Modi appeals to Manmohan to raise height of Narmada dam ‘Rehabilitation of over 2 lakh tribals, farmers still pending' The Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) on Monday urged the Union government not to accede to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's demand to raise the height of the Narmada dam to its final level even when social and environmental compliances with regard to displaced families were lagging. The dam's height at present is 122 metres. In...

The issue of acquiring farmland for industry is threatening to jolt West Bengal's Left Front, the world's longest-running democratically elected Communist government, says Sumit Bhattacharya A confidential digital map shows exactly how many land owners had taken the compensation, how many had taken partial compensation, and how many had refused to part with their land for the botched Tata Nano plant in Singur, West Bengal. The map -- based on Global...

The Jan Lokpal Bill should be modelled on the lines of the Karnataka Lokayukta Act. That's the firm belief of Lokayukta Justice Santosh N Hegde whose inclusion in the 10-member committee to draft the bill was suggested by Anna Hazare, the Gandhian who recently led the popular movement to include civil society in the process. Justice Hegde said the state Act has all the necessary elements to ensure success in the...

Marked 7 in severity and reclassified as a ‘major accident' The nuclear radiation crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan was reclassified on Tuesday as a “major accident” with the same worst-case rating as the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. However, Japanese authorities quickly sought to reassure the international community about the continuing efforts to end the Fukushima crisis that was mainly triggered by natural disasters. Chernobyl, in contrast, was seen more primarily...

India has the most oral cancer patients in the world Tobacco-chewing is a major cause Directors of 17 regional cancer centres in the country have written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, urging him to bring in a ban on smokeless tobacco products, including gutka and pan masala. India has the highest number of oral cancer patients in the world. According to a press release issued by the Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute (CNCI) here,...