Tamil Nadu has stopped using banks to pay Workers employed under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), turning the clock back on the programme that was expected to eliminate layers of middlemen in reaching money to the poor. Rural development ministry officials at the Centre confirmed the development, but termed it “a temporary setback”. However, Tamil Nadu is not alone. Andhra Pradesh too has asked some of its poorest...

After three months of Workers' agitations, 30 Workers leaving their jobs and the worst-ever quarterly financials, India's largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, may see a new union at its Manesar factory.  A new team of Workers on Friday filed a fresh application for registering the 'Maruti Suzuki Employees Union' to the Haryana Labour department, a process earlier scuttled in July. But this time there is tacit support from the management...

Two days after a mob of 300 Trinamool Workers and supporters stormed a police station in the heart of Kolkata, assaulted policemen and vandalised government and private vehicles, the police have filed a preliminary report of the rioting — and indicted their own men. The mob, comprising members of two clubs in Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s south Kolkata neighbourhood, fought street battles with policemen from Bhowanipore police station who had asked...

-The Hindustan Times   Of the 72 students of Budhamunda Village Primary School in Belpada block, just half line up for morning prayers in their crumpled, unwashed uniform. What about the rest? “Many of my friends have migrated with their parents to work in brick kilns. I will also follow them in a few days,” said Dipakanta Pradhan (10), a student of class 3. The scene was the same at an anganwadi (mother and child)...

-The Economic Times   Snubbed by former union leaders, Workers at Maruti Suzuki's Manesar plant have submitted an application to the Haryana labour department to register a new union.  "They have filed the application and we have got the written statement on Saturday. This union will not have an external affiliation, which is the key point of departure," said a Maruti Suzuki official.  The management was clear from the beginning that it won't accept...