-The Telegraph The Mamata Banerjee government today curtailed the financial powers of three CPM-run zilla parishads where funds disbursals have come to a standstill because of an alleged tussle to claim credit. The district magistrates of North 24-Parganas, Nadia and Murshidabad have been empowered to disburse funds. The Left had been reduced to a minority in the standing committees of the three zilla parishads after it lost power last May. State panchayat minister...

-PTI Raking up a new issue, Anna Hazare today demanded that FIRs be registered against 14 "corrupt" Cabinet ministers of the UPA by August failing which a 'jail bharo' agitation will be launched even as he pushed back the deadline for a strong Lokpal law to 2014.  74-year-old Hazare's new plan was declared at a token fast at Jantar Mantar for a strong whistleblowers bill after his close aide Arvind Kejriwal named...

-PTI Anna Hazare on Sunday returned to his favourite mode of protest -- hunger strike -- in Delhi after his flop show in Mumbai three months ago, this time protesting against the "deaf and dumb" government which is "not doing anything" to protect whistleblowers fighting corruption. Hazare, after his usual visit to Rajghat before any such protest in Delhi, came to the capital's dharna hotspot Jantar Mantar at around 11am to loud...

West Bengal: The murder of two CPI(M) leaders in Bardhaman district points to an increase in political violence in the State. THE brutal murder of Pradip Tah, a former legislator belonging to the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or the CPI(M), and Kamal Gayen, another senior leader of the party, in broad daylight, allegedly by Trinamool Congress supporters, in West Bengal's Bardhaman district on February 22 once again points to an...

There is a new twist to the alleged suicide of Bilaspur SP Rahul Sharma. One of the officer’s closest friends has said that a week before Sharma allegedly shot himself, he had fretted about being made to do “begaar” (literally, forced labour), and that he had been given a “target” for “election expenses”. Sharma was found dead at the Bilaspur police officers’ mess on March 12. A day later, IG G...