A farmer union leader was shot dead and two people were injured following a scuffle with a group led by a commission agent during the auction of a farmer’s land at Beero Ke Khurd village in Mansa district. Pirthi Singh, 38, of Chak Ali Sher village was shot in the chest, said police. The injured are Lachhman Singh and Tarsem Singh. The incident occurred around 3 pm. Pirthi was the vice-president of...

ASSAM is on the brink of a movement, like the one that ended with the 1984 Assam Accord. This time the concern is not illegal immigrants but dams proposed upstream in Arunachal Pradesh. In the past year and a half people in Assam have held a number of protests. The latest one was on September 10 when Union Minister of Environm ent and Forests Jairam Ramesh visited Guwahati to consult academics,...

Media persons from all over the country have a great opportunity to witness the dance of democracy in Jaipur beginning Gandhi Jayanti. A peaceful ‘dharna’ organized by grassroots organizations like the MKSS and RTI Manch, among others, is already attracting some of India’s top writers, editors, development thinkers and civil society activists, besides thousands of common people from all across Rajasthan. The movement will continue indefinitely from October 2 onwards...

Thousands of farmers from Saurashtra gathered here on Friday to protest against the Centre’s cotton export policy. The government has fixed a cap of 55 lakh bales for export in 2010-11, even as a record yield of cotton is expected this year. During the convention organised Maha Gujarat Agri Cotton Produce Company (MGACPC) at Shahshri Maidan, the farmers demanded that the export limit should be increased to one crore bales. They...

A large number of cotton farmers from across Gujarat are expected to come to Rajkot on Friday to protest against the central government's cotton export policy. Maha Gujarat Agricotton Producer Company Limited (MGAPCL), a co-operative cotton marketing firm owned by farmers, has organised a farmers' gathering at Rajkot for protesting the government's stand on cotton export. This comes in the wake of the central government's decision to defer the commencement of cotton...