-The Hindu Parched throats can bring down governments; hence leaders rush to claim credit for ‘water ATMs’ set up in villages Tumakuru/ Bagepalli (Karnataka): Early in 2016, in the grip of drought for the fourth straight year, people of Pathapalli were in a rage. Surrounded by barren flatLands and rocky hills along the Andhra Pradesh boundary, the village had been facing an acute drinking water shortage. The people went on a protest...

-The Telegraph SC refuses to give copy of order forming bench, MPs withdraw petition on Chief Justice New Delhi: A transparency test was staring at the Supreme Court after a constitution bench refused on Tuesday to entertain a persistent plea for a copy of an order through which the same bench had been formed to look into a plea linked to the Chief Justice of India. Following the court's reluctance to furnish the...

-Bangalore Mirror In Hassan, Kalyanis are being rejuvenated to get water for the parched district When she saw that her district, Hassan, was listed among the 16 permanent drought-prone districts of the state by the Central drought study committee, writer and social worker Rupa Hassan was dismayed. Rupa, who hails from Mysuru and settled in Hassan post-marriage, could not fathom how a green district that has Sakaleshpur of the Western Ghats as...

-The Times of India BHUBANESWAR: In an unprecedented move described by industrialist Ratan Tata as ‘earth-shaking’, and which prompted Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to take recourse to British author Aldous Huxley, Odisha on Monday provided Land rights certificates to 2,000 Landless slum dwellers and promised to develop modern urban habitats complete with roads, street lights, parks and playgrounds for them. The initiative is the culmination of the Odisha Land Rights to Slum...

-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...