-The Hindu Withdraw cases against villagers, Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti: Civil society groups Several civil society groups have alleged abuse of human rights and registration of false cases by State government agencies in order to curb resistance against the land acquisition for the proposed Posco steel plant in Odisha. Highlighting instances of “biased and arbitrary” police action in the eight villages of Jagatsinghpur district affected by the plant, illustrated in the recently-released fact...

-Outlook Hyderabad: Union Ministry of Women and Child Development today announced setting up of dedicated centres catering to women victims of violence across 100 districts in the country. "The 'One Stop Crisis Centre for Women' (OSCCW), aimed at helping the women victims of domestic and other forms of violence, to be located at hospitals, will have a senior doctor as coordinator and comprise a counsellor, police officer, lawyer, on-duty doctor and support...

-The Hindu BJP-leaning candidate held for testing voters’ loyalty To prove that they had voted for a candidate who lost the gram panchayat elections, 100 people were allegedly forced by him and his campaign manager to put their hands in boiling oil in north Gujarat’s Sabarkantha district on Tuesday night. Though the gram panchayat elections were not fought on party symbols, the candidate, Dinesh Parmar of Deria village in Bayad taluk, 40 km...

-DailyBhaskar.com Kishanganj (Bihar): The plight of Dalits in India came to fore again on Tuesday after it was discovered that ‘higher castes’ in village of Kishanganj district including the panchayat head himself had issued a diktat ordering Dalits not to use village water. Bihar Police lodged a complaint on Tuesday against fifteen persons for causing mental torture to Dalits. The social boycott of Dalits was effected after one of them complained that money...

-Down to Earth Only 25 days of work provided per family as against the guaranteed 100 days of work; wages paid late in 55 per cent cases District administrations in rural West Bengal are resorting to innovative ways in their hurry to spend funds allocated under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme (MNREGS). In the Maoist-affected West Midnapore district, petty contractors are doing the earth work earmarked for MNREGS with...