-The Times of India   Protests swelled across the nation on Wednesday in support of Gandhian Anna Hazare's fast-unto-death in Tihar Jail. The 74-year-old Anna fasted on Wednesday as thousands of his followers gathered outside the jail, the latest development in a crisis that saw him arrested on Tuesday and then refuse to leave jail after the government ordered his release. Thousands of Anna supporters on Wednesday also took out a march from India...

Sushma blasts PM & defends RSS role in stir SUSHMA Swaraj, the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, accused Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday of presenting a “ pack of lies” to Parliament on the Anna Hazare episode even as she mounted a strong defence of the BJP’s ideological mother, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ( RSS), and its support to the Hazare- led movement. In an agitated speech, interrupted...

In a major bid to overhaul governance in areas vulnerable to Left Wing Extremism, the government is all set to launch a Centrally-sponsored scheme for nearly 300 blocks across seven states. The scheme, christened as Central India Tribal Plan, would be implemented from the next year and executed by hand-picked officers with an impeccable career profile under the direct monitoring of the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) to be set up...

Ordinance makes SPOs an ‘auxiliary force' In the last week of July, the Chhattisgarh government passed an ordinance that sought to dispel the uncertainty surrounding the fate of the State's 5,269 registered Special Police Officers (SPOs) who operate as the vanguard of the government's battle against the guerilla army of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). On July 5, the Supreme Court directed the State government to “immediately cease and desist...

Days after the death of 40-year-old Moreshwar Sathe in police firing during an agitation in Maval in Pune district against a pipeline project, two conflicting versions have emerged on not just how he was killed but also the number of bullets that had hit him. When The Indian Express visited Sathe’s village Shivane in Maval on Friday, eyewitnesses said he was shot at with a revolver by a police inspector after...