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

In recent times, Ganesh Utsav festivities in Pune have adapted to environmental concerns, says Rasika Dhavse.

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.

Shahid Burney, a Pune-based editor-journalist recently used the Right to Information law to precipitate the transfer of a number of state police officers whose postings violated Election Commission norms. An India Together interview with Burney.

The government machinery has a number of explanations for the deaths of numerous tribal children in Maharashtra's Melghat region. But the adivasis themselves do not identify any of these as the cause of their deaths. Instead they point to the systematic destruction of their traditional livelihood in the name of law and development. Aparna Pallavi reports.

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.

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.

Offer to build 320,000 houses for slum-dwellers. Deliver only 1146. In two years, only a tiny fraction of the number of houses a Maharashtra government plan called for actually got built. Dilip D'Souza dissects an infamous cross-subsidy fiasco that was born as an election promise.

A round table gathering of citizens and planners has identified ways to improve the city's transportation services. If successful, this initiative could serve as a model for active participation by residents in solving a problem every metropolitan area faces. Pankaj Sekhsaria reports.

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.

Much debate over the massive dam projects on the Narmada has been on costs vs benefits as well as poor rehabilitation measures. But one of the original questions activists raised years ago was over the Right to Information. The 'RTI' factor may be finally hitting home, reports Jaideep Hardikar.

Municipalities are outsourcing city waste collection to private contractors. As a result, rag-pickers face a loss of their livelihood, unless the informal sector itself is institutionalised within the hierarchy of solid waste management. Surekha Sule reports.

The “simple man” silently walked out of his hut that fateful day, went to the backyard and consumed pesticide in the veil of darkness. Rising family debt had forced his children out of school, and that proved the last straw. Jaideep Hardikar recounts the stories of this and two other farmer suicides.

The Maharashtra State Cotton Growers’ Marketing Federation was originally setup to procure cotton from growers at reasonable prices and sell it to mills and traders. Instead, with government policies not helping, it has trapped itself and farmers in a vicious cycle of debt and losses, reports Jaideep Hardikar.

Last year saw Maharashtra go to the polls and the incumbent government offer freebies to farmers. But cotton growers in Vidarbha saw their problems only worsen as they entered 2005. None of the political parties seem interested in a real way out, finds Jaideep Hardikar.

Noted anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare says that enforcing a new central RTI law is not going to be a cakewalk. "The rulers regard themselves as owners, dictators – especially the bureaucrats", says Hazare in this interview. But he warned that a national agitation may leave New Delhi no choice.

We need to put aside our obsession with becoming "world class". Let us make our cities liveable for all the people, says Kalpana Sharma.

In Maharashtra, the Golden Jubilee Urban Employment Scheme can point to many successes for families below the poverty line. Surekha Sule reports on the social, economic, and psychological upliftment created by unusually diligent administration of a government program.

Property prices have gone up over the decades, but Mumbai leases land to private interests at rates as low as Rs.7 per sq.m. In the last three years alone, revenue authorities have on average lost close to Rs.48 crores, estimates Shailesh Gandhi.

The demand from citizens demonstrating in Mumbai that the Marine Drive rapist be handed over to them is yet another illustration of their growing frustration with state institutions. This is a dangerous signal that both the government and the police need to heed, says Kalpana Sharma.

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.

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.

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.

Should farmers sow early? Or wait to be sure that the first rains aren't just temporary? Should they borrow early, or wait until they are absolutely ready to sow, even if it means higher risks later? P Sainath finds that in Vidharbha, farming itself is a great gamble, with many victims.

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.

Despite a strongly held belief to the contrary, Maharashtra's farmers have never demanded free power. And the suicides in Vidharbha were certainly not linked to this issue. P Sainath finds that the region is really paying the price of political power.

The Ganesh festival is the most important event in Maharashtra. This season, farm distress has hit the utsav badly in Vidharbha. Very few have money to spend. Meanwhile, farmers' suicides there are going up. There has been one almost every 36 hours this year. P Sainath continues his series on the region's crisis.

Many farmers deep in debt are trying to find a way out through playing bhishi (chit funds). Denied bank loans and desperate for credit to run their farms and for other needs, they take huge risks. The results are usually tragic. P Sainath continues his series on Vidharbha's crisis.

The Bhagwan Datta mandir in Belkhed, Akola, was built by Dalits when they were still Hindus. It was ostensibly the focus of the fiery violence there earlier this month. The real reasons? Caste, the decline of organised Dalit politics, the crisis in agriculture, and wage conflicts - all played a role, writes P Sainath.

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.

Fake and costly inputs have placed lakhs of farmers in grave danger. Further, despair has led many to embrace costly Bt cotton as some kind of magic bullet. Meanwhile, Bt cotton has not only been attacked by other pests, it's been struck by the bollworm itself. For many, the results could be deadly, writes P Sainath.

In the three days the National Commission on Farmers team toured Vidharbha, there were six suicides. In Panderkauda, the body of the latest farmer to take his life entered that town's hospital the same day the team arrived there for a meeting on farmer distress. P Sainath continues his series on Vidharbha's crisis.

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.

Demand for the randani roti, a staple of Dalit cooking in Central India, has risen steeply in recent years, and today the roti is the hub of a thriving small-scale industry. And alongside the mainstreaming of their food, Dalits are finding a rare escape hatch from their economic woes too. Aparna Pallavi reports.

Ten months after his father ended his life, Madhav toils from 6 am to 8 pm to herd the cattle of a big farmer for a paltry Rs 20 a day. Education? Forget it. In village after Vidarbha village where farmers have committed suicide, children have eventually dropped out of schools to take up the plough and work like beasts of burden, reports Jaideep Hardikar.

"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.

It is a common perception that truck drivers are rash individuals, responsible for the deaths of numerous citizens in accidents each year. But few know how much the work conditions of drivers contribute to making them who they are. At an awareness camp for drivers at Chandrapur, Aparna Pallavi finds out more.

A farming family holding 27 acres in Vidarbha has become a marginal landholder in a span of few years, and a vicious cycle of usurious debt robbed their lands and hopes. There are hundreds of others in the lurch similarly. The farming crisis has different shades of exploitation; Jaideep Hardikar presents one.

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.

"Of course I would like to be married to a nice boy and have a small family. Who doesn't?" asks Ganga Khatale, 31, with a fleeting twinkle. Amidst a desperate situation of suicides that even pushed two young girls to take their lives over marriage tensions, Ganga seems courageous in her hope. Varada Hardikar reports.

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.

Suicides by consuming poison contribute to over two-thirds of the total autopsies performed at a sub-district hospital in interior Vidarbha, Maharashtra. "Pesticide could be bought from any Krishi Kendra. But for medicine, they've to walk miles before they could get it," says one health official. Jaideep Hardikar reports.

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.

A two-wheeler loan bonanza is overrunning crop-loan concerns in crisis-torn Vidarbha, where two to three farmers have been committing suicide daily. In a land where farmers find it difficult to get institutional loans for their crops, it seems getting loans for bikes are not. Jaideep Hardikar reports.

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.

Too many factors coincided to deliver justice speedily in the Sunil More case. But whether this will have a long-term impact on rape cases is debatable. Unless the speed of investigation and the filing of charges becomes the norm, such cases will remain the exception, writes Kalpana Sharma.