Statesman News Service KOLKATA: The whole perception of the state government about availability of security forces is unreliable, State Election Commission counsel Samaraditya Pal submitted before Mr Justice Biswanath Somaddar of Calcutta High Court on the last day of the hearing of the challenge to some provisions of the West Bengal Panchayat Election Act today. The judgment of the case will be delivered expeditiously, Mr Justice Somaddar said. Earlier, citing...

-The Hindu Chandigarh: For one Sarabjit Singh, whose death brought politicians to his funeral and financial assistance for his family, the Punjab countryside is dotted with scores of men knocking on the doors of courts seeking compensation for the years many of them spent in Pakistani jails, and recognition of their services as spies for India. Neither the government nor his family has ever acknowledged that Sarabjit - who died this week...

-The Telegraph Kolkata: Mamata Banerjee today waved at a rally photographs and newspaper advertisements that she claimed established "links" between CPM leaders and the Saradha Group and other deposit-mobilising companies, but steered clear of commenting on Trinamul's alleged connections with such entities. Addressing her first public meeting since the Saradha crisis unfolded, the chief minister did not mention if she was planning action against Trinamul leaders whose names have cropped up in...

-Frontline   But in Modi's Gujarat the difference between development and darkness is all too visible to those who care to see. NARENDRA MODI may have won three consecutive elections and ruled Gujarat for more than a decade after he was posted there almost as a night watchman, to borrow a cricketing expression. He may have mobilised a massive fan following that is shouting to catapult him into the Prime Minister's post,...

-IPS News India's planners worry about ‘jobless growth', but perhaps nothing illustrates this phenomenon better than a policy of handing over the collection and disposal of the capital's refuse to large private corporations, leaving close to 50,000 ragpickers unemployed. For decades ragpickers provided a service to this city, scavenging waste for recyclable plastic, aluminium, glass and other materials, and earning a livelihood by selling their pickings to contractors with equipment to process...