Four farmers were killed in police firing as a protracted farmers’ agitation against an urban water-supply project in Pune district turned violent on Tuesday afternoon. Several farmers and 20 policemen were injured, two of them seriously. More than 300 protesters were rounded up. A strong crackdown restored traffic on the blocked Pune-Mumbai expressway, Pune rural police said. Around 1.30pm, more than 400 villagers, agitating for years against an urban water supply project they...

-The Times of India   In a brutal attack on Right to Information Act (RTI) activists, village elders of Gollalamamida in Pedapudi mandal in East Godavari district have imposed a 'social boycott' on three students, one of them visually challenged, for complaining against the local officers on their irregularities. The students ran away from the village and met police commissioner of Vijayawada N Madhusudan Reddy here on Wednesday seeking protection. He assured...

-The Hindu   Adding a new twist to the farmers' protest in which three persons were killed on Tuesday near Pune, Maharashtra Home Minister R.R. Patil told the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday that first there was private firing from an Indigo or Indica car and that person fled after injuring a local. The injured person filed a police complaint and pieces of the bullet were found and sent for examination, he...

The $12 billion Posco investment in India was supposed to be the biggest FDI project in the country. After six years that still remains on paper Horangineun jugeumyeon gajugeul namgigo, Sarameun jugeumyun ireumeul namginda (When tigers die, they leave behind leather. When people die, they leave their names behind) —Old Korean Proverb The news flash from Press Trust of India came on July 10, 2011. Posco, the $32 billion South Korean steel giant had decided to...

-DNA   The Maharashtra government on Wednesday ordered a judicial inquiry by a retired high court judge into Tuesday’s police firing that killed three farmers, including a 45-year-old woman, while the Pune district collector ordered the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) to stop the water pipeline project. The collector also ordered an inquiry by the sub-divisional officer (SDO) of Maval into the firing incident. On Tuesday, Sandeep Karnik, Pune (rural) SP, said the...