IT is 6 p.m. A couple of Hindu priests and a few men and women wait at the Manikarnika Ghat on the banks of the Bhagirathi, as the Ganga is known in the pilgrim town of Uttarkashi in Uttarakhand. Their heads are turned anxiously in the direction of the river upstream.

The Madhya Pradesh Tourism Development Corporation has put the State in a prominent spot on India

The State government has made significant strides in developing the social sector with people

Agriculture is the mainstay of the Madhya Pradesh economy. As much as 49 per cent of its landmass is cultivable and 74.73 per cent of its people depend directly or indirectly on agriculture for their livelihood. The sector

Madhya Pradesh boasts motorable roads, well-lit villages and well-irrigated fields. This has been made possible by creating new infrastructure and by improving the existing facilities on a priority basis. The government has made construction of irrigation facilities, upgradation of roads and creation of new power-generation facilities its thrust areas.

The State is emerging as a thriving industrial centre, thanks to the government

The States of north-eastern India demand their share of the development pie. PTI Union Minister for the Development of the North-Eastern Region Mani Shankar Aiyar (centre) with Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar (third from left), his Mizoram counterpart Zoramthanga (right) and Manipur counterpart Okram Ibobi Singh (extreme right), along with other members of the NEC in Agartala on May 12, the day before the signing of the vision document.

The Chhattisgarh government has suspended Salwa Judum, launched as a people's awareness campaign to oppose naxalites, in the wake of the killing of several of its activists in Dantewada district and the spurt in naxalite attacks on civilians. The movement had become controversial after the exodus of tribal people from villages because of extremist.

Power is the key to the economic growth of Uttaranchal. Realising this, the government has framed a power policy that aims to exploit the State's immense hydro-electric potential.

The State has the potential to produce 25,000 MW of power and has already identified projects to generate 20,000 MW.

Old Tehri town and several villages go under water following a court order to close the diversion canal and dam the Bhagirathi, while the scattered families' demands for compensation are yet to mat