With the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) showing the red flag to Posco and Vedanta projects in Orissa while giving a green signal to the Polavaram hydel project in Andhra Pradesh, the ruling Biju Janata Dal has accused the UPA of hatching a conspiracy to sabotage the state’s growth. All the 20 Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members of BJD on Wednesday staged a dharna in Parliament alleging that the...

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...

As the Mayawati government went into damage-control mode in a bid to contain the fallout of the Aligarh incident — in which four persons were killed in police firing on August 14 (unofficial reports have claimed that six farmers were killed) — clashes were reported on Monday as agitated farmers resorted to ‘chakka jam' on the Aligarh-Mathura highway. According to Inspector-General (law and order) A.P. Maheshwari, farmers blocked the Aligarh highway...

Parliament on Monday came to a standstill over the firing on protesting Aligarh farmers when anti-BSP outfits joined hands to corner the Mayawati regime over land acquisition for Yamuna Expressway. The Sunday firing saw Congress, SP, BJP and RLD block proceedings in the two Houses of Parliament as they demanded a discussion on the issue. BSP opposed the demand saying it was a state subject. While the provocation for blockade...

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...