-CNN-IBN   Shankarpura: Welcome to India's perhaps only tobacco-free village - Shankarpura in haryana, that comes as a breath of fresh air, quite literally. While elders puffing the traditional hookah, and discussing worldly issues has been a part of haryana's socio-cultural milieu, the village of Shankarpura chose to break away from the tradition by becoming perhaps the only village in the country which is free from tobacco.   Manpal Singh Selwal, Chairman of the Block...

-The Hindustan Times Indian high courts were supposed to deliver justice in Right To Information (RTI) cases. But, they have themselves enforced rules that make implementation of the transparency law --- RTI Act --- difficult.     A study done by a government institute ---- Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration --- aimed at evaluating efficacy and reasonableness of rules prescribed under RTI Act finds that many high courts have prescribed rules to...

-The Times of India   Children, many between five and 10 years, were forced into oral sex and performing yoga in the nude at the Rohtak shelter home raided by a National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) team early May. An inmate was found to be HIV positive.  Such revelations are part of a report submitted on Wednesday by two members — advocate Anil Malhotra and Sudeepti Sharma — of a...

-The Hindustan Times Annoyed with the conduct of the four member advocates' committee, constituted by the Punjab and haryana high court to interview 101 inmates of Rohtak shelter home abuse, for being at "logger heads" with each other, "lack of co-ordination" and "media interaction", the high court on Wednesday came down heavily on the committee. The vacation bench comprising justice LN Mittal and justice Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia said, "If this is the...

Khap panchayats of haryana, which have already warned Bollywood actor Aamir Khan against portraying them in 'poor light' and demanded his show Satyamev Jayte be taken off air, have now summoned a meeting of all village khaps of the state.  The Sarv Khap Panchayat has been called to decide the course of action to be taken against the film star and respond to his attempts of maligning the Khaps and intruding...