-The Telegraph Calcutta: Mamata Banerjee's zeal for a new anti-fraud bill could delay action against Saradha for months but has only a few differences with the old Left-sponsored bill her government has withdrawn, officials said today. "Except for three provisions and a few other minor changes, the language of the two bills is identical," a law department official said. A senior Writers' bureaucrat said the legislative steps that the new bill must...

-The Hindu   Now it is mandatory for IAS and IPS officials posted in Chhattisgarh to learn at least one local tribal language The Communist Part of India (Maoist) had made local tribal language learning mandatory for its cadres in Chhattisgarh (erstwhile Madhya Pradesh) soon after they arrived from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh in the early Eighties. Hence, in the next decade, all its Bengali, Telugu or Marathi speaking cadres picked up at least...

-The Economic Times Young IAS Officer Omprakash Choudhary has won the Prime Minister's award for excellence in public administration for his stellar work in education in Chattisgarh's Dantewada district, the scene of country's worst Naxal insurgency. The 31-year-old officer of the 2005 batch was among the youngest recipients ever to receive the award on Sunday, which happens to be Civil Services Day in Delhi. "Dantewada district is my first posting as a...

-The Hindustan Times A civil society group on Friday demanded key changes in the bill to protect whistleblowers, including widening its scope to bring all categories of public servants and private sector employees under its purview. The National Campaign for People's Right to Information, after day-long consultations with the families of some of the whistleblowers, asked the government to make the definition of victimisation clear in the bill. The Whistleblowers Protection Bill was...

-The Telegraph JALNA AND AHMEDNAGAR: Sakharam Misal is frank. Water, he says, is big business. In Jalna district, which has run out of water, the man in his late 50s is among the most sought after. He runs a water tanker business and sells water to the thirsty millions. Misal's cellphone keeps ringing with desperate calls for water. His tankers are booked in advance and the waiting list stretches over a week. Drought,...