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<div style="font-size: 20px; z-index: 100; width: 750px; color: #999797; padding-top: 9px; font-family: Times New Roman; letter-spacing: 18px; text-align: right" align="right">NEWSLETTER</div>
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            <td class="news_head" valign="top"><span style="color: rgb(128,128,128)"><b>NEWS ALERTS</b></span><b> &nbsp;</b>&nbsp;</td>
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            <td class="news_headlines" valign="top"><b>Operation Green Hunt: Healing Touch or Torture?</b></td>
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            <td class="news_text" style="text-align: justify" valign="top">Is there a breakdown of rule of law and the Constitutional order in Chhattisgarh? Some of India&rsquo;s most respected civil society organisations certainly think so, though the State Government disagrees. Several citizens&rsquo; organisations have written to the authorities, the courts and even the Prime Minister, about police excesses during the ongoing Operation Green-hunt that the government forces, their paramilitaries and vigilantes have waged on the armed Maoists.</td>
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            <td valign="top" align="right"><a class="read_more" href="http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=1029"><span style="color: rgb(255,0,0)"><b>Read More</b></span></a></td>
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            <td class="news_headlines" valign="top"><b>Starvation deaths in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan</b></td>
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            <td class="news_text" style="text-align: justify" valign="top">At least two cases of hunger deaths have been reported from Jabalpur district of MP and Chittorgarh district of Rajasthan in the past few weeks. The two states are run by different political parties-- the BJP and the Congress-- but there is quite a lot common in the victims&rsquo; circumstances. Both families were among the poorest in their villages but were not included in the BPL list and both the victims were unaware that demanding work under NREGA was their right.</td>
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            <td valign="top" align="right"><a class="read_more" href="http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=1026"><b><span style="color: rgb(255,0,0)">Read More</span></b></a></td>
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            <td class="news_headlines" valign="top"><b>Bihar&rsquo;s miraculous economic growth: Myth or reality?</b></td>
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            <p>A section of the media seems to be mighty impressed with Bihar&rsquo;s miraculous (11.03%) average annual growth during the 2004-05 to 2008-09, supposedly akin to that of Gujarat (11.05%) but is there a catch in this stunning statistics?</p>
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            <td valign="top" align="right"><a class="read_more" href="http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=1017"><span style="color: rgb(255,0,0)"><b>Read More</b></span></a></td>
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            <td class="news_headlines" valign="top"><b>Social Audit of NREGS in Araria reveals corruption</b></td>
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            <td class="news_text" style="text-align: justify" valign="top">The good news is that Bihar has done it! Bihar&rsquo;s first successful social audit took place in Jamua Panchayat of Araria district despite violence and threats. Two thousand villagers participated in the exercise and fearlessly deposed in front of a panel of officials and civil society representatives. The social audit exposed widespread corruption, fake muster rolls and fake vouchers in the panchayat records.</td>
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            <td valign="top" align="right"><a class="read_more" href="http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=870"><b><span style="color: rgb(255,0,0)">Read More</span></b></a></td>
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<p>&nbsp;</p>
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            <td><span style="color: rgb(128,128,128)"><b>OTHER ISSUES<br />
            </b></span></td>
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            <td><b>Gender Violence continues unabated in India,</b><br />
            <a href="http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=781">http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=781</a></td>
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            <td><b>Rural India poorer than estimated: Tendulkar Panel,</b><br />
            <a href="http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=780">http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=780</a></td>
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            <td><b>Himalayas melting faster than the global average,</b><br />
            <a href="http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=776">http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=776</a></td>
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            <td><b>Climate Change will worsen child malnutrition,</b><br />
            <a href="http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=666">http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=666</a></td>
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            <td><b>Little progress in 20 years of Child Rights,</b><br />
            <a href="http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=576">http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=576</a></td>
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            <td><b>Climate threat worse than earlier feared,</b><br />
            <a href="http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=562">http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=562</a></td>
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            <td><b>Global warming report generates heat,</b><br />
            <a href="http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=506">http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=506</a></td>
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            <td><b>India accounts for 22 per cent of global maternal deaths,</b><br />
            <a href="http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=504">http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=504</a></td>
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            <td><b>Global Report warns of impending violence and chaos,</b><br />
            <a href="http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=378">http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=378</a></td>
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            <td><b>World population explosion: 1 billion more in 12 years,<br />
            </b><a href="http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=356">http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=356</a></td>
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            <td><b>Action Aid report on hunger identifies India as a loser,</b><br />
            <a href="http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=300">http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=300</a></td>
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            <td><b>Two more newly released reports on hunger and malnutrition,</b><br />
            <a href="http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=299">http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=299</a></td>
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            <td><b>Skyrocketing prices may be bad news but the worst is yet to come!,</b><br />
            <a href="http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=164">http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=164</a></td>
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            <td><b>It is raining Environment Reports!,</b><br />
            <a href="http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=123">http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=123</a></td>
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            <td><b>Richer states, poor performance, in reducing malnutrition,</b><br />
            <a href="http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=122">http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=122</a></td>
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            <td class="news_head" valign="top"><span style="color: rgb(128,128,128)"><b>NEWS CLIPPINGS ON<b> RURAL&nbsp;CRISES</b></b></span><b> </b></td>
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            <td class="news_headlines" valign="top"><b>Has India`s poorest state turned the corner? by Amarnath Tewary</b></td>
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            <p>Has India`s poorest and most lawless state turned the corner? If you believe the government of the northern state of Bihar, the answer appears to be in the affirmative. According to it, Bihar clocked up a giddy growth rate of 11.03% in 2008-2009.</p>
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            <td valign="top" align="right"><a class="read_more" href="http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=1046"><span style="color: rgb(255,0,0)"><b>Read More</b></span></a></td>
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            <td class="news_headlines" valign="top"><strong>Land grab, even by poor, illegal by Samanwaya Rautray</strong></td>
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            <p align="justify">The Supreme Court has struck a blow against a menace &ldquo;as old as human civilisation&rdquo;, saying courts cannot sanction encroachments even if the land-grabbers are poor. In a ruling last week in a case that went back over 40 years, a two-judge bench said it was &ldquo;necessary to remember&rdquo; that no amount of vigil could stop unauthorised occupation of public land by &ldquo;unscrupulous&rdquo; elements who &ldquo;act like vultures&rdquo;.</p>
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            <td valign="top" align="right"><a class="read_more" href="http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=1042"><b><span style="color: rgb(255,0,0)">Read More</span></b></a></td>
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            <td class="news_headlines" valign="top"><b>Protests mark consultation on Bt brinjal</b></td>
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            <td class="news_text" style="text-align: justify" valign="top">Widespread protests marked the visit of Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh, to a national consultation on commercialisation of Bt brinjal. In a novel method of registering their resentment to attempts to allow commercial production of Bt brinjal in the country, hundreds of women under the banner of Orissa Nari Samaj (ONS) took out a funeral procession of Bt brinjal. They set a model of Bt brinjal on fire at Mahatma Gandhi Marg here on Saturday.</td>
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            <td valign="top" align="right"><a class="read_more" href="http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=1039"><b><span style="color: rgb(255,0,0)">Read More</span></b></a></td>
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            <td class="news_headlines" valign="top"><b><span id="fck_dom_range_temp_1263793430875_183">The politics of identity by Ruchi Gupta</span></b></td>
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            <p>In February 2011, India will become the first country in the world to issue its residents biometric-based numbers (UID) to establish identity. For this purpose, the Central government has constituted the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) under the Planning Commission. The UID number is marketed as a fundamental enabler for efficient delivery of government services and inclusive development. As per the Authority, benefits of the UID number include elimination of leakages in welfare programs like PDS and NREGA, and facilitation of targeted education and health interventions for underprivileged children.&nbsp;</p>
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            <td valign="top" align="right"><a class="read_more" href="http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=1037"><span style="color: rgb(255,0,0)"><b>Read More</b></span></a></td>
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            <td class="news_headlines" valign="top"><b>It&rsquo;s for Supreme Court to decide on RTI applicability to CJI: Attorney-General by J Venkatesan&nbsp;</b></td>
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            <p>The issues of applicability of the Right to Information Act to the office of the Chief Justice of India should be finally decided by the Supreme Court as substantial questions of law and general importance were involved, Attorney-General G.E. Vahanvati said on Friday. Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Vahanvati, who appeared on behalf of the Secretary-General of the Supreme Court, said: &ldquo;Various people have publicly expressed their views that no further appeal should be filed challenging the [Delhi] High Court judgment. In fact, some have even alleged that I, in my capacity as Attorney-General, am keen that an appeal be filed.&rdquo; He pointed out that the High Court itself had granted a certificate of appeal to the Supreme Court as substantial questions of law were involved in the case. A Full Court of the Supreme Court would take the final decision on whether or not to prefer an appeal.</p>
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            <td valign="top" align="right"><a class="read_more" href="http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=1033"><b><span style="color: rgb(255,0,0)">Read More</span></b></a></td>
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            <td class="news_headlines" valign="top"><b>Plan panel highlights problems in NREGA by Sangeeta Singh</b></td>
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            <p>A Planning Commission evaluation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has questioned the effectiveness of projects implemented under the Act in boosting productivity and creating assets. NREGA, the Union government&rsquo;s flagship anti-poverty programme that promises 100 days of employment every year to the rural poor, is partly credited with driving the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) to victory in the April-May general election. In a presentation made at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh&rsquo;s office (PMO) on Wednesday, the Planning Commission highlights the dearth of technical and professional support for implementing projects under NREGA, delays in payments to workers, and issues of corruption and leakages. Mint has reviewed part of this report.</p>
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            <td valign="top" align="right"><a class="read_more" href="http://www.im4change.org/articles.php?articleId=1053"><b><span style="color: rgb(255,0,0)">Read More</span></b></a></td>
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