-ThePrint.in PVC pipes use the heavy metal lead as a stabiliser, but efforts to regulate its use have failed — because of government lethargy and industry resistance. New Delhi: The dream of piped drinking water in every Indian household comes with a caveat — it could expose people to lead, a dangerous heavy metal. Drinking water comes to most taps through polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes. Some cheap PVC pipes use lead stabilisers. Experts say...

-Hindustan Times Bhopal: The Centre’s demonetisation move has hit the farmers in MP’s Bundelkhand hard who were hoping for good rabi crops after facing four years of hardships owing to drought in the region. Farming is the main occupation in the region, and heavy rains this year had brought smiles on the faces of farmers. As the sowing for winter crops was almost complete in this part of the state before demonetisation was...

-DNA   Muzaffarpur (Bihar): Some 30 kms away from Bihar's Muzaffarpur, in Moshari block, peasants sit around a common hookah at a village chaupal after an exhausting day. They sign Maithili folk songs and relating stories of Raj Kishore and Tasleemudin, legendary Naxalite leaders who took on local landlords in the 1960s. This region, along with Naxalbari in neighbouring West Bengal, was the centre of bloody clashes, forcing socialist leader Jai Prakash Narayan...

-Down to Earth Rice cultivation has led to waterlogging and soil salinity in Haryana’s Jhajjar district CASTE-BASED khap panchayats of Haryana are usually in the news for passing regressive and, often, controversial orders in the name of honouring social customs. But this year in January, the Jhakkar khap panchayat of Jhajjar district gave a rather unusual order in the larger interest of the farming community. It ordered that all the 36...