The health and women & child development ministries have refused to give an affidavit to the Supreme Court on how many children die of hunger in India every year. UNICEF says 50% of all the deaths of children aged below five years are from malnutrition. That works out to 2,438 children dying every day for lack of food. But no one in the government is ready to stick its neck out...

The state government on Tuesday assured that it will examine the First Information Report filed for paying extremely low wages to MGNREGA workers in Gudliya village in Tonk district. The FIR had charged six village mates for paying just Re 1 as wages to about 99 workers. However, after protests by members of various organisations during the monthly meeting of NREGA, minister for rural development Bharat Singh assured that the department...

In a bid to ensure that those who are not provided work within the stipulated 15 days under the MGNREGA get the unemployment benefit, the government is about to introduce a uniform Form 6 across the state. The Form 6, where requisition is filled for work under NREGA, will also have a receipt attached which would be handed over to the worker as proof of when the work was sought. The...

The arrival of large quantities of wheat in the grain markets of the Punjab-Haryana region is a heart-warming sight, while poor storage is a matter of national shame. It was in April-May 1968, that the country witnessed the wonderful spectacle of large arrivals of wheat grain in the mandis of Punjab like Moga and Khanna. Wheat production in the country rose to nearly 17 million tonnes that year, from the previous...

Govt orders 600,000 hand-held electronic devices to reduce scope for error and expedite the census process For the first time, the census to identify below poverty line (BPL) families will be conducted using hand-held electronic devices. The initiative of the rural development ministry is expected to reduce scope for error and expedite the census process. The identification of BPL households is critical for individuals to be eligible for welfare programmes such as getting...