In a bid to ensure participation of more women in politics, the state government has proposed changing the present legislation to reserve 50 per cent seats in rural bodies for women. Deputy chief minister Sudesh Mahto, who also holds the panchayati raj portfolio, has already given his consent to the proposal, which, however, has to be passed by the state cabinet. “We are working on the proposal to grant 50...

When Gadchiroli Collector Atul Patne and his predecessor Niranjankumar Sudhanshu accept a special medal from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tomorrow in New Delhi for their NREGA performance, they will rebut a widely held belief that good government work can't be done in Naxal-affected areas, a belief that's often used as an alibi for inaction. Gadchiroli, which became the biggest hotspot in the Red Corridor in 2009 with three police ambushes...

The Supreme Court Bench headed by Chief Justice K. G. Balakrishnan set aside the verdict of Jharkhand High Court and upheld the constitutional validity of the amendment in the law that mandates reservations of the chairperson’s post of Panchayats at all levels for the Scheduled Tribe in all the scheduled areas. The bench struck down Section 4(G) of the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA), 1996 and held that other...

Jean Dreze and Aruna Roy, members of the Central Employment Guarantee Council (CEGC) — governing body for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme — on Tuesday kept away from ‘MNREGS Sammelan 2010’ here, describing it as a “ceremonial function.” In their joint letter to Rural Development Minister C.P. Joshi, the social activists, who had played a crucial role in shaping the manual job guaranteeing law, said, “We see little...

Violence in West Bengal’s western districts has reached crisis proportions. Each day, one or more cadre member or sympathizer of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPM] is killed either by Maoists or the Trinamul Congress (TMC). The Maoists have found common cause with the TMC, a breakaway from the Congress Party in Bengal. Mamata Banerjee, whose authoritarian populism draws from both Juan and Evita Peron, leads the TMC. Backed...