-PTI State govts fear that the new rates would not be able to attract labourers because they are still below the existing minimum wages fixed by the states. The revised MGNREGA wages for the current fiscal announced recently have left various state governments in a quandary as they apprehend the new rates would not be able to attract labourers because they are still below the existing minimum wages fixed by the...

-The Hindu Parliament inserted Section 61 A in the Act concerned to legitimise the use of EVMs Kochi (Kerala): The Electronic voting machines (EVMs), now ubiquitous, had a troubled beginning when the gadgets were first introduced in the country, in some of the polling booths of the Paravur Assembly constituency in Ernakulam district in the 1982 Assembly poll. Locked in the battle then were the late Congress leader A.C. Jose and CPI leader...

-PTI New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday pulled up states and union territories for not filing affidavits of steps taken by them for removal of illegal religious structures from public roads and pavements. The apex court was hearing the petition filed in 2006 in which directions were passed earlier to the states to remove unauthorised constructions, including places of worships, from roads and public places. After the states and union territories failed...

-The Hindu Forging gram sabha resolutions clears the path to lucrative mining... Such fictions manufacture on file the legal requirement of villagers’ participation and consent. Over 12,000 villages across Odisha conserve their community forests, says a 2013 Odisha Jungle Manch study. In a visit last October to seven villages in Keonjhar district’s Gandhamardan range, Munda communities showed me their forest protection rosters. Each roster listed four villagers for every weekday to roam...

-PTI The National Green Tribunal has appointed a local commissioner to inspect the premises of beverages major Coca Cola's Hapur plant in Uttar Pradesh and probe whether it was discharging effluents into a nearby pond. The green panel directed Coca-Cola to pay Rs 20,000 as fees to the court commissioner and asked him to videograph the work done, and file his report. "Considering the gravity of the allegations, made against each other and...