-The Hindu Two separate incidents of alleged assault on village women by Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans have triggered a spate of protests in the adjoining districts of West and East Singhbhum. In both areas, villagers and tribal leaders have renewed their demand for removal of the CRPF camps. Senior CRPF and police officials said inquiries are on against the accused jawans, but termed the demands politically motivated. On September 24, Sumati...

-The Hindustan Times Using his Constitutional powers, tribal affairs minister Kishore Chandra Deo has directed the Andhra Pradesh government to cancel bauxite mining leases to Andhra Pradesh Mining Development Corporation (APMDC) in the state's Aaraku valley to prevent reemergence of naxalism. The corporation has signed Memorandum of Understanding with several private companies to mine bauxite, which, according to Deo, is violation of Alienation of Land Transfer Regulation Act. The law prohibits a non-tribal...

-The Telegraph Union minister Kapil Sibal has promised measures to ensure that the Centre’s curbs on cooking-gas subsidy would not derail the midday meal scheme that serves eight crore children in 12 lakh elementary schools. The Telegraph had reported on Wednesday that self-help groups had stopped preparing midday meals in over 50 primary schools in North 24-Parganas since Monday saying they could not afford the cylinders’ new price. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had...

-The Indian Express Emphasising on validation of rights of tribals and forest-dwellers over the forest lands, the Supreme Court has said that Naxalism was a result of an oversight of constitutional provisions relating to administration of schedule areas and tribes of the country. “Nobody looks at Schedules V and VI of the Constitution and the result is Naxalism. Urbanites are ruling the nation. Even several union of India counsel are oblivious of...

-The Times of India The ministerial panel vetting the land acquisition bill witnessed strong demand on Thursday that it kick in retrospectively. Urban development minister Kamal Nath is reported to have argued that a window for applying the new bill for old cases of acquisition should be retained. If the demand gains traction, it could reopen a significant section of the draft legislation which initially had the retrospective clause but was later...