-Down to Earth Arun Shah, a Muzaffarpur-based paediatrician who has researched on the syndrome, says the fruit is only a triggering factor for malnourished children Litchi is being most commonly blamed for the Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) outbreak in Bihar. The mystery fever has already killed more than 100 children in Muzaffarpur district, renowned for its litchi crop. However, experts say it is grossly wrong to blame this fruit Down To Earth spoke...

-Newsclick.in The tragedy unfolding in Muzaffarpur has been turned into a sensationalised TV serial. Dear parachute reporters from Delhi, Mumbai and elsewhere, please stop the drama of Lights, Camera, Action. You are a reporter not an actor. The nation is shocked and pained by the death of scores of children in Muzaffarpur in Bihar and instead of presenting the facts or investigating the causes, instead of sympathy and understanding towards the weeping kin,...

-The Hindu Deplores public health infrastructure in the country The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Thursday issued notices to the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry (MoHFW), and all States and Union Territories, over what it termed was the “deplorable public health infrastructure in the country”, an NHRC statement said. The NHRC took suo motu cognisance of several media reports on recent deaths across the country due to “deficiencies and inadequacies in...

-The Indian Express While Uttar Pradesh’s sugar belt has post-Independence shifted to the western and central districts, sugar cane still retains political relevance in the four northeastern constituencies that vote in the last phase of polls on May 19. Kushinagar: It is past mid-May, but the sugar mills at Hata, Ramkola, Kaptanganj, Khadda and Siswa Bazar — the first four in Kushinagar and the last in Maharajganj constituency — are still...

-The Indian Express Income support under PM-Kisan is only one small step. It must be complemented by large-scale reforms in agri-marketing and trade policies. Just ahead of the announcement of the 2019 general election dates, the prime minister launched the centrally sponsored ‘Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi’ (PM-Kisan) scheme of Rs 75,000 crore for small and marginal farm families. On February 24, from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, he transferred the first...