The Opposition slammed the Naveen Patnaik government today for trying to make a political capital out of the flood relief operation by allegedly distributing relief material in bags emblazoned with conch symbol of the ruling party. The Biju Janata Dal (BJD), however, refuted the charge describing it as politically motivated. The state government decided to provide relief to the flood-hit for another seven days and provide them work under the Mahatma...

-PTI   A BJP team which visited Paramakudi, the scene of the September 11 police firing in which seven persons were killed, today said the incident was a result of "police excesses" and could have been avoided. The team, which included BJP national spokesperson Nirmala Seetharaman and Lok Sabha MPs Arjun Ram Meghwal and Kirit Solanki, condemned the firing and claimed that even after the incident people were targeted by police during the...

-The Hindu   His party will raise issue with NHRC, Scheduled Castes panel The Paramakudi police firing was State-sponsored, brutal murder of six Dalits and an attempt to suppress and oppress the democratic form of Dalit assertion in the State, said John Pandian, founder president, Tamizhaga Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (TMMK), here on Wednesday. Tension prevailed at Government Rajaji Hospital during his visit to meet those injured in the firing and rioting at Paramakudi and...

Union minister for rural development Jairam Ramesh​ approved a plan to build a network of roads in rural Bihar under the ministry’s Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, clearing some of the hurdles that were holding up the construction. The ministry’s empowered panel on the rural road programme cleared the revised “core network” of roads for Bihar on 14 September. The core network includes all rural roads necessary to provide basic access to...

-The Hindu   “Police should not have taken extreme step of firing” Latha Priyakumar, Member, National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC), said that the lives of six Dalits could have been saved if police had handled the agitation in a proper manner. She was visiting Paramakudi and Ramanathapuram to enquire into the police firing at Paramakudi on Thursday. Describing the deaths as very unfortunate, she said the mishandling of the issue had claimed innocent lives. The...