-TheWire.in Corruption, poor quality construction materials and the specious implementation of schemes combined with the Centre’s flawed MSP policies have rendered the attempt to transform the region useless. Chitrakoot/ Banda: On a freezing night in early January, as anchors on television and radio jubilated in the new year and extolled the many ‘achievements’ of the incumbent government, Madhav Prasad, a 55-year-old farmer in Bundelkhand, lay anxious on a cot in his hut.  The...

-The Tribune The farmers’ protests reflect the western region’s pre-election zeitgeist Uttar pradesh’s regions spanning the west, east, centre and Bundelkhand, exist in silos, each with their own preoccupations and concerns conditioned by economics, geography and demography. However, come an election, political imperatives transcend the distinctive characteristics. UP votes as one state, and has lately, rooted for a single party or coalition. The fractured verdicts that threw UP into disarray in the...

-IndiaSpend.com/ Scroll.in Although the demand for work under MGNREGS was the highest ever after the lockdown-triggered reverse migration in 2020, the Centre reduced funds for 2021. Prem Lal, 39, has had a horrid time since the national lockdown in 2020. Soon after the announcement in March, like many stranded migrant workers, he made the arduous journey back home. He walked nearly 1,200 km from Pune, where he worked as a painter, to...

-Down to Earth The water requirement for the Bunder mine and ore processing plant is about 5.9 million cubic meters in a year The proposed diamond mine in the Buxwaha protected forest region in Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh may have a greater ecological impact on the region than projected so far.  The project threatens to further deplete the already scarce water reserve of the drought-prone Bundelkhand region to excavate about five million...

-Article-14.com Scepticism about Covid-19. Lack of smartphones, health information and healthcare. Resistance to vaccination. We found a perfect storm devastating the poor, southwestern interiors of India’s most-populous state. Banda (Uttar Pradesh): “At least one person in every household here is extremely unwell.” Shivdevi, who uses only one name, has over a decade’s professional experience as a journalist and has been reporting from rural Bundelkhand in southwestern Uttar Pradesh (UP) for the women-run, grassroots...