Mohali/Chandigarh: *Govt refuses to give into concession demands*Deputy CM says demands unjustified*Balbir Singh Rajewal sits on hunger strike Even as the farmers from across the state on Monday launched an indefinite agitation to mount pressure on the state government to accept their demands — for a financial package to farmers and waiver of electricity bills—¿ the Punjab government refused to accept any of them. Hundreds of farmers from across the state descended...

THE government has directed public sector banks to provide data on corruption charges against bank officials involved in the agricultural loan waiver scheme after complaints that many of them took bribes for processing applications. The finance ministry wants to put such cases on fast track as the performance audit of the scheme has already been initiated by the comptroller and auditor general of India (CAG), the government’s statutory auditor. The...

The 2010 Seeds Bill that has been introduced in Parliament does address some of the major concerns in the aborted 2004 version, but strangely a number of important correctives – on regulation, consistency and punishment – that had been incorporated in the 2008 version (which lapsed in 2009) have now been modified or dropped altogether. What forces are pushing the government to act against the interests of India’s farmers? The third...

The government owes crores of rupees to workers under its flagship rural jobs scheme as wages for April and May, even though payment is not supposed to be delayed by more than a fortnight. Wage payments of Rs283 crore are due for the first two months of the ongoing fiscal under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, according to data available with the rural development ministry, which oversees the...

Union Rural Development Ministry has invited suggestions from the State Governments on 50 per cent upfront payment of wages to workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) with a view to check complaints of delayed payment to workers. “Other suggestions being considered by the Union Rural Development Ministry to check delayed payments include formation of a committee including workers’ representatives to take work measurements,” said an...