The United Progressive Alliance government's decision to challenge the Karnataka High Court's ruling on payment of minimum wages to workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act came under attack from the Central Employment Guarantee Council (CEGC), the body that governs the programme. And Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh has warned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the “atmospherics associated with filing of a special leave petition [in...

-Express News Service Branding the Adarsh scam a “classic example of the fence eating the crops” and “how a select and powerful elite could collude to subvert rules and regulations for personal benefit” , the Comptroller and Auditor General has slammed the government and officials in its audit of the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society. The report, that was tabled in the Assembly on Friday, called the entire Adarsh episode a remarkable case...

-The Hindu   The government's decision on a sub-quota of 4.5 per cent for minorities within the overall 27 per cent reservation for the backward classes promises to be the new trigger for a heated political discourse just ahead of several Assembly elections, including the all-important poll in Uttar Pradesh just a few months away. More than a decade ago, the V.P. Singh government ushered in the ‘Mandal revolution' in North India. It...

-The Deccan Chronicle Adult education authorities are going to take up a literacy drive to benefit 29,500 illiterate tribals in the Agency areas in both East and West Godavari districts from January. The Central scheme called Sakshara Bharat meant to promote literacy mainly among women in 18 districts is already launc-hed and the three districts of East and West Godavari and Krishna were excluded from the programme as the literacy rate...

More than Rs 18,700 crore of unaccounted wealth has been unearthed across the country after searches were conducted by the income tax officials in the last two years, the Central Board of Direct Taxes said on Friday. The body has, however, denied any harassment has been caused to any industrialist or business establishment anywhere in the country due to I-T search and survey operations. "Search and seizure is conducted on the basis...