-The Hindu Victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy have welcomed the Supreme Court’s directive to the Union and Madhya Pradesh governments on providing access to better healthcare to them. “The court’s directive to provide health booklets and smart cards to victims is something that most of us here need,” said Hamida Bi. According to Hamida, neither the Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre (BMHRC) nor the State government’s Gas Relief hospital maintained a...

-The Telegraph Jhargram: A farmer who had accused chief minister Mamata Banerjee of making false promises to Jungle Mahal’s poor at her Wednesday rally was picked up a second time on Friday night and slapped with non-bailable charges. Forty-something Shiladitya Chowdhury, who owns a one-bigha plot, has been charged with assaulting and injuring government officials three days after the police apparently let him go because they could find no evidence that he...

-The Times of India MIDNAPORE: A farmer from the former Maoist stronghold of West Midnapore village landed in jail on Saturday for putting uncomfortable questions to chief minister Mamata Banerjee at a public meeting at Belpahari. Hours after the meeting, police charged him with non-bailable offences such as criminal intimidation, the maximum punishment for which is death. Police started sniffing at his "criminal intent" when the bus conductor-turned-farmer, Shiladitya Chowdhury, broke through...

-The Indian Express Mumbai: The amended Maharashtra Right to Information (RTI) Rules have not been issued for curtailing the freedom of expression of citizens or to harass them, the state government told the Bombay High Court on Thursday. The government stand, stated in an affidavit, came in response to a public interest litigation challenging restrictions pertaining to word limit and of limiting one application for information to one subject. The affidavit was...

-DNA The High Court, on Thursday, issued notices to the special officer and undersecretary to the education department over the income ceiling for free seats in schools for poor students under Right to Education Act (RTE). Petitioner K Nagesh and two others had challenged the RTE rule of fixing the maximum income ceiling at `30,000 per month for getting free seats for general category students ofeconomically weaker sections. In their petition, the three...