-The Pioneer With an average of 93 crime against SC/STs being reported daily, a number of dalit human rights groups on Thursday urged the Government to amend the SC/STs (Prevention of Atrocities) Act in the Winter Session of Parliament to ensure speedy trial and higher conviction for such crimes. These groups, united under National Coalition for Strengthening SCs and STs, have approached Congress president Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council and various political...

-The Times of India UPA's National Food Security Bill is facing resistance from not just opposition parties and other expected quarters such as the Trinamool Congress, but also a crucial ally, Samajwadi Party. Uttar Pradesh CM, Akhilesh Yadav, in a two-page letter to PM Manmohan Singh has said that the bill in its present form won't benefit poorer states and should be amended.  For the UPA, which is already beset with pending...

-The Times of India SHIMLA: Former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh's interest in buying LIC policies bear an interesting pattern over the past 10 years. These policies are at the heart of a controversy with allegations of money laundering levelled against him by the BJP. Before the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, the 78-year-old state Congress chief had only two LIC policies for himself, each with a premium barely one-hundredth of that...

-The Hindu Legislative Assembly panel gives clean chit for transfer of Rogda reservoir land to private power company While there is an outcry in Maharashtra over disappearing irrigation water, in Chhattisgarh, an entire reservoir — the lifeline of four villages — has vanished. The 131-acre rain-fed reservoir has been leased out by the government to a private power company. However, an Assembly committee, recently constituted to investigate the ‘transfer’ of the reservoir, in...

-Live Mint The prime source of financing will be from general taxation or public exchequer, says Planning Commission Government-run hospitals may stop charging for primary services such as investigative tests as India attempts to provide universal health coverage to all its citizens. “No fee of any kind would be levied on primary healthcare services with the prime source of financing being from general taxation/public exchequer,” the Planning Commission says in its latest health...