-PTI Bhopal: Serious irregularities like non-submission of utilisation certificates and delay in payment of wages to beneficiaries among others have come to notice in an official report on the implementation of MGNREGA scheme in Madhya Pradesh. It was also found that the state government was not following necessary budgetary procedures while seeking grant from the Centre under the flagship programme. It was noticed during the inspection in eight districts that the ratio of...

-The Hindu JAGDALPUR: With semi-automatic weapons slung over their shoulders, these soldiers are more than just patrolling arterial village roads. They are in the midst of full-scale battles in which several people, mostly non-combatants, are getting killed. Forces have been mobilised in their thousands; dehydrated soldiers are getting evacuated by the Indian Air Force; corpses are removed in huge tractors meant for transporting farm produce; and Maoists are intensifying coordination at...

-The Indian Express Institutionalising a mandatory process of consultation and dialogue would democratise not just law-making, but the state itself The formal institutions of India's parliamentary democracy have provided little space for citizens' participation in the making of laws. This has not, however, prevented citizens and citizens' groups from making significant attempts to watch, critique and contribute to the process. In fact, in recent years, it is clear that the lack of...

-The Indian Express Kanpur: Vijai Kumari got bail in 1994. But it took two decades for her to leave Lucknow women's jail, as son Kanhaiya, born in prison, raised money for a lawyer and a bond Vijai Kumari named her son Kanhaiya, after Lord Krishna. It was on the suggestion of a doctor-like in the mythology about the Hindu god, he was born in jail. For the next two decades, as...

-The Hindu   Government planning to set up paper board unit at a cost of Rs. 1200 crore TIRUCHI: Farmers of Mondipatti panchayat in Srirangam, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa's constituency, are up in arms over the move to acquire their land for the setting up of a paper board unit. The farmers argued that the land identified for the State-owned project had been under cultivation for three generations, and the livelihood of at least 2,000...