All food items imported from Japan will be checked for radiation at the ports before being allowed into the country. Authorised officers of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) have been asked to get all food items originating from Japan tested at the ports and airports. Food items transported from March 11 will be tested. The Revenue Department has also been requested to advise all the customs points, which clear...

Congress MP from Jamnagar, Vikram Madam, has received threats from a company official for opposing laying of pipeline on farmers' land, police said. The MP's son-in-law Karsan Devabhai Karmur has lodged a complaint with the police to the effect. According to the complaint, Karmur while in a meeting with farmers in revenue office in Jamnagar got a phone call from an official of the company asking him to stop the protest launched...

For the 6,000 people marching to Mumbai from the forest villages of Jalgaon and Nandurbar demanding their rights over forest land, there is some hope. Maharashtra Minister of State for Tribal Development Rajendra Gavit visited the protesters in Kasara taluka near Nashik on Friday and agreed to concede some of the demands raised by the Adivasis. Mr. Gavit went as a representative of Chief Minsiter Prithviraj Chavan, who on Thursday promised...

Lashing out at the United Progressive Alliance-II for following anti-people policies and not even sparing school-going children in the general budget by levying taxes on their textbooks and stationary, Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat on Thursday urged the government not to blame the poor for the food inflation. “By attributing the rise in prices to increasing consumption by the poor, the government is putting the blame for food...

The policy is to promote specific high-value segments within agriculture, where corporate houses have major profit interests. A COMMON compliment that Pranab Mukherjee's Union Budget for 2011-12 received from the media was its proclaimed “friendliness” to agriculture and rural areas. It was not just the media; members of India Inc. welcomed the Budget as “focussed” on agriculture. However, a close look at the Budget estimates reveals a different picture. Public...