-The Hindu The Bharatiya Janata Party and other opposition parties are CRYing foul over Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s alleged involvement in the coal blocks allocation scam but the BJP-led Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan governments themselves were among the strong opponents to a transparent process of competitive bidding, and pitched for continuing the policy of allocation of coal blocks. Documents with The Hindu show that the BJP governments were against putting in place an...

-The Hindu In the wake of references being made to investigate the health issues of mine workers, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) proposes to establish a statutory authority. Cancer, tuberculosis, silicosis, diabetes, musculoskeletal disorders and pulmonary function impairment such as asthma affect mine workers. The proposed authority will coordinate with the Ministries and authorities concerned for taking administrative, legal and medical action. The ICMR has approached the State governments for developing a...

-The Hindu Houses belonging to weavers’ community were torched on June 23 A row of kuccha and pucca houses lie in a rubble of mud, stone and bricks. Those that stand have blackened walls, dismantled roofs and half-doors. Some have no doors. Ashes of hay and grains are strewn outside the granaries. The local mosque looks desolate; its gate is oddly locked. An eerie sense of calm surrounds the place. This is the...

-Deccan Herald First conviction in Rajasthan for MGNREGS anomalies In the first ever conviction in the state for fudging MGNREGA works, a lower court in Beawar in Ajmer has sentenced four persons to seven years in jail with a fine of Rs 50,000 each and two others for three years with a fine of Rs 10,000 each.  These persons were accused of anomalies of about Rs 1.41 crore in the operation of Mahatma Gandhi...

-Tehelka Are we eating sugar which small kids are producing as bonded labour? FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD Mahendra Singh used to live with his parents and two siblings in the Jahangirpuri slum area of New Delhi until the morning he was abducted, trafficked and then callously ‘sold’ to a sugarcane farmer of Haryana’s Karnal district. Mahendra was made to work as a bonded labourer in the sugarcane fields for three-and-a-half long years, until he finally...