Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh has granted the final forest clearance to Posco's Rs.54,000-crore integrated steel plant in Orissa, even while urging action against the sarpanch of one of the villages protesting against the project. Last month, Mr. Ramesh offered some hope to the protesting people of Dhinkia and Gobindapur by taking note of the resolutions passed by their village councils alleging that the Orissa government had failed...

The draft bill seeks to create an institution that will be independent of those it seeks to police, and will have powers to investigate and prosecute all public servants, and others found guilty of corrupting them. A number of commentators have raised issues about the provisions in the draft of the Jan Lokpal Bill. They have asked whether it would be an effective instrument to check corruption. They have pointed to...

Even as Indians across the nation and the world are drumming up support for Anna Hazare's hunger strike against corruption, a small farmer of Pahanga gram panchayat under Niali block has resorted to the same path to get justice. The 56-year-old farmer, Bhramara Ojha, sat on hunger strike outside the collector's office on Friday demanding payment of his due wages for work he did under the NREGA scheme. The farmer alleged...

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...

This article explores the issue of dalits’ inclusion in the media industry. It argues that under-representation of dalits in Indian media leads to an exclusion of news on dalits. [This was presented in the “National Conference on Ethical Issues and Indian Media” held on 26 and 27 November 2010 and in Periyar University, Salem, Tamil Nadu.] [J Balasubramaniam (balumids@gmail.com) is with the Department of Journalism and Science Communication, Madurai Kamaraj University.] The basis...