The government's biggest welfare programme could see an almost 60 per cent increase in funding. The forthcoming Budget is likely to make a provision of Rs 64,000 crore (Rs 640 billion) for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme in 2011-12, against Rs 40,100 crore (Rs 401 billion) in the current fiscal. The huge increase in outlay will be mainly on account of two factors: Linking wages under the scheme with...
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JPC probe will provide canvas larger than CAG, says Karat
Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat on Sunday repeated the demand for the setting up of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to probe the 2G spectrum allocation scam, saying that the issue needed to be investigated on a canvas larger than the Comptroller and Auditor General's “limited” inquiry. Considering the gravity of the irregularities, a “wider and comprehensive” probe was required into the 2G spectrum allocation, Mr. Karat...
More »A Bengali rate of growth by Mohan Guruswamy
Despite its slackening industry, the common perception of West Bengal as a backward state has little substance when one looks at the facts. Most of us are conditioned to view economic development in terms of industrialisation. While industrialisation is essential for economic transformation, it is not as if economic growth is not possible without it. The sectoral structure of India's gross domestic product (GDP) and its slow transformation makes a good...
More »Nine parties to launch nationwide agitation against price rise
“Government callous to plight of people groaning under spiralling prices of food items” Nine political parties, including four Left parties, on Thursday announced a week-long nationwide agitation against price rise. The United Progressive Alliance government was callous to the plight of people groaning under spiralling prices of food items, they alleged. “We have decided to jointly conduct a week-long agitation against the price rise from February 3 to 9. During the...
More »Election Commission team visits violence-hit Netai by Raktima Bose
On a visit to West Bengal to assess law and order in the State, where the Assembly polls are drawing near, a three-member Election Commission on Wednesday went to Netai village near Lalgarh, where nine persons were killed in the January 7 firing incident. Two other teams separately visited Tarakeswar, Goghat and Pursura in Hooghly and Basanti and Netra in South 24 Parganas district, where political clashes and violence have been...
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