-Down to Earth Biometric-based unique identity or Aadhaar is leading to huge problems for people working for the rural employment guarantee scheme and for others receiving welfare benefits. Not only have enrolments been done shoddily but the experience of the pilot projects shows that it is almost impossible to authenticate the work-hardened fingerprints of the poor, find Latha Jishnu and Jyotika Sood. Besides, there is the overwhelming issue of deficient online...

The Union government has decided to intensify its operations against the CPI (Maoist) by launching the third and fourth phase of its multi-winged, coordinated stratagem to squeeze the expanse of what the Naxalites now refer to as the ‘ring of fire' (part of the red corridor). However, several ministries are not extending any cooperation. Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh raised the issue in his letter to Prime Minister Manmohan...

Prolonged captivity of hostages & perceived helplessness of government have adverse impact on psyche of society Maoists may be patting themselves on their back for forcing the Chhattisgarh and Odisha governments to give into their demands in exchange for those abducted by them, but kidnap as a tool of revolutionary warfare could prove to be counter-productive to them. The prolonged captivity of hostages and the perceived helplessness of the government, which fears...

After 12 days in Maoist captivity, Sukma collector Alex Paul Menon emerged from the forests around sunset on Thursday — accompanied by Maoist interlocutors BD Sharma and G Hargopal. Earlier, just a few days into Menon’s abduction, intelligence agencies had assured the government that things were not exactly following the abductors’ script. Adverse public opinion had forced even Maoist sympathisers to condemn the act. The interlocutors urged the Maoists to close...

A Cabinet meeting convened by Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh in Raipur on Tuesday approved the agreement prepared by the interlocutors nominated by both sides, thereby giving legal sanctity to the document. On Monday, it was examined and approved by a Cabinet sub-committee. “Now anyone need not nurture doubts over what was agreed upon,” a senior government official said over phone from Raipur. Informed sources said the interlocutors nominated by the...