-Down to Earth   State blames poor financial condition for the move The Bihar government has defended its recent move to lower its minimum wage rate offered to unskilled labourers, saying the state is in poor financial condition. Bihar has lowered its wage rate offered under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) from Rs 144 to Rs 135, while the state minimum wage is Rs 168. This is despite the...

-The Hindu   Mumbai: Union Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Ajay Maken on Tuesday wrote to Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, asking him to stop demolition of the houses of slum dwellers, after a delegation of the National Alliance of People's Movements headed by Medha Patkar met him in New Delhi. He asked Mr. Chavan to see that the Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) was implemented with much more enthusiasm and in...

-PTI PATNA: CAG has ticked off Nitish Kumar government for lacking objective planning for utilisation of funds drawn on Abstract Contingency(AC) bills. The Bihar government had withdrawn Rs 16,033.01 crore on AC bills between 2009-12 of which the plan head drawals accounted for Rs 12,332.64 crore which indicated that object level planning was absent as items of expenditure were known while drawing the amount, CAG said in its report on state finances...

-The Hindu Activists oppose diversion of forest land citing continuing non-compliance of several requisites The Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) is reconsidering its clearance for the controversial Kalu Dam in Thane district. About 999.328 hectares of forest land in the ecologically sensitive Western Ghats region is up for diversion for the drinking water project for Mumbai and Thane. Work on the project had...

-The Hindu Activists oppose diversion of forest land citing continuing non-compliance of several requisites The Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) is reconsidering its clearance for the controversial Kalu Dam in Thane district. About 999.328 hectares of forest land in the ecologically sensitive Western Ghats region is up for diversion for the drinking water project for Mumbai and Thane. Work on the project had been...