The Samajwadi Party, Balangir unit, on Friday demanded a CBI inquiry into the irregularities in MGNREGS and PDS in Khaprakhol block of Balangir district. The party citing how thousands of people from this region migrate due to irregularities in wage payments and bungling in PDS, submitted a memorandum to Governor M C Bhandare. Led by the party's district president Arun Mishra, thousands of people gathered at the block office and demanded a...

With wheat production expected to touch a new high during the ongoing Rabi season, a demand for its export has gained ground in UP. The export, is seen as the only way to help ease the problem of plenty and also to ensure remunerative prices to farmers. Incidentally, India's overall wheat production is also estimated to go up substantially. This comes at a time, when there is a global slump with...

The Supreme Court has said that disparaging remarks made about a person’s caste in his absence and in close confines of a home or room will not amount to an offence under the SC/ST act. Under the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, only an accused who intentionally insults or intimidates with intent to humiliate a member of a Scheduled Caste or a Scheduled Tribe in any place...

For a poor boy from the dark heart of tribal India, constable Kartam Surya has done well. An 8th class pass from the village of Misma in South Bastar’s Dantewada district — in the so-called Maoist 'liberated zone' in Chhattisgarh — 26-year-old Surya makes sure he gives his father, a marginal farmer scratching a living from the land, enough money to live in peace and comfort. "Surya is a good son...

High-velocity winds accompanied by hailstorm and an incessant spell of rain for a couple of hours last night damaged the almost ripened wheat crop in villages across Patiala and surrounding areas. With farmers demanding a special girdwari, the administration may write to the government to look into their losses and order payment of adequate compensation. Reports reaching the district headquarters said that the hailstorm had flattened standing wheat crop in numerous...