-DNA The Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS), an umbrella organisation of farmers in Maharashtra, has claimed that the builders lobby was pushing for the Rs500-crore closed water pipeline project of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation. Addressing a press conference on Friday in Pune, BKS president Mauli Tupe said farmers of Maval taluka are protesting against the water pipeline project for the last three years. “Over 15,000 acres of agricultural land in Maval taluka depends...
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Channels of change by Richard Mahapatra
Two villages in Uttar Pradesh have reversed the trend of migration by digging six kilometres of channels to bring water to drought-hit farms Call it the fallout of seven years of severe drought or government inaction, a silent revolution is brewing in Lalitpur district of Uttar Pradesh. Communities are getting united and digging channels to bring water from government canals to their fields. Some are volunteering labour, while those belonging to...
More »Green India Mission to double afforestation efforts by 2020
The Green India Mission, part of India's plan to fight climate change, proposed to double the area being taken up for afforestation and eco-restoration over the next decade. The first draft of the Mission, released on Monday, projects an ambitious target of 20 million hectares by 2020, at a cost of Rs. 44,000 crore. Public consultations will be undertaken across the country from June 11, following which the draft will be...
More »MGNREGA status report | In the shadow of Maoism by Liz Mathew
Madvi Madka owns 4ha of land in Chingavaram in the Sukum block in central India. The district in which the block is located has become infamous after 6 April, killing of 76 policemen by the Maoists. This is the ground zero of the war between the Indian state and the Maoists, and Madka, who owns 4ha of land—often left fallow because there wasn’t enough water for irrigation—here used to make...
More »Estate workers, potters may get rice at Rs.2 a kg
Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac told the Assembly on Wednesday that inclusion of estate workers, the disabled and potters in the scheme for supply of rice at Rs.2 a kg would be considered. Replying to the general discussion on the budget, the Minister said that their inclusion would be subject to condition that the total number of families benefiting from the scheme should not exceed 35 lakh. The budget could not...
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