-The Times of India Lucknow: Nearly four months after the Samajwadi Party government started distributing free laptops to students in line with Akhilesh Yadav's poll promise, over 4.4 lakh devices worth over Rs 830 crore still lie in government godowns exposed to dirt and rain water as the chief minister struggles to get time to distribute them himself. The chief minister has so far been able to distribute only 79000 laptops...

-The Hindu Uttarakhand reiterates that our rulers have contemptuous disregard for the advice of the best scientists and would rather listen to contractors and builders to whom they are beholden for funds In the early 1980s, while doing research on the environmental history of Uttarakhand, I sometimes visited the library of the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology in Dehradun. Most of the journals in the library dealt with geology and earth sciences,...

-IANS Lucknow: The flood situation in Uttar Pradesh has worsened following heavy rains, and officials said on Wednesday that 116 people have died in the disaster in the past fortnight. Ten districts have been severely hit by flooding. Sharda, Ghaghra and Saryu rivers are flowing above the danger mark in several districts. Heavy rains continued on Wednesday in many places. People and livestock are being evacuated from the flooded areas and several companies...

-Kafila.org Over 115 women have signed a letter seeking an apology from Ms. Meenakshi Lekhi for her sexist slandering of deceased Ishrat Jahan in a television channel. The letter has also been sent to the Chairperson of the National Commission for Women for appropriate action. As the noose is tightening around the conspirators who cynically and coldly planned and executed the killing of teenaged Ishrat Jahan and three other people in 2004,...

-IANS Lucknow: Ghaziabad and Allahabad have emerged as the two most air polluted cities in Uttar Pradesh in a recent survey by a research and advocacy organization. The survey conducted by Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) found pollutants of the size of 10 micron in Ghaziabad, Allahabad, Kanpur and Bareilly, which was four times the acceptable size of particulates in urban areas. It also found air pollution levels three times more...