Armed with integrated action plans for 35 Naxalite-affected districts in nine states, the Planning Commission is all set to approach the Union Cabinet for a proposed outlay of Rs 13,742 crore to wean away the tribals from sympathising with the Maoists through comprehensive infrastructure and economic development as well as proper implement of the Panchayats Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act, 1996 and related Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest...

The might of the Indian state is unable to turn the tide in Chhattisgarh. A violent Maoist insurgency continues to rage despite massive deployment of security forces. Ever wondered why? Part of the answer has come now with the findings of a joint committee that recently visited the state to take stock of the implementation of the Forest Rights Act. The Act, legislated in 2006 to provide tribals legal access...

Price of caste arrogance: an unkempt look with crumpled clothes and overgrown beards and hair. All because the majority Thevars of Irunjirai, located 80km from Madurai, had warned the village’s lone dhobi not to press Dalits’ clothes. The dhobi has shut shop and fled the village of 130 families and so has the barber, fearing the same diktat from the Thevars. “Now we have no choice but to travel by bus to the...

While the Jagatsinghpur district administration is preparing to take up survey in Govindpur village, considered a bastion of anti-Posco plant agitation, around 50 people of the same village today extended their support to the $12 billion project. “Some villagers of Govindpur met me, expressed their support to the Posco project and requested me in writing to start survey in the village,” Jagatsinghpur district collector Narayan Chandra Jena told The Telegraph. They claimed...

At least two persons were injured when the police resorted to lathi charge villagers opposing the establishment of a mega steel plant by Posco India Private Limited in Orissa's Jagatsinghpur district on Wednesday. The police also arrested two persons on the charges of obstructing government officials from discharging their duties. Wait till talks end The incident took place when hundreds of residents of Nuagaon village staged a dharna on the main road to...