-The Economic Times The Centre's efforts to ensure economic empowerment of tribals in forest areas received a fillip with the Maharashtra government's order to bring all joint forest management committees under the control of gram sabhas.  The state government resolution transferred all rights of minor forest produce and major timber to the gram sabha-elected joint forest management committees. Despite legal guarantees, many gram sabhas (village assemblies) are unable to have a final...

-The Times of India CHANDIGARH: The Centre has finally taken cognizance of the severity of uranium contamination in Punjab's water and has acknowledged that it is the only state in the country which is reeling under this unique and dangerous problem. The uranium content in the waters of Punjab has not only been increasing but spreading too. A recent study by Punjab health department has revealed that uranium content has been found...

-The Hindu At Kottaguda village, residents are yet to come to terms with loss of lives A week after a late-night raid by the police and the CRPF led to the death of several tribal villagers in Bijapur district, the Chhattisgarh government announced a judicial inquiry to ascertain the chronology of the events, the reasons behind the firing and the identities of those killed. The inquiry will be headed by a judge of...

-The Telegraph Union home minister P. Chidambaram today expressed concern over Bengal’s “culture of violence” and advised “the so-called educated classes” to stop living in a “fool’s paradise”. The first part of the remarks by Chidambaram, who was speaking to industrialists on the need for democratic forms of dissent, was hotly contested by the Mamata Banerjee government that is already suspicious of the UPA because of the Left’s support to the central...

Ranchi: The state government is trying to persuade villagers of Nagri to approach the courts once again to find a solution to the dispute over land acquisition and compensation that has disrupted construction of campuses for three national institutes of learning, but the tribals are in no mood to relent. Today more than 100 villagers blocked the Ranchi-Patratu road since morning, braving sharp downpours, while the administration deployed over 100 policemen...