-The Hindu It has seen action on several occasions, starting in 1990 during the riots in Bijnor in western Uttar Pradesh The Durga Vahini or Durga brigade appeared in the early 1990s at the height of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement: its objective was to band together Hindu nationalism’s female “youth.” This organisation, like the Bajrang Dal, too, stresses defence — especially self-defence — of young Hindu women, including training in the use of...

-Live Mint Parliamentary committee’s proposals on the food security Bill are an improvement over the original The standing committee of Parliament, set up to examine the National Food Security Bill (NFSB), has finally given its recommendations. With this, the Bill has moved one step closer to seeing daylight. The recommendations, which are not binding on the government, will now be considered by the Union cabinet before being put to vote in Parliament.   The...

-Live Mint Cabinet-approved Bill may stir up controversy after it left out a key proposal to bring CBI within its purview On the day that it approved the anti-graft Lokpal Bill, the first murmurs of dissent against finance minister P. Chidambaram’s call for expenditure cuts surfaced in the Union cabinet—over the seemingly piffling amount of `90.38 crore.   The cabinet eventually overruled the finance ministry’s objections and approved the infusion of the money for...

-The Indian Express The ambitious Rs 5,500 crore proposal to issue resident identity cards to the entire population above 18 years of age under the National Population Register — which in the past had clashed with the Aadhaar scheme under UIDAI on ground that they had similar objectives — on Thursday failed to find Cabinet approval following which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh referred it to a Group of Ministers (GoM). Cabinet ministers...

-Deccan Herald The UPA Government’s much-hyped cheap foodgrain scheme is likely to be delayed further with the Centre on Wednesday deciding to redraft the National Food Security Bill by incorporating suggestions made by the Parliament Standing Committee on Food and Consumer Affairs. The decision was taken at a high level meeting convened at the Prime Minister’s Office to discuss the panel’s recommendations. It was also decided to withdraw the current bill from...