“Consider local bodies' resolutions” Having been tossed between the State and the Centre for the past few months, the question of a forest clearance for Posco project is in the Orissa government's court once again. On Thursday, Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh delayed a final decision on the clearance once again, telling the State that he could not accept its assurance on Forest Rights Act (FRA) implementation as long as it...

Gandhi resorted to some 30 fasts, of which one-third were directed at himself, for ‘atonement’ or self-purification, one-third were directed against the raj and one-third at India’s social mores. A more honest trinity cannot be imagined. The latter two kinds of fasts were meant to make an impact on the ‘other side’; they were part-fasts and part- hunger strikes, part anashan and part bhukh-hartal, though he derived from each a sense...

The draft bill seeks to create an institution that will be independent of those it seeks to police, and will have powers to investigate and prosecute all public servants, and others found guilty of corrupting them. A number of commentators have raised issues about the provisions in the draft of the Jan Lokpal Bill. They have asked whether it would be an effective instrument to check corruption. They have pointed to...

Samiti has written to Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh Posco protesters say the area was a forest from 1930 and not from 1961 They refute Orissa government's stand of “other traditional forest dwellers' South Korean giant Posco's integrated steel plant in Orissa could face another hurdle as the palli sabhas (local bodies set up to determine forest rights under the Forest Rights Act) of Dhinkia, Gobindpur and nearby villages plan to approve several hundred...

The Krishak Mukti Sangram Samity Assam’s (KMSSA) General Secretary Akhil Gogoi on Sunday was taken into custody by Pan Bazaar Police from outside the Guwahati Press Club premises for first instance violation of PR Act 126. Anti-corruption campaigner Akhil Gogoi along with some 40 members and supporters was at that time about to proceed to Dighali Pukhuri to lead a democratic sit in protest in support of Gandhian Anna Hazare’s demand...