Odisha village gets pattas after nearly half a century. Land reform programmes get jumpstart They say home is where the heart is, but that’s not always true. Ask Arakhita Pradhan, resident of Chilipoi village in Odisha’s Ganjam district. On a cold evening some 44 years ago, the authorities forcefully shifted him and his neighbours to a place where no civic amenities existed. Reason: the state had built an irrigation dam that...

They operate from a cramped floor in a commercial building near Bhikaji Cama Place in Delhi, and work on a heavy roster of hearings day in and day out. However, the five posts of information commissioners in the Central Information Commission have drawn applications from all categories of people — from scientists, lawyers and journalists to, most of all, retired or soon-to-be retired bureaucrats.   Despite the heavy workload and its low-profile...

On December 23, 2011, in a criminal case filed by Vinay Rai, editor of a Delhi-based Urdu daily called Akbari , the Metropolitan Magistrate, Patiala House, directed the Ministry of External Affairs to have summons served on over 21 websites based abroad on the grounds that offences of sale of obscene books and obscene objects to young persons and criminal conspiracy could be made out against these sites under sections...

-The Hindu Dalit groups here have demanded an additional budget allocation for the Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan this year to compensate for the loss of Rs.8,685.04 crore caused by “inadequate provisions” made in the State budgets during the past five successive years. The allocation should be made in proportion to the population of Dalits enumerated in the 2011 Census. A delegation of Dalit activists met Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot here with the request...

-The Hindu Inclusive growth can be possible only in an inclusive society, Bhalchandra Mungekar, president, Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, said on Monday. Scheduled castes and tribes, and minorities constitute a majority among the people below poverty line, accounting for one-third of the country's population. Existence of 40 crore people below poverty line even 60 years after Independence was a cause for immense concern, Dr. Mungekar said, cautioning that the situation was...