Maharashtra is the first state in India to adopt a reform policy in the water supply and sanitation sector. In Nanded, the first signs of this paradigm shift - from centralised decision-making to allowing village bodies to manage their water - are now evident. Meena Menon reports.

Nirmala Lathi has devised a method of vermiculture that enables plants to grow healthily using properly treated organic waste. Rasika Dhavse reports.

Rajani Mani tracks the spread of watershed development from Ralegan to Panoli in Maharashtra and notes that women have come to play a critical role.

Jaideep Hardikar reports on the precarious monsoon situation at the Narmada valley.

Why does meaningful resettlement for Narmada dam oustees in Maharashtra remain slow despite a state cabinet show of willingness in January 2004? An India Together report.

In the Lok Sabha polls, the BSP devastated the Congress-NCP alliance. In the Maharashtra elections, the Sonia Gandhi factor appears to have bailed the Congress out of big trouble. But this time, the BSP wrecked the BJP-Shiv Sena combine in many places, notes P Sainath.

Not least because affordable rental housing in Bombay is an urban myth, the jobs we invite our fellow Indians to fill so that we can have all those good things of a booming economy, are filled by people who have little choice but to live in slums. And then we raze those slum homes. Cavalier, says Dilip D'Souza.

Why were more than a dozen bills introduced late on the last day of the session, giving legislators no time to even read them? Why was there no debate? Questions are now being asked about how the Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority Bill was passed, reports P Sainath.

A new law could put irrigation beyond the reach of most farmers in Vidharbha. Huge hikes in water charges, penalties against farmers with more than two children, and prison terms and large fines for non-payment, all signal the transfer of agriculture to a few rich farmers, observes P Sainath.

A new publication released by a leading UN research organisation shows that municipal water utilities may make efficiency gains and meet increasing water demand by innovative revenue collection and limited private sector participation. Researchers studied 4 cities in Maharashtra. Surekha Sule reports.

Water-starved Vidharbha has a growing number of water parks and amusement centres. The iron laws of rural life don't apply in the entertainment complexes built right next to the poor. In a region that scarcely receives adequate water to meet people's drinking needs, there is plenty of water for the playgrounds of the rich, finds P Sainath.

The National Commission on Farmers team, the public at large, and even sections of the media have signalled the crisis, its causes and its appalling human toll. Failure to intervene in Vidharbha now has no excuses at all. P Sainath continues his series on Vidharbha's crisis.

Harvesting water in the lower elevations is easier, because a lot of it gathers there, but this may be too late and too little. Not only do those in higher reaches suffer without water, additionally valuable topsoil is washed away if no percolation takes place at higher levels. Surekha Sule reports from Marathwada.

In what is supposed to be an annual religious and cultural gathering, nothing is more mixed up than the speeches. Talks that start with the fine points of Gondi religion, its practice and ritual, inevitably delve into subjects with deeper socio-political resonance. From interior Maharashtra, Aparna Pallavi reports on the annual Kachhargarh fair.

Maharashtra's latest step towards water management has raised a large controversy, pitting strong views against one another. But lost amidst the arguments is an important fact - the solutions for our water crises are not going to be easy, because we've left ourselves very few options. M Rajshekhar reports.

While the sheer scale of the flooding in Mumbai last year made relief operations difficult, there was still much that the government could have done, but failed to do. The citizens themselves, were far more resourceful and sensitive to the plight of others, writes Darryl D'Monte, who served on the Concerned Citizens' Commission.

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.

"We are confused, whom should we believe in? The finance minister says action will be taken within 48 hours against officials who do not release the credit, and the babus say they have no notification," says sixty-year-old Tatyaji Panghate at Ghonsa in Zari Jamni block of Yavatmal. Jaideep Hardikar reports on more suicides in Vidarbha.

If the government thought Vidarbha's social bonds are crumbling due to the agrarian crisis, the region's best kept cultural secret -- Jhadipatti Rangbhoomi, a five-month-long theatre festival -- suggests that not all is wrong with the region. Jaideep Hardikar reports.

A Marathi booklet published by the Pune-based National Centre for Advocacy Studies reveals a number of lesser known facts about the latest controversy in Indian development - Special Economic Zones. From land-use patterns to crony land acquisition to the stake of real estate developers in Maharashtra, Aparna Pallavi sums it up.

While the idea of Bus Rapid Transit has merit, its implementation in Pune has created a poor first impression. Inadequate planning, lack of enforcement of dedicated lanes for buses, and haste in rolling out the project have all been criticised, and experts find much room for improvement. Vinita Deshmukh reports.

A systematic, participatory effort to map and understand the need for sanitation in Sangli's slums has helped Shelter Associates bring about a change in the mindset of civic officials and residents alike. Its director, Pratima Joshi believes this is a model that can be replicated in many other cities. Rasika Dhavse reports.

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.

A pilot privatisation effort in Mumbai's K East ward ignores the lessons from other such efforts, both in India and elsewhere. Worse still, proponents of privatisation show little regard for public particiaption, and reject other options at the outset. Shripad Dharmadhikary reports.

In Vidarbha, widowed women farmers have been hit hard by lack of viable farm credit. Quite a lot of women find themselves unable to carry out farm work in the absence of credit. Caught between fear and despair, their options are limited. Aparna Pallavi reports.

Four years, three men, one family. The tragedy unleashed by the agrarian crisis on the family of Deshmukhs in Katyar village of Vidarbha isn’t vanishing. Jaideep Hardikar reports.

Hundreds of farming families are making a beeline to Karanja from surrounding districts in the hope of a better education for their children. Although this has brought financial as well as a other problems, these families feel they have little choice. Aparna Pallavi reports.

In September, the Maharashtra Krishna Valley Development Corporation invited expressions of interest from private companies to build the canals for the Nira Deoghar dam on a Build Operate Transfer (BOT) basis. Everything about the process so far indicates the decision is not a well-thought out one, notes Shripad Dharmadhikary.

Vidarbha farmers are shifting to soybean and oilseeds as substitute, harangued by dipping cotton prices, highly volatile markets and withdrawal of government support. Jaideep Hardikar reports on the trend, the risks and the other alternatives for the farmers.

A village in rural Chandrapur, Maharashtra, plays match-maker for love-lorn couples marrying out of their castes, at 40 marriages and counting. Jaideep Hardikar finds out that behind the positive force of the village are a group of committed people.

In India's business capital, the NGO Sanmitra is helping HIV positive women re-enter the mainstream workforce, thereby ensuring them a life of independence and dignity. Sumita Thapar has more.

Shreekrishna Kalamb's life and musings as a poet-farmer symbolise the agrarian crisis that is wrecking havoc in the Vidarbha countryside. Kalamb ended his life last month, and his grieving daughter now hopes to publish the collection. Jaideep Hardikar reports.

Land acquisition from Vidarbha farmers for irrigation projects is become a case of cure worse than the disease. The new projects are being commissioned over the prime minister's relief package. Jaideep Hardikar digs deeper.

An appeal in the environment appellate authority that ought to have been a clear case of evidence and cross evidence has instead thrown up something new - a case of a project being upheld despite the objections to it being true. Kanchi Kohli reports.

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.

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.

The Maharashtra Water Resources Regulatory Authority calls a halt to the privatisation of the Nira Deoghar dam, citing contradictions in the laws governing water management. Shripad Dharmadhikary reports.

Proposals for mining in the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve are pending at New Delhi for environmental clearance. Conservationists have warned against proceeding, while the state's politicians are for the mining. Jaideep Hardikar digs deeper.

Integrated river management is a serious business, and without proper attention can lead to politically difficult situations even within a single state, as seen in Maharashtra this year. Parineeta Dandekar reports.

A tragic accident at the Chinchave Minor Irrigation Project in Maharashtra brings into focus long-simmering questions over the quality of minor irrigation works as well as the nexus between engineers and contractors. Parineeta Dandekar takes a look.

As studies continue to highlight the potential health hazards posed by cell phones, Mumbai citizens are seen demanding stricter regulation and removal of cell phone towers from sensitive areas, but authorities respond with half-baked measures. Darryl D'Monte reports.

The report of the Kelkar Committee on balanced development in Maharashtra has important recommendations. But will it all come to nought because of its failure to avoid some conventional pitfalls? Shripad Dharmadhikary explores.

The Mumbai municipal authorities have delivered a draft 20-year development plan for the city, but implementation of many of the proposals therein could well deliver the final blow to a city already gasping for breath, says Darryl D’Monte.

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.

Mumbai’s port land should be redeveloped to benefit, among others, the dock workers and slum dwellers, says a recently released report by city based NGOs Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA) and Hamara Shehar Vikas Niyojan Abhiyaan. Darryl D’Monte analyses the report.

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.

For seven years women and children of the rural districts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have been deprived of essential health services so that the polio eradication campaign could go on. On World Health Day, Abhijit Das points out that this need not be.

People from several villages in Bihar are opposing the construction of a pair of embankments on the Bagmati river and have stopped work on one of them. Less visible behind their cries is a state administration that seems to be set on continuing a history of trapping villages in flood waters, reports Dinesh Mishra.

Since 1963, there have been repeated breaches in the Kosi's embankments, causing tremendous loss and tragedy. Yet, Bihar's governments have made little headway and argue each year as if the problems were new, says Dinesh Kumar Mishra.

When Neelam Devi and her children stepped into their courtyard, the sight that greeted them was a painful reminder of the Kosi river calamity that had forced them to leave in the first place. Manisha Prakash reports.