-The Hindu The Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) will examine whether developmental interventions and constitutional safeguards - including Fifth Schedule provisions - have come to the aid of tribal people in Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-affected districts in central India. An NAC Working Group (WG) headed by tribal expert Professor Virginius Xaxa - who also heads the Prime Minister's high level committee that is to produce a report on the...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Western Ghats may be in danger again. This time from a "drinking water" supply project. Yettinahole diversion project located in the ecologically sensitive zone as per the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel involves 8 dams inside the forests, 250kms long canals, 80kms and 50kms long raising mains, a reservoir that will submerge 1200 hectares of land and 2 villages according to a recent assessment by...

-The Hindu "Doing away with Social Impact Assessment for irrigation projects not acceptable" The National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) on Wednesday hit out at the United Progressive Alliance and the National Democratic Alliance charging them with "colluding" to dilute some of the progressive provisions of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2013. Alleging a "quid pro quo" between the UPA and the NDA for...

-The Hindu R.P. Gupta, Principal Secretary to Government of Gujarat, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department, writes: "In Gujarat, PDS is exclusionary, leaky, getting worse" (August 17), your Correspondent Rukmini S., mainly focuses on the alleged weakness of the Gujarat Public Distribution System based on old data. It is clear that she has not countered any of the points raised by the Chief Minister of Gujarat. The article mentions some analysis of...

-The Hindu     Questions being raised about possible floods in downstream areas Dehradun: The level in the Tehri dam in Uttarakhand on Sunday reached 818.50 metres against the permissible mark of 825 metres, Tehri District Magistrate Nitesh Kumar Jha told The Hindu. According to Northern Regional Load Despatch Centre (NRLDC) data, the level rose by 8 metres since August 1. Mr. Jha said that for the past three to four days the inflow was around...