With tribals accounting for about 14 per cent of the total population in the state, the Congress party is organising a one-day conclave at Kevadia Colony in the tribal-dominated Narmada district on October 15 to discuss the issues of interest to them. Aimed at wooing the tribal heartland for 2012 assembly elections, the party has decided to focus mainly on the issue of allotment of forest land. The issue of forest...

People's activists want the Kudankulam nuclear power plant shut down completely; Tamil Nadu's politicians have the less ambitious aim of halting work on the project until the fears of local people are allayed. The plant was originally scheduled to begin operations later this month. The two groups submitted separate memoranda to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during their 40-minute meeting with him on Friday. Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Srikumar Banerjee, National Security...

-The Times of India   The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) wound up its six-day visit to Gujarat on Monday without meeting any of the voluntary agencies working on tribal rights in the state's eastern belt. NCST chairman Rameshwar Oraon told newspersons that he relied on feedback from "only those NGOs which were suggested by the state government", such as Agha Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) and Sadguru Foundation, both of whom...

An Orissa lawmaker, wheelchair bound since Maoists targeted him seven years ago, was shot dead in front of hundreds of people today as he distributed land title rights to villagers in a rebel-infested zone. The afternoon attack was the third by suspected Maoists on Umerkote MLA Jagabandhu Majhi, who was said to have been popular because of his social work. “It might be a Maoist attack. The area falls in a Maoist...

-The Indian Express   Weighing in on the current debate on allowing voters the right to recall their representatives, the chief election commissioner has flagged off the destabilisation this could bring to the system. As the person in charge of overseeing free and fair elections in the country, he understandably focused on the wherewithal required to sustain such easy recourse to votes to recall legislators and elect their replacements that some civil...