Muktsar: Despite the fact that at least 1,100 persons have died of cancer in Muktsar district alone in the past 10 years and the disease is spreading its tentacles at an alarming pace, the health authorities have not planned any awareness camps for the World Cancer Day tomorrow. The poor and rich both have been afflicted by the deadly disease. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal lost his wife Surinder Kaur to cancer last year. Former CM Harcharan Singh Brar’s son Kanwarjit Singh Brar “Sunny”, MLA Muktsar, is also reportedly suffering from the disease.

KOLKATA, 3 FEB: The state government will give compensation to the tea garden workers, whose property and buildings have been damaged by elephants. State forest minister Hiten Burman said this after a meeting with several tea gardens' associations today. The state government and tea garden owners will jointly pay the compensation to the labourers.

MUSHALPUR: Eastern Himalayan region is identified as one of the 34 biodiversity hotspots in the world. Manas Tiger Reserve, which is included under Eastern Himalayan region, is also known as the habitat of flagship species like Asian elephant and Indian rhinoceros. This tiger reserve, also adorned as a biosphere reserve, Elephant Reserve National Park and World Heritage Site (core zone) is overlapped by conservation zones like North Bank Landscape and Bhutan Biological Conservation Complex.

New Delhi: It’s official — India is the most dangerous place in the world to be a baby girl. Newly released data shows that an Indian girl child aged 1-5 years is 75% more likely to die than an Indian boy, making this the worst gender differential in child mortality for any country in the world. Infant (0-1 years) and child (1-5 years) mortality are declining in India and across the world, though not as fast as was hoped in India.

ROURKELA: Armed with the Saranda Action Plan, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Monday detailed his much-hyped ‘peace offensive’ to curb insurgency along the Odisha-Jharkhand border. On his second visit to the Maoist-infested Saranda forest region in the neighbouring Jharkhand, Ramesh laid the foundation stone for the Integrated Development Centre at the remote Digha village of West Singhbhum district, about 16 km from Odisha border and addressed villagers.

The fourth round of the talks between agitating local villagers and authorities over the commissioning of the nuclear power plant at Koodankulam came to an abrupt halt on Tuesday after representatives of the protesters came under attack from a group of Hindu Munnani activists who have been demanding speedy commissioning of the plant.

The political endeavour under the Saranda Action Plan (SAP) — not just to bring the government closer to the local tribal population but also to give them a stake in the democratic set-up and unfetter the control of the Naxalites who infest the dense forests — seems to have made some progress.

Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh and Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda had launched the Rs.250-crore scheme about two months ago to benefit about a population of about 35,000 at Digha Panchayat, about 40 km from Chotanagra panchayat of Manoharpur block.

Dhanbad, Jan. 29: More than 2,000 people displaced by the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) marched to Maithon’s BSK College Ground, 45 km from the district headquarter, today to take part in a public meeting organised by Adivasi Mahasabha, an organisation that has been fighting for the rights of the displaced for over a decade. Prominent social activists like Swami Agnivesh and Medha Patkar besides former Dhanbad MP Chandrashekhar Dubey joined the agitation, which started around 11am and continued for more than four hours.

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Tuesday said the skewed sex ratio among children in Delhi was a matter of concern and her government was working on improving the gender disparity. Census 2011 reveals that the Capital’s sex ratio among children up to six years has dropped from 868 girls per 1,000 boys in 2001 to 866 girls. The national average dropped from 927 to 914 girls during this period.