Union Rural Development Ministry allegedly delaying funds for State With the Union Rural Development Ministry delaying funds, implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) is likely to be derailed in the State. But for the intervention of the State government, the works taken up under the scheme would have come to a halt in Alappuzha district. With new funds yet to come and the district exhausting the Rs.71...
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Of the few, by the few by Pratap Bhanu Mehta
Sometimes a sense of unbridled virtue can also subvert democracy. The agitation by civil society activists over the Jan Lokpal Bill is a reminder of this uncomfortable truth. There is a great deal of justified consternation over corruption. The obduracy of the political leadership is testing the patience of citizens. But the movement behind the Jan Lokpal Bill is crossing the lines of reasonableness. It is premised on an institutional...
More »Cash transfers and food insecurity by Kannan Kasturi
Distribution of basic food grains and fuel at controlled prices every month through the Public Distribution System (PDS) could be the largest service provided by the Indian State, touching as it does over 65 million families through a network of nearly half a million retail shops. Given that the urban middle class has little stake in the health of the PDS, there have to be some compelling reasons for the...
More »Andhra Pradesh CM views MGNREGA will be a boon for rural development in the State
The Chief Minister Mr. N. Kiran Kumar Reddy is of the view that the inclusion of Rural Connectivity as one of the permissible categories of works under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) will be a boon for rural development in the State. Providing connectivity to SC, ST and other remote habitations including providing internal roads in the SC/ST habitations are approved for implementation. The Chief Minister was informed...
More »CBI only spent Rs 5cr on Bofors probe: RTI
Even as the CBI managed to get the case closed against Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi in Bofors payoff scam stating that the agency spent over Rs 250 crore in its efforts to get him extradited, a reply to an RTI application gives a different picture altogether. In a startling revelation, the RTI application reveals that CBI spent a total of Rs 4,77,29,210 on investigation in the Bofors case. The figure includes...
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