-The Hindu At Kottaguda village, residents are yet to come to terms with loss of lives A week after a late-night raid by the police and the CRPF led to the death of several tribal villagers in Bijapur district, the Chhattisgarh government announced a judicial inquiry to ascertain the chronology of the events, the reasons behind the firing and the identities of those killed. The inquiry will be headed by a judge of...

-The Telegraph A day after land protests rocked Nagri, work at the construction site of three premier educational institutions stalled on Thursday even as villagers demanding “return” of their fertile land blocked the arterial Ranchi-Patratu road a kilometre away, disrupting Hazaribagh-bound traffic from the capital throughout the day. A 100-strong mob, comprising mostly women, used a crane belonging to a contractor, to block the vital artery from 9am. Even heavy rain failed...

-The Telegraph The CRPF will review standard operating procedures (SOPs) on tackling Maoists’ “human shields” and conducting night operations, sources said today, less than a week after Friday’s controversial operation in Chhattisgarh that resulted in 19 deaths. The move came on a day a preliminary report by a panel of state Congress leaders suggested six of those killed were villagers in their teens. Yesterday, Union tribal affairs minister Kishore Chandra Deo had...

-The Economic Times A section of the Chhattisgarh government is coming around to the view that a judicial inquiry into the recent encounter with Maoists may be the best option to counter allegations that innocent tribals were killed.  The state government is already in touch with the Union home ministry in this regard, a senior official told ET. The official, who did not wish to be named, said a section within the...

-The Telegraph Tourists cannot step within 5km of the Jarawa reserve in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Nor can anybody — government or private — set up shop within this buffer zone. The Supreme Court has banned all commercial and tourist activities either inside the reserve or within this 5km-radius, squashing the island administration’s attempt to dilute a notification the Union territory’s government had itself passed nearly five years ago. In its judgment yesterday,...