-The Hindustan Times Do these people look well-off to you? The planning commission puts them above poverty line. Basant Kumar, 51 Shopkeeper Kusumpur Pahari slum, Vasant Vihar, Delhi Daily expense: Rs 53 Basant Kumar runs a little shop in a slum in Vasant Vihar, home to over two lakh migrant families. He feeds and clothes his wife and three children on his meagre earnings of Rs5,000 a month. He also works odd-jobs, in construction or with...
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Rajasthan takes lead in policy for common land
-The Times of India After taking lead in helping the country draw up the Rigth to Information Act and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), Rajasthan has become the first state in the country to have drafted a policy underlining the importance and the need to preserve and secure common land (commons) in rural areas. The government has issued a series of orders to facilitate the process and aims...
More »Struggling to enter the BPL club by Jean Drèze
The Planning Commission's poverty straightjacket is but one of a series of obstacles faced by “aspirants” to the BPL status. Nothing illustrates the absurdity of current food policies more poignantly than the plight of Dablu Singh's family in Latehar district, Jharkhand. About two years ago Dablu, a young Adivasi who survived mainly from casual labour, fell from a roof at work and broke his back. He is paralysed for life and...
More »Mining sector needs large-scale reform
-The Economic Times India's new mining Bill has provisions which seek, rightly, to shovel Money from mining companies to rural people affected by mining, but the devil could lie in the detail. The proposal has three defects. One, it seeks differential treatment for coal and other minerals - coal miners would share 26% of their profits, while miners of other minerals would give additional royalty payments. Pray, why? Two, it exempts...
More »Record of MNREGA implementation is very patchy: Jairam Ramesh
-India Today Terming the implementation of UPA's flagship programme MNREGA as "patchy", Rural Development MinisterJairam Rameshon Monday expressed concern at leakage of funds meant for the scheme but hoped that the proposed 'NREGA 2.0' will deal with the problems in the coming times. "There are serious, serious shortcomings in its implementation...The record of its implementation is very patchy...and therefore, we have a huge challenge," Ramesh said at a programme here. He said while...
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