Over the last one year, villagers of Ghati in Gadchiroli have kept timber out of the forest department’s reach, saying it belongs to them under the provisions of the FRA, short for Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest-Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act. The FRA recognises their rights only on non-timber minor forest produce but the villagers have interpreted it to include all trees. They say minor forest produces like mahua,...

-Orissa Diary   More than 20 tribals belonging to primitive Dangaria Kandh community from Niyamgiri area Thursday joined the anti Posco movement to express their solidarity to the ongoing  ovement at Posco proposed site. The tribals, armed with traditional weapons, came in a procession to the protest site near Govindpur village and joined the villagers. The villagers have formed a human barricade to prevent entry of government and company officials to the proposed...

Farmers are caught between Mayawati’s promises, Rahul Gandhi’s idealism and mounting debts Land acquisition policy in Uttar Pradesh has been changed at least five times in the past five years to benefit the farmers. Amidst the raging controversies over what should be the land compensation rate and debates and protests over the various clauses of the land acquisition policy, most farmers have lost more than they could gain from Mayawati’s new...

The jingle of 'healthy Haryana' is losing sheen. As per data released by the Haryana Aids Control Society, people suffering from STD, including women, who tested positive for HIV are largely from Bhiwani, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Jhajjar and Ambala districts. People are falling prey to the HIV largely due to drug addiction, multiple use of needles and sexually transmitted disease (STD) infection. However, more cases of HIV positive due to multiple use of...

The government will set up statelevel independent bodies to carry out financial and social audits of its flagship rural employment guarantee programme, which critics say is riddled with corruption. The rural development ministry will also make it mandatory for state governments to submit a report on the social audit, which unlike other government audits, allows beneficiaries of the scheme to register complaints. The move to increase transparency in the Mahatma...