-The Hindu   Tension persists in Gopalgarh town of Rajasthan despite relaxation in curfew Amid the continuing tension in Gopalgarh town of Bharatpur district despite relaxation in curfew, the Rajasthan Government on Sunday categorically denied that the police had resorted to indiscriminate firing at the Jama Masjid or joined the violent crowd of Gujjars in lynching and burning alive the people praying in the mosque this past Wednesday. The denial issued through the State's...

The brutality and the intensity of the attack mounted on a gathering of worshippers at the Jama Masjid in Gopalgarh by the members of a community on the fateful Wednesday past week was such that the residents of some 40 odd Meo villages dotting Kaman tehsil in Bharatpur are yet to recover from their horror. The Meos, who inhabit the hilly Mewat terrain in Rajasthan and Haryana, are themselves known to...

-The Times of India   The death toll in the powerful Sunday earthquake has increased to 40 with 19 people being killed in Sikkim, five in West Bengal, two in Bihar, seven each in Nepal and Tibet even as rescue and relief operations were stepped up in the affected areas. Over a hundred people have been injured in the 6.8 magnitude tremblor which has caused extensive damage to buildings and roads in Sikkim...

The new rural development minister wants to use technology to force states to make payments. Critics suggest that he should fix existing problems first. Jairam Ramesh is not afraid of stirring things up. Sixty days into his stint as the new Rural Development Minister, Ramesh, he has unveiled what he calls NREGA 2.0, a reform package that he feels would make the Rs 40,000 crore programme actually work. Ramesh has put together...

West Bengal on Wednesday finalized a new land policy under which it will seize industrial land not used for five years. If the land had been acquired from farmers, the government will redistribute it among original owners, the new policy says, expanding the scope for returning farm land taken over for industrial use. Though cleared by the state cabinet on Wednesday, the new land policy wasn’t formally announced in view of two...