The speed and determination with which the Tamil Nadu government has been slapping its citizens right, left and centre with colonial-era laws, it would seem as if a full-fledged war of independence is raging in the fishing villages of Idinthakarai and Kudankulam along the coast of Tamil Nadu. According to findings by a team led senior journalist Sam Rajappa, in just four months between September (when the protest movement against the...

-The Economic Times   On Saturday, Bengal chief minister MAMata Banerjee told New Delhi that it had 15 days to announce a debt-relief package for the state. She did not specify what would happen after the deadline, but said that her patience was wearing thin.  The Centre cannot give in to such blackmail. Banerjee doesn't have to bother about the huge risk that this demand creates. The Centre has few powers to write...

Uttar Pradesh, which supposedly has a high proportion of the country's poor, has not begun the job of enumerating them even three-and-a-half months after the first deadline set by the Centre lapsed. The project started in June 2011, with the target of completing the job by the end of 2011. The Centre then extended the deadline to April. Bihar has covered just 0.1% of the population. While there is no word from...

-The Telegraph Dispur is determined to launch a “constructive” television channel, stung by the “adverse” coverage of the recent Ulfa bandh during the Prime Minister’s visit by the local electronic media. Chief minister Tarun Gogoi revealed the government’s intention during an interaction with reporters here this afternoon, explaining how most local TV channels had gone overboard with the bandh coverage on April 20. Incidentally, a day later, on April 21, West Bengal chief...

A moratorium is not the magic bullet that can slay Bengal’s fiscal demons, several economists have said, pointing out that postponing the inevitable will be of little use unless backed up by a revenue mobilisation road map. Chief minister MAMata Banerjee had yesterday set a 15-day deadline for the Centre to announce a three-year moratorium on the payment of interest on the loans Bengal had taken. “A moratorium on repayment obligations can...