-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Ten members of Civil Society, including Aruna Roy and Arundhati Roy, have moved the Supreme Court expressing solidarity with activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan who is facing contempt proceedings on attorney general K K Venugopal’s petition accusing him of making “false, malicious, dishonest and reckless” allegations on appointment of CBI’s interim director. The Roy duo, along with Wajahat Habibullah, Harsh Mandher, Jayati Ghosh, Prabhat Patnaik, I P...

-Newsclick.in The additional funds of Rs 6,084 crore released recently will go into clearing the backlog of pending liabilities. Contrary to the claims of highest ever allocation to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the social security scheme that aims to guarantee the right to work is facing severe fund crisis – with state governments left with no funds to pay workers. From October 2018 to February 1, no...

-The Indian Express The pollution problem is not merely a technological issue, but a social concern. Air pollution is a silent killer in India, especially in the country’s northern belt. Eighteen per cent of the world’s population lives in India, but the country bears 26 per cent of the global disease burden due to air pollution. According to estimates of the India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative — published last year in...

-Press Release by All India Forum of Forest Movements (AIFFM), dated February 22, 2019 On 13 February, the Supreme Court of India, hearing a decade-old petition challenging the constitutional validity of the Forest Rights Act, 2006, ordered that forest dwellers whose claims for recognition of forest rights have been rejected would have to be evicted in a summary and time-bound manner. The order contains separate instructions for each state government to...

-The Hindu Invites political parties for discussion; Congress, RJD and NCP agree to participate so far As political parties prepare their election manifestos and promises, a group of Civil Society leaders and concerned citizens on Tuesday released a document, Reclaiming the Republic, which they hope will shape the political agenda in the run up to the Lok Sabha poll. The comprehensive list includes judicial and electoral reforms, repeal of laws which threaten personal...