-Down to Earth They turn a blind eye to laws overriding tribal rights, complains national commission GOVERNORS of states with sizeable tribal population have come in for indictment over not performing their special administrative roles. To ensure partial autonomy in tribal areas, the Constitution entrusts governors with immense powers to supervise the administration and governance in such areas. They can allow or disallow any law or development programme in tribal areas to...

-Outlook A high-powered panel of the Environment Ministry has sought more details from Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) for its proposed Rs 23,502 crore nuclear power plant in Haryana before initiating steps for according it green clearance. The proposal is for setting up a nuclear power park (4x700 MWe), to be implemented in phases at Gorakhpur in Fatehabad district along with township for the project. The first phase will comprise...

-The Telegraph Ministries are in the dark over control of the Rs 1,000-crore "Nirbhaya Fund", announced in last month's budget and named in the Delhi gang rape victim's memory, despite government declarations of urgency in dealing with women's safety issues. While some ministers believe the home ministry will be the nodal agency to handle the funds, others reckon that the finance ministry will take the reins and disburse the cash to ministries...

-The Times of India After Nirbhaya's barbaric rape in December last year, thousands of determined Delhiites had taken to the streets demanding a safer city. Barely four months later, Delhi is probably more unsafe than it has been in a long while. According to police statistics, most kinds of crime have risen sharply in the city since January 1 this year. Delhi Police figures, from January 1 to March 24 this...

-The Indian Express Patna: RTI activists in Bihar say they are intimidated and threatened by the people they seek to expose, with five of them murdered since 2009. They have mounted pressure on the government to ensure their safety. Ram Kumar Thakur of Ratnauli, an RTI activist, a lawyer and the main witness in a vigilance case, was shot dead last week, the latest of the five murders. The FIR names Ratnauli...