-Press Release by All India Forum of Forest Movements (AIFFM), dated February 22, 2019 On 13 February, the Supreme Court of India, hearing a decade-old petition challenging the constitutional validity of the Forest Rights Act, 2006, ordered that forest dwellers whose claims for recognition of forest rights have been rejected would have to be evicted in a summary and time-bound manner. The order contains separate instructions for each state government to...

-The Hindu * What does the scheme offer? The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme, announced in the Budget earlier this month, aims to give ?6,000 a year to 12 crore farmer families who own up to two hectares of cultivable land. * What are the challenges? The number of beneficiaries comes from the number of land holdings of two hectares or less, according to the last agricultural land census. However, the guidelines say...

-Networkideas.org The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act that brought the MGNREGS into being was a unique piece of legislation in the history of independent India. It stipulated that employment was to be made available on demand, within a fortnight of being asked for, failing which an unemployment allowance had to be paid. True, its scope was confined only to rural areas, and it promised employment only up to 100 days per...

-TheNewsMinute.com According to Divya Iyer, Mission Director, the beneficiaries under the scheme helped restore several public assets, all of which were rendered useless after the floods. The Kerala floods were a watershed moment for the state and its people in every sense, some for the good and some for the worse. While it claimed several lives and destroyed properties, it also left several people looking for livelihood options. And post the...

-The Telegraph Centre to eat up savings in case of death of subscriber and spouse The Centre will swallow the contribution of unorganised workers under a new pension scheme in the event of the death of the subscriber and his or her spouse, according to an official notification. Contributory pension schemes usually ensure payments to dependant and unmarried children. However, the notification for the Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-dhan, announced in the interim Union...