-The Hindu   ‘The 50 per cent limit on reservation set by the Supreme Court should be challenged' Scholar of the Dalit movement Gail Omvedt supported reservation for minorities, but said the allocation should not be carved out of the existing quota for Other Backward Classes (OBCs), but added to it by increasing the percentage of reservation. Addressing a large gathering of people attending the 10th anniversary of the Bahujan Vidyarthi Sangha (BVS), Ms....

-PTI   At a time when the issue of quota for backward class Muslims has stirred a political controversy, National Minority Commission chief Wajahat Habibullah has made a strong plea for granting Scheduled Caste status to Muslim and Christian Dalits to get them reservation benefits.  Referring to the Constitution Order of 1950 that asks for inclusion of those Dalits, who converted to Buddhism and Sikhism in the SC category, Habibullah said, "Our case...

-ANI Defending the decision to provide minority (Muslim) reservation, Law Minister, Salman Khurshid on Sunday said that the Central Government had powers to grant quota to backwards castes of minority communities within the Hindu backward caste quota. The Election Commission has stayed the government decision to grant 4.5 percent reservation to minorities (Muslims) in government jobs and educational institutions due to ongoing state polls. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has opposed the move, contending...

-The Times of India Out of the candidates contesting in the first phase of state assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, at least 38 percent have criminal cases registered against them, 51 percent are millionaires and only seven percent are women. Almost all major political parties have fielded candidates who have criminal cases registered against them. Samajwadi Party has 28 out of 55 (51 %), Bahujan Samaj Party 24 out of 55 (44...

The hunger and malnutrition situation in the country has shown marginal improvement, according to the HUNGaMA report. ONE area that has always bothered policymakers in a growth-obsessed economy is the state of the social sector, in particular figures indicating the numbers of people going hungry or are homeless and children who are out of school, the poor nutritional status of women and children, and the high infant and maternal mortality rates....