-TheWire.in The government should keep the secretary of the health department unchanged for three years for him/her to be able to show results. But that has not been happening. The NDA government had promised good governance and policy stability. Yet we have a fourth secretary in the health department in the last three years – the seventh in the last seven years. Since both the outgoing and the incoming officers have sterling...

-PTI According to rural development ministry, there are no preconditions for getting employment under the scheme. New Delhi: The Centre is taking steps to ensure timely payment of wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS), out of which 85 per cent of wages have already been paid this fiscal, an official statement said. According to the statement released by the rural development ministry yesterday, there are no preconditions, including...

-Livemint.com The draft guidelines propose to levy a new water conservation fee based on quantum of groundwater extracted With the aim of completely changing the way groundwater is managed, the central government has proposed guidelines which stipulate that all industries, mining and infrastructure dewatering projects—whether existing or new—that draw or propose to draw groundwater will now need to obtain a no-objection certificate (NOC). The draft guidelines, reviewed by Mint, also propose to levy...

-CivilSocietyOnline.com Vikas Gando Thayo Chhe" which means ‘development has gone mad’ is a super hit song these days in Gujarat. In the just concluded garba festival, this song was hugely popular throughout Gujarat. The song became popular even before Prime Minister Narendra Modi celebrated his birthday on 7 September by declaring completion of an incomplete Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP), heaping totally unnecessary, unjustified and unjust displacement on 40,000 families in the...

-Down to Earth A new study is focusing on identifying vulnerable farmers in Punjab, Maharashtra and Telangana, the three states that experience high rate of suicide In India, farmer suicide is an issue that has been talked about widely. The cases of farmers’ suicide rose by 42 per cent between 2014 and 2015. In 2015, one farmer committed suicide every hour. The latest report of the National Crime Bureau (NCB) shows that...