Withholding Talegaon land deal info sought by friend of slain Activist Satish Shetty tantamount to violation of RTI Act, State Info Commission tells government agencies A day after slain RTI Activist Satish Shetty's friend and fellow RTI campaigner Arun Mane was attacked, allegedly for pursuing matters that Shetty had been after before his death, the Pune bench of the State Information Commission yesterday issued a pathbreaking order when it asked for...

The Talegaon Dabhade police are checking the details of the cases, which were being pursued by RTI Activist Arun Mane, to identify the persons behind the attack on the Activist. Mane, a close associate of whistleblower Satish Shetty, was assaulted by an unidentified person at his footwear shop in Talegaon, about 40 km from here, on Sunday. Mane sustained minor injuries on his forehead chest. He was discharged from hospital...

Many endosulfan sufferers in Kerala still not recognised NARAYANA Vokalliga from Belur village in Kasaragod breathed his last on November 20 just as his son was explaining how his father had suffered from exposure to endosulfan for 30 years. The former employee of the Plantation Corporation of Kerala used to spray the toxic pesticide manually in the corporation’s cashew plantations at Nanjamparamba estate. When the corporation switched to aerial spraying, Narayan prepared...

The Gondia police have arrested Sudhir Dhawle (42), Editor of Vidrohi magazine and freelance journalist based in Mumbai, on charges of waging war against the state. He was booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. “The charges are the same as those slapped on [rights Activist] Binayak Sen,” Mr. Dhawle's lawyer Surendra Gadling told The Hindu. He claimed that the police took Mr. Dhawle into custody on Sunday night itself from...

In a bid to win the hearts of forest-based communities, the government will decriminalise the collection of traditional 'livelihood items' from the forests. The move comes even as a joint committee set up by the environment and tribal affairs ministries found several state governments guilty of using the three-year-old Forest Rights Act to distribute forest land to individuals. The committee, headed by Naresh Saxena, development expert and former secretary to the government...