Much to the discomfiture of the Centre and in a further jolt to the common man, food inflation zoomed to almost a year's high at 18.32 per cent for the week ended December 25, 2010, owing to a spurt in the prices of vegetables, onions and milk. The sudden spurt in the wholesale price index-based food inflation from 14.44 per cent a Mere week ago — and more than double...

The Supreme Court has said no person can be convicted Merely because he was associated with a subversive organisation, unless he has shared its unlawful purpose or participated in its unlawful activities, in a judgment that could affect the fate of Binayak Sen and Maoist ideologues convicted by lower courts. Apart from being held guilty of sedition, Sen, a doctor, has been convicted for his links with Maoists. The judgment may...

Joint committee can help avoid delay and duplication of work: Jaiswal Seeking to put an end to duplication in work and fast-track the decision making process, Statistics and Programme Implementation Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal has urged Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar to constitute a single Parliamentary Committee comprising members from both Houses to monitor the Member of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) fund scheme. In a letter to Ms. Kumar, Mr. Jaiswal stated...

The Raipur sessions court judgment against civil liberties defender and health activist Binayak Sen has provoked outrage. His two-year long detention had drawn protests from the world over. The only substantial charge against Sen is that he passed on three letters from Narayan Sanyal, an undertrial, suspected -- but not yet proved -- to be a Maoist, to the Maoist leadership. It takes several leaps of imagination, or nasty prejudice, to...

Farm labourers and sharecroppers stopped work at the site of a Rs 5,000-crore fertiliser plant in Burdwan’s Panagarh claiming they had not been paid their share of the land compensation and demanding construction jobs. The political links of the protesters at the 500-acre plot acquired by the government and handed over to the Mumbai-based Matix Fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd last year were not immediately clear. But Bengal industries minister Nirupam Sen,...