-The Economic Times   The youth wing of the Trinamool Congress will hold a huge rally in the Maoist stronghold of Belpahari in West Midnapore district on November 1. This will be the first meeting of a political party in Belpahari. "I am expecting a gathering of about one lakh in our rally in the so-called Maoist heartland," Youth Trinamool Congress General Secretary Suvendu Adhikari told ET on Tuesday. He alleged that...

Five days after Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi accused Mayawati government in UP of mega-scale corruption in the centrally sponsored schemes, union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh has shot off a letter to UP chief minister Mayawati citing a huge scam in the MNREGA scheme in the state. According to sources, Jairam has specifically mentioned seven districts Balrampur, Gonda, Mahoba, Sonbhadra, Sant Kabir Nagar and Mirzapur where central funds have...

Prime Minister​ Manmohan Singh said that the government plans to strengthen anti-graft laws in India by making bribery in the private sector a criminal offence. “We are considering changes in our laws to criminalize private sector bribery,” Singh said, while speaking at the Biennial Conference of CBI and state anti-corruption bureaux on Friday. Singh also indicated that the Central Bureau of Investigation​ (CBI) will continue as the premier investigative agency even after...

It has been a long and difficult road to justice for the tribal residents of this village in Tamil Nadu's Dharmapuri district The injustice done to the tribal people of India is a shameful chapter in our country's history. The tribals were called ‘rakshas' (demons), ‘asuras', and what not. They were slaughtered in large numbers, and the survivors and their descendants were degraded, humiliated, and all kinds of atrocities inflicted on...

For the first time in the country, the Andhra Pradesh government is launching special courts for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) on November 1 to try cases of misappropriation and fraud being committed by staff during its implementation. The special courts can impose a two-year jail term apart from ordering recovery of the amount defrauded by the accused officials if proved guilty. The courts, to be set...