-Hindustan Times The Supreme Court brought curtains on a decade-old litigation started by the families affected by the Sardar Sarovar project on Narmada River as it directed payment of final compensation to the oustees, also paving way for the dam to operate at its full capacity. A bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar ordered payment of Rs 60 lakh each to 681 families in Madhya Pradesh who did not receive compensation...

-The Hindu Disappointed by the government’s track record in implementing anti-corruption measures, a group of eminent citizens has decided to take the initiative of setting up a forum to hear complaints of corruption or malfeasance from whistleblowers. Called the Citizens Whistleblowers Forum (CWF), it would “act as a unique, credible platform to provide much-needed confidence to whistleblowers” to expose, without fear, “cases of corruption or wilful misuse of powers”, said a statement...

-PTI NEW DELHI: Government is conducting a study to ascertain agrarian distress in major farmer suicide-hit states, Parliament was informed today. The data on number of farmer suicides during 2016 has not yet been compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). The most recent NCRB data showed number of farmer suicides to be 12,602 in 2015, with maximum reported in Maharashtra (4,291), followed by Karnataka. "Taking cognisance of the problem of agrarian...

-PTI New Delhi: “Not a single drop of river Ganga has been cleaned so far,” the National Green Tribunal on Monday observed, rapping the government agencies for “only wasting public money” in the name of the cleaning project. The tribunal asked the government agencies about how they were executing the Prime Minister’s ambitious ‘Namami Gange project’ and said it does not want the “drama” regarding complaints between the Centre and Uttar Pradesh...

-The Hindu The HRD Ministry official was responding to the Cabinet Secretariat’s directive in November. The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has expressed concern over the Centre’s push to link the Aadhaar number with subsidy schemes related to school education. In a recent inter-ministerial meeting, the Department of School Education and Literacy (DSEL), under the HRD Ministry, said the decision to use the Aadhaar number as an identification document for receiving benefits under...