-PTI In a setback to the West Bengal government, the Calcutta High Court today upheld the primacy of the State Election Commission and directed that the panchayat elections would be held in three phases with Central armed police force as per the SEC's prayer. Holding that the primacy of the SEC was non-negotiable, Justice Biswanath Somadder, directed that the rural polls be held in three phases as sought by the commission, rejecting...

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...

-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,...

-The Hindu Kolkata: Emphasising the need for deploying Central paramilitary forces for conducting free and fair rural polls in the State, counsel for the State Election Commission told the Calcutta High Court here on Thursday that it was akin to handing over investigations of a sensitive case to the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) to ensure an "impartial" probe. At the hearing, counsel for the Commission Samaraditya Pal, cited various instances where...

-Live Mint Panchayat-related caste violence continues unabated and has become a part of the social reality today In ancient India, the panchayat system was based on the age-old caste system, social status and family. Although the local self-government concept was introduced in 1882, it took more than 100 years for the local self-government institutions to become a part of the Indian Constitution. While tremendous possibilities have been opened up in the...