-Reuters   Sitting at the edge of fields in the heart of India's grain bowl, Gurdayal Singh Malik shakes his head in resignation about the lack of workers needed for his 60-acre farm, blaming the government's flagship welfare program, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS), for the shortage. Ever since the start of the program, which guarantees 100 days of work a year for rural households, the flow of...

-PTI   Seer of Haridwar-based Matri Sadan Ashram, Swami Nigamanand, who was on fast for nearly four months demanding immediate stopping of quarrying in Ganga and shifting of Himalaya stone crusher from Kumbh mela area, on Monday died in a hospital near here. District Magistrate of Haridwar R Meenakshisundaram said Swami Nigamanand (36) died at the Himalayan Institute of Medical Sciences at Jolly Grant this afternoon. Nigamanand had begun his fast on February...

-PTI   Anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare on Monday accused the office bearers of Congress and Union ministers of intentionally "defaming" the Lokpal movement and emerging NGO sector in the country. "They (the government) making lot many allegations, including the so-called hidden support and political agenda designed by RSS and BJP, is a sheer humiliation of sentiments of the common Indians. They are trying to demoralise and confuse agitators fighting against corruption and...

-The Hindu   Study says there are six crore child labourers in the country ‘Greed for maximisation of profit fuels demand for child labour' Amid heated debate over bringing back unwarranted money stashed abroad, a child rights outfit has claimed that child labour generates Rs.1.2-lakh crore of black money every year in India. According to a report ‘Capital corruption: Child Labour in India,' prepared by the Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), the figure was arrived...

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has said that the ordinance issued by the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal to reclaim 400 out of 997.11 acres of land at the abandoned small car project site of Tata Motors at Singur was “unconstitutional” as the Assembly was then in session. A special session of Assembly was convened on May 30 to elect the Speaker, and the House was given...