-The Times of India A TOI report on Union government's letter to the state government for a CBI probe into forest and herbal park scams allegedly involving two Haryana ministers and senior government officials created a furore in the assembly on Monday. Angry words were exchanged as Haryana finance minister H S Chatha prepared to present the budget. Noisy scenes were witnessed soon after the question hour when Anil Vijh, leader of...
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New approach to Nrega as it runs out of steam
-Rediff.com Even while the UPA Government is pushing for two more flagship programmes of food for all and medicines to all, its first flagship programme of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (Nrega) is losing steam. More than 40 per cent of the Rs 40,000-crore (Rs 400 billion) budget sanctioned for it during 2011-12 remained unspent until December, prompting the Finance Ministry to propose a reduced budget for it in...
More »Gram sewaks protest NREGS pressure by Aparna Pallavi
Nine gram sewaks have committed suicide in past one year due to work stress Gram sewaks in Maharashtra have refused to give in to the high-handedness of the administration for the implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) so that it can be projected as a success. Instead, they have decided to approach the high court to press for their demands like formation of a separate independent agency for the...
More »Ramesh wants to sidestep food security Bill categories by Liz Mathew
Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh wants to sidestep categories proposed under the food security law to make sure that the welfare impact of the legislation isn’t nullified because a count that’s central to it hasn’t been completed across large parts of the nation. Ramesh wants 25kg of foodgrain given every month to 75% of the rural poor and 50% of the urban poor at subsidized rates. The National Food Security Bill, which...
More »Climate change threat to food produce in India, says study by Indrajit Bose
'Erratic rainfall and rising input costs forcing farmers to migrate' “Unable to clear a loan of Rs 2 lakh, my son committed suicide. I had to sell my ancestral house and cattle to repay the loan,” says Lakshmi Devi, 48, of Pathakotha Cheruvu village in Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur district. Devi's woes did not end with the repayment of loan. Managing her farm is becoming increasingly difficult, partly because it is expensive,...
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