent) of the 89.35 million farmer households are still in debt. This is the finding of National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) report on 'Indebtedness of Farmers Household'. The scheme benefited...

-The Hindu   The draft Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill 2011 circulated two months ago for public comments was a significant step forward but the amended version tabled in Parliament recently is two steps back. A thorough overhaul of the archaic Land Acquisition Act was overdue. To his Credit, Jairam Ramesh, Cabinet Minister for Rural Development, proposed a new bill with progressive changes and put it up for public consultation. The...

In an attempt to bolster its aam aadmi image, the government is setting up the Aajeevika Development and Financial Corporation, a financial institution to ensure easily available funding for self-help groups under the National Rural Livelihood Mission. Problems in accessing Credit for families below poverty line have been a major hurdle for the livelihood mission. The rural development ministry is in the process of inter-ministerial consultations on the proposed financial...