-Newsclick.in The Narendra Modi government has carried the practice of making low budgetary allocations for MGNREGS to its limit. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme or MGNREGS was introduced by the United Progressive Alliance-I government despite opposition from the neo-liberal lobby within it, owing inter alia to the active intervention of the Left, which was supporting that government from outside. The scheme was restrictive from the beginning: it promised a maximum...

-GaonConnection.com At least ten districts of Bihar have reported high levels of uranium in their groundwater, the primary source of drinking water in rural areas, which far exceeds the tolerable limit prescribed by the World Health Organization. Millions in Bihar are already facing a high disease burden due to elevated levels of arsenic, fluoride and iron in their water. Presence of uranium has multiplied their worries manifold. The state government is...

-IndiaSpend.com Punjab has seen more than 71,000 incidents of paddy straw burning this year, negating hundreds of crores spent on subsidies on straw management machines and awareness campaigns. Experts say farmers need financial incentives to take up stubble management, and must be encouraged to shift away from paddy cultivation. Chandigarh: Harbhajan Singh returned to Sadhanpur village in east Punjab's SAS Nagar district from two days off over Diwali, to find the paddy...

-The Telegraph Reporters are not allowed access to the media galleries inside the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha and the Central Hall Journalists protesting against the Narendra Modi government’s move to restrict the media’s entry into Parliament to cover proceedings, which many believe is a ploy to censor news and prevent information flow to citizens, are planning a march after an open letter and appeals by Opposition leaders had no effect.  The...

-TheThirdPole.net A new study suggests that Himalayan glaciers may be melting even during winter, when they were previously believed to remain stable In late winter 2020, glaciologist Sudip Thakuri visited Kalinchowk, a peak in the Himalayas around 144 km west of Kathmandu. He was surprised by what he saw. The destination, popular among Kathmandu residents seeking a sight of snow-covered mountains, wasn’t as thickly blanketed in white as in previous years. Later...