Chandigarh: The Punjab Government has sought assistance worth Rs 1,000 crore from the National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) for eight projects in the state.

The Centre, on Tuesday, blamed the banks for non-achievement of annual targets of the poverty alleviation programme, Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana.

The SGSY is a credit-cum-subsidy scheme. While subsidy is only a minor and enabling component, credit is an important component of the scheme that envisages involvement of the banking sector.

Gangtok: In a setback to the Pawan Kumar Chamling-led SDF government in Sikkim, the Centre has nominated six local Congress leaders to a monitoring committee to keep a tab on the implementation of the rural development projects in the state.

Gives nod to nursing college in Patiala Medical College

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has given, in principle, approval to sanction Rs 220 crore for upgrade infrastructure of government hospitals on Monday. The fund will be provided by the Punjab Infrastructure Development Board and Rural Development Board.

The UPA

MUMBAI: Maharashtra has outnumbered Britain and Mexico in receiving queries under the RTI Act, the State Information Commission has said.

"In 2009, Maharashtra received 4, 40,728 queries of RTI while Britain received 90,000 and Mexico 1, 25,000 under a similar legislation," the Commission said in a recent report.

KORAPUT: The villagers of Sibaguda under Konga gram panchayat in Jeypore block have threatened not to cooperate with the census enumerators till their demands are conceded.

They alleged that the village had seen several elections and census enumerations in the name of development but it lacks even basic amenities till date.

President Pratibha Patil on Wednesday underlined the need to forge a link between the corporate world and the agriculture sector to speed up the development process in the rural areas and remove poverty.

BHUBANESWAR: While the State Government is in the process of taking the e-governance initiative to grassroots level of the administration through computerisation of gram panchayat (GP) offices, now efforts are on to create gram panchayat database management facility centres at each block headquarters.

BHUBANESWAR: Food security in Orissa continues to be a cause for concern despite the much vaunted Rs 2-a-kg-rice scheme of the State Government. The reason is allotment of 25 kg against the stipulated 35 kg a month.