Not only are the Forest Rights Act and the Panchayats Extension to Scheduled Areas Act routinely violated in Chhattisgarh, the adivasis are also short-changed on legislative representation and reservations in government jobs. As the state cedes land to capital while reducing the adivasis to an ornamental presence, there is increasing assertion of adivasi identity, born out of class predicaments and experiences of displacement as much as notions of indigeneity. Supriya Sharma...

It’s not only the Calcutta business chambers that have come out in support of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s (Ficci) reproachful stand on the way the Bengal government is handling investigations into the AMRI fire tragedy. Closer home, Federation of Jharkhand Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FJCCI) also feels that the police action against seven directors of AMRI Hospitals, Dhakuria, “was not completely non-discriminatory”. A day after Bengal...

-IANS The Calcutta High Court Wednesday admitted a petition by the city's AMRI Hospital, seeking the West Bengal government's intervention in paying compensation to the families of those killed in a fire in its premises last month. Justice J.K. Biswas directed the state government and Kolkata police chief to file affidavits stating their stand on the issue within three weeks. The court, however, denied any interim relief to the hospital. The hospital in its...

-DNA   The first day of the mass clearing programme of RTI applications piled up at the state information commission (SIC) was a grand success, with 53 of the 63 appellants (81%) making it for the hearing on Tuesday. The commission hopes to hear nearly 600 second appeals in the four-day ‘special appeal disposal programme’ kicked off at the Poddar Medical College on Dr Annie Besant Road at Worli. Acting state chief information commissioner...

For implementing food security Act Constitution of a Sate Food Security Mission and district-level grievance redressal mechanism have been mooted for the effective implementation of the National Food Security Act. The proposed mission will have an advisory role, mainly to advise the government and its agencies, autonomous bodies, and non-governmental agencies involved in the delivery of services for effective implementation of food and nutrition-related schemes and also to enable individuals to...