-The Economic Times National Advisory Council member Aruna Roy has criticised the government for failing to deliver on land reforms. Criticising the UPA dispensation for not convening a single meeting of the National Land Reforms Council (NLRC) since it was constituted over four years ago, Roy on Monday told ET that this reflected an "absolute lack of intent and the symbolic manner in which governments respond to some the most basic...

-The Hindu “Iwill open my mouth,” Major Avtar Singh had told the journalist, Hartosh Singh Bal, last year. “I will not keep quiet.'' This weekend, Singh, facing extradition proceedings for his alleged role in the brutal 1996 murder of Kashmiri human rights Activist and lawyer Jalil Andrabi, shot himself, his wife, and their two young children, at their home in Selma, California. In weeks to come, theories about what led Singh...

-The Telegraph Human rights groups today claimed New Delhi had a role in allowing ex-army officer Avtar Singh to escape the country as a free trial could have allegedly unravelled the involvement of people at the “highest level” in various murders in Jammu and Kashmir. The Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Societies (JKCCS), which includes several rights groups, today pressed for an impartial probe into the “institutional support and circumstances under...

Indefinite curfew was imposed in the remote Joga town of Mansa district in Punjab on Sunday when angry villagers attacked, set afire and razed a factory, after reports spread that the premises was used for cow slaughter. Two houses of factory owners were also destroyed. No loss of life has been reported. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal ordered the suspension of district police chief S.S. Chahal for dereliction of duty. Tension had...

Concern for public health goes up in smoke   India's leading cigarette manufacturer, ITC Ltd, made financial contributions of Rs. 6.78 crore in the last two years to all major political parties in the country, causing public health Activists here to question the possible interference of tobacco companies “in the Central government's efforts to bring in tougher anti-tobacco laws in the country.” Figures disclosed by ITC Ltd — and released recently by Activists...