-Down to Earth   Demand minimum support price of above Rs 2,000 per 100 kg; say present MSP does not meet even cost of cultivation Maharashtra government has recently announced the minimum support price for wheat at Rs 1,400 per quintal (100 kg). The decision has not gone down well with either the farmers or the agriculture department. Farmers in the state have questioned the rationale behind this low MSP, saying that such...

-Down to Earth   Blames Centre for non-release of funds Bihar has very little money to pay people under the Central welfare scheme that guarantees 100 days of employment to the rural poor in a year.   Central government's reluctance to release funds under its Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) is said to be the main reason for the crisis. Nitish Mishra, Bihar's rural development minister, told Down To Earth that the...

-The Hindu Fifty centres to offer subsidised lunch to 300 persons each between 12 noon and 1 p.m. Hyderabad: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) on Sunday launched a pilot project offering hot and hygienic meals for the poor at Rs. 5 at Nampally Sarai close to the railway station. Earmarked budget A total of 50 such centres offering subsidised meals between 12 noon and 1 p.m. for 300 persons at each location were...

-The Indian Express Families of some Punjab farmers who committed suicide get half the amount govt promised, many others yet to get any. Punjab: In March 2009, the Punjab government had cleared Rs 2 lakh as compensation to the families of every farmer who had committed suicide since 2000. This was also part of the ruling party's 2012 election manifesto. So far, however, the government has compensated only a section of them,...

-Newsclick.in With sixty percent children malnourished in the state, the implementation of the Integrated Child Development Services, the largest scheme to provide nutrition to children in the country, is nothing but a sham. Sitting outside her semi-pucca house in Bilgram block, Kasturi says, "My children get five fistful of panjiri once a month from the Aanganwadi Centre." Thirty-three year-old Kasturi has never, in her parents' village or her in-law's village seen an...