EVEN though the Right to Information Act guarantees citizens their right to know and expose corruption in government offices, increasing attacks on RTI activists have put this most important right in jeopardy. The RTI Act was enacted after a long struggle by civil rights organisations. However, those who dare question the ways of the powers that be and expose them are eliminated in cold-blooded murders. The manner in which Amit...
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European whammy for Indian rice, lab says pesticide residue level high by Prabha Jagannathan
A Hamburg-based lab, Eurofins, has alleged high levels of pesticide residue in Indian rice, basmati and non basmati. This is likely to start a long-drawn legal battle and for the time being jeopardise around $300m in basmati exports alone to Europe. The first batch of legal correspondence from the grain traders, a precedent to formal legal action, will be exchanged with the Hamburg-based private testing firm, Eurofins and Dr Speck...
More »Fault Lines in the 2010 Seeds Bill by S Bala Ravi
The 2010 Seeds Bill that has been introduced in Parliament does address some of the major concerns in the aborted 2004 version, but strangely a number of important correctives – on regulation, consistency and punishment – that had been incorporated in the 2008 version (which lapsed in 2009) have now been modified or dropped altogether. What forces are pushing the government to act against the interests of India’s farmers? The third...
More »Vedanta project: panel blames Orissa officials
For deliberate non-implementation of forest right, panchayat Acts The N.C. Saxena panel, which has asked the Centre not to clear Vedanta's bauxite mining project in Orissa, is scathing about the “collusion” of the State and district administrations, blaming them for deliberate non-implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) and the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA) in the region. These Acts insist that the consent of forest dwelling tribal communities...
More »Rumours triggered farmers' violence
Trouble erupted at Jikarpur, near Aligarh, on Saturday night after rumours spread that a farmer leader had been arrested near the village. Police opened fire to disperse the violent protesters and bring the situation under control, said SSP (Aligarh) Vijay Prakash, who was transferred on Sunday. B.D. Palson, SSP of Mathura, which too was hit by the violence, was also shifted. Two persons and a PAC jawan were killed and nine injured in...
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