WITH the introduction of short-term, high-yielding varieties of cereal and oil-seed crops, the cropping intensity has now reached almost 300 per cent in Punjab. Moreover, the intensive use of chemical fertilisers, insecticides and pesticides involve greater use of scarce groundwater resources. The water table has gone down alarmingly resulting in huge investment on installation of costly submersible pumps to draw water for irrigation. This does not auger well for sustainable...

The family of newly-elected Dalit sarpanch of Bapora — village of Army chief VK Singh — has been ostracized for participating in election despite the village deciding to boycott it on ground that all major Panchayat and zila parishad posts had been reserved for Scheduled Castes. The ostracization has led to a situation in which the new sarpanch, a brick-kiln labourer and an SC, has been given armed security by...

A Tripuri woman was beaten up and paraded naked through her village by Panchayat members in Dhalai after a kangaroo court accused her of sexual misconduct last Saturday. The 30-year-old wife of a farmer, villagers said, “were spoiling young boys with sexual bait” in Jayanti Bazar village. Last Saturday, when the mother of two was feeding her children around 12pm, Panchayat member Bangalaxmi Debbarma came to her house and asked her to...

People of Poblung-B village in Dambuk Circle of Lower Dibang Valley are leveling allegations against eleven of their Anchal Samiti Members as well as Gram Panchayat Chairpersons of 6-Dambuk Anchal Block of misusing their positions to seek favors under NREGA. The people, en mass, are demanding the government for an enquiry committee to look into the allegations and warned of an outburst of public angst if it is left unattended...

Never mind the Kirit Parikh committee's proposal for a 20% reduction in pan-India allocation of subsidised kerosene to stem oil companies' under-recoveries, the UPA government might do just the opposite. It is mulling not only the retention of the commodity—used by a vast segment of rural India for lighting—in the targeted public distribution system (TPDS) but also introduction of another item: edible oil. Even as she is about to take over...