Despite poor participation of local villagers in the anti-Posco rally organized by Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti (PPSS) at Balitutha, the entry point to the Posco project site near Paradip, the PPSS leaders today reiterated their resolve not to hand over 2900 acres forest land to the South Korean company for its steel project. The PPSS rally particularly turned into a damp squib as four MPs of West Bengal, who had earlier...

The Sonia Gandhi-led national advisory council (NAC) has won decisive victories in keeping at bay the governments attempt to regulate right to information and ensuring the pro-tribal Forest Rights Act is made more effective for its intended beneficiaries. On the national Food Security Act -- the third bone of contention between the government and NAC -- the Council at its meeting on Saturday held its ground and advocated a staggered...

The promise of the FRA remains largely unfulfilled, says a committee set up by the Ministries of Environment and Forests and Tribal Affairs. IT seems hard for a government used to controlling most of India's common lands to let go of them. Even though it has passed a law mandating more decentralised governance of forests, the government itself is proving to be the biggest obstacle in its implementation. Other than in...

Activists on Wednesday welcomed the government's decision to review the cases against members of the alleged Maoist-backed Chasi Muliya Adivasi Sangha (CMAS) outfit and take steps for their early release from prison. The tribal outfit has forcibly occupied over 3,000 acres of non-tribal land in Koraput's Narayanpatna block between 2009 and 2010. On November 20, 2009, CMAS activists had attacked the Narayanpatna police station. Two activists were killed in subsequent...

By stubbornly overruling the National Advisory Council, the government risks defeating its purpose as a body that speaks for the poor and the disadvantaged. HAS the Manmohan Singh government begun to regard the National Advisory Council (NAC) as an adversary who should be undermined? Going by their exchanges on key issues such as food security, wages under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), and the implementation of the Scheduled Tribes...