-The Indian Express   Taking a tough stand oN Rampant plagiarism in the preparation of Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) reports, the Environment Ministry has decided to scrap any project whose impact-assessment report is found to be a “copy-paste” job from other reports. EIA reports are a must to get mandatory ‘green clearances’ for projects. Project developers, which are mostly private firms, hire independent environmental consultants for the job. The decision to scrap such...

Chastened by the 'poverty line' controversy painting the Centre as insensitive to 'aam aadmi', the government is wary of challenging a Karnataka high court order which slammed the state for paying MGNREGA workers less than the minimum farm wages.  The court said that job scheme wages could not be less than the minimum agricultural wages and ordered that workers be paid the arrears.  The HC order would put an additional burden of...

-The Times of India   Anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare has returned centrestage, though armed with a political and electoral agenda this time. He has warned the ruling Congress that he will campaign against it in five states going to polls next year - unless the government adopts the Jan Lokpal Bill in Parliament's forthcoming winter session. The Gandhian seems to have abandoned his earlier non-political stance, now identifying the Congress as a...

“There is never enough rice to go around for the whole family,” says tribal woman Leela   With a handful of grain and a head full of recipes, Leela cooks rice in a pot balanced on three stones in a room with a few bricks knocked out to let in sunlight in this village barely 150 km from Raipur, Chhattisgarh capital. When rice is scarce, she adds more water to make a broth,...

-The Economic Times   Pressure from within and outside the government has forced Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia to clarify that the Tendulkar Commission's poverty line was, "not meant to be an acceptable level of living for the aam aadmi." Ahluwalia said a new methodology will be worked out to determine entitlements of beneficiaries under various schemes for poor. A Socio-Economic and Caste-Economic census was also underway to survey all rural...