-NDTV Shiladitya Chowdhury, the farmer who was arrested for asking West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee a question at a public meeting at Belpahari on 8 August, has been released on bail today. Mr Chowdhury was briefly detained on August 8 after Ms Banerjee claimed he was a maoist. Police arrested him On August 10 for allegedly disrupting the chief minister's public meeting. Ms Banerjee addressed a public meeting in West Midnapore, once...

-The Economic Times Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has pitched for a moratorium on new mining projects in the worst Naxal-affected regions and particularly in areas recently recaptured from insurgents, saying it was essential to quell the maoist problem wreaking havoc across much of India's hinterland. Tribal affairs minister Kishore Chandra Deo had earlier made this suggestion. In comments certain to draw the ire of industry, parts of which already view him...

-IANS BHUBANESWAR: About six per cent of rural women in Odisha get married earlier than thelegal age of 18, according to the latest government survey released here Friday.  The annual health survey conducted in 1,798 rural and 566 urban units comprising a total of 4,56,413 households and covering nearly 20 lakh people in the state revealed that the marriage of girls below legal age is rampant in rural areas.  "It varies from 0.5...

-The Hindu Amid reports that maoists are against according bamboo rights to Adivasis in Gadchiroli, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has asked the Chief Ministers of six Naxal-hit States to emulate the success of Mendha Lekha village in that Maharashtra district. Mendha Lekha became the first village with Community Forest Rights (CFR) to be given transit passbooks to harvest and sell bamboo in April 2011. Since then other villages in Gadchiroli...

-The Hindu The West Bengal Human Rights Commission on Friday ordered an inquiry into the arrest of Shiladitya Chowdhury, who was apprehended by the security forces after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee dubbed him a maoist for questioning her government’s policies on agriculture, at a rally in the maoist-affected Jangalmahal region last week. Chairman of the Commission Justice (retired) Asok Kumar Ganguly directed Additional Director-General of Police K.P.P. Rao to conduct an inquiry...