-PTI Sasaram: Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh today pulled up the Bihar government for slow implementation of central flagship schemes like MNREGA and IAY and cautioned that the naxal movement may intensify if adequate steps were not taken to provide basic infrastructure to the rural people. Expressing apparent dissatisfaction with no visible impact of central schemes on people's lives, the minister said that "much more needed to be done by the...

-PTI Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Monday accused the UPA government of putting Lokpal Bill in cold storage and said the Centre's intention on the issue is not "pious and pure". Kumar, who was speaking to newsmen, supported Anna Hazare's movement saying it has raised an issue of public interest and it is for the Centre to take a decision on Lokpal. Referring to his recent meeting with senior BJP leader Murli...

-The Hindustan Times Corruption over spectrum, land, arms or sports is passé. The latest space to extract money from is the female reproductive system. After Chhattisgarh, Bihar has become the newest state where doctors and nursing homes have allegedly made crores from the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana through illegal hysterectomy — an operation to remove the uterus. Numerous cases of forced surgeries came to light in Samastipur district following a probe by...

-The Times of India With the UPA government's efforts to build a consensus on allowing foreign retailers in the multi-brand retail sector going nowhere, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday urged the UPA allies to help evolve a consensus on the reforms measure. Participating in the first meeting of the newly set-up UPA co-ordination committee, PM said that it was necessary to build support for the move to let in foreign retailers. The...

Hearing of the petition in Supreme Court today against Patna High Court verdict acquitting all the accused A day before the hearing of the petition in the Supreme Court against the Patna High Court verdict acquitting all the accused in the Bathani Tola massacre of 1996, civil society activists on Sunday demanded justice for the victims of the massacre at a “Convention on Justice for the Bathani Tola Massacre 1996: Punish...