The Planning Commission has decided to disown the Integrated Action Plan (IAP) for Selected Tribal and Backward Districts that it authored and was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) — in a vastly amended form — in November last. Currently being implemented in 60 Left wing extremist (LWE)-affected districts, the plan was watered down by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) before it received the CCEA nod. Having...

Foreign observers will keep a close watch on the Chhattisgarh High Court's hearing on rights activist Binayak Sen's appeal on Monday. The ministry of external affairs (MEA) has forwarded to the Chhatisgarh government a request from an eight-member European Union (EU) delegation keen to watch the proceedings in the HC in Bilaspur on January 24. Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh has forwarded the Centre's request to the HC, leaving it to the judiciary...

The National Advisory Council headed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi is unhappy with the poor implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, which was once billed as a landmark initiative of the UPA I for economic empowerment of the tribal people. The NAC now wants the government to change the law to make it more effective and has recommended several amendments, including one to...

Villagers of Netai in Lalgarh could not conceal their grievance against the state administration when district police superintendent Monoj Verma and district magistrate Surendra Gupta reached the village on Sunday morning to supervise arrangements before governor M K Narayanan's visit on Wednesday. Gupta and Verma arrived at the village, escorted by heavy security, around 11am. Gupta started visiting different portions of the village and found a tube well that was not...

While there will be general agreement that the judgement in Binayak Sen's case represents a gross miscarriage of justice, most people will attribute it to the overzealousness of a lower judicial functionary, or, at the most, to the prevailing atmosphere in the state of Chhattisgarh. If the trial had been held elsewhere, they would argue, Binayak would not have got the verdict he did. They are probably right, just as...