Although public goods are meant for everyone to enable living life with human dignity, certain groups are systematically deprived to access them, says a new report from the Centre for Equity Studies -- a NGO based in Delhi. Put differently, not all sections of the society are able to access or enjoy public goods and services on an equal footing, despite social justice being one of the key provisions of...

-The Hindu ‘Groundwater will not be a free resource’   New Delhi: The government has for the first time said that citizens had a right to safe water and laid out stringent rules on how corporations and large entities can extract groundwater in two separate pieces of draft legislation uploaded on the website of the Union Water Ministry and open for public comment. The Bills —in a first — also propose fines ranging from...

-The Indian Express Draft law says water shall not be denied to anyone over inability to pay, being proposed as model legislation for states. A proposed new law on water promises to give every person the right to a minimum amount of “safe water”, while making the state “obliged” to “protect” and conserve water. The draft National Water Framework Bill says every person would be entitled to “water for life” that shall...

-The Hindu Business Line Hyderabad: In another push to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet project — Swachh Bharat Mission — the Centre wants to reduce plastic waste by curtailing the use of bottled water at official meetings. The move aims to avoid the use of harmful plastics and promote safe drinking water. Does this mean the ubiquitous water bottles will soon disappear from high-profile meetings and workshops? Yes, if one goes by an...

-The Tribune Chandigarh: While Punjab is increasingly increasing using canal water for drinking on account of high toxicity in the ground water, it will now pump out this water for irrigation purposes. The new tubewell connections – 1.25 lakh - will not just deplete the state’s already depleted water table, but water pumped up from these tubewells pose a risk of contaminating the food grains and vegetables grown in the fields. Sources in...