KOLKATA, 28 JUNE: Several residents of Kalitala, North 24-Parganas, have alleged that the postmaster of the Kalitala post office has been taking bribe to disburse money meant for Aila victims. He has also been accused of withholding NREGA wages.

The recent allegations made are uncalled for and can be seen as an attempt by bidders disqualified due to not fulfilling the tender requirements. Companies like Glodyne who have been crying foul did not even have an ISO certification to bid for the project and have failed miserably in states like Bihar to execute projects of nation building NEREGA it took on.

Large Indian cities are doing reasonably well. Ahmedabad, where I stay, has been voted one of the ten most attractive towns in India and once the adjoining panchayats became a part of the municipal corporation, it

Nearly 1,000 workers from 80 village panchayats staged a demonstration in front of the deputy commissioner

They may be at the bottom of all social indicators but most Naxalite-affected districts have better scores to show in the rural job scheme than areas that are not under the insurgency shadow.

The main reason was better implementation, the direct result of the resolve by the state and central governments to counter the influence of the rebels through a development surge.

THE new National Advisory Council (NAC), which had its first meeting here on Thursday, decided to evaluate implementation of flagship programmes of UPA I.

It also decided to have food security bill, communal violence bill and tribal development as priorities apart from monitoring better implementation of existing social sector schemes.

Punjab farmers have been struck a double blow on the eve of the paddy transplantation season, which starts tomorrow. Reliant on migrant labour to transplant paddy on 26 lakh hectares, they are witnessing a few arrivals on trains coming in from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.