IN the first phase of the Pondicherry University Students’ Council elections held on August 28, SFI secured a majority of seats contesting alone for the third consecutive year. SFI, along with the SFI supported independent candidates, obtained 27 seats, thus becoming the single largest organisation in the process.The central government has been extensively pushing their interests of privatisation of education through the fund cuts and UGC norms. The Pondicherry University has in turn responded by administering the draconian policies upon the students’ community.

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury was the first politician outside the Valley to visit Kashmir after abrogation of Article 370. He too had to go through the treatment that opposition leaders under detention are getting in Kashmir.Yechury visited the state after the Supreme Court gave a favourable order in a habeas corpus petition seeking the whereabouts of CPI(M) Central Committee member and four-time MLA Mohd Yousuf Tarigami.Yechury reached Srinagar airport at around 12 pm on August 30.

Five tribal organizations –  Adivasi Adhikar Rashtriya Manch, Campaign for Survival and Dignity, Bharat Ekta Andolan, Jindagi Bachao Abhiyan and the All India Forum of Forest Movements have jointly submitted the following memorandum to Arjun Munda, minister for tribal affairs on September 11, regarding the new attempt to attack the Forest Rights Act in the Supreme Court.ON September 12, the Supreme Court is scheduled to once again hear the ongoing case against the Forest Rights Act. We wish to draw to your attention to three fresh applications petitioners in this case have filed be

 “THE Tamil Nadu Platform for People’s Unity”, an anti-communal platform formed in the state organised a religious harmony conference on September 1, at Kamaraj Arangam, Chennai.The idea behind the conference was to create and environment of communal harmony in the state by engaging with eminent persons of high secular credentials.Saththiyavel Muruganar, a prominent Saivaite leader, Balaprajapathy Adigalar, leader of the Vaikundar Swamigal Peravai, Sivaparakasa Swamigal, Vallalar Peravai and Madhavan Ramanuja Dasar from Vaishnavaite faith, Harbinder Singh, Sikh leader, Madhan Prakash Rathod

In a major jolt to the UDF in Kerala, the state government has recommended a CBI enquiry into the Titanium scam case, which involved former chief minister, Oommen Chandy, opposition leader Ramesh Chenninthala and former minister, V K Ibrahim Kunju. The case is being investigated in connection with the establishment of pollution control system in the Travancore Titanium Products Limited, in 2004-2005 when Oommen Chandy was the chief minister and Ibrahim Kunju was the minister for industries.