For a poor boy from the dark heart of tribal India, constable Kartam Surya has done well. An 8th class pass from the village of Misma in South Bastar’s Dantewada district — in the so-called Maoist 'liberated zone' in Chhattisgarh — 26-year-old Surya makes sure he gives his father, a marginal farmer scratching a living from the land, enough money to live in peace and comfort. "Surya is a good son...

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has taken cognizance of the killing of MGNREGA activist Niyamat Ansari in Latehar district and requested authorities in India to probe his death as also the death threats issued to rights activist Bhukhan Singh. The UNHCR urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Union home minister P Chidambaram, Chief Justice S H Kapadia and chairman of the special investigation team, Supreme Court of India, R...

His ministry had earlier put a stop on the project citing ecological damage Delhi Govt. insisted that only the dam can solve Capital's water woes Union Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh on Sunday said he will undertake an inspection of the Nahan Valley in Himachal Pradesh, the site of the proposed Renuka Dam, which has been turned down by his office on the grounds that it involves the axing of 1.77...

It is a little known fact that in roughly a fifth of our country’s land area, a different legal system operates. In some of these places, if you are caught with certain items, it is up to you to prove that you are innocent of a crime — and whether you go to jail depends on whether a government official kept proper records years earlier. If you are using some...

The Union Cabinet on Tuesday cleared a proposal, seeking an amendment to the Indian Forest Act (IFA) that aims to put an end to harassment of tribals for petty cases. The proposal sought amendment to Section 68 of IFA, 1927, which deals with the power of forest officials to compound offences. The proposed amendment aims to increase the financial limit of the power to compound a forest offence up to an...