This study investigates a community-owned and managed model of solar irrigation (led by women self-help groups) implemented by Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN) in the Bastar district of Chhattisgarh. It aims to assess the impact of irrigation access on agricultural incomes. The study also highlights the challenges and roadblocks …
Farmers allege compensation not enough A group of men is sitting under a grove, playing a game of cards at noon. Around them, thousands of acres of land, mostly arable, lie dotted with small hamlets. There are no roads, just dust tracks that wind around low limestone stocks and through …
NMDC, whose presence in Bailadila predates the Naxal problem, now pours money into security and faces issues of despatching the ore India’s finest iron ore deposits rise abruptly from the forest floor — 32 km of undulating massiveness, four km wide and over 1,260 metres above sea level at its …
The Government's own data shows that its flagship scheme of providing work for at least 100 days in a year for each rural household under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has failed miserably. A mere 3.08 per cent of NREGA job card-holders got 100 days' work …
I received a press handout issued by southern Bastar division of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) on 24 April in the evening. The news about district collector Alex Paul Menon being “kidnapped” had already become an issue of deep concern. The Maoist press release concludes with a set of …
Chhattisgarh: The Centre approves the diversion of forest land for the Tatas' proposed steel plant in Bastar. India's hinterland, densely forested and mineral-rich but inhabited by extremely poor and vulnerable tribal people, is witnessing a saga of broken promises, dislocation, deprivation and disempowerment in the name of development. Whether it …
The name may have stuck, but it’s the Chhattisgarh part of the densely forested Naxal hotbed that is really ‘Abujhmaad’. As one drives on to Maharashtra, the first half of that name — abujh or “unknown” — falls by the wayside, thanks to policies pursued by successive governments in this …
Country's top iron ore producer NMDC plans to invest Rs 3,513 crore on its upcoming 3 million tonne per annum capacity steel plant at Nagarnar in Chhattisgarh. According to the Budget documents, the state-owned firm has kept a capital expenditure target of Rs 4,655 crore in the next fiscal and …
The UPA government has decided to allow cash payment of wages to workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in a desperate bid to increase demand for jobs that had gone down due to delayed payment of remuneration. Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh on Monday …
Bastar Adivasis Get A Pittance; Reds, Officials Make Money In Tandem Raipur: In inky blue darkness, Bargu and Sunita stir their children out of slumber and drag them to the forest. As dawn breaks, the family gets down to work, plucking leaves from short bushes, short enough for even four-year-old …
Twenty six-year-old Soyam Hunga has stayed in the Errabore Salwa Judum camp in Chhattisgarh for six years. He is from village Morguda in Dantewada district and moved to the camp, 30 kilometres away, to escape Naxalites. For the first five years, Soyam and his wife did not need to work …
Due to frequent newspaper reports about violence in Bastar region due to conflicts between leftist extremists and state agencies, there was a palpable fear in the air. Some of the older shodhyatris were deterred by the incidents which happened only a few days before the commencement of the yatra. But …
Providing a much-needed fillip to Tata Steel, a high-powered committee of the environment and forests ministry has recommended granting environmental clearance to the company
Among the tribals of Bastar, monsoon months are known as haduk. They are the lean months when grains in the house are used up in sowing and the new harvest is yet to arrive. It is a time to go creative with food, a time for trying out nutritious and …
R.K. Jain A public sector company successfully took solar lighting systems to a sceptical tribal population in Bastar. In 2008, the public sector company, Central Electronics Limited, undertook a major solar electrification programme in the tribal villages of Bastar in Chhattisgarh. It was co-funded by the Union Ministry of Tribal …
Farmers of the state will get such variety of mustard seeds which will mature within short period and will be with more oil content. The Regional Agriculture Research Centre, Morena of the Rajmata Vijayaraje Agriculture University has developed a new variety of mustard seed, 'Rajmata Mustard-1'. This has proved successful …
Subhomoy Bhattacharjee Raipur: The sal seed harvested by tribals through large parts of Naxalism-affected districts of Orissa and Chhattisgarh is bought by global chocolate manufacturers. But those chocolates cannot come to India. Under the Food and Adulteration Act, use of butter extracted from sal seed in place of cocoa is …
Subhomoy Bhattacharjee Jagdalpur: Last week, a 50-km road reached Kandagaon in Bastar district of Chhattisgarh. Health workers, teachers and business people can now reach Narayanpur, headquarters of the adjacent district
Villagers protesting against the proposed steel plant of Tatas in Bastar brutally assaulted an administrative offier when he went to an affected village to start project work. The official, Naib Tehsildar P R Magaria, suffered head injuries and was admitted to a government hospital in Jagdalpur, the divisional headquarters of …
Personnel of the security forces interact with members of Salwa Judum, a vigilante group raised to fight naxalites. A file photograph. A large number of villagers who suffered at the hands of this group are yet to be rehabilitated despite a government promise to his effect. ONE week after the …
