-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Humble sand is today big business. The boom in the construction industry in the last decade has triggered a huge demand for sand, to meet which contractors, with the help of pliant state officials, have begun a dig-load-sell exercise at a frantic pace. The story of illegal loot of sand in this high-stake business is repeated in state after state. TOI spoke to several officials, activists,...

-The Hindustan Times After the political parties, now the Department of Atomic Energy has asked the government to keep it out of the Right to Information Act, saying the transparency law is in conflict with its international commitments which require "strict confidentiality." However, the DAE's demand for immediate exemption from the RTI Act through an official notification is unlikely to be accepted with the law ministry raising a red flag, citing the...

-The Hindu Chennai: The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam will support the Food Security Bill only if it does not infringe on existing Rights of Tamil Nadu, said party leader M. Karunanidhi on Friday. In a statement here, he said the Centre should not impose its provisions on State governments, but should allow them to implement it depending on the situation existing in every State. "It is a constructive approach on the part of the...

-The Hindu     While denying voting Rights to undertrials contradicts the principle that a person is innocent until proved guilty, disenfranchising convicts will aggravate their alienation from society The Supreme Court's decision last month in Chief Election Commissioner v. Jan Chaukidar has attracted significant attention for its perceived potential to address the criminalisation of politics. Justices A.K Patnaik and S.J. Mukhopadhaya ruled that since one of the conditions to be a candidate under...

-The Hindustan Times   Food minister KV Thomas on Wednesday introduced a National Food Security Bill, which proposes to give the country's three-fourth population the right to highly-subsidised food, which will replace the government's Ordinance. Thomas introduced the fresh Bill after withdrawing an earlier one. The government had last month passed a food security ordinance, a provision to enact laws when Parliament is not in session, to give 67% of Indians, or about 800...