-The Hindu In a response to an RTI query, the CAG said: “Audit Report is under preparation. Therefore, no information can be provided in this stage.” The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has not yet completed its audit report regarding purchase of Rafale aircraft, according to its response to an RTI query this week. This erodes the basis of the Supreme Court’s December 2018 judgement on the Rafale case, according to RTI...

-Mongabay.com Illegal rat-hole mining in Meghalaya persists despite ruinous effects on the environment The efforts to reach the 15 miners trapped in an illegal coal mine in the East Jaintia hills of Meghalaya since December 13 continue, but they began belatedly and have faced many problems. Doomed from the beginning First, the Meghalaya government has no idea what happens inside these rat-hole mines, which are barely 2 ft wide, since mining is a private...

-The Hindu The Act nullified the controversial March 20 apex court judgment diluting the stringent provisions of the Dalit protection law. The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to stay the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act of 2018, which nullified the controversial March 20 apex court judgment diluting the stringent provisions of the Dalit protection law. The government had brought in the amendments, saying the Scheduled Castes and...

-The Indian Express Anganwadi workers, teachers, nurses are paid low salaries, their work devalued Frontline workers providing basic services through various government programmes form the backbone of the country’s social welfare system. India’s ability to achieve its SDGs or to have a healthy skilled workforce that contributes towards economic progress or social and human development depends to a large extent on the performance of teachers, nurses, anganwadi workers, panchayat secretaries and...

-The Indian Express 28.2 per cent surveyed households did not buy refills even once, 37.4 per cent families bought refill second time, says study. Ahmedabad: Shardaben Mansinh, a resident of Mekhar Morva village in Panchmahal district, was a BPL cardholder. However, after she was allotted a LPG connection under Prime Minister’s Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) in June 2016, she was denied subsidised kerosene by the local PDS shop. On inquiry, she was...