After the Niyamgiri ban, a controversy is brewing in Chhattisgarh over bauxite mining by Vedanta Resources, the UK-based mining conglomerate, in the Maikal hill ranges in Kawardha district with the opposition Congress demanding a probe into alleged large-scale infringement of green and tribal areas and violation of panchayat laws. "The devastation in Kawardha caused by mining activities of Vedanta Group is greater and worse than Orissa. Vedanta Group has managed to...

While there is all-round concern about how the NREGA funds are being utilised at the grass-roots level, the Union rural development ministry has initiated the process of inducting technology to streamline the delivery system under NREGA. This will have a revolutionary impact on programme delivery. With about 50 million people working on site in 2,50,000 panchayats all across the country, the magnitude of the task is daunting. However, once the initial...

Contaminated water sources and the virtual absence of health care claim dozens of lives in the State, now in the grip of cholera. COME monsoon and the backward regions of Orissa are in the grip of water-borne diseases. This year too has been no different. According to official figures, 150 people had died of cholera and diarrhoea in the State as on September 15. Unofficial reports put the toll at more...

The human resource development ministry is planning to set up colleges, Kendriya Vidyalayas, secondary schools and girls’ hostels in Naxalite-affected areas. The ministry’s higher education department, in a letter written on August 20, has asked the home ministry for details of Naxalite-hit areas. “The information will help in planning how and where to set up new institutions. We will also explore how to provide more grants to institutions in those areas through...

The green hills -- those that once used to soothe the entire region through the stilly silence, and fill it with the great wonder of multitudinousness -- have suddenly turned into a valley of death. First Diarrhea and then Cholera, the quiet bosom of the picturesque Raygada district is today torn by the screams of pain and loss of lives. People are dying like flies and hundreds are lying on...