-The Times of India The amended anti-rape law does not include prostitution as a form of exploitation unlike the ordinance that criminalized sex work. The Criminal Law Amendment Bill, 2013 makes a distinction between sexual exploitation and consensual adult sex work. The move was welcomed by sex workers and Activists who had slammed the ordinance that defined prostitution as exploitation. The ordinance cleared by the Cabinet on the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill,...

-The Hindu Mumbai: Sloppy implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) has resulted in large tracts of forests being cut down and claimed as cultivated land in Maharashtra, according to a study. Data shows that in Jalgaon district alone, more than 79 per cent claims over cultivated forest land were apparently on ineligible lands and about 25 per cent had forest cover. In Thane, adjacent to Mumbai with a high land...

-The Hindu   SHO suspended for "negligence" on the basis of complainants' statements Patna: The family of whistle-blower Ram Thakur, an advocate who was shot dead in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district on Saturday, has alleged that the police was complicit in his murder. Based on the statements of the complainants, Shafir Alam, Station House Officer (SHO) of the Manihari police station, has been suspended for "negligence." The police have registered an FIR against six persons...

-The Hindu Under Section 8 (1) (a), information can be denied on grounds of national security Bangalore: It is hard to imagine that any information preserved in the Karnataka State Archives on the Bababudangiri shrine in Chikmagalur could potentially threaten national security or incite a breach of the law. However, a reply given by the Directorate, Karnataka State Archives, to a Right to Information (RTI) query suggests that it does. In his RTI application...

-The Hindu As the world observed World Water Day last week, Bolivian water Activist Pablo Solon narrates how his countrymen forced the repeal of a water privatisation attempt by the government What began as an ordinary citizen’s protest against water privatisation laid out the path for a bigger revolution that eventually paved way for Bolivia’s first indigenously elected government. With worldwide discussions for sustainable management of fresh water resources gaining ground in a...