Audits will look into the money released to the states in the last seven years, says Ghulam Nabi Azad The health ministry will conduct annual audits of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) to detect irregularities in the utilization of funds. Health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has written to the state governments seeking their cooperation on this. “We have decided to go for an audit of NRHM fund utilization across the states,”...

-The Telegraph The Bengal government could find it difficult to reach its target of procuring 20 lakh tonnes of rice this year because of a lack of storage space. Its ability to raise storage capacity too could be hobbled by lack of investor interest in setting up warehouses in Bengal, and a mismatch between the tender rates acceptable to the state and the Centre. “We’ve a target of procuring 20 lakh MT (metric...

-The Hindu The outcome of the Press Council of India's decision to challenge the Allahabad High Court gag order on reporting the movement of troops will be an acid test of how far the judiciary can go in curbing media freedoms. The court's order — which directed senior officials in the Home and I&B departments of the Centre and the Uttar Pradesh government to ensure that no news on the subject...

-PTI A 13-year-old gangrape victim allegedly committed suicide after she was not allowed to file a police complaint allegedly by the local panchayat, who reportedly let off the rapists with a mere warning. The girl allegedly committed suicide by hanging herself with a dupatta in her house in the Garhmukteshwar town under Panchsheel Nagar district, 70 km from here, on Saturday evening, the police said. The victim was allegedly gangraped by three youths...

The Central Government has ordered States to take all possible measures to combat a wave of child marriages which authorities fear will take place across the Hindu heartland on Tuesday, on the occasion of Akshaya Tritiya. In a letter to the States, the Women and Child Welfare Ministry has warned governments that child marriage is illegal under the Prohibition of Child Marriages Act, 2006. The Ministry has suggested that all district magistrates...