-The Indian Express It is a cruel irony that after the sacrifice they have been asked to undertake, they don’t even get the safety of physical distancing. Workers have lost hard-won rights, despite labour being the biggest contributor to the Indian growth story. There are no labour-day rallies, celebrations or meetings this year as everyone is under lockdown, fighting the Coronavirus through physical distancing. Nevertheless, it is a day for totting up...

-The Telegraph Govt should ensure infection did not slip into green zones Some public experts, while acknowledging India’s early initiatives to curb the spread of the novel Coronavirus, have expressed concern about what they believe are signals of inadequate planning and poorly coordinated responses to the pandemic. The Telegraph had requested former Union health secretary Kanuru Sujatha Rao, who had spent in the health sector 20 of her 36 years as an IAS...

-TheWire.in/ PTI The Centre on Wednesday relaxed lockdown guidelines enabling states to bring back people stranded at different places across the country. Ranchi: The Jharkhand government on Thursday said it would bring in new guidelines to widen the scope of work under the MGNREGA to provide jobs to migrant workers returning homes, and sent buses to West Bengal for bringing back people of the state stranded there due to the Coronavirus-triggered lockdown. Chief...

-Down to Earth The Union govt report had asked states to remove provisions that restricted migrants in accessing PDS benefits The Supreme Court asked the Union government on April 30, 2020 to consider adopting a ‘one nation, one ration card’ scheme for migrants stuck in cities due to the novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak. This has brought the spotlight on a 2017 government report on migration that emphasised that short-term migrants usually lose...

-Hindustan Times The government officials quoted the data, released by the Central government-run Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED), to highlight that Chhattisgarh’s purchase has been the highest in the country to alleviate the plight of the state’s poor forest dwellers and tribal villagers, who are dependent on the MFP for their livelihood. Raipur: Chhattisgarh government has announced that it has topped the country in the purchase of minor forest...