-The Times of India Private companies have hijacked the government's flagship scheme to provide food to poor children and their mothers, the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), with contractors in Maharashtra alone controlling Rs 1,000 crore worth of supplies in contravention of Supreme Court orders, a report of the SC commissioners office has said. The SC orders bar contractors from supplying rations under the scheme. It only permits village communities, self-help groups...

-The Indian Express A report submitted in the Supreme Court on Friday indicted the Maharashtra government and Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan over a “close nexus between politicians, contractors and bureaucrats,” facilitating extensive wrongdoings in supply of supplementary nutrition to children through the Central government-sponsored Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS). The report, prepared by the principal adviser to SC-appointed Commissioner Biraj Patnaik, also highlighted that in Uttar Pradesh, supply of supplementary nutrition has...

-Pratirodh Bureau Condemning the arrest of woman tribal-activist and journalist Dayamani Barla in Jharkhand, rights activists have demanded that the "false cases" against her be dropped and that she be immediately released.   The police have reopened an earlier case registered in 2006, when she spent fourteen days in Judicial Custody, after being charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code.   She was arrested again this month, and when granted bail on 19th...

-Down to Earth Rice cultivation has led to waterlogging and soil salinity in Haryana’s Jhajjar district CASTE-BASED khap panchayats of Haryana are usually in the news for passing regressive and, often, controversial orders in the name of honouring social customs. But this year in January, the Jhakkar khap panchayat of Jhajjar district gave a rather unusual order in the larger interest of the farming community. It ordered that all the 36...

-The Times of India Internationally acclaimed academician Noam Chomsky of Massachusetts Institute of Technology of the United States has warned that Koodankulam could be another Bhopal disaster in waiting. In a solidarity letter to the struggling people he said: "Nuclear energy is a very dangerous initiative, particularly in countries like India, which has had more than its share of industrial disasters, Bhopal being the most famous." "I would like to express my...