-PTI NAGPUR: A representative of MGNREGA workers has written a letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, drawing his attention towards the plight of persons employed in Vidarbha under the Centre's flagship rural job programme. In the letter, advocate Vinod Tiwari, a leader of MGNREGA workers Employment Rights Action Committee, has requested Chavan to look into the plight of workers and issue necessary instructions to officials concerned. The committee has alleged that they...

-The Hindu The Election Commission has given yet another significant opinion - it has rejected a petition seeking disqualification of 11 nominated members of the Maharashtra Legislative Council under Article 191 (1) (e) of the Constitution. "In our Constitution, ‘qualifications' and ‘disqualifications' are two different concepts and ‘lack of qualification' will not tantamount to ‘disqualification," it said. The Commission - Chief Election Commissioner V.S. Sampath and Election Commissioners H.S. Brahma and S.N.A. Zaidi...

-The Times of India The amended anti-rape law does not include prostitution as a form of exploitation unlike the ordinance that criminalized sex work. The Criminal Law Amendment Bill, 2013 makes a distinction between sexual exploitation and consensual adult sex work. The move was welcomed by sex workers and activists who had slammed the ordinance that defined prostitution as exploitation. The ordinance cleared by the Cabinet on the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill,...

-DNA Sex workers and women's rights activists have welcomed the government's move to differentiate ‘prostitution' from exploitation in the amended Section 370 of the Indian Penal Code. By inserting a new definition of exploitation, the Criminal Law Amendment Bill 2013 passed by Lok Sabha clarifies a position that till date conflated consensual adult sex work and sex trafficking: ‘Expression "exploitation" shall include any act of physical exploitation or any form of sexual...

-CNN-IBN Mumbai: The politics of drought in Maharashtra is turning violent. Two Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) workers have been arrested after several of them went on a rampage, attacking the Indiabulls office in Mumbai. This came hours after MNS chief Raj Thackeray said that water meant for drought-hit farmers was diverted to private companies. Raj Thackeray, at a rally in Amravati, warned of consequences if the diversion of water to the Indiabulls...