-The Hindu The Comptroller and Auditor-General’s report on the allocation of coal blocks, reviews how it took seven-and-half years to move the allocation procedure for captive coal blocks from a discretionary procedure to competitive bidding that was demonstrably transparent. It turns out that the process began within six weeks of UPA-I coming to power in 2004. Ironically, the amendment to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) (MMDR) Act rules for auction...
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Child marriages are rampant in Odisha: Survey
-IANS BHUBANESWAR: About six per cent of rural women in Odisha get married earlier than thelegal age of 18, according to the latest government survey released here Friday. The annual health survey conducted in 1,798 rural and 566 urban units comprising a total of 4,56,413 households and covering nearly 20 lakh people in the state revealed that the marriage of girls below legal age is rampant in rural areas. "It varies from 0.5...
More »Bamboo ‘revolution’ to beat back Maoists
-The Hindu Amid reports that Maoists are against according bamboo rights to Adivasis in Gadchiroli, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has asked the Chief Ministers of six Naxal-hit States to emulate the success of Mendha Lekha village in that Maharashtra district. Mendha Lekha became the first village with Community Forest Rights (CFR) to be given transit passbooks to harvest and sell bamboo in April 2011. Since then other villages in Gadchiroli...
More »Mendha Lekha model for Bengal and five-Basant Kumar Mohanty
-The Telegraph Bengal should follow in the footsteps of Mendha Lekha if it wants to beat back Maoists. And so should Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. That’s what rural development minister Jairam Ramesh has advised in a letter he wrote last week. Create “more Mendha Lekhas”, he said, referring to the Maharashtra village that gave villagers community rights over minor forest resource and transit permit to sell such produce. For thousands...
More »Coal: Govt slams Rs. 1.86 lakh cr loss report; BJP asks PM to quit
-The Hindustan Times Rapping the government for its failure to timely implement the competitive bidding mechanism for allocation of coal blocks, CAG on Friday said part of the Rs. 1.86 lakh crore loss could have been partially tapped had the procedure been put in place earlier. In its report, tabled in Parliament, CAG said 25 firms including Essar Power, Hindalco, Tata Steel, Tata Power and Jindal Steel and Power were benefited to...
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