Call it a quirk of fate. When B.S. Yeddyurappa took oath as the Chief Minister of Karnataka's first BJP government on May 30, 2008, he did so in the name of the farmer. He knew he owed his present position to him. The first decision of his Cabinet was also seen as pro-farmer: the government announced that it would not charge them for the electricity sold to power irrigation pumpsets. However, a few days later, when his police opened fire to control a mob of violent protestors, the first victim, Siddalingappa Choori (35), was a farmer. Several others were wounded.

NEW DELHI: The Tamil Nadu government has rejected the conclusion of a recent study made by a two-member Delhi IIT team that the Mullaperiyar dam bordering Kerala and Tamil Nadu is

In the first week of April this year, a group of men came and stood outside the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New Delhi. They carried placards with offensive slogans directed at me. We understood the 'protesters' were ostensibly from an NGO we believed was a front for the pesticide industry. We also understood the picket to be the latest in a dangerous pesticide industry mindgame.

Both the reports of the Delhi IIT and the Roorkee IIT to be placed before apex court Rs. 1.31 crore sanctioned towards engineering investigations for building new dam THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The report on a study on probable maximum flood conditions at Mullaperiyar, released by the Delhi IIT recently, doubly reiterated the need for replacing the 108-year-old dam located there, said Kerala Minister for Water Resources N.K. Premachandran.

At Kuttanad, harvested paddy being packed in gunnybags. A file picture. Reliance's attempt to reach an agreement with the Kuttanad Development Society to buy its entire paddy harvest failed, apparently over the price. ONE of the most sensitive initiatives by Reliance Retail since its foray into the farm sector in Kerala in June 2007 was its attempt to procure rice from Kuttanad in Alappuzha district, where farmers have been in distress for long because of falling prices, labour shortage, high cost of inputs, shrinking area under cultivation, opposition to mechanisation, and high wages.

The oil price hike burdens already strained State finances and threatens to jeopardise welfare programmes run by State governments. THE Union government's decision to raise the prices of petroleum products has placed State governments in a quandary. While taxes on petroleum products constitute a significant proportion of a State's revenue, a reduction of these taxes could undermine the State's fiscal balance.