A tinge of green

IN INDIA, environment is hardly an election topic. No one expects political parties to make environment a plank and neither do most voters base their decisions on ecological promises.

Is India ready?

Madhya Pradesh is set to overhaul its public distribution system. It has decided to issue PDS users in the state with biometric cards so that no one can impersonate or fake identity. It will also replace food grain with food coupons. In August last year the state signed a Rs 250-crore deal with HCL Infosystems, an information technology company, to set up a biometricbased card system for PDS. This is the country’s largest such initiative and is being done in consonance with the Aadhaar programme. The state will hold a BPL survey in early 2011, after five years. The survey and biometric cards will decide who gets subsidised food grains.

Bitter harvest: farmers kill selves

EXTREME weather conditions over the past few weeks have destroyed crops in several states, triggering farmers’ suicides. In all, over 300 farmers reportedly killed themselves in Andhra Pradesh (275), Odisha (36) and Madhya Pradesh (7), the worst hit states. Media reports said some of the deaths were caused by heart attacks following crop failure.

‘You may like to make sure that PIL does not succeed’

MADHYA Pradesh’s forest department seems to share a cosy relationship with resort owners and tour operators. On September 14, H S Pabla, chief wildlife warden of the state, wrote an e-mail: “A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking a ban on tourism in core areas of Madhya Pradesh’s national tiger reserves has been filed in the state High Court. Though the state will oppose this, you may like to file as affected parties to make sure that PIL does not succeed...Kindly take appropriate steps.”

Letters

For tiger’s sake

Health check-up for fields

Farmers in Madhya Pradesh no longer need to follow the trial-and-error method while choosing fertilizers for their fields. The state government plans to distribute soil health cards in the next two years to help them determine soil fertility and accordingly chose the right fertilizer for their crops.

Development is not a road

Reportedly, bjp senior leader Arun Jaitley has contemptuously labelled Digvijay Singh's Madhya Pradesh government as " ngo -style". Why? Because it spends more on social development -- education and health -- and not on roads or electricity.

Experiments with truth

It has all the elements of a slugfest among eminent personalities in the public sphere. It would have made great entertainment; only it has to do with education. Science education, actually, in village schools with poor facilities.

<font class=UCASE><b>sarguja</b></font> <br> Losing battle

Poverty in Sarguja district has taken epic proportions. Unlike in the Mahabharat, the descendants of Pandavas and Kauravas have come together to fight a common enemy in Sarguja: poverty. And their fight is as heroic as the Mahabharat. Pandos, the local tribals and descendants of the Pandavas, are fighting for survival. For the descendant of the Kauravas, Korwas, it is a losing battle for water. Their adversary is the forest department.

<font class=UCASE><b>mandla</b></font> <br> Brimful of thirst

Irrigation is a luxury that only a few can afford in Mandla, a water-rich district in Madhya Pradesh. The district receives an annual rainfall of 1,300 mm, which can easily sustain three crops a year. But Mandla residents can barely manage one.