Seeking to pressurise the central government further on the issue of rotting food grains, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday, Sep 18 urged the farmers to unite and corner the Congress-led UPA. The saffron party held a Dharna in the national capital demanding better storage facilities, and minimum support price for farmers' produce. Speaking to the famers who gathered at the Dharna, senior BJP leader Rajnath Singh said, "There is an...

Acting swiftly against a glaring instance of untouchability in western Tamil Nadu, revenue and police officials on Wednesday directed caste Hindus of N Kumarapalayam village, near Dharapuram in Tirupur district, to remove two fences they had erected to prevent dalits from using public roads. About 150 families of caste Hindus erected barbed wire "untouchability fences" on Friday to prevent over 50 dalit families living in the Aandikattu Thottam village from...

Dams may have been the temples of modern India to Jawaharlal Nehru, but Uttarakhand’s BJP government has stopped work on a hydel project because priests and devotees fear it might submerge a Kali temple. The government’s surprise move on Thursday on the 400MW Alakananda project is steeped in local politics and coincides with a countrywide debate on development-versus-environment. But it also highlights how easy it has become to block power projects in...

Concerned over the increasing instances of iodine deficiency and hypothyroidism among women and children in the country, Minister of State for Women and Child Development Krishna Tirath has demanded that early detection of iodine imbalance be made part of routine health check-ups. In a letter to Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ms. Tirath suggested that arrangements be made for early detection of this deficiency at the health...

Child mortality great barometer of economic progress ‘Prioritise the marginalised to curb mortality' Children from the poorest communities are three times more likely to die before they reach the age of 5 than those from high income groups, Save the Children, a non-governmental organisation has said. In a global report titled A Fair Chance at Life, the organisation said the policy to lower child mortality in India and elsewhere appeared to focus on...