-The Telegraph Ministries are in the dark over control of the Rs 1,000-crore "Nirbhaya Fund", announced in last month's budget and named in the Delhi gang rape victim's memory, despite government declarations of urgency in dealing with women's safety issues. While some ministers believe the home ministry will be the nodal agency to handle the funds, others reckon that the finance ministry will take the reins and disburse the Cash to ministries...

-The Hindustan Times There would be no panchayat polls without central forces, the State Election Commission (SEC) made this clear to the Mamata Banerjee administration on Thursday, even though Trinamool leaders and ministers continued to resist the move, saying that, ultimately, law and order is the responsibility of the state government. Senior SEC officials told HT they had opted for the central armed forces since this was a tried and tested method...

-The Hindustan Times The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday criticised the Delhi government's move of linking the monthly Cash assistance doled out to Kashmiri migrants to Aadhaar cards and asked the authorities to reconsider its decision. The party's leader of opposition VK Malhotra, condemning the move, termed the "unjustified" decision as a ploy of the government to strip the migrants of their Kashmiri identity. "The Delhi government is trying to force the...

-The Hindu   The water markets of Marathwada are booming. In the town of Jalna alone, tanker owners transact between Rs.6 million and Rs.7.5 million in water sales each day Thirst is Marathwada's greatest crop this season. Forget sugarcane. Thirst, human and industrial, eclipses anything else. Those harvesting it reap tens of millions of rupees each day across the region. The van loads of dried-out cane you see on the roads could end...

-The Indian Express In the seven years between 2004 and 2011, the Congress received over Rs 2,004 crore from donors; the BJP got about Rs 994 crore. Smaller and regional parties too got significant sums. These amounts were declared by parties; however, the source of over 85 per cent of donations is not known. The parties say donors gave sums less than Rs 20,000, and need not be made public. The Election Commission's...