Order of the Supreme Court of India in the matter of Romila Thapar & Others Vs Union of India & Others dated 29/08/2018 regarding arrest of activists for their alleged Maoist links. Apex Court directs that the activists be kept under house arrest at their own homes. The next date …
Union minister Kishore Chandra Deo has criticized the Andhra governor for inaction on his request to stop bauxite mining in Vishakhapatnam, saying that special powers of Raj Bhavans were a waste if not used to safeguard the interests of tribals. Deo had written to Andhra governor E S L Narasimhan …
Farmers allege compensation not enough A group of men is sitting under a grove, playing a game of cards at noon. Around them, thousands of acres of land, mostly arable, lie dotted with small hamlets. There are no roads, just dust tracks that wind around low limestone stocks and through …
NMDC, whose presence in Bailadila predates the Naxal problem, now pours money into security and faces issues of despatching the ore India’s finest iron ore deposits rise abruptly from the forest floor — 32 km of undulating massiveness, four km wide and over 1,260 metres above sea level at its …
Facing stiff opposition from the Naxals, the Indian Railways, which is building a track to augment supply of iron ore for Bhilai Steel Plant, has told the Ministry of Home Affairs that contractors are threatening to abandon the project and certain measures need to be taken with immediate effect. Among …
State government transfers all rights of minor forest produce and major timber to forest management committees The Centre’s efforts to ensure economic empowerment of tribals in forest areas received a fillip with the Maharashtra government’s order to bring all joint forest management committees under the control of gram sabhas. The …
Bhubaneswar: Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh on Thursday strongly opposed private mining in areas affected by Left wing extremism on the ground that it allows Maoists to extort money from companies. I continue to hold the view that particularly in Saranda given the fact that this area has been …
Government should consider a freeze on mining in Naxal-hit areas, tribal affairs minister V Kishore Chandra Deo has said. Deo clarified that he was not against the industry or economic development, but unresolved land rights and mining were principle causes of alienation among tribals. This gave Maoists a toe-hold to …
With Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on their side, the Orissa government has sidestepped the concerns expressed by Central intelligence agencies and the Home Ministry to work with gram panchayat heads who were elected unopposed. Panchayat polls in February had seen a jump in the number of candidates winning unopposed …
With contractors avoiding rural road projects in Naxal-hit districts, the Union Rural Development Ministry plans to entrust local panchayats to execute them under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). “If there are no contractors ready to construct rural roads in these areas despite repeated tenders, we are ready to …
BHUBANESWAR: In what can be seen as a missive to embarrass Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on the tribal issue, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday alleged that a large number of ‘adivasis’ are in jail in Odisha, for no reason whatsoever, and they should be freed at the …
The Naxalites are expanding their tentacles into the tiger territory. Thirty per cent of India’s tiger reserves are already under their control. Indian forest officials, from the states of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, present at the Global Tiger Recovery Programme (GTRP), complained of increasing Naxal infiltration in India’s heartland. The tiger …
The Centre on Thursday cleared a Rs 8500-crore project under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana to connect 6000 habitations in the 78 naxalite-affected districts of nine states. The Union Cabinet cleared the project, under which the money will be utilised for new connectivity and upgradation of these habitations, which …
A day after Maoists killed six CISF personnel and a driver inside the biggest iron ore mining facility in the country, the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) complex here remained unguarded. Locals dropped in, “examined” the damaged Bolero, went through belongings of the deceased, noted the bullet marks and clicked …
The Centre will be providing separate funds under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna (PMGSY) for enhancing road connectivity in the six border districts of Punjab. The proposed move would benefit Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Ferozepur, Fazilka, Taran Taran and Pathankot, according to Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh. Also, the condition …
I received a press handout issued by southern Bastar division of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) on 24 April in the evening. The news about district collector Alex Paul Menon being “kidnapped” had already become an issue of deep concern. The Maoist press release concludes with a set of …
We condemn the attack by the Maoists on 21 April near Kerlapal village in Sukma district (in Chhattisgarh) in which they killed two security guards and abducted the Sukma district collector, Alex Paul Menon. At the time of this attack, Menon, accompanied by security guards, was in the process of …
The Union rural development ministry is setting up a body called “Bharat Rural Livelihood Foundation’ (BRLF) with a `1,000-crore corpus with the help of India Inc, to promote economic and social empowerment in 170 districts, including those affected by Naxal violence. “I have already written to the Tatas, Reliance, Infosys, …
Days after Naxalites ambushed CRPF personnel in Gadchiroli, Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh in a letter to Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan has sought empowering gram sabhas in the district with rights to market forest produce, including lucrative bamboo used in making paper. Mr Ramesh said that war against …
