DELHI: Focus shifts

in the capital, a clean break seems to have been made with the rancorous mudslinging that is part and parcel of an election campaign. Instead, substantive issues are fuelling the verbal slugfests in the run-up to the assembly polls.

MADHYA PRADESH: Power play

CHHATTISGARH: Off track

No water, no vote

The residents of Teshie, a fishing town in the suburbs of Ghana's capital city of Accra, have announced their plans to boycott the elections scheduled for December 2004 if they do not get adequate water supply.

Wildlife board discovers it has no say

though touted as a statutory body with teeth, the National Wildlife Board (nwb) was tamed by Union minister for environment and forests T R Baalu at its very first meeting in New Delhi on October 15.

No need to be neutral

NEW DLEHI, August 28, 2003. At a press conference, Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patekar said that the NBA would support candidates of 'like-minded organisations' in assembly elections to be held in Madhya Pradesh (MP). By 'organisations' she meant the Samajwadi Jan Parishad and the Kranti Dal, both political parties with socialist leanings based in Madhya Pradesh. The purpose, she said, was to counter Chief Minister Digvijay Singh's "anti-Narmada people" agenda.

Aah Taj!

Former Uttar Pradesh (UP) chief minister (CM) Mayawati, the state's ex-environment minister, Nasimuddin Siddiqui, and six senior officials have backed themselves into a tight corner in the Rs 175-crore Taj Heritage Corridor project. On September 18, the Supreme Court (SC) directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to register first information reports (FIRs) against them for having committed "serious irregularities and illegalities".

Corporate wastelands

In the face of mounting protests against the Comprehensive Wasteland Development Project (cwdp), the characteristically intractable chief minister (cm) of Tamil Nadu (tn), J Jayalalithaa, has been forced to climb down partially. The state government's ambitious programme has been in the eye of a storm ever since it was conceived two years ago.

River politics: Krishna changes course

The Krishna river waters have changed course. They are suddenly flowing in the reverse direction, from the lower riparian state of Karnataka to Maharashtra which is an upper riparian state. But the water is bypassing Andhra Pradesh even though it falls in the way.

Dam(n) the rivers

true, everybody loves a good drought. But the latest mantra is the interlinking of the country's rivers. Everybody loves it too. So much so, that it seems to be a favoured jingle with most political parties.