-Live Mint   Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh on Wednesday released a letter written by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to social Activist Anna Hazare, to buttress his earlier claim that Hazare’s anti-corruption movement was backed by the RSS. “In your efforts against corruption, you have the full support of RSS,” stated the letter dated 8 April, written by RSS general secretary Suresh Joshi. “We think that the ongoing efforts and movements against...

-The Business Standard Yes, it will help combat the acute shortage of farm labour, but it goes against the Act’s core principles. Devinder Sharma  Food and agricultural policy analyst The crisis in agriculture has worsened and it is directly proportionate to the spread of MNREGA Isn’t it strange? The Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), which was primarily designed as a radical and novel response to combat rural poverty, is actually hitting the very...

It will be shared with all-party delegation: Chidambaram The Jammu and Kashmir interlocutors on Wednesday submitted their final report to Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, focusing on a “permanent political settlement of the Kashmir problem.” “The report deals with issues pertaining to economic, social and cultural aspects of Jammu and Kashmir,” eminent journalist Dileep Padgaonkar told journalists outside the North Block office of the Home Minister soon after submitting the report. He...

-PTI Even as a controversy rages over the Rs. 32 per capita per day poverty line, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia has said “it is not all that ridiculous” in Indian conditions. “The fact is that Rs. 4,824 per month for a family [of five] to define poverty is not comfortable but it is not all that ridiculous in Indian conditions,” Mr. Ahluwalia said in a letter to Attorney-General Goolam...

-IANS   Soni Sori, the tribal teacher who was held in Delhi last week on charges of being a Maoist conduit and is hospitalised here with head and back injuries, Wednesday said Chhattisgarh Police were treating her like a criminal. "They (police) are treating me like a hardcore criminal. They had put a chain on my legs... I oppose such moves by police," Sori told some mediamen at a government hospital here...