As the World Bank and International Monetary Fund convene for their annual Spring Meetings here, soaring food prices are high on the agenda, prompting some analysts to fast-forward to 2050 and the question of how to nourish the mid-century's estimated world population of 8.9 billion people – the majority of whom will live in developing countries. "More poor people are suffering and more people could become poor because of high and...

While food commissioner to the Supreme Court Harsh Mander found no evidence of Starvation deaths in the gutted Dantewada village he visited on Wednesday, he said the tribals there are living in conditions of great destitution, akin to Starvation. ‘‘There is not even an elementary sign of state presence. No anganwadi, no pensions; the only thing people said they get are food rations once a month,’’ said Mander. The bureaucrat-turned-social activist was...

The Samajwadi Party, Balangir unit, on Friday demanded a CBI inquiry into the irregularities in MGNREGS and PDS in Khaprakhol block of Balangir district. The party citing how thousands of people from this region migrate due to irregularities in wage payments and bungling in PDS, submitted a memorandum to Governor M C Bhandare. Led by the party's district president Arun Mishra, thousands of people gathered at the block office and demanded a...

The Supreme Court has directed food commissioners N C Saxena and Harsh Mandar to visit three interior villages of Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district along with the collector. This comes on a day when a delegation of 10 Congress MLAs made a bid to reach the villages but were turned back citing 'security concerns', 50 kilometres short of their destination. The three villages - Tadmetla, Morepalli and Teemapuram - have been in the...

We are delivering relief materials, claim Maoists A local newspaper has claimed that six Adivasis died of Starvation at Morpalli village in Chhattisgarh's Dantewada district, where the security forces allegedly burnt 34 homes and granaries, sexually assaulted two women and killed one man on March 11. Last week, The Hindu reported the allegations that the security forces had torched about 300 homes and granaries, sexually assaulted three women and killed at least...