Good Food is First Food. It is not junk food. It is the food that connects nature and nutrition with livelihoods. This food is good for our health; it comes from the rich biodiversity of our regions; it provides employment to people. Most importantly, cooking and eating give us pleasure. …
Free seeds for replanting crops with government bearing maintenance cost Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Wednesday announced a package of relief measures for cyclone-hit farmers in the State. The package includes distribution of seeds free of cost for replanting horticultural crops such as coconut, cashew and jackfruit with the government bearing …
To overcome the delay in payment of wages to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) workers in Jharkhand, allegedly owing to administrative apathy, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has piloted a project in Jharkhand. Under the project, online authentication and Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) …
Under the Professional Institutional Networking (PIN) of Ministry of Rural Development, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) sanctioned the Impact Assessment study in three districts namely Sirsa in Haryana, Sirmaur in Himachal Pradesh and Hoshiarpur in Punjab. NREGS was started in the first phase in these selected districts.
Call to make PDS universal in scope The Federation of the Cuddalore District Consumer Forums has urged the Centre to drop the move to press ahead with the Food Security Bill because it seeks to edge out several lakhs of families living below the poverty line from the purview of …
Fixing of minimum wages in the States and under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is set to become a poll issue, at least in Uttar Pradesh. Even as the Ministry of Rural Development is hurrying to revise the wage rate under the MGNREGS next week, its officials …
Fixing of minimum wages in the States and under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme is set to become a poll issue, at least in Uttar Pradesh. Even as the Ministry of Rural Development is hurrying to revise the wage rate under the MGNREGS next week, its officials …
Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh is learnt to have reluctantly agreed to file an appeal against a Karnataka High Court verdict in September that NREGS wages cannot be fixed lower than what is prescribed under the Minimum Wages Act. For over a month, Ramesh was opposed to the idea of …
The right to food law is politically smart; it should be used to spur farm reform On Sunday, long after media had written reams about policy paralysis, India’s Cabinet cleared a law that will supply cheap foodgrains to millions of the poor. This is probably the most politically savvy step …
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar revealed on Sunday that the State was in talks about utilising the labour under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) for agriculture, to bridge the shortage of supply of farm labour. “The State government is discussing whether …
Independent agency to assess NREGA implementation in Meghalaya SHILLONG: The State Government is contemplating creation of an independent agency for social audit to assess the various Central flagship programmes being implemented in the State. Initially, the Government is planning to create this independent agency to assess the implementation of the …
Bhubaneswar: In a significant move, the Odisha government has decided to release the entire burden of mineral royalty on minor minerals from the poor. Odisha is the first state to effect such a change. The steel and mines department issued an order to this effect on Thursday. Bringing an amendment …
Aizwal: The new land use policy scheme (NLUP)of the Mizoram Government is helping to generate employment for thousands of people living in the rural and far flung areas of the state. After being unsuccessful in getting a job, Renawma, a young graduate living in the Kolasib district of Mizoram, registered …
In the first high-level red-flag against the UPA government’s flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that while assets created under the NREGA “may or may not have productive use”, the programme was “adversely” impacting the agriculture sector …
A unique grassland habitat for rare bird species is all set to come up in Shonkalia region of Ajmer district in Rajasthan, extending support to two endangered birds of the desert State and also providing structured grazing facility to the cattle within the same zone for roughly six months a …
JAIPUR: Half-a-dozen top bureaucrats of the state government faced flak from the Rajasthan High Court on Thursday for failing to take effective measures to remove encroachments from the Ramgarh Dam's catchment area. The court granted last chance to the bureaucrats to formulate a policy to protect the state's water bodies …
After creating a storm over demand for CBI probe into the irregularities in implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) in Uttar Pradesh, Union minister of rural development Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday said that the Centre has released another `1,200 crores for the poll- bound state unde-r the …
Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh is caught in a predicament having to play a dual role in dealing with the chief ministers of Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal in a bid to protect his party's interests in the two States. Mr. Ramesh has been using a carrot and …
Despite Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh’s attempt to corner the Mayawati-led Uttar Pradesh government over the issue of alleged irregularities in the implementation of NREGS, the Ministry on Tuesday sanctioned Rs 1,200 crore for the state. This takes the total disbursement for the scheme to Rs 3,549 in the current …
After the four-laning of National Highway, no agriculture activities were taken up on this land. However, now the farmers have a ray of hope of cultivating paddy thrice a year. Water stagnated on farm land at Arkulabail. Thanks to a retaining wall which is under construction adjacent to the farm …
New Delhi Cutting across party lines, most state governments have objected to the National Food Security Bill proposed by the Centre, which is likely to be tabled in the Winter Session of Parliament. Their objections range from seeking powers to decide on criteria that would make a person eligible as …
