MAMata Banerjee’s assurance over land allotment, coal access falls flat. Two weeks after West Bengal Chief Minister MAMata Banerjee assured JSW Steel vice chairman and managing director Sajjan Jindal that all issues will be ironed out, fresh problems, including capping access to coal mines have struck the state’s largest investment. A number of riders are creeping into the terms and conditions set forth in the development agreement that JSW Steel had signed...

Nearly 166 jawans of the Indian Reserve Battalion rebelled in Jangalmahal on Wednesday, alleging they were being made to work in inhuman conditions and are getting no help from the police in high-risk operations. The flashpoint of the rebellion was in Silda, where Maoists had massacred 24 EFR jawans in February 2010. Three other critically located IRB camps - Salboni, Barikul and Ranibandh - are affected. As news of the revolt...

A question mark has appeared yet again on Maoists' intention to open dialogue with the West Bengal government, with the gunning down of a local Trinamool Congress leader in the Jhargram area of Paschim Medinipur district on Tuesday. “A group of armed assailants waylaid Lalmohan Mahato when he was on his way to give tuitions at Pukuria village, and fired at him from point-blank range. He died on the spot. Posters...

Have you heard of the Yangtze River Dolphin? For the longest time, it used to be found along 1,700 kilometres of the middle and lower reaches of the mighty Chinese river. The Baiji, as it is known, was white finned, a little over two metres long, had poor eyesight and relied mainly on sonar for navigation. A few decades ago, as populations along the river grew, as shipping traffic rose,...

The Union home ministry has warned the state government on the Maoist threat, asking it not to go easy on the rebels who have been tightening their grip on strongholds in Jungle Mahal. A senior police officer said this was the ministry’s first warning to the new government on the Maoist menace since it took charge in May. “Over the past three months, we have had letters from the Union home ministry...