Report filed by the Additional Secretary, Local Self Government Department, Kerala in the matter of Tribunal on its own motion Suo Motu based on the report dated 26.06.2023 received from Hon’ble Justice A.V. Ramakrishna Pillai on the Present Status of Waste dump site at Cubaloor in Mangalpady Panchayat, Kasargod District, …
The Sundarban delta region in the Bay of Bengal, with 10,000 square kilometres of estuarine mangrove forest and 102 islands, is the world's largest delta. The land here is an eerie muddle of landmass and sea, with mudflats and waves engaged in unrelenting battle. Constantly lashed by cyclonic storms and …
When bad management and increasing demand for inland fish led to plummeting stocks, fishing villages around the Ashtamudi estuary in Kollam district, Kerala, have come up with their own solution. Fisherfolk, now earmark a certain area of the estuary to allow young fish to grow
Intention and execution are not always related. That's the Swajaldhara lesson. Swajaldhara is a national-level rural water supply scheme that seeks to put in place a people-oriented, decentralised and demand-driven water management regime. To this end, it aims at utilising pachayati raj institutions across the country, empowering them in the …
In the face of mounting protests against the Comprehensive Wasteland Development Project (cwdp), the characteristically intractable chief minister (cm) of Tamil Nadu (tn), J Jayalalithaa, has been forced to climb down partially. The state government's ambitious programme has been in the eye of a storm ever since it was conceived …
In theory, rainwater harvesting can drought-proof every village in India. In theory, drought-proofing requires strong and functioning village-level institutions. Travelling through Chattisgarh state
Atal Behari Vajpayee, India's Prime Minister (pm), is terribly interested in rural development. On his birthday he inaugurated Swajaldhara, a nation-wide water conservation programme, and promised a drought-stricken rural populace that every village would have water by 2004. In December 2002 he addressed and heard out a rare gathering of …
Bathing daily is now a punishable offence in three gram panchayats of Andhra Pradesh. The village bodies in Mellacheruvu mandal of Nalgonda district have ruled that villagers will bathe once in four days and wash clothes once every 10 days to save water. Those who defy the diktat will be …
Recurrent droughts and floods coupled with mass poverty, chronic unemployment and pervasive malnutrition are the major challenges before India. The Union government usually responds by complaining about truant rains and doles out funds in an arbitrary manner. As an alternative, I propose a nationwide watershed development programme through the statutory …
on december 25, 2002, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee unveiled an ambitious scheme to provide drinking water to all villages in the country by April 2004. The project, called
celebrations should ideally have marked the tenth anniversary of Panchayati Raj institutions (pris), which are often described as world's largest experiment in decentralised governance. Even Prime Minister (pm) Atal Bihari Vajpayee had wanted the occasion to be commemorated in the winter session of parliament. Instead, the house did not list …
The heavy influx of tourists into sleepy, coconut tree-fringed Saligao is no longer welcome. This Goan village has not been able to live down the reputation it acquired in the late 1960s as a popular hippy haunt. To this day, it is a riotous and overgrown tourism centre. It is …
if states like Madhya Pradesh and Kerala showed the way, Maharashtra appears to have taken it a step further. And that's good news for the people. By bringing out an ordinance to amend the Gram Panchayat Act, thus ensuring empowerment to the gram sabha (village assembly) and right to information, …
Heads of panchayati raj institutions have aggressively set the government a deadline to amend the Indian constitution and implement changes that would forcibly impact and empower Village India. It would give villages control over natural resources like water, minor forest produce and minerals, which at present lies with the state …
The saga of panchayati raj, particularly from the time of introduction of Constitution 73rd Amendment, has been full of hope and despair. While the amendment has certainly propelled participatory process at the local level and provided avenues for social mobility of the weaker sections, the states have yet to devolve …
JHARKHAND. FOR most, the word conjures up the happy image of a fledgling state finding its feet. But for the indigenous people of Saranda it has come to signify an unending struggle to save their way of life and habitat. Worse still, the authorities solely blame the tribal communities for …
He loves to dabble with pumps. Fourteen-year-old Sukumal Dutta along with the other members of the community has undergone training as a mechanic for diesel pumpsets. With help from the NBTDP, the conventional diesel pump which used to lift water was modified to increase the overall efficiency, reduce cost and …
Our stock brokers can learn a few things about rising and falling prices from the Rabha tribe. Sheetin Rabha is a dynamic and wise women. Her group of 24 members decided to invest and took Rs 600 from their deposits and purchased 480 kg of rice. The price of paddy …
Devastating floods ruined Bhavesh Mandal's crops in the late 1960s. The hapless farmer had no option but to migrate to Mumbai and work as a masonry worker with no roof over his head. However, thanks to the North Bengal Terai Development Project ( nbtdp ), today Bhavesh is back in …
for the first time in many years, the village of Lava-ka-Baas in Alwar district, Rajasthan, got water just a month ago. With the first showers of monsoon, its 500-odd residents saw the traditional water harvesting structure that they had built in their village fill up with water. And joyfully they …
