-The Hindu The Central Bureau of Investigation told the Supreme Court on Friday that the killings of Cherukuri Rajkumar alias Azad, spokesperson of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), and journalist Hemchandra Pandey by the Andhra Pradesh police on the night of July 1, 2010 were not a fake encounter as alleged in the petitions filed in the court. The CBI made the submission in its final investigation report filed before a...

-The Hindu The State Information Commission agreed to consider some of the demands of the RTI Kerala Federation and other organisations that staged a dharna before the commission here on Tuesday. In talks with leaders of the organisations, Chief Information Commissioner Siby Mathews said the commission would consider their representation against delegation of its powers regarding disposal of petitions to officials. The commission had been returning complaints recently, on grounds that first appeals...

-The Hindu Union Minister for Rural Development, Drinking Water and Sanitation Jairam Ramesh announced a national award for sanitation and water in the name of Maharashtrian saint Sant Gadge Baba. The Minister toured several villages in Satara district in Maharashtra to inspect the work of the Nirmal Gram Yojana for sanitation on Sunday. The award, constituted in the name of the Saint who strove towards service to society through cleanliness, will be for...

-The Hindu   Fears expressed over misuse of Forest Rights Act Fearing that the Forest Rights Act, 2006, will be used as a populist programme leading to ineligible people benefitting from land grants, the Director-General of Forests has written to all Chief Secretaries of States to exercise restraint in granting land ownership records (pattas). Kaushik Mukherjee, Additional Chief Secretary to Government, Department of Forest, Ecology and Environment, said this at the national-level workshop on...

The Madhya Pradesh government beefs up its saffron agenda with a “draconian” law. “IT is a contest between the two. The holy by-lanes of old Bhopal, which houses two of the largest mosques in Asia, the Taj-ul-Masjid and the Jama Masjid, were under attack from the holy cow,” said an activist of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), in a tone which he thought was in good humour, when asked about...