Several undeserving candidates have allegedly been allotted money in a Murshidabad pocket under a central housing scheme for below-poverty-line people. Many residents of Gangadhari village in Naoda have been enlisted as beneficiaries of the Indira Awaas Yojana even though they already have a house and farmland, depriving homeless people. Villagers owing allegiance to the Congress lodged a complaint with the block development officer of Naoda last month accusing the RSP-run local Madhupur...

-The Indian Express The Lokayukta police today filed an FIR against former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa in connection with an alleged case of cheating in a land allotment scam. A case of cheating and criminal conspiracy has been registered against him in the Karnataka Housing Board (KHB) sites allotment scam, Lokayukta police sources said. FIR was filed against the senior BJP leader under sections 420 (Cheating), 120 (b) (Criminal conspiracy) and...

Professor Arjun Appadurai is a Mumbaikar at heart; coming to the city is an annual pilgrimage for this internationa­lly renowned cultural theorist and anthropologist. Appadurai, 62, who studied in Mumbai’s Elphinstone College, is currently Goddard Professor of Media, Culture and Communication at New York University. He has been consultant and advisor to a wide range of public and private foundations such as The Smithsonian. In his seminal work Disjuncture and...

Odisha village gets pattas after nearly half a century. Land reform programmes get jumpstart They say home is where the heart is, but that’s not always true. Ask Arakhita Pradhan, resident of Chilipoi village in Odisha’s Ganjam district. On a cold evening some 44 years ago, the authorities forcefully shifted him and his neighbours to a place where no civic amenities existed. Reason: the state had built an irrigation dam that...

-The Telegraph A senior IAS officer was arrested today for alleged involvement in the Emaar MGF scandal dating back to Y.S.R. Reddy’s tenure as Andhra chief minister. B.P. Acharya, now principal secretary in the home department, is the second senior IAS officer based in the state to be held on corruption charges in recent months. Y. Srilakshmi was held in an illegal mining case involving former Karnataka minister G. Janardhana Reddy. Acharya was managing...