ON the intervening night of January 1, a few hours after a women’s wall organized across Kerala, two women, named Bindu Ammini and Kanakadurga entered the Sabarimala temple at 3.45 am. They started their pilgrimage from Pamba at 1.30 am and reached Sannidhanam at 3.45 am, the sanctum sanctorum of Ayyappa temple under police escort in plain clothes.These two names are marked in the history as the ‘first women’ in the age group of 15-50 years to enter Sabarimala, after the remarkable judgement of Supreme Court on September 28 that allowed the entry of women without any age restriction.

ON December 24, leaders of the Adivasi Adhikar Rashtriya Manch submitted a memorandum to the National Human Rights Commission at Delhi on the rampant FIRs against the adivasis accusing them of sedition.

CM Enjoys Lutyens’ Luxury While a Mother Sells her Girl ChildOFTEN such news reaches the newsrooms late, but however delayed they don’t lose the news value. We are talking about Binata Chakma of Kalagang-Charki ADC village of Pecharthal RD block, North Tripura. Parents of five children, Shek Chakma and Binata Chakma were forced to sell their fifth child, barely of 25 days to Sumanjoy Reang of Dainchharra ADC village on December 6 for a mere 2,500 rupees to feed their four children.

A FACT-finding team of Bhumi Adhikar Andolan comprising members of parliament, leaders of kisan organisations, advocates from Supreme Court and senior journalists has, on December 20, visited the family of assassinated police officer Subodh Kumar Singh who was shot and lynched when he was on duty, by a mob led by Bajrang Dal.

AT a time when the entire officers and workers of BSNL are engaged in continuous struggles against the pro-Reliance Jio and anti-BSNL steps being taken by the government, BSNLEU, the biggest trade union of BSNL, has conducted its 9th all India conference at Mysuru. The conference which was held from December 17-20, 2018, has taken many important decisions to defend BSNL and the future of the employees.INAUGURAL SESSIONThe four-day conference got kick-started with a colourful cultural programme, followed by the hoisting of the national flag and the union's red flag.