The village bureaucrat shifted from foot to foot, hands clasped behind his back, beads of sweat forming on his balding head. The eyes of hundreds of wiry village laborers, clad in dusty lungis, were fixed upon him. A group of auditors, themselves villagers, read their findings. A signature had been forged for the delivery of soil to rehabilitate farmland. The soil had never arrived, and about $4,000 was missing. The...
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It ill behoves you to attend Lavasa event, NGO tells Cameron by Divya Gandhi
James Cameron, director of sci-fi blockbuster Avatar, finds himself embroiled in the controversy surrounding Lavasa, India's first “private hill city” that has been in the news for alleged environmental law violations. Mr. Cameron, who is slated to speak at the big-ticket ‘Innovation and Knowledge' (INK) conference being held in association with Technology Entertainment and Design (TED) between December 9 and 12 at Lavasa, has been urged to boycott the event. In a...
More »‘Keep UID out of MGNREGA'
The undersigned demand that the plan to link the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) to Aadhaar (or UID) be revoked immediately. This is an extremely dangerous move that threatens to cause havoc in MGNREGA's fragile structure. The Ministry of Rural Development has put out a tender (dated October 11, 2010) worth Rs.2,162 crore to engage “service providers” for MGNREGA under a “public private partnership” model. The contract includes...
More »Government hikes pension for Endosulfan victims
The Cabinet on Tuesday decided to raise the pension paid to Endosulfan victims who are unable to perform any form of wage labour from Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 2,000 a month. Briefing reporters after the weekly Cabinet meeting here on Tuesday, Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan said the other Endosulfan victims would be paid Rs.1,000 as pension. The pension would be made available to the victims through the Social Security Mission under...
More »Costly choice for PMO on NREGA wage by Sreelatha Menon
The Prime Minister’s Office is expected to have a tough time making up its mind on the right wages for workers under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). For, the labour and rural development ministries have taken different positions on the matter. A labour ministry note sent to the rural development ministry (MoRD) says the minimum wage notified in each state — often higher than the NREGA set one —...
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