In the past, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee had maintained “there are no Maoists in West Bengal” and that the situation in Jangalmahal region in the State was the result of “infighting among the Marxists,” but the Chief Minister on Saturday lashed out at the rebels, without naming them outright, labelling them “supari killers,” “jungle mafia” and “cowardly goons hiding in the forests.” A little over a year ago, at a...

-The Business Standard   PDS no prerequisite for grain entitlement to general-category families. The contours of the Food Security Bill are firming up, what with the proposed legislation now stipulating a monthly minimum of seven kilograms of grains per person for the country’s priority households. In fact, this category of families — with a pregnant woman, dependent children or a differently-abled member — will get even higher quota depending upon the availability, as...

The Union government is inclined to examine specific requirements of States individually while implementing the proposed legislation on food security. When it was brought to his attention that crores of people in the State would be left out of the Public Distribution System as the ceiling for coverage of urban population stipulated in the draft National Food Security Bill was 50 per cent and the provisional figures of Census 2011 pointed...

Admitting that the growth of Naxalism was as much because of failure of the Union Government as for a variety of other reasons, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has underlined the need for a renewed sense of urgency to address problems afflicting the masses through a stratagem hinged on synergy of security forces and implementing agencies. Delivering the annual Sardar Patel Memorial Lecture here on “Tirupati to Pashupati: Some reflections...

Why were two tribals and the Essar group framed by the Chhattisgarh police? Why are Soni Sori and Linga Kodopi being systematically silenced? This chilling story of one family reveals more about India's Naxal crisis than any official document can. AS I sit to write this, at 12.20 pm on 4 October 2011, an SMS pops up on my phone: “Soni Sori has been arrested by the Delhi Crime Branch.” The...