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Diversion of forest land denounced


The grant of close to 10000 acres of forest land in Chitradurga district for non-forestry purposes threatens the ecology as well as the means of subsistence of local communities, leading irate villagers to decide to boycott the impending State Assembly elections. Malini Shankar reports.




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Wanted: A clamour for better governance


Bangalore, once the poster-boy of new age India and its development, is now crumbling, having been sorely let down by the administration and politics of the state. As Karnataka heads for polls, Subramaniam Vincent, discusses the prospects and necessary preconditions for change with independent MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar.




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Both of India's politics on display in KA


There are two spheres of politics being played out in India at present. One is patronage, and the second, aspirational. During the just concluded Karnataka assembly elections, both were seen. More and more people are waking up to the aspirational one, writes Subramaniam Vincent




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What makes world class cities?


Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised Bengaluru world class infrastructure on the eve of elections in Karnataka, recently. Subramaniam Vincent exposed the farce in a letter to him.




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Violating laws, making losses, damaging environment


Teesta Urja’s penchant for getting into trouble and illegalities continues unabated. Soumik Dutta reports.




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A balwadi in every village


An India Together interview with Nirmalatai Purandare, of the Vanasthali Rural Development Centre.




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Lady Courage


From being deprived of the most basic liberties, Anita Dhangda has travelled many miles, and the lessons of that passage make her determined to succeed in her new role.




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My fair lady


Kalpana Sharma on accepting and welcoming differences.




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Latur : a long journey


A decade ago, Latur was devastated by an earthquake, but the women have emerged stronger from the disaster, says Meena Menon.




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One village, one computer


Is information technology any use to poor and uneducated populations? 1V1C has trained villagers not only to use computers, but to put them to productive use in solving local problems. Surekha Sule reports.




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Maharashtra: The last lap


It needed the final week of an election campaign to force the most minimal attention, if that, towards the real issues people worry about. P Sainath looks at the balance of interests in pre-election Maharashtra.




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Classes everywhere, not a stop to think


Many teenagers in Mumbai are spending their evenings on the "untiring toil" of tuitions, trying to learn what their teachers should have been teaching them in junior college but don't. This is a system that unthinkingly takes away these kids' leisure time, says Dilip D'Souza.




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Cheques and balances, farmers have none


Thousands of cotton farmers in Maharashtra are due money from the state's procurement agency -- the marketing federation -- for the 2004-5 season. Though officials maintain that they have released payments, farmers are not getting money from the banks. Jaideep Hardikar reports.




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Mortgages are out, land grab is in


Farmers weighed down by debt are now falling prey to land grab by an array of predators that includes talatis and school teachers. A "proper" deed of sale is the preferred method. P Sainath continues his series on Vidharbha's crisis.




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Another farmer ends life, villagers distraught


"In the time of crisis, when no helping hand is coming forward to rescue us, we have to manage ourselves," says Bhagwat Jadhav, a resident of Bondgavhan village in Vidarbha. His neighour, cotton farmer Ramesh Rathod committed suicide recently. "It could be our turn tomorrow," says a worried Jadhav. Jaideep Hardikar reports.




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Power-play, for the people


Chandrakant Pathak has invented power-generation gadgets tailored especially for rural energy needs. As Pathak's gadgets are gaining popularity in rural areas of Pune district and several neighbouring districts in Maharashtra, state energy development agencies are taking note, reports Aparna Pallavi.




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Suicide in a distant land


In Vidarbha, where over a thousand farmers have taken their own lives in last the four years over unabated distress, Venkanna Ramayya Rayee's suicide has an unusual edge. A farmer from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, his name won't figure as an entry in the suicide ledger in either state. Jaideep Hardikar has more.




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Pune's draft development plan under a cloud


A Standard & Poor-controlled firm is appointed to draft Pune's city development plan (CDP) in secrecy. An iron curtain of "don't ask us questions" appears when information about the contract is asked for. And then, the plan itself is botched up, violating the 74th Constitutional Amendment. Sheela Barse investigates.




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The transformation of Kavthepiran village


Amongst a number of other problems, this village in Sangli district, Maharashtra, was ridden with alcoholism and disease for over two decades. Since 2001, that began to change. Kavthepiran made a turnaround, banned alcoholism, and won a national award for 100 per cent sanitation this year. Vinita Deshmukh reports.




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Compact biogas plant making waves


Biogas plants are not new, but their size, relative unwieldyness and reliance on large quantities of cattle dung have held back their potential attractiveness for the domestic cooking sector. That may change soon, thanks to the ingenuity of Dr Anand Karve. Vinita Deshmukh reports about Karve's new award-winning compact plant.




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RG/PG - new twist to land grabs


Recreation and play grounds in the nation's commercial capital may soon be handed over to 'caretakers' with liberal concessions for builders and developers. Meanwhile, bona fide caretakers of public spaces, who've been doing the corporation's job for it for years, find new hurdles. Darryl D'Monte reports.




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Bit by byte, IT firms make rural plans


Technology majors are keen to establish direct contact with potential customers in rural areas, and setting up computer kiosks is an important step in this direction. These first steps are hardly catalytic, but that has not deterred the companies, which are thinking of markets far into the future. Gagandeep Kaur reports.




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A flawed model for water regulation


Scrutiny of the Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority Act shows that the progressive promises of its wording are likely to be belied. Partly this is because of fundamental flaws in its structure, but it is also partly because it reinforces the standard World Bank pattern of reforms, writes Shripad Dharmadhikary.




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Land titles don't come easy for farm widows


More and more land in Vidarbha has come under women's cultivation, but pressures of culture and family economics are still strongly against their title to land itself. But increasingly, women are coming out to assert their rights, reports Aparna Pallavi.




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In Maharashtra, the government loves calamities


A audit of the Maharashtra government's post-flood disaster relief expenditure of the last two years has thrown up plenty of instances of misuse of funds. The audit has also gone into the causes of floods turning out to be disasters. Himanshu Upadhyaya has more.




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Snakes and Ladders arming children against disasters


Pune-based firm Neeti Solutions has designed a unique version of the popular game Snakes and Ladders, aimed at teaching children about fires and earthquakes and how to cope best in such situations. Rasika Dhavse has more.




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Fighting to learn in their language


For a miniscule community of East-Bengali origin living in in Maharashtra, it has been a long struggle for the right to learn in their mother tongue. The community has won some victories recently, and much more remains to be done. Aparna Pallavi reports.




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CAG report slams Vidarbha waiver package


The Comptroller and Auditor General's audit of relief packages for Vidarbha's farmers finds that they were tardy in implementation, mindless in conceptualisation and "inconsistent with local needs." The state government has skirted debate. Jaideep Hardikar on the indictment.




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Still fighting, in a maze of law and usury


Up against a political shylock and wiping his tears and looking skywards for some divine intervention, Tukaram Kandalkar, farmer in Amaravati, Vidarbha, tells his lawyer with folded hands: “Do anything, but save me from losing my land.” Jaideep Hardikar reports.




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Old Port Trust lands on the dock


The Mumbai Port Trust land, three times the size of the mills, could provide vital space for housing and much-needed lung space. But the absence of proper planning and prioritisation does not portend well, writes Darryl D'Monte.




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The key to speeding up languishing RTI appeals


Maharashtra's RTI activists recently attended and recorded hearings at the state's Information Commission and identified why pendency of disposals is building up: Information Commissioners were not hearing cases for not more than two hours per day. Shailesh Gandhi has more.




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Milkmen of a dying village


Shivangaon, a village near Nagpur produces a staggering Rs.25-29 crores worth of milk each year. Government-led land acquisition here for a new cargo hub is hurting the local economy, reports Jaideep Hardikar.




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Nagpur cargo hub plan drives villagers desparate


Maharashtra's Vilasrao Deshmukh-government is asking the private sector not to go about acquiring land for projects if the farmers are opposed. Shivangaon is the hypocritical face of the state government itself. Jaideep Hardikar reports.




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Selling thick and fast: land and dreams


A hillock along this layout is blissfully peaceful. In that sense, the place is perhaps akin to heaven, indeed. But electricity, water and roads? Well.... Jaideep Hardikar has more.




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Nagpur's land party: risky, unregulated


What the developer gives against the money is just a token receipt – no land title or legal holding deed. And you are supposed to be owner of one of the plots! But where is the land located? Jaideep Hardikar has more.




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A new home, but in a nala!


Shakuntala Pawra knew that her home would be submerged by the backwaters of the Narmada dam, so she accepted the government's offer of resettlement. Except, she is drowning there too. Neeta Deshpande reports.




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Bombay HC sets aside dubious circular


Once an offence is disclosed under the Prevention of Corruption Act, then the police must investigate, rules the court, and any government circular that interferes with this must be ignored. Krishnaraj Rao reports.




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Planning for Mumbai


If you hire consultants who are not familiar with the local terrain, they are apt to provide solutions which do not conform with the situation on the ground. Mumbai's latest self-vision exercise bears this out, writes Darryl D'Monte.




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Pie in the planning sky


In a city of vast homelessness, can economic growth in the services sector alone lift millions out of poverty? Mumbai's new vision of the future pitches for reclamation and densification, but not jobs and livelihoods. Darryl D'Monte reports.




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Not your land anymore


Adivasis in the Thane region face official as well as illegal efforts to separate them from their lands, which are increasingly in demand to meet growing urban needs. Freny Manecksha reports.




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A village with 60 millionaires!


Once impoverished and drought-prone, Hiware Bazar in Maharashtra is a shining example of how a visionary leader can use good governance to make degraded areas resource-rich and transform the future of its people through empowerment and inspiration. Ramesh Menon reports.




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The catch regarding Mumbai’s fishing villages


Fishing villages in Mumbai are probably more threatened than those in other cities, due to the dizzy densification of the country’s commercial capital, writes Darryl D’Monte.




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Lessons for rural electrification from a weaving village


If electrification drives remain focused only on village electrification, connections and lighting, 'Gaaon Ka Vikaas Garv Ke Saath' will remain just rhetoric. Anjali Sharma, Ann Josey, and Sreekumar N report.




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Thirty-four years of irregularities and failures


The recently released CAG audit report on Maharashtra has heavily criticized the time and cost overruns in Gosikhurd irrigation project in Vidarbha. Himanshu Upadhyaya analyses the report to list the shortcomings of the project.




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Playing politics with floods


An indifferent political system, trading of charges between state and central governments, and the apathy of the Water Resources Department have together created and compounded the misery of floods in Bihar. When floods struck this year, all the measures collapsed like a house of cards, which again is not a new phenomenon, writes Dinesh Kumar Mishra.




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The curse of Kala-azar


Left to fend for themselves while their men are away looking for work elsewhere, poor women find themselves trapped between the quackery of the limited medical attention they can access and the social binds of their families. Puja Awasthi reports.




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कटरीना की तरह Flat Belly पाने के लिए करें ये काम, फॉलो करें उनका फिटनेस मंत्र

कटरीना के फिटनेस को लेकर बात करें तो वह अक्सर वर्कआउट करती नजर आती हैं. वह वॉटर योगा से लेकर पिलाटेस तक करती हैं.




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Gardening Tips: हवा को शुद्ध करने के लिए घर में लगाएं ये Indoor Plants

नासा (NASA) के वैज्ञानिकों हवाले से लिखा है कि 'पौधों की जड़ें और उनसे जुड़े सूक्ष्मजीव तब रोगजनक वायरस, बैक्टीरिया और कार्बनिक रसायनों को नष्ट करते हैं.




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सेलेना गोमेज हो चुकी हैं Bipolar Disorder का शिकार, जानिए इस बीमारी के लक्षण

सेलेना गोमेज ने एक इंटरव्यू के दौरान खुलासा किया था कि उन्हें बाइपोलर डिसऑर्डर हो गया था. सेलेना के मुताबिक, जब उन्हें बाइपोलर डिसऑर्डर होने की जानकारी मिली थी तो वो डर गई थीं.




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Public Places पर जाने से पहले जरूर पढ़ लें गृह मंत्रालय की ये गाइडलाइंस

गृह मंत्रालय ने कोविड-19 से बचाव के लिए दिशा-निर्देश जारी किए हैं. अब लोगों को पब्लिक प्लेस या सार्वजनिक स्थलों पर जाने से पहले कई तरह के नियमों का सख्ती से पालन करना होगा.