-Express News Service   Two farmers of Sambalpur and Nuapada districts allegedly committed suicide by consuming pesticide on Sunday night over failed crop and debt burden. This is the fourth such suicide in Sambalpur district and second in Naupada. One Ganesh Bhoi (47) of Sanatanpali village in Ghenupali gram panchayat of Jujumura block of Sambalpur committed suicide on Sunday night following three consecutive crop losses. Though he was rushed to VSS Medical...

Vishwa Hindu Parishad chief Ashok Singhal on Sunday declared that the cadre of the right-wing organisation was involved in Anna Hazare's movement against corruption. The assertion only confirmed speculation that the Sangh Parivar was supporting Anna. Singhal praised VHP members for having done an "extremely good job" in making Anna's movement a success. "Members of the Dharma Yatra Mahasangh, a wing of the VHP, had opened stalls at Ramlila Maidan to offer food...

In covering Anna, TV seems to have shed its critical faculties “Corruption,” I remarked the other day on a television channel, “takes more than one form.” We were talking about—what else?—the latest incremental progression in the Anna Hazare saga. “Everyone talks of money corruption, but what about the other kind—‘Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely’? And who has any kind of power now? Only two entities: Anna Hazare and television.” That’s...

Recommending civil society vigil to check female foeticide, a Parliamentary committee has asked the Union Government to ensure that the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (MTP) Act, 1971, is not circumvented to give way to selective abortion in cases of female foeticide. It has also called for synchronisation of this Act with the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act (PC&PNDT Act), 1994, to check the social evil. It...

Oppose laying of coastal road Stiff opposition from the locals against acquisition of land for the proposed Posco steel project and the construction of a coastal road from Paradip to the project site has forced the Jagatsinghpur district administration to stop the project work. Residents of Dhinkia and Nuagaon gram panchayats on Saturday held a public meeting to oppose the laying of the road. The road work began near Paradip on Friday. Raising...