-Newsclick.in Caste discrimination percolates down to the food plates for Musahar community in Madhepura district of Bihar reports Neha Dixit "The mahant of the Shankar Math told me to stay away from ultra-Left people the day I questioned the Collector about the hunger deaths in my village," recounts Prabhansh Manjhi. Prabhansh is from the Musahaar community in Madhepura district of Bihar. Estimated to be 2.3 million in the country, they are Mahadalits, one...

-The Hindu ‘Houses will also be built for slum-dwellers in Mandya' Mandya (Karnataka): The State government has decided to construct 15 lakh houses under various schemes at a cost of Rs. 20,000 crore, Housing Minister and Mandya district in charge M.H. Ambareesh said. He was speaking after inaugurating the godown of the Primary Agricultural Cooperative Credit Society (PACCS) at Thimmana Hosuru in the taluk on Tuesday. Mr. Ambareesh said the department would also construct...

-The Hindustan Times Muzaffarnagar: Fresh battle lines are being drawn in Muzaffarnagar's rural areas as Muslims and Jats harden respective stances against the local administration's "inefficient and unfair action" in dealing with communal violence in the past two months. Three panchayats - one Muslim and two Jat - took place on Friday though the administration had banned these after Jats returning from a Mahapanchayat on September 7 were attacked at various villages....

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh today asked every state to "follow" the Bihar model of linking housing benefits to toilets as a possible solution to the chronic problem of poor sanitation in Indian villages. The Union minister's praise, weeks after he had accused Narendra Modi of being a copycat toilet crusader, appeared to be aimed at giving a leg-up to chief minister Nitish Kumar, a potential ally for...

-The Hindu Adilabad (Andhra Pradesh): Neither cinema nor television is a match for good old folk traditions when it comes to providing succour to distressed souls in rural confines. If it is the vigorous Kolatam in the plains, it is the rhythmic Dandari and the Ghussadi folk dances in tribal areas of Adilabad which are acting as escape valves for the emotionally charged farmers in the backdrop of the debilitating onslaught...