In an attempt to break the deadlock over the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill and the accompanying Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has invited Trinamool Congress chief and railway minister Mamata Banerjee for talks on October 25. Ms Banerjee, who has strong reservations over the twin pieces of legislation, is, as per Trinamool Congress sources, unlikely to relent. Ms Banerjee’s stand is that the state should have absolutely no...

Prepares a model amendment draft for Goa Panchayati Raj Draft amendments to be debated Clear division of functions, assets proposed Right to Information activist Arvind Kejriwal has suggested a series of powers to strengthen the Gram Sabhas including decision making powers about village affairs and a right to recall Sarpanch for failing to function according to decisions of the Gram Sabha. In a model amendment draft for the Goa Panchayati Raj already put in...

This time in Uttar Pradesh, panchayat elections — the first phase starts Monday — are being fought with an intensity never seen before. Eight persons have already died in poll-related violence over the past 15 days. All the trappings of a typical poll are there — hoardings; free flow of liquor, money and clothes for voters; and candidates moving about in SUVs. “So much money and violence was seen neither in the...

Elsewhere, people may be obsessed with the Commonwealth Games, but games of a different kind are being played in UP villages these days. Panchayat elections in UP are round the corner and these are being fought with an intensity not seen before. The poll are still three days away and at least eight persons have lost their lives in the last 15 days in the polls-related violence. Hoardings dot countryside; feasts...

District-level committees also to scrutinise any instances of ‘paid news' The constitution of an Expenditure Monitoring Division in the Election Commission of India indicates that the ECI is stepping up its efforts to tackle ‘paid news' and other abuses of money power during elections. The 2009 elections, to the Lok Sabha and to some State legislatures, saw a spate of complaints as millions of rupees were spent by powerful political parties...