-The New York Times   New Delhi: Yasmeen Khan dons her burqa and steps out of her house in the Nizamuddin neighborhood of Delhi every evening to walk a short distance to a 10-foot-high stone wall. Behind the wall is paradise - a place where she can remove her burqa and hijab, enjoy cool fresh air in her hair, exercise and gossip with friends. Hundreds of women regularly visit the "Pardah Bagh," a...

Anish Begum, 70, a widow from Bhalaswa struggling to make two ends meet with her meagre pension from the civic body, has to ensure she takes regular medication for diabetes and high blood pressure. “Most of the time, the councillor’s men tell us that the pension for this month has not arrived. Of the promised Rs. 1,000 per month, my mother gets just about Rs. 8,000-9,000 per year. Running from pillar...

-The Hindustan Times   Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit has said she is not to be blamed for the Congress’s defeat in the MCD elections and that there was a wave against the party in the Capital. “These weren’t my (Delhi government) elections. I wasn’t contesting them. The outcome is not my responsibility solely. I worked in these elections as a party worker. It is unfair (to blame me),” Dikshit told HT...

-The Hindu “Why apply brakes on rickshaws, not on killer cars?” The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a Delhi High Court order holding that municipal authorities could not cap the number of licences for cycle rickshaws as putting any such restriction or fixing a ceiling would amount to denial of the people's basic right to earn a livelihood. A Bench of Justice G. S. Singhvi and Justice S. J. Mukhopadhyaya, dismissing an appeal...

-The Indian Express A seven-year-old girl drowned in East Delhi on Tuesday after she fell into an underground water tank whose manhole cover had been left open. The tank in Patparganj is used by the Delhi Fire Service (DFS). Sheeba was on her way to a park when she fell into the tank, her mother said. Immediately after the incident, a blame game began with government agencies pointing fingers at each other. The DFS said...