Next time you help yourself to some sea food, you could be helping save the planet. Agricultural experts believe that in the wake of rising sea level and shrinking cultivable land in the country due to climate change, sea could be the key to ensuring food security. "The rising sea has eaten away lands, especially farmlands. In fact, large tracts of farmlands in the coastal belt of the state, especially...

Allotment of gram sabha land to private persons illegal Ponds, tanks which served communities for years encroached upon Taking a serious view of illegal and unauthorised encroachments on government poromboke land, the Supreme Court has directed all the State governments to prepare schemes for eviction of such occupants of gram sabha/panchayat/poromboke/shamlat land and restore them to the gram sabha/panchayat for the common use of villagers. A Bench of Justices Markandey Katju and Gyan...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi have promised to usher in more reforms in the scheme under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and increase the number of days of job guaranteed to Below the Poverty Line households. Speaking at a function here to mark the completion of the fifth year of MGNREGS, Dr. Singh promised to reform the delivery mechanism for the...

The government has a plan to reach welfare to the poor without wasting money. It wants to put hard cash in their hands instead of spending on welfare programmes. To begin with, it wants to end the public distribution system of food grain and give money directly to the people. Its logic: the new system of cash transfer will plug leakages and save an enormous amount of money. But is it...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday promised to usher in more reforms in the scheme under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and increase the number of days of job guaranteed to Below the Poverty Line households. Speaking at a function here to mark the completion of the fifth year of the MGNREGA, Dr. Singh promised to reform the delivery mechanism...