The Madras High Court on Wednesday directed the Secretary, Municipal Administration and Water Supply (MAWS) department, and the Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board (CMWSSB), to appear in person before the court on December 6 in a matter relating to manual scavenging. The First Bench comprising Chief Justice M.Y.Eqbal and Justice T.S.Sivagnanam passed the order on an additional affidavit in a contempt petition filed by A.Narayanan...

A parliamentary committee has asked the government to consider incentivising private players to set up grain storage facilities as it prepares to implement the right to food. The government will require around 620 lakh tonnes of foodgrain annually to implement the food security law. The official procurement stood at 539.75 lakh tonnes in the recent marketing year. “(The) government should provide soft loans at affordable rates and subsidies to private players to...

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to the Union Ministry of Environment & Forest (MoEF) to file its reply on whether the proposed cement plant by Nirma Limited in Mahuva taluka of Bhavnagar district would pollute or adversely affect the water body on the site. A three-judge SC bench comprising Chief Justice S H Kapadiya, Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice K S Radhakrishnan issued the notice while hearing a Special...

After 16 days of intensive Statewide campaigning and 47 days of dharna, thousands of workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in Rajasthan scored a significant victory. Led by the Suchana Evum Rozgar Ka Abhiyan, they entered into an agreement with the State government under which they would be entitled to the prevailing minimum wage for their day's work. Describing this outcome as “historic,” social activist...

'Journalists are only expected to be witnesses.'' While the 2G spectrum scandal has unfolded, it has exposed the involvement of a number of individuals, offices and institutions in different ways in it. Irregularities of such massive proportions could not been planned and resorted to by a minister and some bureaucrats. The prime minister was told by the supreme court to explain his delay in acting on a request for action against the...