-The Business Standard Report says ineligible farmers given benefits In a fresh blow to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), the Comptroller and Auditor General of India has rapped the finance ministry over allegedly serious lapses in implementation of the Rs 71,680-crore Agricultural debt waiver and debt relief scheme — a major plank on which the coalition had contested the 2009 general elections. A report tabled in Parliament today showed CAG, after auditing 22.32...

-IANS Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday said stringent action would be taken, if any irregularities are found in the Rs. 52,000-crore farm loan waiver scheme of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. "If irregularities are found, we will take stringent action," Manmohan Singh told Rajya Sabha. There was uproar in both houses of parliament as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other parties raised the issue Wednesday. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG)...

-The Telegraph Labour payments under NREGA will continue to be less than minimum wages for Agricultural labourers in four states, including Bengal, despite a recent rate revision in the rural job scheme. Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh today tabled a statement in the Rajya Sabha on the revised wages that will take effect from next month. Under the new NREGA rates, labourers in all states stand to gain, except those in Kerala, Bengal,...

-Outlook Expressing serious concern over the implementation of Rs 52,000-crore farm debt waiver scheme, government auditor CAG today said in several cases ineligible farmers were given benefit while deserving ones were left out. Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has also found instances of tampering of records and pulled up the Department of Financial Services (DFS) in the Finance Ministry for deficient monitoring of the multi-crore scheme. "Overall, the Performance Audit revealed that in...

-The Times of India Last year's unusually dry summer and this winter's unprecedented snowfall, the worst in nearly 50 years, in Ladakh's Changtang area has claimed over 18,000 "pashmina" goats, the source of one of the finest varieties of wool that has put the region on the world map. Changtang is a high altitude plateau in southeastern Ladakh, inhabited by Changpa (Champa) nomads, and known for its harsh and semi-arid weather with...