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.

Land rate has soared to staggering Rs.1-5 crores per acre on the outskirts of Nagpur, driven by the hype created by the proposed Multi-Modal International Hub and Airport at Nagpur project and the adjoining Special Economic Zone. Jaideep Hardikar has more.

As winter chill sets in, Vidarbha farmers are beginning to feel the heat of massive losses, besotted as they are by worries over the hungry months ahead. “It’s the worst crop year I’ve ever seen,” notes farmers’ leader Vijay Jawandhia. Jaideep Hardikar reports.

Shattered by a complete failure of crop this year, and looming debt, the three-acre farmer in Yavatmal, Mahrashtra, followed what tens of other farmers have done in Vidarbha in the past. Jaideep Hardikar reports.

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.

The deserted areas of Wadala lie cheek by jowl with a Mumbai Port Trust goods terminal. It lacks public transport and other amenities, but the MMRDA is hell-bent on spending Rs.4128 crores to erect a skyscraper here. Darryl D'Monte 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.

The courts and the police have cracked down on intense noise from motorists' honking in Mumbai's traffic, and the city has recently declared a big chunk of its territory off-limits to road noise. Darryl D'Monte reports.

There are more fronts in the fray across the State this time. And with multi-cornered contests in almost all seats, there could be some major upsets, writes P Sainath.

Will the Congress-NCP gain from a multiplicity of fronts which could dissipate the anti-Congress vote? Or will the Shiv Sena-BJP benefit from the Third Front's cutting into the Congress-NCP vote?

The Assembly elections saw the culture of 'coverage packages' explode across Maharashtra. In many cases, a candidate just had to pay for almost any coverage at all. P Sainath reports.

The huge mismatch between the Chief Minister's stated accounts and the dozens of full pages of 'news' will surely re-stoke the debate over what has now come to be called 'paid news,' writes P Sainath.

The same exclusive report, with different bylines, in three rival dailies. Swathes of advertising dolled up as news stories. Is 'paid news' getting institutionalised, asks P Sainath.

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.

The Acorn Foundation India Trust aims to organise ragpickers and train them in scientific methods of waste handling, segregation and recycling, bringing a measure of respect to their work. Freny Manecksha reports.

In Pune, bureaucratic meddling and lack of vision are threatening a simple, cost-effective eco-technology which treats heavily polluted water and turns messed-up water bodies into clean ones, reports Surekha Sule.

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.

Reuters Market Light, a professional content service, has been changing the way Vidarbha farmers make decisions on sowing, selling farm produce, and other important matters and increase their profits. Jaideep Hardikar reports.

In the 1960s, Maharashtra ended famine forever by passing an Act that deleted the word 'famine' from all laws of the State. It's an idea that is still in fashion, writes P Sainath.

There has been substantial resistance to the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Park being set up in Konkan region of Maharashtra, in Ratnagiri district. The political consensus for nuclear power has once against brushed aside legitimate local concerns, writes Surekha Sule.

NPCIL and the political establishment are burying their heads in the sand over the controversial nuclear plants on the Konkan coast, which will affect the lives of people in the entire region. Darryl D'Monte reports.

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.

Girl children who were given names that reflected their unwanted status are being renamed in Maharashtra, in a new initiative to reverse the decline in sex ratio. Freny Manecksha reports.

The State has quietly pushed through a set of changes to the way it treats RTI applications. Activists discovered it quite accidentally, and are shocked. Krishnaraj Rao writes.

Tamasha, a traditional dance form in Maharashtra for ages, is now dying. Audiences have new preferences, fashioned more by Bollywood than tradition. Ramesh Menon reports.

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.

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.

The fact that the state's most drought-prone regions have continued to devote precious resources for highly water-intensive sugarcane cultivation and sugar production indicates that there is more to the region's water crisis than climatic conditions alone. Parineeta Dandekar analyses.

A dam that was sanctioned upon its claims of being able to irrigate 30,000 hectares in a semi-arid area of Maharashtra does not even have canals 18 years after initiation, but spawns industrial development! Findings by Parineeta Dandekar typify the issues of many large dams in the state.

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.

The Zero Garbage pilot project in Pune's Katraj ward illustrates the critical elements of a successful and sustainable waste management initiative in the Indian context. Ayrel Clark-Proffitt, Saroj Badgujar, Sunil Agarwal explain how.

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.

Thousands of landless villagers in Maharashtra's Marathwada region are forced to take up sugarcane harvesting for lack of better livelihood alternatives. Shirish Khare visits the region and uncovers the rampant exploitation and hardships for workers that these contracts entail.

Jackfruit from the farm of Maharashtra's Prakash Sawanth yielded fruit in a record two years, an unheard of agricultural phenomenon in the country. Shrikrishna D reports on the many specialities of the new variety.

While state atrocities against Pardhi communities show few signs of abatement, a small school in Mahadev Basti in Usmanabad, Maharashtra brings a ray of hope. Shirish Khare reports.

India's commercial capital suffers from a deplorable lack of open spaces and falls far below both national and global standards in that respect. Clearly, the BMC is not tuned in to the requirements, as Darryl D'Monte shows in his report on the draft development plan for the city.

The plan to erect 12 dams in order to meet the water requirements of cities in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region is not only objectionable from an environmental perspective, but also undermines the priorities laid out by the 12th Five Year Plan. Shripad Dharmadhikary reports.

While formal education on climate change is largely structured around doctrines and laws targeted at mature minds, some have realised the importance of building awareness and inspiring action among the younger brigade.Angelica Pereira reports from Mumbai.

Even before the first line of the much-anticipated Mumbai Metro becomes functional, a number of issues have cropped up, most notably one over the pricing of tickets. Darryl D’Monte tracks the arguments, with comparisons to metro rail elsewhere.

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.

Sachin Tendulkar’s letter to the Maharashtra CM Fadnavis, urging him to reduce toll posts in the state, may just encourage the state further to execute its plan of exempting private cars and SUVs from such charges. Darryl D’Monte argues why that is entirely unjustifiable.

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.

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.

The lofty aim of land re-distribution to the poor fell short for a number of reasons, but the most cruel of them is that the state failed to play its role. Videh Upadhyay urges change, even at this late hour.

Rather than rouse themselves to respond when floods strike, state governments seize the opportunity to play financial games with the Centre, says Dinesh Mishra.

Although most members of the Mahila Shanti Sena are illiterate labourers, they are very aware of the strength of thier force, and the importance of their role in society. Alka Arya reports on a women's movement that is tackling complex social and economic questions with a deep conviction for peace.

Half a century of harvests ago, the plans to control the flooding of the Kosi river got underway. The lives of those who live within its embankments have never been the same again; successive governments have failed them, and the practices that brought them such misery have remained firmly in place, notes Dinesh Mishra.