-The Telegraph The government today admitted that almost 95 per cent of the job to repair Aila-ravaged embankments in the Sunderbans was unfinished because of land-related problems, a lapse that will leave seven lakh families living in South and North 24-Parganas vulnerable to floods during the monsoon. The government was supposed to build 263km of concrete embankments by March this year but managed only 14km, primarily because of problems over land acquisition,...

-Reuters Monsoon rains were 36 percent below average in the week to June 6, the weather office said on Thursday, reflecting the delay in the arrival of the seasonal rains over south India from the usual June 1 start date. The four-month long rainy season is in the initial stages and crops are not greatly affected by the quantity of rains now, with distribution of rainfall in mid-July after the monsoon covers...

Araria, Bihar: If the government had bought bicycles to give them to schoolgirls, you would have had a bicycle scam in Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar famously said, explaining why he gave bicycle vouchers to families. But when it came to giving land to landless Mahadalit families — the poorest and most marginalised of Dalits — the government forgot this wisdom.   Result: Allegedly acting in concert, government officials and brokers ganged...

-The Indian Express Inmates of the Apna Ghar shelter in Rohtak told a four-member committee that visited them today that they were gangraped by Haryana Police officials, who made them dance naked and forcibly took them out of the home. According to sources, two of the inmates — one deaf and mute and the other mentally challenged — said that when they got pregnant, the incharge of the home stepped on their...

The Yojana Bhavan toilets are causing a stink of a different kind. The Planning Commission, which estimated a poverty line figure of Rs 28 per day per person, lavished Rs 35 lakh on refurbishing two toilets in its headquarters. For good measure, the commission has admitted in an RTI response, it has spent Rs 5.19 lakh in installing an access control system in the toilets. The facility, installed while the toilets...