-Down to Earth   14.5 per cent decline in employment under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, says country's chief auditor The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India recently released a report on Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS), highlighting the irregularities committed by the Uttar Pradesh government in implementing the scheme. CAG has pointed out that non-adherence to rules and regulations and inefficient financial management and monitoring of the...

-The Hindu     "Workers may take their families with them when they leave" BHUBANESWAR: The large-scale devastation caused by cyclone Phailin in Odisha's Ganjam district is expected to trigger ‘distress migration' of hordes of affected people to faraway places such as Chennai, Mumbai, Goa, Surat and Ahmedabad. Experts on migration and activists working on the ground warned that the flight of workers was imminent from Ganjam, which traditionally sends half a million migrant labourers...

-The Hindu The area will turn into a ‘no-go zone' for mining and thermal power plants The Environment Ministry has decided to turn approximately 60,000 square kilometres of the Western Ghats across six States into an Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA), banning mining, quarrying, thermal power plants and polluting industries over the entire range. All other projects would be allowed only with the prior consent of gram sabhas (village councils) in the zone. The...

-The Times of India CHANDIGARH: In an attempt to cleanse their image, especially after their opposition to marriages in the name of traditions, the khap panchayats have decided to support inter-caste marriages in Haryana. However, a section of social activists have termed it as a gimmick in view of the continuing honour killings, saying, "The khaps incite villagers in the name of so-called traditions." Apart from same-gotra and same-village marriages, khaps have...

-The Hindu Victims allegedly suffered deprivation and torture at the work place Erode: Forty-seven young labourers, including 24 from Chhattisgarh and 12 from Assam, most of them girls, were rescued from bondage in P.V. Spinning Mill at Vinnapalli village near Sathyamangalam in Erode district by a team of officials on Monday night. The remaining 11 workers are all girls belonging to various parts of Tamil Nadu. Twenty of the youngsters from Chhattisgarh and...