-Deccan Herald Dabra is a typical village in rural Haryana. It has narrow lanes with open drains and small houses built of brick and mud. Children play in the dirt while men sit around smoking. Not many outsiders visit this poor farming community. But outside one of the houses, two policemen stand on guard. Inside, a 16-year-old girl sits in one of the rooms surrounded by women. She is the reason the...

-The Times of India CHANDIGARH: Hours before he was removed from the land consolidation department, Haryana's whistleblower IAS officer Ashok Khemka had framed a few novel rules to put an end to fraudulent benami land deals in the state. In his last-ditch effort to rein in land sharks, Khemka, the then inspector general of registration, on October 10, made the Aadhaar number issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India mandatory for...

-The Times of India UPA's National Food Security Bill is facing resistance from not just opposition parties and other expected quarters such as the Trinamool Congress, but also a crucial ally, Samajwadi Party. Uttar Pradesh CM, Akhilesh Yadav, in a two-page letter to PM Manmohan Singh has said that the bill in its present form won't benefit poorer states and should be amended.  For the UPA, which is already beset with pending...

-The Hindu The local community, especially men, have been roped into a project in 22 Maharashtra villages to stop female foeticide and discrimination against the girl child In India, the irony never ceases. While the country venerates several female deities of wealth, learning and valour, it also practises blatant discrimination against the girl child. Going by statistics revealed by the census and various government as well as independent studies, it has been...

-The Hindu In the State that leads in incidents of rape, the shame-inducing statistics are pushing the administration into action Time was when Payal (name changed to protect her identity), a standard VII student from Madhya Pradesh’s tribal dominated Betul district, had only school, friends and family on her mind. But her little world changed dramatically in March this year. The 15-year-old, a resident of Betul’s Majhinagar slum, was abducted in public by...