The culture of cholchhe, cholbe is very much alive and kicking. Most of the 18 departments that were asked by the state home department to submit a list of their employees in the Maoist-affected Jungle Mahal area by December 10 have failed to do so. The list was sought to draw up a central incentive scheme for employees working in such sensitive zones. Officials at Writers’ Buildings said that so far, only...

-The Business Standard   Its guarantee of non-duplication can have far-reaching cost benefits but it has deep design flaws that can be compromised. PRAVEEN CHAKRAVARTY Former Volunteer, Financial Inclusion, UIDAI* “Aadhaar is an unadulterated identity programme that answers the question: Is the individual who he or she claims to be?”   The word “unique”, and not “identity”, is central to the unique identity programme or Aadhaar. It may be true that the vast majority of people possess some...

-The Times of India   It will be illegal for government employees in the state to go on strike or hold rallies if chief minister Mamata Banerjee has her way.  In a decision that has sent ripples down both camps, the government wants to take away the employees ' right to association, leave aside strike, that the Left Front government had bestowed upon them.  The bold step - once approved by the Cabinet -...

-The Indian Express   As they were produced before the media following their surrender before the police at Kanker on Monday evening, top Naxals for the first time admitted publicly what has been an unconfirmed rumour in Bastar — the insurgents are forced to undergo vasectomy by their leaders, mostly based in Andhra Pradesh. All the four men who surrendered on Monday had undergone the operation. Three women Naxals also surrendered on Monday. “This...

Seven members of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) surrendered in Chhattisgarh's Kanker district on Monday — a sign, police officers say, that a new policy of rapprochement with rebel cadres is gradually paying dividends. Five of the seven surrendered Maoists are from the Rowghat Area Committee, of which three are relatively senior commanders. Of the remaining two, Sunil alias Rajesh Kumar is a member of the East Bastar Divisional...