There is one area in which West Bengal has come out on top: Utilisation of funds under the National Rural Drinking Water Programme, or NRDWP.
In a move to apparently woo All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, Congress leader and Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has offered an additional grant of over Rs 93 crore to her government, under the National Rural Drinking Water Programme. In a letter written to the CM, Ramesh mentions that the state government had utilised 60 per cent of the over Rs 273 crore allocated under the NRDWP.
Pawar said the Union Cabinet has already decided last week to reschedule crop loans of farmers in the affected drought areas with reduced interest rate of 7 per cent.
Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has sent a missive to the Comptroller and Auditor General, expressing concern over delayed audit reports adversely affecting the flagship National Rural Drinking Water Programme. In a personal letter to CAG Vinod Rai, he has drawn attention to the ministry not being able to release funds to the states as they are not submitting audits of accounts of grants-in-aid along with the utilisation certificates.
President Droupadi Murmu addressed the people of Manipur, assuring them of the government's commitment to strengthening harmony and ensuring security in the wake of ethnic violence. She highlighted the state's resilience, contributions to the nation, and the government's initiatives for development and inclusivity.
The Union Cabinet, meeting at the new PMO complex 'Seva Teerth', resolved to prioritize citizen empowerment and service in all its decisions, guided by the principle of 'Nagrik Devo Bhava'.
The special package assistance would be used to augment irrigation structures in drought-prone areas to address the agrarian distress and drinking water crisis.
Odisha Police detained several Congress workers ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the state on Friday.
Water from as many as 78,508 rural habitations is contaminated by arsenic, fluoride, iron or nitrate, finds out Chaitanya Mallapur/IndiaSpend.com.
The focus is likely to be on consolidation and improvement of existing rural-centric programmes to ensure their completion ahead of the next general elections in 2019, rather than announcement of new schemes. Sanjeeb Mukherjee and Arup Roychoudhury report.
As India reels from a severe water shortage, startups have begun offering innovative ways to help people access safe drinking water.
Can the newly-minted Jal Shakti ministry bring water to some 19 crore Indian households that have never had taps or heard the sound of flowing water, wonders Vinayak Chatterjee.
If the presentation made by the Commission to the chief ministers is followed in letter and spirit, central sector and sponsored schemes will no longer be the domain of central ministries alone.
Jaitley's Budget has the potential to change the face of Modi's Bharat
Chief ministers of three Congress-ruled states -- Karnataka's Siddaramaiah, Himachal Pradesh's Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Telangana's Revanth Reddy -- have announced they will not attend the NITI Aayog meeting over alleged bias against their states in the Union Budget.
Dr Bhagwati P Agrawal is using new science, engineering and entrepreneurship to build self-sustainable social enterprises.
He will replace Amitabh Kant, who will demit office on June 30. Iyer has been appointed for two years or until further orders, whichever is earlier, the personnel ministry order stated.
Defence Research Development and Organisation Director General Avinash Chander on Saturday said that India's missile programme is purely aimed at peace in the country.
Sitharaman said the government also proposes Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana to address critical infrastructure gap in fisheries sector.
Launching the scheme, Modi said during the nationwide lockdown, the talent from cities returned to villages and it will now give a boost to development of rural areas. The 'Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyaan' will be implemented on a mission mode in 125 days in 116 districts of six states -- Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha -- that received the maximum numbers of migrant workers back.
A total of 415 million people moved out of poverty in India within just 15 years from 2005/2006 to 2019/2021, the United Nations said on Tuesday, highlighting the remarkable achievement by the world's most populous nation.
There should have been a focus on sanitation and not on littering or garbage. Absence of sanitation affects the health of children, explains Aakar Patel.
The expert said the mission "lacked a holistic human rights approach'.
Whether it was the MGNREGS or the NFSA or the Aadhaar-based DBT scheme for cash transfer, the Modi government has built on the basic architecture created by the Singh government. Policy makers in the Modi government, instead of discarding them as products of the previous political regime, worked on them, expanded their scope and reach, and used new tools to improve their performance, explains A K Bhattacharya.
'BJP and RSS may have differences over minor issues but their hearts long for one common aim -- that of A Hindu Rashtra.' 'And this time to prove this point the RSS has prepared to help BJP win this election with all its might.'
This is more than 25 per cent higher as compared to the same period of the previous year when the prime minister had 78 domestic engagements.
Each 'adarsh village' should have piped drinking water, connectivity to the main road, electricity supply to all households, library, telecom and broadband connectivity including CCTVs in public areas. Emphasis will also be on e-governance, says Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com.
The mega campaign, to start on Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary, will be conducted just before the elections in three major Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled states and also before the 2019 general elections.
Rural India was left to fend for itself by those who ruled the country earlier, Modi said in a swipe at the Congress.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Manipur water supply project via video link.
Nitin Gadkari has seven portfolios, but does not seem weighed down at all by the many things on his plate. The minister is brimming with ideas...
"Our government does not delay decisions. We neither nurse problems nor keep them pending," Modi said.
'Drought in the 1990s was essentially the drought of a poor India.' 'This 2016 drought is of a richer and more water-guzzling India.' 'The severity and intensity of the drought is not about lack of rainfall.' 'It is about the lack of planning and foresight, and criminal neglect.'
India lifted 271 million people out of poverty between 2006 and 2016, recording the fastest reductions in the multi-dimensional poverty index values during the period with strong improvements in areas such as "assets, cooking fuel, sanitation and nutrition," a report by the United Nations said.
Sanitation is always clubbed with other departments, which lead to its neglect, says Devanik Saha.
Women and children have been given short shrift with these crucial sectors facing substantive budgetary cuts, discovers Rashme Sehgal.
States spent much more in the first three months of the current financial year compared to the corresponding period last year.
The total rainfall till now is not only deficient, but is also erratic in terms of both geographical spread and timings.
'By 2020 around 34% of India's population will be in the 15-34 age group.' 'More than 70% of them live in rural areas.' 'Their energy and enthusiasm need to be tapped in order to meet their aspirations and transform agriculture and the rural economy,' says P K Joshi.
'A delay of two years has happened, but stretching it to 2024 is a bit too far.' 'And we do not know about 2024 also.'
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