-The Hindu   Rs. 4.7 cr. utilised last fiscal compared to Rs. 9 cr. in 2010-11 Bangalore: In what could be read as an MLA report card in a way, the performance of a large number of the State's Assembly constituencies, gauged under the national rural job guarantee schemes, progressively fell on many fronts during 2009-12. According to data pertaining to projects taken up under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) for...

-The Hindu     The shortened lifespan of the quarry workers of Uttar Pradesh is spent breaking stones and residing among the pollution- laden boulders Mired with sandy roads and rocky terrain, the landscape in south-western Allahabad creates a remarkable mirage under the blue sky. Some of the larger rocks here have sizeable craters formed in them -- a sign of their depletion over time, by an activity that is hazardous yet critical to the...

-The Economic Times Tribal affairs minister VKishore Chandra Deo is best known for engaging Cabinet colleagues through carefully-crafted letters to get his point across. From preventing the dilution ofForest Rights Act to a directive to governors to stop mining in tribal areas, the 66-year-old activist-minister believes in winning over Cabinet colleagues politely. And he has proved one doesn't have to be outspoken, like some of his colleagues, to get work done....

-DNA Tribal minister shoots letter to 9 guvs seeking cancellation of leases. Union tribal affairs minister V Kishore Chandra Deo has asked governors of nine states to invoke their special powers to revoke lease agreements and MoUs signed between state governments and corporates to extract mineral wealth in tribal areas. Pointing out that power lobbies were disregarding land regulations, he castigated the Congress-ruled Andhra Pradesh government. The union minister, who is also...

-The Hindu The Act grants legal recognition to the rights of traditional forest dwelling communities Jawhar (Thane): The Additional Collector's headquarter here was abuzz even before its gates opened on Monday morning. Around 100 tribals from various villages in the Jawhar tehsil had already queued to begin what they had aptly named as first of its kind ‘RTI Satyagraha' against the alleged unlawful implementation of The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest...