-The Indian Express The bench pointed out that several districts in the country had received deficient rainfall and a situation like last year could emerge again when delay in declaring drought had affected relief work. The Supreme Court Wednesday warned the Centre against repeating last year’s mistake and asked it to declare a drought condition well in time to tackle the situation better. “We are concerned about the approach. You should change your...

-Hindustan Times New Delhi: This winter season when Delhi’s chief minister Arvind Kejriwal pleads for votes in Punjab, the Capital’s residents will be pleading the neighbouring states for clean air. Each year, farm fires in the surrounding states raise particulate matter in the city’s air by more than six times the normal limit. The air quality in Delhi has already started deteriorating . Last weekend recorded the worst air quality in the...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court today pulled up the Maharashtra government for "not taking any interest" although hundreds of children had died of malnutrition in the state's drought-affected regions. "You don't bother when people die of malnutrition because you think it is a small figure in a country with a large population," a bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and N.V. Ramana told a lawyer who appeared for the BJP-led...

-Livemint.com No matter which party is ruling, onion farmers will always be the victims of a biased state policy Onion prices have plummeted and onion producers in Maharashtra are in distress. Union minister Nitin Gadkari has appealed to them to diversify their production to avoid a repeat of the situation. Such appeals are unfair. For one, the minister was silent when his government brought down onion prices by restricting exports, and two, thanks...

-Scroll.in The government must empower these once proud people – now reduced to lining up for free meals – by giving them real rights to forest resources. Palghar district in Maharashtra is once again in the news for malnutrition-induced deaths of Adivasi children. The State Government is in a flurry – with the governor having taken up the matter – and will likely focus on better delivery of its nutrition and health...