-TheWire.in Corruption, poor quality construction materials and the specious implementation of schemes combined with the Centre’s flawed MSP policies have rendered the attempt to transform the region useless. Chitrakoot/ Banda: On a freezing night in early January, as anchors on television and radio jubilated in the new year and extolled the many ‘achievements’ of the incumbent government, Madhav Prasad, a 55-year-old farmer in Bundelkhand, lay anxious on a cot in his hut.  The...

-The Tribune The farmers’ protests reflect the western region’s pre-election zeitgeist Uttar pradesh’s regions spanning the west, east, centre and Bundelkhand, exist in silos, each with their own preoccupations and concerns conditioned by economics, geography and demography. However, come an election, political imperatives transcend the distinctive characteristics. UP votes as one state, and has lately, rooted for a single party or coalition. The fractured verdicts that threw UP into disarray in the...

-IndiaSpend.com/ Scroll.in Although the demand for work under MGNREGS was the highest ever after the lockdown-triggered reverse migration in 2020, the Centre reduced funds for 2021. Prem Lal, 39, has had a horrid time since the national lockdown in 2020. Soon after the announcement in March, like many stranded migrant workers, he made the arduous journey back home. He walked nearly 1,200 km from Pune, where he worked as a painter, to...

-Down to Earth The water requirement for the Bunder mine and ore processing plant is about 5.9 million cubic meters in a year The proposed diamond mine in the Buxwaha protected forest region in Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh may have a greater ecological impact on the region than projected so far.  The project threatens to further deplete the already scarce water reserve of the drought-prone Bundelkhand region to excavate about five million...

-The Indian Express The river linking project is based on a faulty premise, has not cleared legal challenges and will damage Bundelkhand. The people of Bundelkhand certainly need better water access and management. But the Ken-Betwa Link Project (KBLP), estimated at a cost of Rs 38,000 crore, is not the solution. The project will, on the contrary, lead to huge adverse impacts in the region. The Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC), in...