-The Economic Times KOLKATA: In a first such move, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee instructed state government officials to stop sharing data with the central government. In an administrative meeting in South 24 Paragana district on Thursday, Banerjee said that the state departments would have its own portals and store data on its own. She said that the NDA government accesses all data of the state government and uses those to...

-The Hindu It is time to make victim impact statements mandatory In Mallikarjun Kodagil (Dead) v. State of Karnataka (2018), the Supreme Court stressed the need to have a victim impact statement “so that an appropriate punishment is awarded to the convict”. This throws up many issues that are of interest to the victims of crimes. The term victim came to be defined in criminal law only in 2009 in India. The victim...

-Scroll.in Instead, for a start, we should allow forests to regrow naturally. PLAnting trees creates a PLAntation, not a forest. India is again wasting valuable time, effort and resources on a national scale as it races to forestall an impending water crisis. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change is conducting massive afforestation drives, PLAnting native species. But a forest is a self-sown, self-regenerating community of PLAnts and dependent organisms, from...

-IndiaToday.in PM Modi's constituency Varanasi failed to find a PLAce in UP Swachh Ward Contest. Lucknow: In a major embarrassment for both central and state governments, PM Modi's constituency Varanasi failed to find a PLAce in UP Swachh Ward Contest. The state-level contest was held in Lucknow on December 25 in which the districts were evaluated on various parameters like open defecation free, solid waste management, segregation of waste, condition of public toilets,...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Centre is working on a PLAn to provide relief to farmers and is weighing options on a direct benefit transfer scheme for the distressed sector modelled on the Telangana system. Several rounds of discussions have been held and the view emerging within the government favours a limited direct benefit transfer scheme to help small and marginal farmers meet expenses for seeds, fertilisers, pesticides and labour. Sources...