-Hardnews Bureau Delhi The announcement of the President’s Police Medal for Gallantry for Ankit Garg, the SP of Dantewada is a reflection of the sad state of the Indian Republic as it celebrates its 63rd Republic Day. It is indeed shocking to see that a police officer who was accused of brutalising and torturing the young Adivasi teacher, Soni Sori, is being lauded by the State even after reports of perversity...

-The Times of India   Accusing the state government of hatching a conspiracy of rendering them jobless, farmers of 50 villages of Indore district launched their protest against the government. The agitating farmers will gather at Kali Billod here on Friday under one umbrella the 'Kishan Shoshan Virodhi Manch' to intensify their protest where Team Anna member Medha Patkar will join them in the protest against land acquisition. The farmers are resisting the...

A late-night crackdown by the police and paramilitary forces on anti-mega dam protesters in Lakhimpur district triggered raging protests at several places in Assam on Monday. The police arrested more than 200 protesters, who since December 16 had been blocking vehicles transporting equipment and construction materials, through National Highway 52, for the NHPC's 2,000-MW Lower Subonsiri hydroelectric project at Gerukamukh in Arunachal Pradesh. To protest the police action, five organisations, including the...

-The Hindu   The National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) has demanded that the probe into alleged irregularities in Lavasa be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation. In a letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, the Medha Patkar-led organisation also sought an in-depth enquiry into the involvement of public servants and politicians in the “scam.” The NAPM alleged that various rules were bent to grant permission for the multi-crore hill city...

The killing of Sister Valsa John over tribal rights is another episode of land dispute in the coal belt Why would 40 people kill a solitary nun in a remote village in coal-rich Dhumka in Jharkhand? Sister Valsa John is better known as an activist than a nun of the Sisters of Charity of Jesus & Mary. She left her home in Kerala and moved to Jharkhand two decades ago as...