-The Hindu   The former Prime Minister, H.D. Deve Gowda, has condoled the death of Bharatiya Kisan Union president and farmers' leader Mahendra Singh Tikait. In a condolence message issued here on Monday, the Janata Dal (Secular) president said he was “deeply shocked and saddened” to hear about Tikait's death. “He was a grass roots-level farmers' leader, who fought incessantly for the cause of ryots without any expectations and desire for power or...

The three-day Tarapur-to-Jaitapur yatra hit another roadblock on Sunday, as the police continued detaining activists. Interrupting a rally at Pen in the morning, the police detained 22 protesters of the National Anti-Nuclear Plant Yatra for violating prohibitory orders imposed on Saturday night. “They were detained under Section 68 of the Bombay Police Act. Prohibitory orders were put in place last night. [We were told] the demonstrators would come, and there would be...

CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat has demanded that in view of the crisis in Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant following the Tsunami, the government of India should review the decision to set up nuclear power plants in our country. In this context, Karat has made it clear that the proposed nuclear power plant in West Bengal's Haripur should also be subjected to similar review. Talking to reporters in the party's state headquarters,...

WHILE maintaining her support for a Lokpal institution, Aruna Roy, a prominent civil rights activist and a member of the National Advisory Council, took a critical position in respect of the Jan Lokpal Bill drafted by the activists of the India Against Corruption campaign. A recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for community leadership in 2000, she heads the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (a trade union of workers and peasants)...

Extreme poverty and clamour for firewood have forced some people in Nayagram into extreme occupations. One such is gathering kolmipoka, an insect with medicinal value After walking almost 30km along rutted roads since the morning, middle-aged Bonchu Nayek returns to his humble home, a two-room hut, as darkness descends on Nayagram—one of West Bengal’s poorest villages—with his day’s earning of Rs10. Nayek, whose forefathers were hunters, belongs to the Lodha-Sabar tribe. With...