Hunger games – it’s the real India show

The celluloid fantasy of a dystopian world is a reflection of our society

Cancel bauxite mining agreements in tribal area: Union tribal minister urges Andhra Pradesh governor

V Kishore Chandra Deo, the Union Minister for Tribal Affairs and Panchayati Raj, has urged the Andhra Pradesh governor to intervene immediately to check the proposed bauxite mining in Visakhapatnam district. In a letter dated March 14, Deo appealed to E S L Narasimhan to use the governor’s special powers to cancel all the memorandums of understanding (MoUs) that the state government signed with various companies in connection with bauxite mining.

The last mayor of Kathmandu

Keshab Sthapit mirrors the rough and tumble of Nepali politics. The last elected mayor of Kathmandu, Sthapit was elected to the post in 1997, and served a full five-year term. After a year’s gap, he was recalled by the royal regime, when he served as Mayor of Kathmandu for another 10 months.

“Come elections, our forests are looted”

A phone call early in the morning relieved me of the tension. The general strike called by the Maoists is for tomorrow and day after. Today, I will be able to visit few villages inside Jangalmahal. A contiguous patch of forest crisscrossing three districts of south West Bengal, the area came into limelight in November 2008.

Stepping on the PDS snake in Dantewada

­“Where is the PDS store, bhaiya?” To me the enquiry is simple enough, but the weary 40-something man gives me a suspicious look, then gestures mutely towards a deserted building with no yellow signboard – nothing that indicates it houses a PDS store.