-The Hindu On May 5 this year, Tarun Sehrawat, a photographer with Tehelka, sent me a link to his most recent photo-essay on Abujmard, a Maoist-controlled area in Chhattisgarh. Tarun and I met on assignment in Dantewada in summer 2010 and had stayed in touch. A month-and-half later, last Friday, I attended his funeral after a fever he contracted in Abujmard proved fatal. Tarun died of cerebral malaria; he was 22. I came...
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CBI rules out any foul play in IPS officer's death-Rajesh Ahuja
-The Hindustan Times After ruling out any foul play in the death of IPS officer Rahul Sharma, 37, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is now focusing on the circumstances that forced the 2002-batch Chhattisgarh cadre officer to commit suicide. Sharma's family had demanded a CBI probe claiming that he was a victim of the system. Sharma, Bilaspur superintendent of police, allegedly shot himself in the head with his service weapon...
More »We need a new anti-Maoist strategy
-Live Mint Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh is advocating a new approach to fighting the Maoist insurgency that has gripped 78 districts so far. Apart from development and security, the approach involves politics and justice, he said. In an interview, Ramesh warned that in the rush to attain high growth rates, India was placing the interests of tribals below that of mining firms. The minister suggested the setting up of a...
More »Scientist's warning on farmer suicides
-The Times of India BHOPAL: Driven by abject poverty and financial distress, a farmer along with his wife and two children committed suicide by jumping before a train in Harda district in western Madhya Pradesh, police said on Friday. Rajendra Singh Rajput, 40, along with his wife aged 35, and two boys Aniketh, 14, and Mohit, 11, was run over by Guwahati Express (Mumbai LTT - Guwahati) in Palasnar area on Thursday...
More »BD Sharma, mover behind the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas Act interviewed by Richard Mahapatra
Past two months saw B D Sharma negotiating release of high-profile hostages by the Maoists in Odisha and Chhattisgarh. TV viewers saw and heard Sharma, probably for the first time. Widely respected in the civil society, he has been championing the rights of tribals for four decades now. He served as collector in the undivided Bastar district of Chhattisgarh in the 1970s, after which he quit the Indian Administrative Service....
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