The Chhattisgarh government has opposed a new mining legislation, which stipulates licence allocation on a first-come-first-serve basis, stating that it is “dangerous for tribals” and would lead to loss of revenue for the State. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh, who participated in the meeting of the National Development Council last week, said he has raised the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as well. “We have opposed the new mining legislation and...

To millions of Indians, development is dreadful word aimed at denying them even source of sustenance Why is state's vision of development at such great odds with the people it purports to develop? The Supreme Court has expressed concern that the path of development by depriving landowners of their land seemed to give rise to insurgency and political extremism which, along with terrorism, are supposed to be the three gravest threats to...

In this land of rolling hills, made lush by the monsoon, traffic ceases after dusk. So it is unusual to hear jeeps running through the night on the winding roads of tribal south Rajasthan. Through the day, the local police, villagers and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are out in force, trying to stop what they can only slow—the mass trafficking of children across the border into Gujarat from the Rajasthan districts that...

Sujatha Sundaran, 25, sits on a rickety bench and points to a rubber nursery that was a helipad about a decade ago in Mundakkai colony in the heart of Kerala’s northern district of Kasargod. Local children used to watch with awe as the choppers flew overhead and sprayed the insecticide endosulfan on the cashew groves of the Plantation Corp. of Kerala Ltd, a state government undertaking. She was eight when she...

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) on Wednesday moved a step closer to introducing its ambitious food security legislation after the coalition’s political leadership agreed to restrict the proposed universal public distribution system (PDS) to the poorest of the poor in the initial phase. Members of the National Advisory Council, or NAC, which serves as the political interface between the government and the Congress party and is chaired by Congress president...