It was the end of a long, tiring and humid day. SITting near the bamboo gate of his 'precious' betel vineyard, 70-year-old Narayan Mandal said despondently, "I don't want to migrate, once again." Mandal, a resident of Gobindpur village in Orissa's Jagatsinghpur district, is one of the many opposing the state government's ambitious $12 billion Posco steel project. For the last six years, three gram panchayats - Dhinkia, Nuagaon and Gada...

-The Hindu   NFIW criticises the approach for targeted PDS and cash transfers The National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW) fears that the government plans to do away with the public distribution system (PDS) and move to cash transfers in lieu of foodgrains to the poor through the proposed National Food Security Bill. Demanding that the proposed Bill provide for universal entitlements, decentralised production and procurement, the NFIW has criticised the approach for...

At half past four on the morning of July 2, a gang of Naxals donning Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) uniforms swooped down on the jagged Raunakabad hills and surrounded the tribal village of Kareili in Bihar's Munger district. The band, numbering 60-odd, massed in front of the village mukhiya's house and began rounding up a score of indigent Koda tribals at gun-point. The captives were beaten with INSAS rifle-butts...

Sunita Kumari alias Shanti, an active member of the CPI (Maoist) group headed by Akshay Kherwar alleged that senior CPI (Maoist) leaders in the Koel-Shankh zone committee sexually exploit women in their squad. Sunita gave here statement before police in Lohardaga on Friday after she was nabbed by a team comprising of Town police station in-charge Patras Nag, CRPF deputy commandant Pawan Kumar Singh and assistant commandant Suresh Kumar from Hesal...

-PTI   Against the backdrop of the Noida land controversy, Chief Justice of India S.H. Kapadia on Sunday described as the “biggest problem” the SITuation in which the Supreme Court is called upon to give ex post facto approval to projects after crores were invested. Speaking at an international seminar here, he said: “The most acute problem over the years the Supreme Court has faced is that the plans, the buildings, the...