-The Times of India Bhubaneswar: At a time when the state government is under attack for listing ineligible beneficiaries for ration cards under the National Food Security Act, it informed the assembly on Saturday that it has included a number of destitute and homeless families to counter the criticism. Food supplies and consumer welfare minister Sanjay Das Burma said the state government has included 14,830 destitute families (54,892 persons) under the food...

-CivilSocietyOnline.com Bhubaneswar: Basanti Bhoi cultivates two gardens of betel leaves all by herself at Dhanahara village  in Odisha. A year or two ago, a woman farming betel leaves would have been unthinkable. An age-old tradition barred women from entering betel enclosures. But today women in the district can grow betel leaves and work as labour in a betel garden. It is a social revolution brought about by Radio Kisan, a community radio...

-Theweekendleader.com/ Women's Feature Service Purulia (West Bengal): It was ironical that Purulia district often found itself on the West Bengal government's 'drought-hit' list when the average rainfall here is 1100mm-1500mm. The failure to conserve water as well as poor agricultural practices meant that despite back-breaking labour in the fields, farmers could only achieve six months' food sufficiency. Today, however, all that is changing thanks to a water management revolution led by ordinary village...

-The Times of India Mangaluru: Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) and National Campaign for People's Right to Information (NCPRI) have urged Karnataka government to take stringent action against the killers of city-based RTI activist Vinayak Panduranga Baliga. Vinayak, who was actively involved in RTI movement, was murdered near his house in the city on March 21. Even as the 13th day rituals of Vinayak was being observed on Saturday, RTI activist and...

-The Times of India Kendrapada: The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has failed to take off in 21 gram panchayats of Kendrapada district. The district collector has decided to take disciplinary action against the sarpanchs and panchayat executive officers of these panchayats. District collector Niranjan Nayak said, "The administration has already issued show-cause notices to the sarpanchs and panchayat executive officers of Bagada, Dashipur, Silipur, Bachara, Balipatana, Baluria, Nilakanthapur,...