The fall of Ram Babu Kateliya, 60-year-old farmer from Kateliya village of Mathura district, was as fast as his meteoric rise within the past ten days. General Secretary of Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, an apolitical organisation, Kateliya shot into limelight after his arrest in Tappal tehsil of Aligarh while leading a farmers' agitation demanding high compensation for farmers whose land has been acquired for construction of a township. Three villagers lost...

The UN's food and agriculture arm today advocated the use of jatropha for producing bio-diesel and said the crop can help farmers improve their financial condition in dry areas. "Using the energy crop jatropha for bio-diesel production could benefit poor farmers, particularly in semi-arid and remote areas of developing countries," said a report published by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). Jatropha curcas grows...

After terrorising the youth not to cross the obscurantist social boundaries on marriage drawn through their deadly diktats, the khaps are now having a grand congregation at Meham Chaubisi Chabutara in Rohtak on July 17. The point of discussion -- seeking lowering of marriage age for a girl from a legally prescribed 18 years to 15 years and for a man from 21 years to 17 years. The mahapanchayat will...

Umesh Kumar and his wife Satvati Devi were woken in the middle of the night by loud cries coming from the neighbouring house. "She was crying loudly. She was pleading, 'Kill me, but please don't hurt him.' She loved him and they wanted to get married," Ms Devi tells me. Two days after teenage lovers Asha and Yogesh were brutally killed, Swaroop Nagar colony on the north-western outskirts of the...

Tension prevailed in the Surya Nagar area of this Haryana district Tuesday after stray incidents of violence following a dispute between the members of the Dalit and Jat communities, police said. 'Yesterday (Monday) night a buffalo, belonging to a member of Dalit community, collided with a vehicle that was owned by a Jat youth. At that time there were some heated arguments but the situation was somehow controlled,' a police...