-The Indian Express Rajasthan/ Delhi: Three states where the UPA govt has rolled out direct cash transfers go to polls later this year. On the ground, the scheme has not quite turned out the game-changer the government reckoned it would. A frail Gori Sahaab, 90, instructs his son to pour mustard oil into a tiny diya in his one-room house. He once used a kerosene lamp but has stopped buying that fuel....

-Down to Earth   This defies logic. Despite rapid economic growth, India has often been placed below sub-Saharan African countries that have very high number of malnourished children. But the government has no data to clarify its position. In the first week of September, Parliament’s Committee on Estimates criticised the government, saying: “The committee is surprised to note that in the modern era of Information and Technology, there is no recent official...

-The Indian Express Muzaffarnagar (UP): At Muzaffarnagar, FIRs are piling up. A total of 177 FIRs pertaining to riots were handwritten in three days at a single station. Over a hundred still remain. Dealing with this deluge of complaints is one man entrusted with the task of going through each complaint and processing it into an FIR. He (he did not want to be named) was brought in specifically for rendering...

-The Hindu Geeta Dharmarajan, founder of Katha, which has just completed 25 years of reaching out to the unreached in the National Capital. Scrolling down the students' blog of Katha, the non-profit organisation in the National Capital which runs schools for underprivileged children living in 248 slums, I come across a complaint letter by a child addressed to the Chairman, Municipal Corporation of Delhi. The child wants to bring to his notice...

-The Hindu Beneficiaries say fair price outlets are overcharging, not supplying stipulated amount Bangalore: Even as every Below Poverty Line (BPL) family is assured of rice at Re. 1 a kg for a maximum of 30 kg, charging more than the fixed price and distributing less than the stipulated quantity are common complaints across the State. When The Hindu visited a fair price shop at Salagame in Hassan district, about 9 km from...