CHANDIGARH, 6 JULY: Decrying the lack of proper sanitation facilities, rural development minister Jairam Ramesh today said toilets (in file photo) built over the past 10 years across the country ar

Saving the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) — the centrepiece of UPA-I’s achievements in the social welfare sector — from its many critics in government and the m

Punjab is the first state to report presence of uranium in drinking water in rural areas with almost 70 per cent samples sent to Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) testing positive for presence o

Even as he accepted Punjab’s case for enhanced allocation to augment the rural water supply system, as it faces the problem of presence of uranium, arsenic, and heavy metals in ground water used for drinking, Union Rural Development and Panchayats Minister Jairam Ramesh on Friday advised the State government to introspect and analyse its performance record on utilisation of previous grants for the purpose.

Decrying the lack of proper sanitation facilities, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Friday said toilets built over the last 10 years across the country are being used for storing food grain.

"In last 10 years, toilets have been built (across the country)...But toilets are not being used for the purpose for which they had been built. They are being used for storing food grain...they have been turned into storage godowns and they have been locked," Ramesh told reporters here on Friday.

Bhubaneswar: Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh on Thursday strongly opposed private mining in areas affected by Left wing extremism on the ground that it allows Maoists to extort money

New Delhi Despite the relevant parliamentary standing committee’s unequivocal ‘No’ to government acquiring land for projects involving private money, Jairam Ramesh’s rural development ministry plans to seek the Cabinet’s nod for a proposal to allow such acquisition with caveats: The project should be in “public interest”; 80% of affected families must give their consent; and post-acquisition, land ownership must rest with the government.

The move — which aims to make more land available for projects in a country where public funds don’t match investment needs — is likely to be hailed by industry as “pragmatic”

Kolkata, 4 JULY: Methane gas generated from human waste could be used to light up bio-toilets developed by scientists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation.

An eight-member central team comprising members from the Planning Commission, Central Water Board and drainage experts on Monday visited the water-logged villages in Muktsar, where a large swath of

Agartala: The Rural Development Ministry has embarked on a ten-year mission to make India open-defecation free country, said Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh.

The Union Minister, who held a review meeting with representatives of Northeastern states on Drinking Water and Sanitation (DWS) at Prajna Bhavan here on Saturday, told reporters said that the Centre had earmarked Rs. 3500 crore during 2012-13 FY under Nirmal Bharat Abhijan (open-defecation free campaign).