-The Hindu With no will to enforce the 1982 Act, girls from marginalised communities in Karnataka are still trafficked Panaji: More than thirty-six years after the Karnataka Devadasis (Prohibition of Dedication) Act of 1982 was passed, the State government is yet to issue the rules for administering the law. Meanwhile the practice of dedicating young girls to temples as an offering to appease the gods persists not just in Karnataka, but has...

-PTI The Commerce Ministry is planning a series of workshops in States including Maharashtra, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh to implement its export policy for agricultural goods with a view to boost overall shipments, an official said. The Ministry has suggested States to set up a nodal agency dedicated for the implementation of the agriculture export policy. Workshops would help identify bottlenecks, get feedback and suggestions to improve and overcome difficulties in the...

-The Indian Express While a focused jobs guarantee thrust could help mitigate financial distress for tens of thousands of rural families, Maharashtra’s performance on MGNREGA until now this year has been lacklustre on several counts. Mumbai: As drought conditions worsen in across large parts of rural Maharashtra and sowing for rabi crops adversely affected, the state is expected to give a fresh push to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee...

-Down to Earth The increasing trend of legal penalty for abandonment will backfire Bruised by anti-cow slaughter laws and widespread vigilantism, farmers simply don’t want cows around. This means tactical abandoning, with decreasing options to trade unproductive cattle. But several States, including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan, have formed laws to penalise such abandonment too. Stray cattle has become a menace in villages as well as towns in several areas, to...

-Down to Earth How this backward district in Haryana has borne the brunt of stringent cow-related laws “How do you fit a veterinary doctor, fodder and a water tank inside a pickup van?” asks Nooruddin, sitting at a tea shop. The 50-year-old former goat keeper now marks buffaloes with colour at the animal market in Firozpur Jhirka for Rs 200, twice a week. Supplementary earnings working at a butcher shop take his...