After leaving its rivals in Uttar Pradesh, barring BJP, tongue-tied with its poll-eve announcement of 4.5% minority quota in central jobs, Congress has flashed yet another ace by wooing the community with the promise of 9% reservation, also within the existing 27% OBC quota, in state government jobs if voted to power.  The promise will be made in Congress' election manifesto for Uttar Pradesh. Salman Khurshid, who is part of the...

The much-vaunted NREGA has defaulted on many of its promises “There are many households in our village who have NREGA cards but have not sought work for over two years,” says 32-year-old Umesh Kumar, gram pradhan of Bhainswal village, in Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh. In fact, Kumar recounts having to actually go around persuading people to come for work “whenever we get projects for implementation under NREGA”. This first-time...

-PTI The CBI on Saturday arrested a former official of a Uttar Pradesh government-owned public sector unit for his alleged involvement in the Rs 10,000 crore National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam.   Sources said the accused, GK Batra, former MD of Shreeton India, was arrested following a day-long intensive interrogation by agency sleuths. The CBI has so far arrested five persons including former UP Small Industries Corporation md Abhay Kumar Bajpai, former...

-The Hindu The Union government has expressed displeasure with as many as seven Chief Ministers for their failure to commence the crucial Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) based on which beneficiaries will be ranked for various welfare schemes including the proposed legal entitlement for food. The irony is that three of them belong to the Congress, which heads the UPA Government at the Centre, while another is an ally. Of the three...

The drama in the Rajya Sabha showed that the UPA Government was not willing to go even by the will of Parliament. This gives rise to fundamental questions about the functioning of Indian democracy. The year 2011 will be remembered in India as the year of the campaign against corruption and for the Jan Lokpal Bill. The campaign began in January 2011 in the backdrop of the publicity that accompanied the...