-The Business Standard Report says ineligible farmers given benefits In a fresh blow to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), the Comptroller and Auditor General of India has rapped the finance ministry over allegedly serious lapses in implementation of the Rs 71,680-crore agricultural debt waiver and debt relief scheme — a major plank on which the coalition had contested the 2009 general elections. A report tabled in Parliament today showed CAG, after auditing 22.32...

-The Hindustan Times The CAG has found several shortcomings in the implementation of the first UPA government’s Rs. 52,500-crore farm loan waiver scheme — while thousands of ineligible farmers got the benefit, many eligible applicants were left out. The CAG report, tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, disclosed that it had audited 80,299 beneficiaries across 25 states, which was less than 1% of the total 34.5 million recipients. The scheme had two components —...

-IANS Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday said stringent action would be taken, if any irregularities are found in the Rs. 52,000-crore farm loan waiver scheme of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. "If irregularities are found, we will take stringent action," Manmohan Singh told Rajya Sabha. There was uproar in both houses of parliament as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other parties raised the issue Wednesday. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG)...

-The Times of India Finance minister P Chidambaram may have brushed aside the Gujarat model of development but the Centre will now have to comment on the efficacy of the model set up by BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh in implementing targeted public distribution system providing subsidized food grains to the poor. The Supreme Court on Monday sought the Centre's comment on the Raman Singh government's model of TPDS implementation, which was repeatedly cited by...

-The Hindu The decision follows Wharton India Economic Forum’s cancellation of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s live video keynote address scheduled on March 23. Following Wharton India Economic Forum’s cancellation of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s live video keynote address, former Union Minister Suresh Prabhu has pulled out of the event and the Adani Group of industries of Gujarat, the event’s “platinum” sponsor, has cancelled its sponsorship. Suresh Prabhu, a leader of BJP-ally...