-The Telegraph Hyderabad: Thousands of Bastar tribals have fled to neighbouring Andhra Pradesh since Sunday to escape the security forces' combing of areas around the Sukma-Jagdalpur road following Saturday's ambush. Although exact figures are not available yet, Andhra district officials say some 10,000 to 15,000 people - mostly tribals but including some middle-class traders - have entered the Khammam and Warangal districts through Bhadrachalam, Chintoor and Venkatapuram. "This is the worst time for...

-The Indian Express   Maoists say target was Karma, demand pullout of forces Raipur: Claiming responsibility for Saturday's attack on the Congress convoy in Bastar which claimed 24 lives, the CPI (Maoist) said on Tuesday that the killing of senior party leaders was the "necessary revenge against the UPA's fascist Operation Green Hunt, which is being run in connivance with several state governments". "The primary aim behind this attack was to kill Mahendra Karma...

Argumentative Indians are at it again! After sparring over the poverty line and the actual number of poor, India's renowned economists have fired up a fresh debate over the extent of malnutrition. In the earlier debate, the Planning Commission ‘reduced' poverty on paper disregarding NSSO and official committees, including the NCEUS, which determined that 77% Indians survived on less than Rs 20 a day. Columbia university economist Arvind Panagariya has...

-The Economic Times DANTEWADA: With both the Congress and BJP advocating an intensification of the military campaign against the Naxals, and the UPA government at the Centre even committing more troops to Chhattisgarh, local development in the state could become a casualty in the crossfire. "An outside force is less capable of discriminating between Naxals and villagers," says Vishwa Ranjan, former director general police, Chhattisgarh. Such an intensification will result in greater...

-Live Mint Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh said the committee's recommendations will be accepted New Delhi: A government committee has recommended issuing below-poverty-line (BPL) cards to all 4 million households in 22 backward districts that are affected by the Maoist insurgency. The committee, set up by the rural development ministry, also recommended the inclusion in another 34 such districts of households that are headed by a scheduled caste or scheduled tribe member,...