Mohali/Chandigarh: *Govt refuses to give into concession demands*Deputy CM says demands unjustified*Balbir Singh Rajewal sits on hunger strike Even as the farmers from across the state on Monday launched an indefinite agitation to mount pressure on the state government to accept their demands — for a financial package to farmers and waiver of electricity bills—¿ the Punjab government refused to accept any of them. Hundreds of farmers from across the state descended...

Demanding a uniform guideline for acquisition of their land, a farmers' convention on Sunday accused the government of failing in providing an appropriate policy to get peasants out of debt-trap. "It is the government which is responsible for suicides by farmers due to debt... successive governments have miserably failed in framing a proper policy to favour peasants," All India Kisan Coordination Committee chief and former MP Bhupinder Singh Mann said...

Despite various programmes initiated by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to improve the status of agriculture, famers' leaders strongly feel that not enough has been done and large numbers of farmers remain heavily in debt. 'Various flagship programmes by the UPA government, which started after 2004, have not proved helpful for farmers. Their economic policies are putting an adverse impact on agriculture sector but still nobody is bothered about it,'...

In Vijaypura village, marginalised women, especially widows, have used the RTI tool to procure food grains under PDS and are living a healthy life. The movement, instigated by a young RTI activist, boasts of achieving the millennium goal of reducing hunger by half in the region. It was from the state of Rajasthan that the Right to Information (RTI) movement emerged as an idea that went on to capture national...

Agitators to stage indefinite dharna outside mini secretariat The agitating farmers of Gorakhpur-Kumharia village of Haryana have decided to stage an indefinite dharna outside the mini secretariat at Fatehabad, over 300 km from here, to protest against the acquisition of over 1,400 acres by the government for a nuclear power plant there. “We are not against technology; we just don't want it to be at the cost of farmers. We will convey...