-The Times of India   Union minister of state for planning, science and technology and earth sciences Ashwini Kumar on Saturday expressed his dissatisfaction over the poor implementation of MGNREGA projects in Jharkhand alleging less than half of the households were provided with job cards. Kumar, on a two-day visit to the state, dwelt most part of his interaction with the media here trying to convince people about the "irrelevance" of the social...

-The Hoot   Scores of journalists and non-journalists, governed by the respective statutory Wage Boards, are up in arms against the alleged ‘malicious campaign’ unleashed through the Indian Newspapers Society (INS) by a few Media Houses opposing the recommendations of the latest Justice G.R.Majithia Wage Board constituted by the Centre.   They are awaiting with bated breath the verdict of the Supreme Court bench that had, on July 18, 2011, informally directed the...

The Union government on Monday asked the States to prepare a below poverty line (BPL) list by March, census for which is now on, so that the needy are readied to enjoy the benefits to be rolled out under the 12th Five Year Plan. Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh hoped the States would prepare the list at the earliest. The Centre would, by December-end, complete its exercise of generating...

Members of Parliament, cutting across party lines, have demanded an increase in the wages and workdays of the beneficiaries of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, one of the flagship programmes of the UPA government, so as to insulate them from the galloping inflation. The demands were made by the members, including those of the ruling Congress-led ruling coalition, at a meeting of the parliamentary consultative committee on the...

-The Pioneer   The elected from two major political dispensations on Friday converged on the need for the presence of civil society groups but cautioned them against usurping the role and responsibilities of the constitutionally mandated institutions like Parliament. Similar opinion also emerged from the two leading editors and other participants on a seminar on civil society in the national Capital on Friday. While Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Leader...