Kavitha Iyer

Letter issued by NCP Pune District chief seeks Rs 11,000 from all applicants to 750 Gram Panchayat administrator posts.

As monsoon remains active, punctual sowing operations have picked up in the state. Urea is used by farmers as a fertiliser both in pre-sowing land preparation as well as during growth phase of crops.

Nearly 50 per cent of Maharashtra’s 28,000-odd gram panchayats would have gone to polls between March and November this year.

On Thursday, three volunteers, two drivers and the last two guests from the shelter drove around Varanasi in a large utility vehicle searching for a familiar ghat or locality.

Envisioned to grow into a rich knowledge-transfer system with any-time-access, the digital learning programme will simultaneously focus on self-learning through weekly workbooks or assignments to promote learning through problem-solving or doing, and teachers reviewing this work electronically.

First-generation learners who fought off outraged families and traditional expectations to earn for themselves a measure of independence and the prospect of a career in and around Mumbai, the current job crisis and continuing closure of malls and suburban trains bring frightening choices.

While 7.59 lakh unskilled labourers were present at job sites on June 7 at the peak of a record demand for work under MGNREGA, attendance of labourers at these job sites on June 30 was 2.74 lakh, after dipping by two-thirds to 2.5 lakh on June 26, a rapid slide witnessed in about three weeks.

Among the migrant workers left behind in the Vasai-Naigaon-Virar-Boisar belt on the outskirts of Mumbai are facing widespread job loss, depletion of savings and rising dependence on charity for access to food.

On account of the Covid-19 pandemic and restrictions against gatherings, the state had decided last month that the annual on-foot pilgrimage to the Vithal temple in Pandharpur — undertaken by about 15 lakh members of the Warkari community — will be prohibited this year.

By June 14, almost all of Maharashtra was covered by the monsoon, with drought-prone Marathwada and Vidarbha regions reporting its onset even earlier. The state has already received 178 mm of rainfall, as against the 166.1 mm it normally receives by this time of the year.

Growers in some parts of the state have blamed inferior quality of seed, while in some cases, insufficient soil moisture is being blamed for the failure of the seed to germinate. Agriculture Commissioner Suhas Diwase confirmed the problem but said it is restricted to some talukas of particular districts.

Growers in some parts of the state have blamed inferior quality of seed, while in some cases, insufficient soil moisture is being blamed. Agriculture Commissioner Suhas Diwase confirmed the problem but said it is restricted to some talukas of particular districts.

Farm bunds and small water retention structures collapsed in heavy rainfall on June 18, bringing mud and silt to farmland in the trough between Kajla and Ghotan villages, located 15 to 20 km from Jalna city.

“The Agricultural Produce Market Committee’s (APMC) near-complete control over the farmers’ ability to market their produce is a big disadvantage,” said Hansraj Wadghule-Patil of the Shetkari Sangharsh Sanghatana in Nashik.

While the target for the agriculture sector fixed by the State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) in its annual credit plan for 2020-21 is Rs 62,458.83 crore, banks have disbursed only Rs 7,799.14 crore until May end.

With its low premium and substantial cover for losses, PMFBY has been popular with farmers, who look at it to cover their losses in case of crop loss due to extreme weather events.

In Mumbai’s slums, not only are pregnant and lactating women unable to access the usual state-aided nutritional supplements on account of the lockdown but regular immunisation of babies is also on hold.

The Hinjewadi hub is home to majors such as Wipro Technology and modern buildings such as the Ascendas IT Park. The demand for lower tax rates is the first admission by these companies that the pandemic and lockdown have deeply impacted business.

The state is witnessing a record demand for work under the MGNREGA, with as many as 9.97 lakh people given work as of June 1, a sharp rise from 19,509 workers on April 4, 1.4 lakh on April 23 and 6.53 lakh on May 18.

Once emblematic of Mumbai’s incredible enterprise, the slum is now a Covid-19 hotspot, witness to distress and disease. The Indian Express visits the 2.4-km sprawl to find its residents grappling with issues that have always hobbled their lives — sanitation, health and poverty.

In the case of some commodities, price realisations also fell alongside the dip in market arrivals, indicating more distress for the producers of these items, such as poultry and milk, vegetables and some fruits.

Since May 13, when they began with providing packed meals to passengers on board six or seven trains, they have clocked more than one lakh meals in total for those boarding the trains alone.

As restrictions are lifted in ‘non-red’ areas such as Dahanu, Boisar and Palghar, regular life resumes but post-lockdown business looks tough.

As weeks go by since the first Shramik train ran on May 1, and with no word about their turn, social distancing, hand-washing and sanitation are all abandoned in pockets outside major stations from where these trains depart.