-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Days after thunderstorms wreaked havoc across the country, claiming at least 129 lives, the Met department has issued another storm warning for north India for the next two days. Reacting to the alert, Haryana education minister Ram Bilas Sharma announced that all schools in the state will remain closed on Monday and Tuesday. In view of the chances of loss of life and property, the Panchkula...

-Livemint.com Loan waiver promises fell short of farmers’ expectations in states like Uttar pradesh, Maharashtra and Punjab New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janta Party’s (BJP’s) poll promise in Karnataka to waive off farm loans is likely to intensify demands for a similar waiver in other states such as Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan which go to polls this year. In February last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised to waive off farm loans...

-Business Standard/ India Spend Delays in wage payment have been a constant throughout MGNREGS implementation Bachcha Lal’s shirt hung loosely over his frail body, exposing his sunken collarbones, as he stood outside his straw-thatched home in central Uttar pradesh’s (UP) Bundelkhand region. “They all rely on me,” he said, pointing towards his tubercular son, daughter-in-law and grand-daughter. Illiterate and a landless labourer, 65-year-old Lal makes about Rs 175 a day when he...

-The Indian Express The Dalit villagers alleged that the attacks followed an order by the pradhan, Pramod Rana, at a panchayat in the Gujjar-dominated village. Baghpat: FORTY-EIGHT hours after members of the Gujjar community attacked two Dalit teenagers of Kamala village in Baghpat, about a third of its Dalit homes stood deserted. All the young women had been sent away “as precaution”. Akash Khondwal, 19, a BA student, is on ventilator support...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Severe thunderstorms lashed many parts of the country on Wednesday night, killing at least 127 people in the last 24 hours and leaving a trail of destruction, with houses flattened, trees uprooted and electricity poles in disarray. The maximum devastation occurred in Uttar pradesh and Rajasthan, where the storms claimed 112 lives. Uttar pradesh reported 73 deaths, of which 46 were in Agra district alone. As many...