Is the government trying to push a new land Acquisition Bill without addressing the concerns of the deprived people who stand to lose their livelihoods? Peoples’ movements and social action groups have charged that the cash-based Haryana and Mayawati models of land acquisition are equally ‘dangerous’ for the landless and the deprived people who get uprooted without compensation or rehabilitation. People’s movements have been demanding that instead of bringing Land...

‘Without electricity, social and economic development is much more difficult.' More than $36 billion a year is needed to ensure that the world's population benefits from access to electricity and clean-burning cooking facilities by 2030, the International Energy Agency said on September 21. In a report prepared for the U.N. Millennium Development Goals meeting in New York, the agency said the goal of eradicating extreme poverty by 2015 would be possible only...

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...

Some of the Centre's flagship schemes aimed for rural development will be showcased at a special campaign from Wednesday. The Bharat Nirman public information campaign by Press Information Bureau (PIB) is aimed at reaching these projects to the rural areas and creating awareness about them. The three-day roadshow at Pandavapura in Mandya will have some 40 stalls wherein National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, National Rural Health Mission, Sarva Shikasha Abhiyan...

11 postmen held for taking unauthorised commission Money involved is huge, says official The Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday unearthed a major scam in the disbursement of Old Age Pension (OAP) to senior citizens. Besides irregularities in the payout, investigators found that a majority of postmen took Rs. 20 as unauthorised commission from the beneficiaries. After a surprise check, special teams of the Anti-Corruption Branch arrested eleven postmen, including a woman, agency...