THE Indian Bureau of Mines, in its Indian Minerals Yearbook–2005, notes that Chhattisgarh has 28 different types of minerals, with coal and iron ore being the most abundant. The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), in its comprehensive book Rich Lands, Poor People: Is ‘Sustainable' Mining Possible?, says that around 16 per cent of India's coal reserves, 10 per cent of its iron-ore reserves, 5 per cent of its limestone...

Thanks perhaps to President’s rule, Jharkhand received a patient hearing from the Planning Commission that okayed the infusion of more funds to deal with the naxalite menace. After two rounds of meetings with the state top brass in New Delhi today, the commission approved a Plan outlay of Rs 9,240 crore, Rs 240 crore more than what was proposed by the state administration for 2010-11. The additional Rs 200 crore was earmarked...

Senior Congress leader and former sports minister Mani Shanker Aiyer has slammed the current United Progressive Alliance government under Dr Manmohan Singh for the huge amount of 'wasteful expenditure' being incurred on the Commonwealth games, saying that if a part of this money had been spent on the Bhopal Gas victims it would have brought the affected 'some relief'. The outspoken Aiyer, who was recently nominated to the Rajya Sabha, has...

India has strongly protested the inclusion of naxal issue under the realm of an "armed conflict" in a UN report, saying the violence being perpetrated by these groups does not make it a zone of armed conflict as defined by international law. Referring to the recent UN report that deals with 'Children and armed conflicts', India's envoy to UN Hardeep Singh Puri told Security Council that operations of the Maoist...

Their movement widely limited, says study A large number of doctors posted in the naxal-infested areas of Chhattisgarh say that while they are generally permitted to stay and practise in and rarely face direct personal harm, they are subjected to harsh unwritten rules imposed by insurgent groups, typically referred to as “insiders” or meaning those dwelling in camps deep inside the forests, which cover large tracts of rural parts. A...