The ministry of rural development has demanded a nearly 60% increase in the allocation for its marquee job guarantee scheme in the forthcoming Union budget for fiscal 2011-12. The ministry has sought an allocation of around Rs. 64,000 crore, up from Rs. 41,100 crore, for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), a ministry official said, requesting anonymity. MGNREGS, the flagship programme of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government...

The Orissa government bats for it, the PMO is in favour and environment minister Jairam Ramesh has obliged, but the Rs 54,000-crore Posco project has found two difficult adversaries —the villages of Dhinkia and Gobindpur. The two villages have written to Ramesh, saying they have not agreed to the takeover of forest land for the integrated steel plant under the Forest Rights Act and complained the Act has not been implemented...

Five members of a farmer’s family attempted suicide at a land dealer’s residence in Dodar village of Sanand taluka of Ahmedabad district by consuming pesticide, on Monday. The family has alleged that the land dealer, Vikram Fulabhai Solanki, an advocate, had duped them of their farmland spread over 15 bighas worth over Rs 5 crore, which he had refused to return. The five have been identified as Mansinh Ramu Sandhav (70), Kalusinh...

India’s rulers have found a new vocation – maligning environmentalists and questioning the very idea of regulating industry for pollution. Thus, faced with criticism of Lavasa, an artificial gated city of the super-rich near Pune, in which his family has invested crores, Agriculture Minister, Sharad Pawar, lashed out at well-known activist Medha Patkar and other “vested interests” for obstructing this “pioneering” project. Lavasa’s promoters built the project without seeking environmental clearance...

With higher sowing of wheat, pulses, sugarcane, cotton and oilseeds reported this rabi season, there are expectations of a bumper crop production this year. The total food grains output is expected to be 232.07 million tonnes, which is only marginally lower than the record production of 234.47 million tonnes in 2008-09. Announcing the second advance estimates of food grains production for the 2010-11 crop year last week, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar...