A police constable has been arrested and three persons detained in connection with the murder of Right to Information (RTI) activist Amit Jethva here last month. Jethva, who had filed a public interest litigation against illegal mining in the Gir forest area, was shot outside the Gujarat High Court on July 20. “After a long investigation, we have tracked down the main accused, Bahadursinh Wadher, a police constable in Junagadh district, for...

Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has responded to Supreme Court's recommendations of distributing grains to the poor for free instead of letting them rot. "It's not possible to implement the Supreme Court's order," the minister said.   On August 13, the apex court had asked the Centre to consider free distribution of foodgrain to the hungry poor of the country instead of allowing it to rot in Food Corporation of India...

Bandicoots eat up over 50 lakh tonnes in FCI godowns, says BJP BJP delegation, led by party national secretary K. Laxman, visit godowns at Vanagapally State not releasing foodgrains as it wants middlemen to benefit: Laxman Bandicoots have eaten up over 50 lakh tonnes of foodgrains stored in the godowns of the Food Corporation of India (FCI), according to the revelations of a BJP delegation, led by party national secretary K. Laxman, that...

Governor M..H. Farook today declared eight more districts as drought-hit, bringing the entire state in the parched bracket ahead of a central team visit. With this, the memorandum of demands to be forwarded to the Union government, seeking financial assistance to mitigate the effects of drought, will be redesigned. It is now pegged at around Rs 3,000 crore against the earlier Rs 2,157 crore. An eight-member central team, led by managing director...

The Centre on Monday cleared for implementation the Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls — known as ‘Sabla' — aimed at enhancing their nutritional and economic status. The scheme will be run along with the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) project in anganwadi centres in 200 select districts, targeting girls in the age group 11-18. The districts will be selected using a set of indicators and will be a...