-The Times of India PUNE: Navabai Ansari, a maid from Mangalwar Peth, is a harassed woman. It has been over two months now, but the fair price shopowner in her area won’t give her food grains as her husband’s Aadhaar and the ration card are not linked. Nirmala Rajput, a daily wager, from Guruwar Peth has also been denied her mandatory ration by a fair price shopowner in her area for over...

-The Telegraph Calcutta: Calcutta High Court on Thursday stalled the panchayat election process and asked the state election commission to explain by Monday what it had done about the complaints of prospective Opposition candidates being prevented from filing nomination. "Till the court passes any further order on this issue, the state election commission is directed to stall the election process," Justice Subrata Talukdar said in an interim order on a BJP petition. This...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Central Information Commission on Tuesday said there should be no delay in payment of pension to senior citizens on the pretext of linking accounts with a beneficiary's Aadhaar number. "In the name of linking to Aadhaar or other such conditions, the public authority cannot delay the payment of pension to senior citizens and retired employees in view of their Post-retirement requirements," information commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu said. He said...

-The Hindu The draft Forest Policy re-emphasises production forestry, raising many ecological and social concerns Government policy documents are statements of goals, priorities and strategies. If old strategies have failed or circumstances have changed, they should be revised. Given that our Forest Policy was last revised in 1988, changes are perhaps overdue. The new draft Forest Policy 2018, however, ignores the lessons from this period and returns to the state-managed forestry of...

-Livemint.com The current National Forest Policy dates back to 1988 before India’s economic liberalization started and now the government wants a revision, as it perceives a decline in corporate investments into the forest sector New Delhi: Imagine two scenarios. One is a natural forest, nature’s complex multi-layered ecosystem and a landscaped home to 80% of all terrestrial biodiversity where thousands of species of plants, animals and microorganisms interact and thrive. The second...