-The Hindu Toilets are yet to be considered an integral part of houses in rural areas of Namakkal Namakkal: Superstitious beliefs, religious sentiments and vasthu shastra are making construction of toilets in rural areas of Namakkal district in Tamil Nadu an uphill task. P. Aruna (32) and her husband Periyasamy (45), a truck driver of Parali Panchayat, stopped constructing a toilet and filled up the leach pit with debris. "An astrologer came to...

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,...

-Live Mint Why do the central and state govts deliberately undermine the constitutionally created Panchayats? The collector of any district in India would be heading 100 to 150 committees related to various development initiatives in the area. Collectors often don't get time to prepare for or preside over the meetings of these committees-imagine what happens to implementation then. On the other hand, the heads of district Panchayats and municipalities in the...

-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...