-The Indian Express Gandhinagar: The Gujarat government on Tuesday tabled an irrigation Bill in the Assembly which seeks to make it compulsory for farmers to get a licence to draw water from canal or ground well beyond a certain limit and prescribes penal action, including imprisonment, against the errant farmers. The Bill also seeks to charge farmers for irrigation water reaching any cultivated land within 200 metres of a canal either by...

-The Indian Express On a day when the UPA government’s renewed effort to attract bids from telecom companies for the ensuing auction of 1,800 Mhz and 900 Mhz spectrum drew a blank, Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology Kapil Sibal said that “if the court were to take upon itself the responsibility of allocating spectrum in the public interest, in whichever manner it deems fit, it may serve us better”. With...

-The Hindu Despite media coverage and VIP interest, police unable to make headway BHANDARA: Ten days after the dead bodies of three sisters were found in a well near Murmadi village of Lakhani tehsil in Bhandara district of Maharashtra, the police have made no arrests and the perpetrators are still at large. Residents of Murmadi, Lakhani and nearby villages continue to protest by blocking the National highway No.6, taking out candle marches, and...

-Tehelka The National Food Security Act is probably going to undergo many changes before it is presented in Parliament. But everyone seems to agree that it’s time has come Towards the end of January, a few days after Republic Day and a little over a week after the Congress’s conclave in Jaipur, large half-page advertisements appeared in major newspapers: “Celebrating the 63rd year anniversary of our Republic by putting food on everybody’s...

-The Hindu Chaudhuri on IIPM and J&K Police on Afzal Guru approached courts seeking takedown of online material An investigation by The Hindu into the recent blocking of online content related to Arindam Chaudhuri’s IIPM and the hanging of Afzal Guru shows that on February 14 and 15, the Department of Telecom, on orders from various courts, issued as many as three different lists to Internet service providers (ISPs) and telecom service...