Residents of Lone village in the district blocked traffic on the road connecting Narwana with Tohana this morning over the "failure' of the authorities concerned to drain out stagnant dirty water from the area. Traffic came to a halt for about 30 minutes from 9 am after the protesters, including women and children, staged a sit-in on the highway. The protesters alleged that the authorities had not paid any attention towards their grievance and this had forced them to come on the road.

The general body meeting of the District Congress Committee on Monday decided to hold "Farmers' Rally" at district level in a big way on June 23 to campaign the "loan waiver policy" of the Central government. The mandal-level Congress leaders were asked to mobilise 1,000 farmers from each mandal for the rally chalked out by the PCC and the state government jointly. The DCC wanted to utilise the opportunity to go into the hearts of the farmers. The meeting also directed the cadre to organise such programmes at mandal-level from July 1 to 3 three to highlight the gesture of the government.

IN A BID to pre-empt the mounting pressure from the opposition parties and farmers' organisation for a judicial probe into the June 10 police firing at Haveri on farmers protesting against the non-availability of fertilisers, in which a farmer was killed, the BJP-led B S Yeddyurappa regime has appointed retired supreme court judge K Jagannath Shetty to probe into the incident.

Karnataka Bureau Yeddyurappa says genuine farmers were not involved in the protests HAVERI/BANGALORE: One person was killed and 13 were injured in police firing and lathi-charge that followed protests by farmers in Haveri district on Tuesday.

Farmers from Bhiwqandi tehsil protested against the state government for their land-acquistion. They staged a rasta-roko agitation under the leadership of Shiv-Sena MLA, Yogesh Patil and ZP chairman, Kapil Patil near Pise-Panjrapur purification plant on the Nashik-Mumbai national highway no 3 in Bhiwandi tahsil. The farmers are against reservation of their land for setting up of MIDC by the state Government. Government had earlier notified on 28 January of the land acquisition that would affect farming activity on thousands of acres of farmland.

Hundreds of farmers and consumers from 15 states gathered in the Capital demanding a moratorium on genetically modified (GM) crops. The protest under the banner of the Coalition for a GM-free India comes at a time when the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) is slated to consider Mahyco's application for experimental seed production of its Bt brinjal. Mahyco's joint director of research, Usha Barwale Zehr said, "The last time we had a food crisis, we were bailed out by the Green Revolution.

Harjant Singh, Hartej Singh, Amarjit Singh, Vinod Jyani and Rajneet Singh are "natural' farmers from the cotton belt of Punjab who were here in the Capital today to demand a complete ban on the Genetically Modified (GM) crops and foods in the country. They were among hundreds of farmers and consumers from 15 states of the country who gathered on "protesting pavement' of the Jantar Mantar saying they would not "become guinea pigs in experimentation in the name of GM food and crops', adding that the GM crops were certainly no answer for the country's food security.

Hundreds of farmers under the banner of "Coalition for a GM-Free India' gathered here on Tuesday to demand a total ban on genetically modified (GM) crops and food saying it would affect not only humans but livestock, soil and environment. They urged the political parties to take a categorical stand on GM technology in the run-up to the coming general elections. "It is an unwanted, irretrievable, undesirable technology,' they asserted.

The farmers, environmental and women organisation from different states will be gathering in Delhi on Tuesday in protest against genetically modified (GM) crops. Representatives from 15 states, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, are expected to take part in the protest at Jantar Mantar.

Stepping up its attack against the Congress by holding it responsible for the prevailing agrarian distress in the country, the BJP on Wednesday launched a nationwide

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