Once noted for exemplary implementation of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), skeletons are fast tumbling out of Rajasthan’s cupboard with regard to the flagship programme of the UPA government. In the past few years, four districts — Tonk, Dungarpur, Dausa and Hanumangarh — purchased desktops and laptops worth Rs 3.83 crore using the NREGA fund. It is another question whether the villagers who were supposed to get...
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Appu And Shera by Jyoti Punwani
In the good old days, there were the Asian Games under Indira Gandhi. Inaugurated by the Empress on her own birthday, November 19, 1982, they seem like a fairy tale now. No leaking roofs weeks before the show; no front-page shockers about crores paid to shady firms; everything going like clockwork under Her Majesty’s eagle eye. Definitely no portly, shifty-eyed Suresh Kalmadi. At that time, there was no Organising Committee. Under...
More »Floods man-made, says report by Sushil Manav
Government apathy and “land grabbing” on the Ghaggar basin by builders with the alleged collusion of bureaucrats, politicians and engineers are responsible for the recent floods in Punjab and Haryana. A report of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) - “An analysis of flood disaster in the Ghaggar basin in July 2010” - suggests that the floods could be a wake up call for the affected states...
More »Anirudh Krishna, Economist interviewed by Archana Masih
What are the poor most concerned about? After meeting families in 175 Indian villages in the last decade, Anirudh Krishna, says the poor's greatest worry is their children's future. With a manner of a school teacher, Professor Krishna, who teaches at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University in the US, has led a team meeting poor families to find out why poverty persists. The research also includes...
More »RTI under attack by V Eshwar Anand
EVEN though the Right to Information Act guarantees citizens their right to know and expose corruption in government offices, increasing attacks on RTI activists have put this most important right in jeopardy. The RTI Act was enacted after a long struggle by civil rights organisations. However, those who dare question the ways of the powers that be and expose them are eliminated in cold-blooded murders. The manner in which Amit...
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