A fact finding team of many civil society organizations has reported widespread occurrences of murders, tortures and cases of police atrocities in Chhattisgarh in the name of combating Naxalism. It is also being alleged that in the name of their own security, journalists are being stopped from going to so called “combat zones” where security forces have launched an Operation Greenhunt to flush out armed Maoists. Fifteen members of the...
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Action Aid report on hunger identifies India as a loser
A new international report slams the Indian government for not doing enough to end hunger. It says hunger exists in India because of a lack of purchasing capacity of the poor rather due to insufficiency of food production. Titled “Who’s Really Fighting Hunger”?, (see the link below) the Action Aid report which was released on 16 October, 2009 reveals that in India 30 million people have been added to the...
More »Say ‘no’ to Bt Brinjal: civil society groups by Gargi Parsai
Civil society groups have cautioned the government against introducing genetically modified crops in the food chain and questioned the credentials of a panel of experts to look into the biosafety of Bt Brinjal, which will come up before the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) on Wednesday. The committee was set up by the GEAC to look into the findings of independent experts who raised concerns at the safety of Bt...
More »To a Land of More Returns by Dipankar Dasgupta
Fairness in land acquisition is difficult to achieve A market’s charm, leaving out cases of distress sale, lies in the fact that it ensures for individuals the right to refuse unacceptable transactions. This observation, though pedestrian, has implications for the controversies surrounding the use of agricultural land for industrial growth in Bengal. Indeed, many — the present author included — have argued in favour of land acquisition through markets, for...
More »Floods expose anomalies in the proposed Food security Act
The ongoing floods in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharasthra have pushed millions of rural folks below the poverty line. The tragedy which is far from over has exposed the anomalies in the system of categorization of BPL families as proposed in the concept note of the Food Security Act. More than 200 people have died and over 2.5 million rendered homeless in AP and Karnataka alone. Almost all farmers in...
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