Central Empowered Committee has recommended cancellation of 49 leases The Karnataka Government has requested the Supreme Court to revoke the suspension of 117 mining leases listed under categories A and B by the Central Empowered Committee (CEC). The Supreme Court-appointed CEC has recommended cancellation of 49 mining leases listed under Category C, where iron ore was being mined illegally. It has recommended resumption of operations in 45 mining leases listed under Category...

Farmers unable to bear the costs of agricultural inputs: Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Charging the Trinamool Congress-led government with failing to admit the prevalence of farmers' suicides in the State, Prakash Karat, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) said here on Sunday that such suicides were “not seen or heard of” when the Left Front was in power for 34 years.  “The government is not ready to accept that the farmers...

-The Times of India   The finance ministry has replaced S S Rana with Madhavan Nair as member investigation in the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) in a change that is seen to be linked to the income tax department's embarrassment over the failed "search-and-survey" operation against Gurdeep 'Ponty' Chadha, a politically-connected businessman. Apart from Rana, who was instrumental in the raids against Chadha a day before the Uttar Pradesh polls got...

-The Indian Express   Don’t panic that Maoists have won panchayat polls. Isn’t getting them into the system the idea? The Centre has expressed alarm that, in the ongoing Orissa local elections, Maoists have inserted themselves into the very system they also want to destroy. Despite the boycott and attacks on security officials in the area, it turns out that candidates with Maoist links have won around 30 blocks in eight districts, including...

-The Telegraph A local court today directed the special investigation team probing the Gujarat riots to submit a complete report on the Gulbarg society massacre within a month but restricted its access to only the original complainant. Metropolitan magistrate M.S. Bhatt said Zakia Jafri — whose husband, former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, was among 69 people killed on February 28, 2002,— would be given a certified copy, but not the other petitioners,...