-The Telegraph Union food minister K.V. Thomas today claimed the Bengal government had distributed only a small fraction of foodgrain specially allotted last year for 10 backward districts, drawing a sharp rebuttal from the state, as another confrontation with the Centre unfolded over figures. Thomas’s comment came days after Union home minister P. Chidambaram had voiced concern over Bengal’s “culture of violence” and cited casualty figures that were contested by the Mamata...

-The Hindustan Times The labour ministry has proposed a minimum pension of Rs. 1,000 a month for all those who subscribe to the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS). If implemented, the move will benefit nearly 3 million workers engaged in small and medium enterprises with higher retirement benefits. Under the EPS 95 scheme, which has been in operation since 1995, a part of the employees’ provident fund contributions are set aside into...

The Mamata Banerjee government is gearing to fight the Centre afresh for an additional allotment of subsidised rice to keep a pet project afloat. A shortage of cheap grain has hit the state’s Rs 2-a-kg rice scheme for about 20 lakh “needy” people who don’t figure on the below-poverty-line (BPL) list, with supplies having been stopped in the Darjeeling hills since April. Although the Centre had made it clear on March 12...

The cartoon controversy shows the enthusiasm of our political class to create a quiescent, question-less environment The year was 1967. Vaikkom Muhammad Basheer had published a story — in Malayalam, of course — called Oru Bhagavad Gitayum Kure Mulakalum (A Bhagavad Gita and a Few Breasts). This Muslim was having good fun, writing about getting hold of a new edition of the Gita and watching a procession of half-naked nubile Nair...

The government says area under forests has been increasing for the last 13 years. ET finds this is the outcome of statistical jugglery and the use of flawed definitions by India's forest bureaucracy. The bald truth is India's forests are in serious decline, both in numbers and in health. In February, the latest instalment of a little environmental kabuki played out when the Forest Survey of India released its biennial report...