-The Telegraph Shillong: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) today allowed transportation of coal from Meghalaya while refusing to lift the interim ban on the mining of the "black diamond". After a series of hearings, the tribunal's principal bench provided partial relief to coal miners by permitting them to pay royalty on the extracted coal within 21 days from today. Transportation of the mineral would carry on until May 31, the bench ruled. "The...

-The Hindu For two years, national political parties have defied the RTI Act that they themselves passed. They have not sought legal remedy either by appealing against the CIC order declaring them to be Public Authorities. If lawmakers defy the law in this fashion, it sets a bad precedent. Political parties should be more accountable if they break the law, not less Six national parties in India, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),...

-Economic and Political Weekly While the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act 2001 is a progressive piece of legislation that recognises farmers' rights to seed, it demands payment of an annual maintenance fee by the farmers to protect the varieties which they have been cultivating and conserving for years, only because these varieties have been brought under legal protection through national legislation. Parameswaran Prajeesh (prajeesh@mssrf.res.in) is a researcher with the...

-FirstPost.com Raipur: Amid Prime Minister Narendra Modi's aggressive pitch for growth and denouncement of the policy of handouts in the pre-general election campaign last year, Chhattisgarh's model of Public Distribution System (PDS) stood out as a shining and welcome misfit. The BJP showcased Chief Minister Raman Singh model of PDS as its answer to the Congress' Food Security Act. Besides the Gujarat model, this was the only model that found mention...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The cup that cheers proved to be hotter than expected for the government today as it came under pressure to amend a central act to regularise wages of tea labourers. Congress MP from Assam Pankaj Bora demanded a timeframe within which the government would amend the Plantations Labour Act to ensure protection for tea garden workers. The question came up in the Rajya Sabha when labour and employment minister...