-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...
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Setback for Mamata govt, HC upholds state EC's decision to hold panchayat polls in 3 phases
-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...
More »Paid news pandemic undermines democracy -P Sainath
-The Hindu Top civil society bodies are challenging the government's ‘counter-affidavit' in the Paid News case which seeks to gut the Election Commission's powers In a major twist to the Ashok Chavan vs. Madhav Kinhalkar legal battle (more notorious as the "Paid News" scandal), leading civil society organisations and eminent individuals have approached the Supreme Court to implead themselves into the case. Their intervention application, moved by advocate Prashant Bhushan, minces no words...
More »Stuck record: Why Amartya Sen is wrong on food security again -R Jagannathan
-Firstpost.com It is becoming increasingly difficult to retain respect for Nobel laureate Amartya Sen. He seems to surface in the media every time the UPA government is about to legislate its pet follies, providing intellectual succour to mindless spending and corruption wrapped up in the package of anti-poverty schemes. Yesterday, Sen bobbed up just when the UPA - under siege for every known scam in India - tried to start discussions on...
More »When development triggers caste violence -Hugo Gorringe
-The Hindu The educational and economic development of Dalits is seen by the backward castes as a challenge to the social order, as recent incidents in Tamil Nadu show On the evening of November 7, 2012, a crowd numbering over 1000 people burst into three Dalit settlements in Dharmapuri, north-western Tamil Nadu, and laid them waste. Over a period of several hours, they looted, smashed and burned. Trees had been felled on...
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