TAMIL Nadu is facing an unusual situation. The entire state has been badly affected by a severe drought the like of which has not been seen for over a hundred years. On account of the shortfall in rainfall, from both the South West and the North East monsoons, agriculture in Tamil Nadu has been badly hit.

STUDENTS-youth in West Bengal came into streets and fought a militant battle, creating tales of resistance.  This wasn’t the first time that organisations like the Students’ Federation of India and the Democratic Youth Federation of India took to the streets demanding that the TET be conducted transparently and that proper investigations be made into the various allegations surrounding the exam. The School Services Commission (SSC) was set up during the Left Front rule in the state and was responsible for conducting the Teachers’ Entrance Test (TET).

AS the people of Tripura are mounting a struggle against anti-people policies of the Modi government, particularly demonetisation which affected the day-to-day life of the common people, the BJP, TMC and the tribal based regional party IPFT are indulging in undemocratic activities to disturb the peace and amity of the state. Though these anti-CPI(M) and anti-Left parties are working separately, it is amply clear that they have reached a secret understanding to create law and order situation in the state and to damage the traditional bond of tribal and non-tribal populations.

CLOSE on the heels of Delhi’s Ramjas College, Savitribai Phule Pune University campus became the site of ABVP hooliganism last week. Students Federation of India (SFI) activists were attacked by the ABVP goons on February 24 night inside the campus while putting up posters of a protest programme. Nasir Sheikh, PhD student and president of SFI’s Pune University unit, Sandeep Marbhal, MA student and secretary of the unit, two other PhD students, Satish Gore and Satish Padalkar and an MPhil student Satish Debade were brutally beaten.

The Rajasthan state committee of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) has said that the rollback of electricity tariff hikes and other announcements by the government is a victory of the organised and united peasant movement in Rajasthan. The broadest unity of peasants and their participation in resilient activism across all districts of the state, under the four month old movement led by the Kisan Sabha has made the anti-farmer Vasundhara Raje government lose its sleep.