Documents availed through Right to Information (RTI) Act are giving sleepless nights to former pradhans contesting the panchayat elections again. Armed with these papers — mostly related to utilisation of panchayat funds — the villagers are questioning candidates who come seeking votes. The authenticity of the information being guaranteed, the candidates have no chance to argue. In village Hamirpura in Jalaun, a candidate contesting for the the gram pradhan’s seat for the...

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and the farm lobby reacted sharply today to the Centre’s announcement of the Minimum Support Price for Wheat. The Centre yesterday had announced a nominal hike of Rs 20 in the MSP, fixing it at Rs 1,120 per quintal. Describing it as a ‘stab in the back’, the Punjab CM claimed that the MSP fixed for wheat is lower than the rate at which the...

Against only 36 multi-millionaires in the last assembly elections, there are over 100 multi-millionaires in the second and third phases of the ongoing Bihar polls, a report by two NGOs has said. It adds that 219 candidates have criminal records. The Association of Democratic Reforms and the National Election Watch said on Thursday that 104 candidates contesting for the second and third phases on October 24 and October 28 were...

The Andhra Pradesh Police on Friday said it has arrested three people working with SKS Microfinance and Spandana on a complaint of harassment by a borrower, and might book the companies' respective promoters Vikram Akula and Padmaja Reddy under a new Ordinance to check coercive methods of loan recovery. The borrower, Ammulu, filed the complaint with the Yemmiganur police station in Kurnool district, about 270 km from Hyderabad, last night. A...

Arcelormittal’s plans to set up a six million tonne per annum (mtpa) steel plant in Bellary district of Karnataka is on track, with farmers coming forward to accept the compensation package for land acquisition. The world’s largest steel producer had zeroed in on Kuditini in Bellary district to set up its plant and laid out a land requirement of around 4,000 acres. However, these plans were opposed by some farmer groups...