BHUBANESWAR: The Government is facing a lot of flak from the public and social organisations for the large-scale felling of roadside trees.

The Union Tourism Ministry, along with the UP Tourism Department, is set to develop a village in Congress president Sonia Gandhi

Jagraon: In an effort to uplift rural infrastructure and provide basic amenities to rural areas, Manpreet Singh Ayali, chairman of zila parishad, Ludhiana, today handed over the grant of Rs 5.21 lakh to Hans Kalan village sarpanch near here.

Since the Uttar Pradesh government stayed away from the meeting held at Orchha in Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday to discuss development of Bundelkhand through NREGS, the Centre has decided to hold a separate meeting for UP after the by-elections in November. The Congress, at the same time, accused UP of obstructing development in the region.

Transparency is the newest item on the agenda of many Rajasthan ministers and MPs. C P Joshi, the man who lost the Rajasthan Assembly elections last year by just one vote, to later become the Union minister for rural development, started the trend.

It took over three decades for the CPI-M-led state government to gulp the hard fact that majority of the people living in the rural areas are ignorant of their rights about several schemes of the state rural and panchayat development department.

The Lakhimpur district authority has released Rs 31.73 lakh for development of rural roads for Telahi Developmental Block under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) for Assam 2008-09.

Jagraon: Jagjit Singh Talwandi, former chairman, Punjab Small Scale Industries, along with Mohan Singh Talwandi, circle president, SAD, Raikot, and JE Jawahar Lal of block samiti, disbursed a grant of Rs 33 lakh for the development of 45 villages here yesterday.

The grant was given to sarpanches at Gurdwara Tahliana Sahib at Raikot.

MUMBAI: "There is one India living in the urban areas, which is completely different from the one in rural India. We have to connect the two so that the latter also enjoys the fruits of India's growth,'' said AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi at a rally in Panvel on Thursday.

The Performance Review Committee of the ministry of rural development took stock of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, and Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) on Thursday.