-The Hindu Guntur Collector’s report says that the research scholar belonged to the Mala caste Hyderabad: Rohith Vemula, the 26-year-old research scholar who committed suicide in the University of Hyderabad (UoH) on January 17 this year, belonged to the Scheduled Caste community, states a report which Guntur District Collector Kantilal Dande submitted to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC). The report in its operative part reads: “As per the available documentary evidence...

-NDTV Gumla (Jharkhand): For a public hearing on the National Food Security Act in Jharkhand’s Gumla district, conducted by activists in the presence of government officials, 75-year-old Jasmati Lohrain walked over four kilometres in the searing heat. The hearing, attended by over 500 villagers in Gumla’s Bharno block, was her only chance to get government officials to hear about her problems. Ms Lohrain is a widow; her four sons died in a...

-The Indian Express The Maharashtra Gramin Bank has written to the district collectors of eight districts expressing inability to disburse crop loans for the upcoming kharif season. Mumbai: The prediction of a good monsoon may not be enough to bring cheers to farmers of Marathwada, as questions are being raised over disbursement of crop loans in the region. The Maharashtra Gramin Bank has written to the district collectors of eight districts...

-The Indian Express The investigation suggests the irregularities began in 2013. Mumbai: In Maharashtra’s Nandurbar district, Central funds to be received by tribal families under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) for construction of dug-wells on farmlands were allegedly siphoned off before any benefit could be passed on to the beneficiaries, an investigation by the state’s tribal development department has found. It has also been found that officials involved in the racket had submitted...

-The Indian Express Known as the region’s “cow hill”, where locals send their old and feeble cattle to graze, the plateau this summer has seen thousands of cows perish on the hill due to starvation. Karauli: The latest political battle in Rajasthan is unfolding on an unusual turf: a denuded hilltop with hundreds of dead cows. The plateau, which spreads beyond Kochar village in eastern Rajasthan, is at the centre of Congress’s...