The Centre appears set to renege on its commitment to the Supreme Court that it would organise elections to a council that regulates traditional medicine whose members have clung to their positions for years, defying rules. At least 40 of the 48 elected members to the Central Council of Indian Medicine (CCIM) have held their positions for more than the scheduled period of five years. Among them, 17 have been members...

The class bias in government policy is clear in the decision to release a small amount of foodgrain in the open market to tackle inflation. MOST people would agree that there is a strong element of speculation underlying the current inflation and that forward trading contributes to it. Yet the government, though it has banned forward trading in certain commodities under public pressure, is curiously reluctant to see this point....

The Election Commission feels that the situation in Bengal is “worse than anticipated” and that the ground realities necessitate “an exclusive plan of action” for conducting the Assembly elections this year, according to sources. The commission made the observations after going through a report submitted by a six-member team that visited the state last week. The “exclusive plan of action” will have a bearing on the number of phases for the elections,...

Terming paid news phenomenon as acomplex problem, the Election Commission today said it couldbest be addressed by "self-regulation" by media and politicalparties which was not happening. The EC is concerned about the undue influence that paidnews can create in the mind of the voter whose right tocorrect and unbiased information needed protection, ChiefElection Commissioner S Y Quraishi said. "In our estimate, the problem of paid news is bestaddressed by self-regulation by media...

The Election Commission has started a sample survey in five poll-bound states to get an idea of voter attitudes and clear misconceptions to ensure greater turnout at booths. The exercise, being conducted by state chief electoral officers, will be completed within the next three or four weeks before elections are notified in Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Commission official Akshay Rout said a similar survey had been conducted in the...