-The Hindu The densely populated slums on the hilly slopes of the Mumbai suburbs are sitting on deathtraps as the recent disaster in Chembur demonstrated. Alok Deshpande reports on the tragedy that took lives and swept away houses, once again highlighting the need for a comprehensive and sustainable plan for the ever-expanding city Subhash Ghashing, 21, took out his mobile phone and logged on to play an online warfare game at around...

-Down to Earth Bihar usually gets heavy rains in July and August; floods in June are an unusual occurrence, experts said Several villages have been flooded after 3-4 days of early monsoon rains in the catchment areas of the Gandak and Burhi Gandak rivers in Nepal and north Bihar. Affected districts include West Champaran, East Champaran, Gopalganj and Muzaffarpur. Other rivers including the Bagmati, Koshi, Kamla Balan, Bhuthi Balan and Ghaghara are also...

-Article-14.com A surge of untested, undocumented, unmonitored Covid-19 infections in India’s villages is killing thousands, many times more than reported cases. With no access to big-city medical care or Twitter SOSs, millions are at risk. Mumbai: It was past 10 pm when S H Mehdi, BAMS, saw off the last of the day’s 250-odd patients and settled down to speak over the phone. “Chaaron taraf fever phaili hui hai. (There are febrile...

-The Hindu Changes difficult to implement, State govt. tells court The Supreme Court on Friday stayed a May 17 order of the Allahabad High Court, which described the medical system in smaller cities and villages of Uttar Pradesh during the pandemic as Ram Bharose (at God’s mercy). A Vacation Bench of Justices Vineet Saran and B.R. Gavai remarked that the High Court’s directions for COVID-19 management in its May 17 order may be...

With the rise in Covid-19 daily new cases and daily new deaths since March this year, media reports (please click here and here) on migrant workers returning back to their native places (i.e. places of origin) from migration destinations (i.e. workplaces likes cities and large industrial towns to where the informal and low skilled workers from the marginalised sections of the society migrate seasonally, and sometimes for a longer duration,...