-IANS   Mahesh Sharma is a happy man. A farmer in Naubatpur near Patna, he was pushed into near destitution after facing two consecutive years of drought. But with showers lashing Patna and many parts of Bihar for the past few days, the rain gods have given him the Indian farmers' staple diet - hope. "Rains are like gold for us. We welcomed the showers by preparing a sweet-dish. Unlike the last...

-NDTV   A board outside a temple for the Goddess Kali orders Dalits to stop at this point. "Harijans can pray from here," it declares. The warning sign was put up in August last year after three schoolgirls entered the shrine to offer Prasad to the Goddess, an icon of empowerment and Shakti. The caretaker of the temple in Orissa's Puri district offers no apologies for the discrimination. "It is against tradition,"...

The Central Employment Guarantee Council (CEGC) — the apex monitoring agency for the implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) — on Thursday rejected the suggestion of the Prime Minister’s National Council on Skill Development’s (NCSD) to include providing “skill development” to unskilled wage seekers under the scheme. “While agreeing that skill development was necessary, it was decided that adding the additional feature into the NREGS may not be viable...

A Central team of doctors finally termed the disease encephalitis Parents not admitting their children to government hospitals Muzaffarpur: Kejriwal Matri Sadan, sited in the heart of Bihar's Muzaffarpur district, is exploding with fear, panic and chaos over a ‘mystery' disease – a disease that has claimed the lives 36 children in less than two weeks. Screaming infants, convulsing in terrible pain, present a stark contrast to the smug, matter-of-fact versions of health...

Taking ahead its fight against corruption in schemes under MGNREGA, the Aruna Roy led Suchna Evum Rozgar Ka Adhikar Abhiyanhas begun work for bringing the glare of the Supreme Court and the Centre on cases of misappropriation in the state. The Abhiyan's move comes after alleged complacency by the state in handling these cases. And while the Abhiyan would be taking up the numerous cases where sarpanches have been found...