-The Telegraph Siliguri, April 7: If the panchayat system is dissolved and not replaced by newly elected bodies on time, at least three central schemes would come to a halt in the state, Jairam Ramesh said today. According to the Union rural development minister the national job scheme for villagers, which entails 100-days work for at least one member of a BPL family, would be hit the most. The other two schemes...

-The Hindu Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, daughter of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and leading lawyer Prashant Bhushan are among 881 individual beneficiaries, companies, societies and trusts granted permission in the last three years to buy land in Himachal Pradesh. The strict land laws that do not permit outsiders or non- agriculturists to buy farm land were relaxed for these select few. The matter of land transactions was raised by Congress MLA Rohit Thakur,...

-DNA Tribal minister shoots letter to 9 guvs seeking cancellation of leases. Union tribal affairs minister V Kishore Chandra Deo has asked governors of nine states to invoke their special powers to revoke lease agreements and MoUs signed between state governments and corporates to extract mineral wealth in tribal areas. Pointing out that power lobbies were disregarding land regulations, he castigated the Congress-ruled Andhra Pradesh government. The union minister, who is also...

-The Economic Times PATNA: Reserving 33% seats for women in Parliament and state legislatures may remain a dream for Congress president Sonia Gandhi but chief minister Nitish Kumar has not only done that in panchayat bodies of Bihar but is set to take the concept to other areas. Women's support for JD(U) had swelled in elections following the reservations, as the fair sex exhibited approval for the progressive legislation. Encouraged by 'lady...

-The Economic Times CHANDIGARH: Haryana government today transferred whistleblower in Robert Vadra-DLF land deal, Ashok Khemka, Haryana IAS officer to department of Archives within six months of his recent posting as managing director of Haryana Seeds Development Corporation. The latest transfer of Khemka, second in last few months and 44th in all, is seen as a bid to avoid further threat to image of the Congress government that has taken beating after...