A local court on Wednesday directed Luknow police to register a case of fraud and cheating against Delhi based self proclaimed godman Nirmal Baba alias Nirmaljeet Singh Nerula. Chief Judicial Magistrate Rajesh Upadhyaya further directed Gomitnagar police to probe the matter and submit the report in the court. The Judge cited a 1999 Supreme Court ruling and said that if a person present himself as godman capable of treating the disease...

-The Hindu Demands for a universal pension scheme got bolstered with a large number of underprivileged people including farmers, domestic workers, single women, disabled persons, sex workers and trans-genders from more than 20 States beginning a five-day dharna at Jantar Mantar here on Monday. The campaign for universalisation of Rs.2,000 as monthly pension for every elderly above 60 years in age and does not come under the tax slab is being spearheaded...

-The Hindustan Times The government stocks a fifth of its grain out in the open, left to be washed by the monsoon. As the UPA’s most ambitious welfare programme — food security for Poor Indians — is unrolled, more grain will be collected and allowed to rot unless warehouses are built to stock an additional 35 million tonnes beyond the 110 million tonnes of storage we already have, the Planning Commission...

-Down to Earth Biometric-based unique identity or Aadhaar is leading to huge problems for people working for the rural employment guarantee scheme and for others receiving welfare benefits. Not only have enrolments been done shoddily but the experience of the pilot projects shows that it is almost impossible to authenticate the work-hardened fingerprints of the Poor, find Latha Jishnu and Jyotika Sood. Besides, there is the overwhelming issue of deficient online...

-The Hindustan Times The government on Monday admitted a mismatch between wheat procurement and storage and said efforts were on to ease pressure on go-downs by encouraging exports and providing foodgrain to MNREGA workers as part of wages. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee’s brief statement on farmers’ light in the Lok Sabha during the zero hour came in response to vociferous protests by many political parties on the plight of farmers due...