Twelve districts that face no apparent Maoist threat have recently been added to the list of those worst affected by the rebels, officials said. They hinted that powerful politicians with influence in these 12 districts were eyeing a share of the development funds earmarked for the Red zones. Of the 12 districts, at least eight fall within the Lok Sabha constituencies of Congress MPs. Seven of the districts are in Madhya Pradesh...

Economists across the world are expressing concern about rising food prices. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization recently released its Food Price Index. The list showed that a number of foods cost more than during the world food crisis of two thousand eight. The index is at its highest level since it began in NINeteen NINety. Demonstrations and deadly food riots have broken out this month, as they did in...

Villagers of Netai in Lalgarh could not conceal their grievance against the state administration when district police superintendent Monoj Verma and district magistrate Surendra Gupta reached the village on Sunday morNINg to supervise arrangements before governor M K Narayanan's visit on Wednesday. Gupta and Verma arrived at the village, escorted by heavy security, around 11am. Gupta started visiting different portions of the village and found a tube well that was not...

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has found several inadequacies in the implementation of the Swarnajayanthi Gram Swarozgar Yojana (self-employment scheme) by the State government, including inadequate coverage of the SC/ST and disabled beneficiaries and ineffective monitoring mechanism. The report of the CAG (Panchayat Raj institutions) - 2009, tabled in the Assembly on Tuesday, points out that non-utilisation of grants on time resulted in the loss of assistance to...

While there will be general agreement that the judgement in Binayak Sen's case represents a gross miscarriage of justice, most people will attribute it to the overzealousness of a lower judicial functionary, or, at the most, to the prevailing atmosphere in the state of Chhattisgarh. If the trial had been held elsewhere, they would argue, Binayak would not have got the verdict he did. They are probably right, just as...