A Supreme Court-appointed panel on illegal mining has recommended an investigation into alleged kickbacks paid to companies linked to the family of former Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa. The Central Empowered Committee wrote in a report on Wednesday that payments of 6 crore by a mine owner to two companies controlled by the close kin of the former chief minister must be "investigated in public interest". The Supreme Court's forest bench will...
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'Made-Snana', Brahmin 'atrocity against Dalits' to be banned: CM
-The Financial Express After months of public debate, Karnataka Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda today announced that 'Made-Snana', a controversial ritual practised in some temples of the State for centuries, would be banned in two months. "The practice of Made-Snana will be stopped within two months," Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda said in a suo motu statement in the Legislative Council, where Tontadarya (BJP) raised a question on various temple...
More »MCD councilors get class in RTE-Neha Pushkarna
Sitting and aspiring MCD councillors of Trilokpuri area got a lesson in RTEon Wednesday. At a public meeting organized by JOSH, locals flocked to meet them with lots of suggestions and many complaints about the lack of educational facilities in their east Delhi colony. All that the candidates could muster as a response was a slew of promises most of which were shrouded in ignorance about the provisions of the...
More »Will farmers be able to reap the benefit?-Dharmendra Jore
The state government has proposed to spend more than Rs7,300 crore on the ailing agriculture sector — in desperate need of assistance after registering negative growth in the previous financial year — and on irrigation. However, this may not translate into direct assistance to farmers. Moreover, this year’s state budget continued to neglect dry land farming – which is of serious concern in view of erratic weather conditions – and has...
More »BJP, experts question new poverty numbers-Appu Esthose Suresh & Asit Ranjan Mishra
Even as the opposition took the government to task for tweaking consumption data to show that the number of poor in India has declined, as first highlighted on Monday by Mint columnist Himanshu, Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia defended the methodology used for the calculation by the plan panel. Ahluwalia said the inclusion of money spent on the mid-day meal scheme in so-called private household expenditure was correct because...
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