Union Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, lacking sportsman’s spirit, has stuck to his post like Dendrite paste, despite a series of failures in combating secessionist insurgencies including the armed offensive led by the Communist Party of India (Maoist). He parrots Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and considers Maoists to be “the most formidable challenge to governance.” “Only if villagers think that the real adversary is the Naxal who keeps them under threat will...

The Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) GR Sufi Friday said that under Right to Information Act, police is answerable to public if they detain any person without any warrant. “There is a provision in the State RTI Act-2009 wherein if somebody is detained by police without a warrant, his family or relatives can file an application in local police station and the concerned Station House Officer has to furnish this information within...

An Orissa lawmaker, wheelchair bound since Maoists targeted him seven years ago, was shot dead in front of hundreds of people today as he distributed land title rights to villagers in a rebel-infested zone. The afternoon attack was the third by suspected Maoists on Umerkote MLA Jagabandhu Majhi, who was said to have been popular because of his social work. “It might be a Maoist attack. The area falls in a Maoist...

-The Times of India   Even as chief minister Ashok Gehlot met the families of the victims of Bharatpur communal clash, the police on Saturday told the one-man inquiry commission that they have registered five FIRs since the violence broke out on September 15. The police also said they registered a case against imam Abdul Rashid for disturbing peace through his provocative statements. The opposition BJP has demanded action against him. Nine...

-BBC   India's main planning body has said half a dollar a day is "adequate" for a villager to spend on food, education and health. Critics say that the amount fixed by the Planning Commission is extremely low and aimed at "artificially" reducing the number of poor who are entitled to state benefits. There are various estimates on the exact number of poor in India. Officially, 37% of India's 1.21bn people live below the poverty...