Category: News

Land reforms in India remain a stalled and forgotten agenda; no progress made on CSLR report on issue

As the agenda for upcoming general elections for Lok Sabha shapes up, one agenda that is likely to be missing is that of wealth inequality and, more precisely, land ownership. Yet, the issue remains ever relevant as about 5 percent of farmers hold about 32 percent of farmland and a large farmer (owner of around 43 acres) owns 45 times the size of land that a marginal farmer (owner of around 0.96 acres) owns.

Seeing the magnitude of the problem of land inequality, the Indian government had initiated land reforms programmes soon after Independence which were subsequently adopted in different states. While the programmes succeeded in a few states, they largely failed in most. The stagnation of the progress of land reforms programmes in various states and in the nation as a whole, especially in recent times, has been elaborated in detail by this correspondent in an earlier published article. Read more

A long road to clean energy for rural women in Chhattisgarh

  • More than two years after the government’s scheme to provide clean cooking fuel, women in Chhattisgarh are switching back to cooking on firewood.
  • With a lack of financial support for refilling cylinders, limited information and easy access to firewood, sustainability of the scheme is posing a challenge.
  • Pradhan Mantri Ujjawala Yojana was launched in 2016, with the objective to improve women’s health by providing clean cooking fuel and to reduce the drudgery involved in collection of firewood and dung cakes.

The Indian government’s scheme to improve rural women’s health by providing clean cooking fuel started off well-intended in 2016. However, over two years later, in the primarily rural state of Chhattisgarh, the scheme’s attempt to switch from firewood to clean fuel is slowly fizzling out.

About 2.5 million families in Chhattisgarh were targetted for receiving LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) connections under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY). But over time, the chinks in the armour have come to the fore. A lack of financial support for refilling cylinders, no easy access to information or training from gas agencies and the easy, cost-free availability of firewood has made the scheme unsustainable in the state. Read more

Odisha: Over Rs 6,000 crore in District Mineral Foundation kitty, only Rs 1,100 crore utilised

Even as the State has the highest collection of funds under District Mineral Foundation (DMF), it is seriously lagging in timely implementation of the projects.

BHUBANESWAR: Even as the State has the highest collection of funds under District Mineral Foundation (DMF), it is seriously lagging in timely implementation of the projects.
While major mineral bearing districts have taken up 11,434 projects estimated at Rs 6438.23 crore by end of December, 2018, fund utilisation is around Rs 1,100 crore. This is despite State Government’s instruction to districts to prepare shelf of projects in advance and timely utilisation of funds sanctioned by Board of Trustees of the DMF.

A review on the progress of implementation of sanctioned projects by Chief Secretary A P Padhi revealed a majority of the projects taken up by the districts have remained incomplete. Read more

Should district mineral foundations be with state mining departments?

DownToEarth ||Srestha Banerjee || Thursday 10 January 2019

Recent plan to move Odisha DMF from the state planning and convergence department to the mines department raises several questions

The Odisha government is planning to move its district mineral foundations (DMF) to its steel and mines department from the planning and convergence department. A proposal is pending with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s office, a source said.

The eastern state is the only one in India the planning department is the nodal authority for DMFs. Elsewhere, they are under respective mines departments, as money for them is generated from mining companies operating in affected districts. The amount is determined on the basis of the royalty that companies pay to mines departments. Read more

Why are PSUs spending 80% of CSR funds in mining areas?

Noting that over INR 15,500 crore was disbursed to states for projects under District Mineral Foundation (DMF), a parliamentary panel has asked the government to review mandatory provision of spending 80% of CSR funds by companies in mining areas to avoid overlapping.

DMF has been set up in states under a mining Act to implement welfare projects from a portion of royalty of mining leases while PSUs are also mandated to spend 80 per cent of corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds in mining areas.

“Till August 2018, INR 15,547.83 crore has been collected and disbursed to states to implement welfare schemes under PMKKKY. Read more

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