The Communist Party of India on Wednesday asked the Centre to take into account public demonstrations in Maharashtra against the setting up of nuclear power plants there and raised environmental issues connected with the Jaitapur project.It urged the government to make public the contract signed between French and Indian nuclear power companies.Demanding that the government review the environmental clearance to the Jaitapur plant, the CPI also flagged issues of public...

Put it to the vagaries of the first-past-the post system but the Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal(U)-Bharatiya Janata Party combine, which pulled off an incredible, winner-take-all four-fifths majority in the recent Bihar election, secured a vote share of only 39 per cent — just a three percentage point improvement over what it polled in October 2005. The ruling alliance won 206 seats, leaving the combined Opposition clutching at all of 37 seats...

Manual scavenging persists, but community and political mobilisation of workers has initiated change. Only those who are in denial are surprised by the continued existence in India of casteism and inhuman practices associated with stigmatisation, despite institutions of the state decreeing their abolition. But progress has been made in fits and starts, and agency – in the form of community and political mobilisation – has played a role in their slow...

Writes to Azad expressing concern over its inclusion in public health programme The Union government's decision to allow the use of injectable contraceptives, as part of the public health programme in the country, would be a harmful step that will affect the health of women, Member of Parliament and Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat has said. In a letter to the Union Health and Family Welfare Minister...

The Communist Party of India State council has asked the Centre to ban Endosulfan, which led to deadly diseases and death in several areas in Kasaragod. A resolution adopted by it here on Monday said the ill effects of the pesticide on cashew plantations were hounding an entire population. It was included in the deadly pesticides list and banned in many countries. India was adopting a stand in favour of...