-PTI After the big-bang reforms, Law Minister Salman Khurshid today indicated government's keenness to push bills on food security and land acquisition, insisting that even Mamata Banerjee will not be able to oppose them. He maintained that "the bills drive a deft political balance between populism and reforms". "The draft (food security) Bill is being given the final touches by the Cabinet. This will ensure that poor will have their stomachs full. Nobody...

-Outlook The West Bengal government today decided to financially compensate victims of crime against women, including rape and trafficking. "The scheme is aimed at compensating victims of crime against women. The guidelines have been drawn up mainly to pay compensation to victims of rape and human trafficking," Panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee told reporters after a cabinet meeting presided over by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee gave approval to the scheme. The compensation included Rs...

-The Telegraph The National Commission for Women has acted on less than a fourth of the cases registered with it since 2007 and been able to close less than one in eight. Answering a question in Parliament last month, women and child development minister Krishna Tirath said the commission had received 86,364 complaints in the past five years but acted on only around 20,000. “So far, around 20,000 cases have been acted upon,...

-The Hindustan Times As news filtered in of extended life sentences for 31 persons for the brutal slaughter 10 years ago in Naroda Patiya, a working-class suburb of Ahmedabad, my eyes clouded over. I remembered my first meetings with the traumatised survivors of the massacre in the crowded relief camps in the city, a full decade earlier. I was heartsick and stunned by their stories of incredible cruelty. I wondered if...

-The Hindu Justice has been delivered finally to a 14-year-old gang-rape victim from a village in Bijnore district of Uttar Pradesh, denied admission at a local school. The district administration ordered suspension of the headmaster and a Class IV employee, one of the four accused in the case who had even served a jail term but was allowed to resume his duties after his release. Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA) Raj Bhanu Pratap...