-The Hindu In the State that leads in incidents of rape, the shame-inducing statistics are pushing the administration into action Time was when Payal (name changed to protect her identity), a standard VII student from Madhya Pradesh’s tribal dominated Betul district, had only school, friends and family on her mind. But her little world changed dramatically in March this year. The 15-year-old, a resident of Betul’s Majhinagar slum, was abducted in public by...

-The Business Standard Cabinet decisions on fertiliser are not enough Of the two fertiliser-related decisions taken by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs at its recent meeting, the token hike of Rs 50 per tonne in urea prices is inconsequential, and the new mechanism for subsidising fertiliser is problematic. An increase of less than one per cent in urea prices will do little to bring down the subsidy bill or to reduce...

-The Indian Express Haryana, a state rocked by a number of rapes of Dalit girls and women over the past month, rape cases have nearly doubled in seven years, according to National Crime Records Bureau figures. And the state manages only one conviction in every eight cases of crime against Dalits, last year’s records show. Rape cases have increased from 386 in 2004 to 733 in 2011, with most years showing a...

-The Indian Express The long-standing tiff between the National Human Rights Commission and the National Conference-Congress led government in Jammu and Kashmir on the issue of jurisdiction in cases involving alleged human rights violations is yet to be resolved. The latest flashpoint is the high court stay that the government has managed to get on NHRC proceedings in 34 Pending Cases of alleged human rights violations, most of them against security forces...

-Outlook The death of 39 rhinos in and around the world-famous Kaziranga National Park in less than 10 months has brought to the fore the threat faced by the endangered animal. The threat comes from poachers, who kill the rare one-horned rhinoceros for its prized horn whose price in the international market varies from Rs 40 lakh to Rs 90 lakh, and flood which is an annual occurrence in Assam. Early last month,...