The Maharashtra government will conduct a magisterial inquiry into Monday's police firing at Jaitapur, Home Minister R.R. Patil announced in the Assembly on Tuesday. The violent fallout of protests against the proposed nuclear power plant was hotly discussed in both Houses of the Legislature with the Opposition accusing the government of highhandedness and totalitarianism. Mr. Patil maintained that the police resorted to firing when all other methods of controlling the mob...

One person was killed in police firing and several were injured as the protest against the nuclear power plant in Jaitapur turned violent on Monday. Thirty protesters including Shiv Sena MLA Rajan Salvi were arrested, Ratnagiri Collector Madhukar Gaikwad told The Hindu. A protester was killed in the firing and a policeman was grievously injured in stone-throwing, he said.  “Two separate incidents happened during the day,” Mr. Gaikwad said. “In the morning,...

Contractors complete the work by employing some other labourers and using machines An inquiry into the lathi-charge on protesting farmers in Koppal has brought to light the nexus between contractors and labourers. The inquiry conducted by the Koppal taluk panchayat executive officer in all the five gram panchayats - Boodagumpa, Irkalgad, Hasgal, Indargi and Madinur - has revealed that the labourers who staged the protest had not registered themselves seeking jobs under...

A large number of villagers who have been opposing land acquisition for the proposed 12 million tonne capacity steel plant project of Posco-India Private Limited in Orissa are now in no mood to give up their struggle already in its sixth year. A day after Union Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh granted conditional clearance to the company's steel-cum captive power plant and a captive minor port, hundreds of men and...

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....