-The Times of India CHENNAI: Four months from now, the dynamics of local bodies is set to change. Half of 1.32 lakh posts in municipal corporations, municipalities, town Panchayats and Panchayats will be represented by women — up from one-third now. The AIADMK government has notified the law guaranteeing 50% reservation for women in all local bodies. The legislation was passed in the last assembly in February . In an extra-ordinary gazette notification...
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Citizens have right to safe water, say draft legislation -Jacob Koshy
-The Hindu ‘Groundwater will not be a free resource’ New Delhi: The government has for the first time said that citizens had a right to safe water and laid out stringent rules on how corporations and large entities can extract groundwater in two separate pieces of draft legislation uploaded on the website of the Union Water Ministry and open for public comment. The Bills —in a first — also propose fines ranging from...
More »Maharashtra water crisis drags ‘Open Defecation Free’ villages back to fields -Shaikh Atikh Rashid
-The Indian Express Drought poses major setback to Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in Maharashtra. Pune: Ekurke was a success story that inspired many. In 2013, this village in Osmbanabad district’s Kalamb tehsil built 350 toilets in a short span of one-and-a-half months to end the shame of having to defecate in the open. The concerted efforts by the villagers led to the transformation of their village once “infamously dirty” into one where each...
More »MGNREGA proves futile despite drought -Prashanth Chintala
-The Hindu Poor in rural areas seem disinclined to seek employment under the scheme; low wages and delay in payment are cited as reasons Hyderabad: Despite a severe drought in 2015-16, many of the poor in rural areas of Telangana, except in a couple of districts, seemed to be disinclined to seek employment under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). Low wages and delay in its payment apart from various other...
More »Decisions of the people, by the people, for the people -Ashish Kothari
-The Hindu People’s objections, from Chhattisgarh to Odisha, against large development projects have brought out the real power of the Forest Rights Act of 2006. Democracy is alive and kicking in India. No, I am not referring to the Assembly elections. It is unfortunate that the term democracy has been reduced to the drama of periodic elections and the subsequent reliance of the electorate on politicians and bureaucrats. When these powerful few...
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