-TheTribune.com The violence is symptomatic of a deep-rooted malady. To cure it, one needs to understand its roots, dynamics and interlinkages in the present context * A Dalit athlete is thrashed and his leg fractured. His fault? He has defeated athletes from the upper caste. * A young girl and a police officer, deputed to protect her, are murdered in broad daylight. Why? Because she married a Dalit. * Many lives are lost...

-The Hindu Business Line The rejection of the the Gadgil panel report, by all the six States along the Western Ghats, has proved to be a costly error The floods of catastrophic dimensions that ravaged Kerala recently have brought into sharp focus the all-round ecological destruction caused by human interference in the State’s hilly terrains. The fact that there were 12 major landslides and hundreds of minor ones within a fortnight in the...

-TheWeek.in Noted ecologist Madhav Gadgil blames the “law-flouting” state government for the devastation in Kerala. The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), headed by Gadgil in 2011, had suggested measures to preserve the ecologically frail Ghats. But, the Kerala government, like the other five states, chose to reject the report. Having suffered such devastation, Gadgil feels that the state should survey the “ecologically sensitive zones” that have been compromised due to...

-The Indian Express Despite framing rules, proposing fines and starting ‘model colonies’, waste segregation in the capital has failed to take off. With mountains of garbage continuing to grow, The Indian Express reports on the challenges before authorities. The year 2015 was an eye-opener of sorts for Arpit Bhargava. Down with dengue, the lawyer started thinking about the link between waste and diseases. But thoughts gave way to action when he heard...

-The Times of India LUCKNOW: By replacing Aadhaar data of public distribution system (PDS) beneficiaries with those of impostors, fraudsters carried out almost 1.86 lakh transactions to pilfer 2.2 lakh tonnes of wheat and sugar in July this year, an internal probe by the state government has found. However, Aadhaar numbers and biometric records of no genuine beneficiary were compromised. UIDAI sources confirmed that there was no breach in the Aadhaar system...