A day after Congress leader Rahul Gandhi took centre-stage putting his party's weight behind protestors over land acquisition in western Uttar Pradesh, the government on Thursday said it would introduce a new land acquisition bill having provisions for better compensation and rehabilitation measures in the next session of Parliament. "We must have a new land acquisition law. Government has drafted a new act that has provisions for better compensation, rehabilitation and...

Endosulfan, the pesticide which is widely believed to be responsible for thousands of deaths, diseases and devastation, was able to save its own life largely because of India’s questionable efforts at global forums. The controversial pesticide has been in news for a long time because of its harmful effects on humans, wild life and the environment. Obviously the $100 million industry is going out of the way to defend the...

Representatives from 127 governments have agreed to add endosulfan to the United Nations' list of persistent organic pollutants to be eliminated worldwide. The action puts the widely-used pesticide on track for elimination from the global market by 2012. The decision was among more than 30 measures taken by Parties to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants to strengthen global action against POPs at their meeting in Geneva last week. The...

We hear that endosulfan is banned globally and it is against Indian interests and that the European Union and the corporates are behind it. India is a big country and we do not know what happens in one area of the country or how New Delhi is responding to that. So let me try to walk you on this issue. I went to Kasargod as team member of Thanal, a...

Death toll in clash between farmers and police rises to four The farmers' agitation in Uttar Pradesh over land acquisition spread to Agra and Aligarh on Sunday. Saturday witnessed clashes between farmers and police at Bhatta-Parsaul village in Greater Noida and the death toll in the violence went up to four on Sunday. Two policemen and a farmer were killed on Saturday. Meanwhile, the State government, in a bid to play...