-India Today   The UPA government and the Congress leadership might be patting themselves on the back talking big about the recently passed Food Security Bill, but their promises look far from delivery given the existing state of Public Distribution System (PDS). In a sting operation carried out by Headlines Today special investigation team, hidden cameras caught the pilferage of grain meant for distribution among the national capital's poor people under the PDS....

-The Hindu While the Delhi rape incident saw mass protests for justice, crimes against Dalits hardly evoke such outrage, which is why the killers in the Laxmanpur-Bathe massacre have got away The response by the state to the 2012 Delhi gang rape case was immediate and effective - a commission to review legislative protections and recommend amendments, and a new enactment. The judiciary responded similarly - death penalty for the accused and...

-The Hindustan Times Lakshmanpur Bathe: Lakshman Rajvanshi has a question for the Patna high court: "Did we murder our own families, including kids not even two months old?" A landless labourer from Lakshmanpur Bathe in Arwal district of Bihar, Rajvanshi was reacting to the court acquitting 26 upper caste persons accused of massacring 58 Dalits, including 27 women and 10 children, while he stood terror-struck behind a wall on December 1, 1997. Rajvanshi...

-Down to Earth Money pumped in development schemes in Bihar is giving rise to a new breed of village heads, flush with money and flexing muscles About a year ago killings and a spurt in the purchase of arms and luxury vehicles in extremely backward villages started to bother the Bihar police. It spied and found that mukhiyas, or village heads, had multiplied their assets beyond imagination. It took the police six...

-Kafila.org This fact-finding exercise was coordinated by the CENTRE FOR POLICY ANALYSIS. Team members were the human rights activist and former civil servant Harsh Mander; former Director-General of the Border Security Force, E N Rammohan; Professor Kamal Mitra Chenoy of Jawaharlal Nehru University; National Integration Council member John Dayal; senior journalist Sukumar Muralidharan and CPA Director and senior editor Seema Mustafa. Introduction and Overview The first impression of the Muzaffarnagar countryside, now green...