RTI activist Ramesh Agarwal has been arrested and chained to a hospital bed Chhattisgarh's Raigarh after a complaint by business group, the Jindals. Agarwal was arrested on May 28 by Chhatisgarh Police based on a complaint filed by the Jindals. Photographs available with CNN-IBN clearly show that Ramesh has been handcuffed. Agarwal is apparently paying the price for being a whistleblower as he had written to Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh...

The Centre has decided to cut down the grants to the State under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). It has also asked the State government to follow certain instructions with regard to the effective implementation of the scheme. The State will be receiving Rs 1,972.97 crore for 2011-12, as against Rs 2,107.93 crore last year. The State had asked the chief executive officers of the Zilla Panchayats to...

Who cares for a paltry Rs 100 per day clean pay from the government. If you are dealing in coal, a little more black in your pockets couldn't hurt. Job schemes under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in Ramgarh district are floundering as labourers prefer to ferry coal for illegal traders, fetching them at least four times more wages. "I have no interest in job schemes initiated...

Sustained struggle has enabled tribal and Dalit communities in certain pockets to regain their land rights. COUNTLESS studies conducted over the last three decades by government bodies and land rights organisations underscore that tribal communities have been the worst sufferers of land acquisition in the name of development or industry. Estimates say that 40 per cent of the land acquired for developmental projects and activities since Independence has been from...

-The Business Standard The Jagatsinghpur district Administration has decided to serve notice within next couple of days on the villagers of Polang, Bhuyianpal and Noliasahi who have not demolished their betel vines to clear the obstacle at the proposed Posco site for sand leveling and construction of boundary wall for the project. Sources said many villagers of Polang, Gadkujang, Noliasahi, Bhuiyanpal, Bayanalkanda and Nuagaon, who have been identified as anti-Posco activists, have...