Giving the police a slip, Rahul Gandhi rode PILlion on a motorcycle just before dawn on Wednesday to the epicentre of violent clashes in this district and met farmers protesting Uttar Pradesh government's land acquisition policy. The strong police force deployed at the Bhatta Parsaul village, which witnessed violent clashes between the police and farmers, apparently failed to notice the Congress general secretary when he reached the Delhi suburb in...

Govt orders 600,000 hand-held electronic devices to reduce scope for error and expedite the census process For the first time, the census to identify below poverty line (BPL) families will be conducted using hand-held electronic devices. The initiative of the rural development ministry is expected to reduce scope for error and expedite the census process. The identification of BPL households is critical for individuals to be eligible for welfare programmes such as getting...

Right to information (RTI) activist and social worker Hemant Patil Saturday filed a petition in the Bombay High Court alleging irregularities in various trusts run by anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare. Patil, president of the Rashtriya Bhrashtachar Virodhi Jana Shakti, has in his public interest litigation (PIL) sought a probe into Hazare's trusts by the Income Tax department. 'It appears that the Hind Swaraj Trust (of Hazare) is not functioning in accordance with...

The government plans to restrict subsidised domestic LPG cylinders to six per household every year. For additional cylinders, consumers will have to pay the market price. Data show 65-70 per cent of households use 5-6 cylinders (14.2 kg) a year, while the remaining use more. In Calcutta, PSU oil marketing firms suffer a loss of Rs 329.73 by selling an LPG cylinder at Rs 365.10. A senior oil ministry official said the proposal...

Tihar jail today has the largest collection of charged or convicted top officials, a powerful ex-minister, sundry politicians and officials. Maharashtra had a teflon-coated chief minister who was ‘sacked’ to a cabinet post in Delhi after being long untouched by many scandals. Another just exited. A former Jharkhand chief minister is in jail on charges of looting his state treasury and accumulating funds abroad. The powerful founder of the Nationalist...