Spurred by the success in drawing the government's attention to the plight of bonded Sahariya labourers in Baran, some like-minded organisations have come together to form the Rajasthan Adivasi Adhikar Manch (RAAM). It will be fighting for adivasis' rights. On Wednesday, the Manch held its first public hearing at the Udyog Maidan near Statue Circle. The meeting discussed non-implementation of tribal rights laws in the state, including the Forest Rights Act,...

Seventy-five-year-old Tukaram Vithal Gholap has walked for over three days from his village in Murbad (Thane district) to demand land rights. “I have fines from the Forest Department since 1969, which means I used to cultivate that land since then,” he said. Yet the Forest Department, which measured his land, confirmed only 29 gunthas (less than one acre), whereas he staked claim for about six acres. A tired Tukaram marched with...

Despite poor participation of local villagers in the anti-Posco rally organized by Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) at Balitutha, the entry point to the Posco project site near Paradip, the PPSS leaders today reiterated their resolve not to hand over 2900 acres forest land to the South Korean company for its steel project. The PPSS rally particularly turned into a damp squib as four MPs of West Bengal, who had earlier...

Tension prevailed in the area selected for the proposed mega steel plant of Posco in Orissa's Jagatsinghpur district on Sunday as villagers opposing the project came out to vent their anger against the State government for trying to mislead the Union Ministry of Environment Forests about the implementation of the Forest Rights Act in their locality. Participating in a public rally at Balitutha, the entry point to the Site, demarcated for...

CPI (Maoist) leaders have justified the killing of Niyamat Ansari alleging him to be a land broker, at a time when their sympathisers are condemning the murder terming it "brutal". In an interview with the TOI on Saturday, spokesperson for the Bihar Jharkhand North Chattisgarh Special Area Committee (BJNCSAC) Gopal Jee said Ansari was not known to the Maoists as MGNREGA whistle blower but as a middleman between timber mafia...