-The Hindu   Health problems apart, they have little time for family "My father comes home very late. He never attends school-day functions or parent-teacher meetings. There has hardly been a weekend when he took us out..." This is how children of police personnel responded at a family counselling session, organised by the Madurai district police recently. Many children complained that their parents working in the Police department were stressed out most of the...

-PTI BETUL: The police have registered a report against 16 people for being part of a tribal panchayat which punished a girl recently for allegedly eloping, by cutting off her hair in public. The tribal panchayat at Chikhlar village situated about five kilometres away from Betul district headquarters also punished the girl's uncle for allegedly eloping with her, by making him run around with a garland of shoes and a grinding stone...

-The Indian Express Yavatmal: Works worth Rs 36 crore were completed in less than four months, supposedly a manual effort under the central employment scheme MNREGS, according to the Maharashtra's forest department. An inquiry ordered by the district collector has found it was made possible by a collusion between forest officials and contractors, who allegedly used machines. Works worth Rs 32 crore were done in only nine of 56 gram panchayats in...

-The Indian Express Satara: Despite five women accusing author and activist Laxman Mane of rape and sexual harassment, police in Satara say they are finding it difficult to get evidence and witnesses in their investigation. Mane, a Padma Shri and winner of the Sahitya Akademi award, continues to be on the run, police said. Three employees of Shardabai Pawar Ashram Shala, a Jakatwadi-based residential school for underprivileged children, on Sunday accused Mane of...

-The Times of India BANGALORE: India's burgeoning population appears to be both a problem and an advantage. Very soon, the southern states are likely to stare at an un-Indian situation: a shrinking populace, owing to a sharp dip in the fertility rate of women. Analyzing the 2011 Census data, the Population Research Centre of the Bangalore-based Institute for Social and Economic Change found that many southern districts, a significant number of them...