The agitation against the Kudankulam nuclear power plant can be seen as a case of activism gone berserk. The high-octane drama against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project (KKNPP) in Tamil Nadu has wound down. The seven-month-long agitation led by the People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) at Idinthakarai village in Tirunelveli district, demanding the closure of the ready-to-be commissioned project, ended on March 27 when S.P. Udayakumar, PMANE convener, called off...
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State Information Commission to help harassed RTI activists-Faizan Ahmad
To make the RTI Act more effective and meaningful, the State Information Commission(SIC) has come out with a mechanism to help the activists being harassed and tortured for seeking information and take action against their tormentors. Working at the suggestion of CM Nitish Kumar, the SIC has decided to create a monitoring cell and deploy officials in its office and provide a helpline number for filing their complaints which will...
More »Remaking their destiny by Pamela Philipose
-WFS Pamela Philipose meets three tribal women who changed the course of their lives through sheer grit and determination, despite their circumstances Kaushal Markam’s experiences are not unusual. When she managed to get a job card entitling her to work on one of the government-run worksites under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), she was delighted. Money was always in short supply, and this 35-year-old Baiga tribal woman of Dongaria...
More »BPL housing scheme ‘scam’ by Alamgir Hossain
Several undeserving candidates have allegedly been allotted money in a Murshidabad pocket under a central housing scheme for below-poverty-line people. Many residents of Gangadhari village in Naoda have been enlisted as beneficiaries of the Indira Awaas Yojana even though they already have a house and farmland, depriving homeless people. Villagers owing allegiance to the Congress lodged a complaint with the block development officer of Naoda last month accusing the RSP-run local Madhupur...
More »How rural kitchen pays by Richard Mahapatra
Local procurement for anganwadis can revive rural economy in a big way The dominating noise of the grinder and the mixer speaks loudly of a new skill that the women of Binka village have mastered. The house, centre of all activity, is the busiest in this sleepy village. The women are making a nutrition mix for 270 anganwadi centres in two blocks of Odisha’s Subarnapur district. Famed for their weaving skills, the...
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