Everything is in short supply here, especially hope. There was a flicker of it, though, when on April 30 Prime Minister Manmohan Singhcame here with Rahul Gandhi. Maybe the people were expecting a miracle, an end to the misery created by season after season of bad crops and the resultant rising debt. Their hope proved to be short-lived. Since then, nine farmers have killed themselves in Banda district alone, the...

‘Mere possession of Maoist materials cannot be considered an offence' Observing that mere possession of materials eulogising Maoist ideologies could not be considered sedition, the Supreme Court on Tuesday granted bail to Kolkata-based businessman Piyush Guha, co-accused with rights activist Binayak Sen in the sedition case, and sentenced to life imprisonment. A vacation Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and C.K. Prasad, after hearing counsel Prashant Bhushan for the petitioner and senior counsel...

-PTI   The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a petition seeking a CBI enquiry into the alleged excesses and violence unleashed by the Uttar Pradesh government on farmers protesting against "forcible" acquisition of land at Bhatta Parsaul. A bench of justices G S Singhvi and C K Prasad asked the petitioner to approach the Allahabad High Court since it had already taken cognisance and was dealing with the issue. Senior...

-The Telegraph   Rural job scheme activist Niyamat Ansari was beaten to death by Maoists as a group of middlemen stood and watched, a report on the March 2 killing has pointed out, indicating once again that implementation of MGNREGS in Jharkhand leaves a lot to be desired. Armed with the report, a committee constituted by Union rural development ministry today met chief minister Arjun Munda and his deputy Sudesh Mahto, requesting...

Within weeks of getting bail from the Supreme Court in connection with charges of sedition, human rights activist Binayak Sen has been made member of the Planning Commission's Steering Committee on Health, which will advise the panel on the Twelfth Five-Year Plan (2012-2017). Binayak Sen, who was released on bail from the Raipur jail last month, will, based on his experience of having worked as a paediatrician in Chhattisgarh's tribal belt,...