-Outlook Erode: Five panchayats in Erode district would be made model panchayats with implementation of the total sanitation scheme and full coverage of toilets, District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) officials said. The panchayats are Pazhamangalam (Modakurichi Block) Varadhanallur (Bhavani Block), Karapalayam (Erode block), Pariyur (Gobichettipalayam) and Kullappanaickkenpalayam in T. N. Palayam Block. The DRDA officials said a campaign has been conducted on the harmful effects of open defecation and the need to construct...

-The Hindu The Election Commission might be well-intentioned in seeking to ban opinion polls in the run-up to an election, but the move does not seem to be sound in law, and is certainly not desirable in practice. The reasoning for a ban is that opinion polls influence voters prior to polling, and therefore the results of such polls should be withheld until after the end of voting. Needless to say,...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Centre has decided to involve RTI activists in formal discussions on the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2013. A standing committee has, for the first time, asked activists lobbying to bring political parties within the purview of the transparency law to attend its November 6 meeting. RTI activist Subhash Agarwal, the National campaign for People's Right to information and others have been asked to present their opinion to...

-Down to Earth Disabled youth on wheelchair severely thrashed in Kolkata; police arrest over 1,600 people for violating noise rules, unruly behaviour Pintu Biswas is the seventh person to die in West Bengal since 1997 for protesting against noisy firecrackers Last Saturday, the night of Kali Puja, was witness to the gruesome murder of a 40-year-old trader, Pintu Biswas, as he protested the bursting of noisy chocolate bombs outside his house. The incident...

-The Times of India LUCKNOW: Jails may not be meant for comfortable stay, but prisons in UP could well put a can of sardines to shame. There are 81,027 prisoners lodged in UP jails against the actual total capacity of 48,298 prisoners that these jails are meant to accommodate. What makes these overcrowded jails a case fit for human rights violation is the fact that more than half of the prisoners in...