Even as this shocking number of malnutrition deaths is reported from Nashik alone, much of Rs 600 crore child welfare budget seems to have been spent on expensive toys et al In commodity purchases that seem to give direct competition to the Organising Committee's orders for the Commonwealth Games (CWG), the State Women and Child Development department spent Rs 13,801 each for a set of four steel utensils consisting of a...

-Express News Service   Two farmers of Sambalpur and Nuapada districts allegedly committed suicide by consuming pesticide on Sunday night over failed crop and debt burden. This is the fourth such suicide in Sambalpur district and second in Naupada. One Ganesh Bhoi (47) of Sanatanpali village in Ghenupali gram panchayat of Jujumura block of Sambalpur committed suicide on Sunday night following three consecutive crop losses. Though he was rushed to VSS Medical...

The rural development ministry has proposed several changes in the rural job guarantee programme to ensure timely payment of wages and eradicate graft at a time when the Congress party-led ruling alliance has come under fire for poor governance and its failure to tackle corruption. The ministry has listed nine challenges to the proper functioning of the programme and proposed possible modifications in a note. The challenges include ensuring demand-driven legal...

Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are among the Indian states that have failed to name an ombudsman to handle grievances and prevent graft related to the central government’s flagship rural jobs programme, even two years after they were directed to do so. Only 15 of the nation’s 28 states have appointed the ombudsmen, according to the ministry of rural development. Assam, Haryana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu also haven’t appointed the watchdog. Setting up...

After Mansa, now the farmers in Bathinda and Faridkot districts are up in arms against the state government over the land acquisition issue. Though their land was acquired by the state government many years back, the state government may face renewed agitation from farmers, who think the land was `misused` and sold off to colonizers. Two agitations have already been witnessed in Bathinda and Faridkot in the last couple of weeks...