The CBI has admitted that it received two complaints against former CJI K G Balakrishnan but refused to give details under RTI. CBI's Chennai bureau dismissed one complaint citing "vague and unverifiable" allegations and forwarded the second complaint to the New Delhi office for further probe. CBI refused to give details about the complaints in response to an RTI query saying that the information related to a third person. Balakrishnan is...

Sharad Pawar says many states had asked him not to ban the pesticide Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar is rooting for endosulfan just before the fifth Conference of Parties (COP) of the Stockholm Convention meets in Geneva from April 25 to April 30 to decide the fate of the pesticide. There seems to be a pattern in Pawar’s resistance to banning endosulfan. Replying to a question in the Lok Sabha on February...

Expectations of changes resulting from a movement bereft of a clear political and ideological thrust would be far-fetched. FROM the vacuum left by mainstream politics to the confusions of ideology and practice emerging out of half-baked socio-political engagement – the political trajectory of Anna Hazare's “anti-corruption” satyagraha movement demanding early introduction of the Lokpal Bill in Parliament can well be summed up thus. The wide support that the movement received from...

Call for total ban on Endosulfan Asks Centre to join international consensus NFIW members stage protest in New Delhi The non-governmental organisation ToxicsWatch Alliance (TWA) has urged the Centre to ban the pesticide Endosulfan immediately. Indiscriminate use of the chemical in cashew plantations in Kasaragod district and adjoining areas for several years has reportedly caused side-effects, in alarming proportions, to the local people, leaving many with deformities and genetic disorders. The issue has triggered...

State will observe April 25 as Anti-Endosulfan Day Mass pledge in all districts on Monday 81 countries have banned Endosulfan The Cabinet on Wednesday decided to send an all-party delegation to the Centre to press for India's support to the proposal for global ban on Endosulfan at the conference of parties of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy will head the delegation which will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh...