The District Rural Development Agency has hiked the wage from January 1 ERODE: Hike in National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) wage has got Erode farmers worried about labour shortage. Following State Government’s instruction, the District Rural Development Agency, which oversees NREGS implementation, hiked the wage January 1 onwards by Rs. 20 to Rs. 100 a day. Under NREGS below poverty line families get work for 100 days a year, which is...
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Wiping flaws by swiping a ‘smarter’ NREGS card by Tarannum Manjul
Fake entries and wrong entries have been the bane of the government’s flagship welfare plan — the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). However, Uttar Pradesh has found a way out. Starting July 2009, the state Department of Rural Development introduced the biometric smart card attendance system in 10 villages of two blocks, and in 2010, it plans to extend the same to at least one block in each of...
More »Bt brinjal: plea to Manmohan to withdraw report by Gargi Parsai
Non-governmental organisations and individuals have urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to withdraw the report of the Expert Committee on Bt brinjal and reject the recommendation of the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee for its commercial cultivation. Similar letters written to Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Minister of State for Environment Jairam Ramesh and signed by 353 groups/persons, challenged the recommendation of the expert committee and charged it with succumbing to pressures...
More »Health ministry to import 1.5 million doses of H1N1 vaccine by Radhieka Pandeya
The health ministry has placed an order to import 1.5 million doses of the swine flu vaccine into India, which will be available in January. This is contrary to the government’s earlier claims of importing four million doses of the vaccine. Indian manufacturers will now supply the remaining doses. “We have placed an order for importing 1.5 million doses already,” said Vineet Chawdhry, joint secretary, health ministry. “Indigenous production of...
More »Healing a nation by Patralekha Chatterjee
Copenhagen showed how fast and far India has traveled geo-politically. The same, alas, cannot be said about the health of the nation. On the international stage, India’s relentless focus on equity made us proud. The time has come to apply that principle at home. India’s ailing health delivery system is viewed as a worthy but dull topic on a normal day in a typical newsroom in the country. Typically, such neglected...
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