-Live Mint The GoM findings, draft will be submitted to the Supreme Court before 10 July Taking a cue from last week's adverse comments by the Supreme Court, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh constituted a group of ministers (GoM) to draft a law that will eventually seek to insulate the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from political influence. Finance minister P. Chidambaram, external affairs minister Salman Khurshid, law minister Kapil Sibal and minister of...

-NDTV The Calcutta High Court today disposed off an appeal by the state government against the order of the single bench last Friday by ordering panchayat elections by July 15 in three phases with forces from other states and central forces if necessary. The court also asked the state to provide 400 observers. Earlier, the state had said they would provide only 256. The court also ordered that the state government, in consultation...

-The Hindu     Present Assembly has 103 Vokkaligas and Lingayats Bidar: As the new government takes over and there are high expectations of "change" on several fronts, a sobering reminder of some things that remain constant is the composition of the Assembly in terms of caste, religion and gender. Dominant castes in the State - Vokkaligas, Brahmins and Lingayats - which are socially and economically strong and have traditionally enjoyed high representation in the...

-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 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...