-The Indian Express As the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) zeroes in on appointments made during the tenure of the Trinamool Congress in the Railway Ministry to understand the process of top level appointments, political circles are abuzz about Mamata Banerjee's unusual silence over the case of bribery in Railways. Except for a statement by party spokesman Derek O'Brien on the day the news broke, the TMC has remained uncharacteristically oblivious of...

-The Hindu Kolkata: In a setback to the Mamata Banerjee government, the Calcutta High Court on Friday directed that panchayat polls in 17 districts be held in three phases with the government fully compensating the shortfall in security forces to the satisfaction of the State Election Commission. Justice Biswanath Somadder rejected the government's arguments on all the contentious issues in its writ petition and directed that it inform the Commission of...

-The Hindu The government has reiterated that it will implement the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) in a phased manner to ensure targeted and time-bound delivery of results. Recently, in a reply to a question posed in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Rural Development Pradeep Jain had said that it was the NRLM's mandate to guarantee that at least one member from each identified rural poor household, preferably a woman,...

-The Hindu Patna: In a shocking case of attempted ‘honour killing', a family in Bihar brutally assaulted and tried to kill a 16-year-old girl for her adamant refusal to marry a man they had chosen for her. Sugati Kumari, the victim's family member, tried to strangulate her with a rope. They disfigured her face with a blade, poured acid on her face and left her for dead on a road in Muzaffarpur...

-The Hindu The representatives of the recognised national and State-level political parties on Friday expressed satisfaction over the functioning of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT), developed by the Election Commission (EC) and made some suggestions for further improvement. The Commission said "the suggestions will be considered by the Expert Committee and the EC." Informed sources said the improved VVPAT could possibly be used for field...