Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar recently alleged that Monsanto, the Union environment ministry’s genetic engineering approval committee (GEAC) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) had colluded to start trials of genetically modified maize in Bihar before clearance from the environment ministry and the state government. The charge is significant: Nitish says ICAR’s experimental farms in Bihar did not maintain the stipulated “isolation distance” from normal farmland, meant to...

We condemn in the strongest possible terms the recent murder of NREGA activist Niyamat Ansari in Kope Gram Panchayat (Latehar District, Jharkhand), as well as a similar attempt — the same day — on the life of his associate Bhukhan Singh. Briefly, this murder was the culmination of a series of acts of harassment, including at least one earlier attempt on Bhukhan and Niyamat's lives. Bhukhan and Niyamat fearlessly continued to...

A fact-finding team comprising Rights activists and United Milli Forum (UMF) has demanded a judicial inquiry into the killing of MGNREGA whistle blower Niyamat Ansari and sought immediate compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the next of kin of the victim. Ansari was the sole bread-earner of his family comprising elderly mother, father, wife and three children, a divorced sister along with her daughter and an elder brother all dependent on...

Chief minister Arjun Munda today asked director-general of police (DGP) G.S. Rath to speed up the probe into Niyamat Ansari’s killing and book the guilty at the earliest, hours after the CPI(Maoist) claimed responsibility for the March 2 murder. The development came on a day the DGP dubbed the slain MGNREGS activist a “man of debatable character”. Last night, some Maoist pamphlets in which the banned outfit claimed that it had carried...

People's Union for Civil Liberties leader and paediatrician Binayak Sen on Friday moved the Supreme Court seeking bail in a Maoist-linked sedition case, in which he has been sentenced to life imprisonment. Sen's petition challenges a February 10 decision of the Chhattisgarh High Court refusing bail during the pendency of his appeal against conviction and sentence. A Raipur additional district and sessions court had on December 24 convicted Sen and Kolkata businessman...