-The Indian Express Firebrand leader who rose swiftly till downfall She rose swiftly through the ranks, having made her mark as a firebrand leader who had saffron politics as part of her legacy. Mayaben Surendrabhai Kodnani, convicted of murder, conspiracy and spreading communal hatred, is the daughter of a staunch RSS worker who had suffered the pains of Partition, moving from Tharparkar in Sind province to Deesa in Gujarat. Kodnani, the first sitting...

-The Hindustan Times Fifty per cent of drinking water supplied to north Delhi is not fit for consumption and is a carrier of cholera, typhoid and jaundice, surveys conducted by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation have found. On the other hand, people in south Delhi get clean, drinkable water, said a recent survey by the civic body’s south arm and the Delhi Jal Board (DJB). The north Delhi corporation said that of...

At last, the real anxieties lurking behind what has come to be called the “Ambedkar cartoon” controversy are out in the open. It is hideously clear by now that MPs “uniting across parties” are acting as one only to protect themselves from public scrutiny, debate and criticism. It turns out, as some of us suspected all along, that the “sentiments” that have been “hurt” this time are the easily bruised...

Not a single case has been registered under a 19-year-old law that prohibits hiring of manual scavengers and building dry latrines. The revelations come weeks after the latest census data showed 25 lakh households across the country depend on manual scavengers to remove night soil from latrines. Union social justice minister Mukul Wasnik conceded implementing the Employment of Manual Scavengers and Construction of Dry Latrine (Prohibition) Act, 1993, had been “weak”. “The implementation...

The Union Cabinet is likely to consider a proposal that seeks to do away with the requirement to disclose one's religious affiliation for registration of marriages as well as the demand of Sikh bodies that their marriages be registered under a separate law.  The move has been prompted by the consideration to help those opting for inter-faith marriages, along with the need to make registration of marriages a simpler affair.  It is...