-Business Standard Claims Bill did not respect rights of people under the Forest Rights Act and gave unbridled control over thousands of crores to forest bureaucracy On Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi regretted that the Compensatory Afforestation (CA) Bill could not be passed in the budget session of Parliament. On Saturday, outgoing Rajya Sabha member from Congress Jairam Ramesh hit back at the NDA, saying the reason the bill could not be...

-The Asian Age The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Centre and State Governments not to hide behind the “smokescreen of lack of funds” and ordered wide-ranging relief for drought-affected people in 12 states. These include mid-day meals during the summer vacation, addition of egg or milk to the mid-day meal menu, to universalise foodgrain rations and ensure adequate and timely release of funds for NREGA. It also ordered implementation of...

-Livemint.com No household in a drought affected area shall be denied grains even if they do not possess a ration card, says Supreme Court New Delhi: Coming down heavily on the centre and states for a delayed implementation of the National Food Security Act despite a protracted drought, the Supreme Court on Friday ordered that all households in drought-hit areas be supplied with highly subsidised foodgrains. No household in a drought affected...

-The Indian Express The bench also issued directives for updating the drought management manual - published in 2009 — after taking into account rainfall deficit, timely declaration of drought and other factors. New Delhi: RULING THAT “the buck will eventually stop with the Government of India”, the Supreme Court Wednesday directed the Centre to consider drought as a disaster and constitute a national response force along with a consolidated fund within...

-Business Standard/ PTI Directs Centre to constitute a national disaster response force within the next six months In a strong indictment of Centre and states' handling of the drought situation, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said if State Governments maintain an "ostrich-like attitude", Centre cannot wash its hands of constitutional responsibility, since the "buck stops" with it. The apex court, giving its judgment on a public interest litigation by Swaraj Abhiyan on drought,...