-The Asian Age   With several controversies emerging that the funds released for the Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) being utilised for other purposes by many state governments, the Haryana government has on Sunday made MGNREGS Fund Act to check the proper and dedicated utilisation of the funds. As per the new notification to this effect, issued by the rural development department, Haryana, funds received from the Union government and...

-Rediff.com    The last six to seven years of the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar has not seen any significant increase in Maoist violence, which nevertheless continues to take a toll of lives and government property. According to figures compiled by the state police headquarters, in 2008, the Maoists destroyed three government buildings, blasted railway tracks at six places, besides two private buildings, torched five JCB machines used in road construction and 12...

The mask is off. Team Anna and his lieutenants are batting for the BJP On 30 October last year, when Mohan Bhagwat claimed that Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement was actually supported by the RSS, the remark conveyed palpable nervousness and attracted criticism from Team Anna. Three months later, as Team Anna launches its voters’ awareness campaign in UP, there is not even an attempt to keep its secular mask intact. The mask,...

-Express News Service The Orissa State Scheduled Caste-Scheduled Tribe Youth and Students’ Council has drawn the attention of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) about the increasing torture of the dalits in the State. Council president Haladhar Sethi discussed the matter with NCSC chairman PL Punia and invited him to visit Kamadhenukot village in Dhenkanal district where 22 houses of the dalits were burnt after the first phase of the panchayat...

Rural women entrepreneurs in Rajasthan produce a nutritious food supplement as take home rations for pregnant mothers and underfed infants   There is very little that distinguishes the hamlet of Madri from the innumerable others that dot southern Rajasthan. This is a region where the Aravallis make their presence felt in gnarled hillocks, where water is scarce and where the land yields its harvests grudgingly. People here, including toddlers, know well the edge...