-Down to Earth Industrial houses use tribals as fronts to amass tribal land in Chhattisgarh Ram Singh’s neighbours tease him by calling him Crorepati Singh. The 40-year-old Gond tribal from Parsada village in Raipur district of Chhattisgarh has hardly any landholding and depends on the government’s employment guarantee schemes to feed his family. But according to official documents, Singh has recently purchased land worth Rs 1.5 crore from a dozen of tribals...

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has decided to send an additional 4,000 paramilitary personnel to Chhattisgarh, to strengthen anti-Naxal operations being carried out jointly by the Centre and the State government. The move follows Union Home Secretary R. K. Singh's visit to the state capital, Raipur, on Tuesday. It is learnt that the State government urged Mr. Singh to augment central paramilitary personnel in one of the worst Naxal-affected states....

A Cabinet meeting convened by Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh in Raipur on Tuesday approved the agreement prepared by the interlocutors nominated by both sides, thereby giving legal sanctity to the document. On Monday, it was examined and approved by a Cabinet sub-committee. “Now anyone need not nurture doubts over what was agreed upon,” a senior government official said over phone from Raipur. Informed sources said the interlocutors nominated by the...

Over 250 activists, academics, intellectuals and democratic institutions have written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh demanding that medical attention be immediately provided to Adivasi school teacher, Soni Sori, who is currently in custody in Raipur Central Jail. NAC members Aruna Roy, Jean Dreze and Harsh Mander, poet Meena Kandaswamy and film-maker Anand Patwardhan are amongst the signatories to the letter. The text of the open letter...

BHOPAL: Even as the second round of talks between interlocutors was set to begin at Raipur, outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) circulated a three page note early on Friday morning, listing in detail their perception about the problems being faced by the tribals and incidents of alleged atrocities by the security forces in tribal Bastar region of Chhattisgarh. A three page note "why we detained the collector", issued by CPI...