-The Hindu Crops destroyed due to waterlogging; khap panchayat bans paddy cultivation “Our village is unique: here people do not pray for rains but for a drought,” quipped Krishen Kumar, a farmer of Mundahera village of Jhajjar, as he showed how a rise in the water level in his village and adjoining areas has led to waterlogging and destruction of standing crops in his village. While after the construction of the Jawaharlal Nehru...

-The HIndustan Times There is concern again about missing persons and bodies found in canals in Haryana. Surfacing of such bodies in Punjab’s canals has figured in media reports for years. But neither Punjab nor Haryana police take interest in retrieving the bodies, as the recovery involves reporting it, then attempting to identify it and locating the kin, cremation and maintenance of a record. Pushing bodies downstream eliminates all this bother. But...

-The Hindu Union Railway Minister C.P. Joshi has announced the decision to constitute a Rail Tariff Authority, based on which the next hike in passenger fares and freight rates will be effected. The Tariff Authority is an attempt at insulating the Railways from various hikes being effected by the government, including on fuel price, which officials regard as having made the operation of the Railways in the current situation unviable. Addressing the Economic...

-IANS Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar on Tuesday termed farmers' suicide as a serious issue, but said such cases were showing a decline. The government is focusing on increasing investment in agriculture as well as raising minimum support price (MSP) of crops to increase farmers' income, Pawar told the economic editors conference here. "It is true that this is a serious issue before us. However, the percentage of farmers' suicide is coming down," the...

-The Hindu In response to my recent article in The Hindu, “The real questions from Kudankulam” (edit page, September 14, 2012), supporting nuclear power and arguing for an independent regulatory authority, I received much feedback, largely positive, some critical; some of which deserves a response. Many of these points have been made by others, repeatedly, but some are new to me. 1) Independent oversight: Two credible people said that I was too...