Farmer agitation over compensation for land returned to haunt the Mayawati government when about a dozen persons, including three policemen, were injured in a clash in Karchhana in Allahabad district on Friday. The farmers of Dewri Kachri village staged an indefinite dharna demanding more compensation for the land acquired for a power project being developed by the JP Group in Karchhana. Reports said that one person was killed in police firing....

In a step to alleviate the plight of millions of people affected by the 2008 Kosi floods, the Bihar government on Wednesday signed a $220-million agreement with the World Bank. The government will chip in with $39 million for the $259-million Bihar Kosi Flood Recovery Project aimed at supporting the State's recovery efforts, reducing risks of flooding and boosting emergency responses in the event of future disasters. At a function here, World...

Marie Antoinette may or may not have deadpanned “let them eat cake” but the Bengal government could have tried saying “let them eat potato” in these times of price rise. But out went that opportunity — along with 7,000 bags or 4,200 tonnes of potatoes at Panagarh in Burdwan. In terms of cash, potato stocks valued at Rs 50 lakh rotted on the open ground today because of a dispute between a...

Death toll rises to nine; several houses in three villages torched Fresh violence erupted along Assam-Meghalaya border areas with miscreants torching several houses in three villages and setting ablaze a truck carrying relief materials on Saturday night and Sunday. Two more persons were killed taking the death toll in ongoing ethnic clashes between the Garos and the Rabhas to nine. Of the nine lives claimed by ethnic violence, five died on Assam side...

Telecom minister Kapil Sibal today termed “utterly erroneous, baseless and sensational” the government auditor’s estimate that the alleged 2G scam resulted in a presumptive loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore. Sibal gave a detailed explanation of the priorities that drove the telecom policy and the benefits over the years to “the aam aadmi” — something his predecessor A. Raja did not or could not articulate till now. Drawing a parallel with free...