The Election Commission is set to do a balancing act by again sending an observer team to Bengal, this time to assess the situation in places where Left supporters have been the “victims”. The move follows the CPM’s complaint that the previous team had visited only the areas suggested by the Opposition. “We are ready to send another team to Bengal next week. This time, the team will visit sensitive zones where...

Private coaching constitutes a significantly large portion of the expense students incur on education, sometimes even bigger than the expenditure on school fees, a study says. In Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka, school students who go for tuitions spend more on private coaching than the average school student does on all items including school fees, transport, books and stationary and uniforms. These are the findings of a in 2007-08 National Sample Survey Organisation...

Action plan should be finalised to end scourge before March 2012 A plan of action should be finalised within a month or so with the target of ending the pernicious practice of manual scavenging within the 11th Plan period that ends in March 2012, sources in the Social Justice Ministry said. This was the key outcome of a two-day consultation meeting which concluded here on Tuesday. Jointly organised by the Ministries of Social...

In the middle of a debate about corruption in high places, the curse struck in a macabre manner from the base of the pyramid on the eve of the celebration of the republic. An additional collector was burnt alive in daylight by a gang that sprinkled kerosene on him after the 44-year-old officer caught their aides pilfering fuel from a tanker in Maharashtra’s Nashik today. The prime suspect, who has a history...

The Election Commission feels that the situation in Bengal is “worse than anticipated” and that the ground realities necessitate “an exclusive plan of action” for conducting the Assembly elections this year, according to sources. The commission made the observations after going through a report submitted by a six-member team that visited the state last week. The “exclusive plan of action” will have a bearing on the number of phases for the elections,...