Spiralling prices of pulses have shown India’s dependence on imports. Pulses are integral to India’s diet but not its food policy. As a result, supply cannot meet demand. What are the consequences and solutions? Surendra Nath has switched to eating grass-pea, though he knows it is not good for health. But so is tobacco, he argues. He cannot do without pulses and pigeon-pea selling at Rs 100 a kg is beyond...

Nine years after the state’s creation, the cabinet today decided to set up a human rights commission in Jharkhand. The modalities to make the body functional is expected to be worked out soon. Principal secretary, cabinet co-ordination, Aditya Swaroop said according to the Human Rights Protection Act of 1993, all states ought to have a human rights commission. Such commissions are already in existence in Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala,...

The Supreme Court has ruled that fast-track courts, set up to ease the load of pending cases in subordinate courts, will continue to function in all states till further orders. Most of these courts were created under a centrally funded scheme on April 1, 2001, and were expected to lapse within five years. But they have since been given repeated extensions, the last one valid till March 31, 2010. “The scheme will...

The Supreme Court has clarified that land-losers can challenge the compensation awarded by a collector within six months of “coming to know of it” to avoid “unreasonable discrimination”. Till now, an application for higher compensation had to be filed within six months of the collector announcing the award. The ruling came on appeals filed by some Uttar Pradesh villagers against a high court judgment that rejected their plea for a review. Permitting the...

A group of men allegedly set a 25-year-old Dalit woman on fire after she objected to molestation by them in Uttar Pradesh's Kannauj district, police said on Monday. The incident took place late Sunday evening in Kannauj, some 250 km from Lucknow, where Altaf and two of his aides set the Dalit woman on fire. With severe burn injuries, the woman was being treated in a hospital, where her condition...