Set to include them in BPL segment In a step which can have a major bearing on Dalit politics in the country and challenge Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s undisputed hold over her caste people, the Centre is likely to carve out a special Mahadalit category and include them in the Below Poverty Line (BPL) segment. The proposal is expected to come up for discussion before the Union Cabinet on...

Webcasting is the newest technology the state election department adopted for the 2011 Assembly polls. In fact, Bengal is the second state in the country, after Bihar, where the webcasting technology is being used for the elections. The technology enables live feeding of recordings of the inside of booths through internet connection. Live recording of voting procedure is thus directly loaded and can be seen by officers at the state election...

The 2009 Parliamentary election returned the Congress party to power with more seats than even the most optimistic predictions. From 145 seats in 2004, the Congress increased its tally to 206 seats. No doubt, the five-year UPA rule had been characterised by unprecedented growth, but this is too simplistic an explanation since the Congress’s performance varied widely across the states in the elections. For instance, it won just nine out...

Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Tuesday suggested widening the scope of the Lokpal Bill by also going into the issue of corruption in the corporate sector and NGOs as part of a comprehensive package against graft. “The anti-corruption law in the U.S. can look into the functioning of the corporate sector and the NGO sector and it should be considered,” he told journalists here. Describing anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare as a...

Anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare said here on Sunday that the Lokpal Bill would end corruption up to 90 per cent. “For the rest of 10 per cent [to be rooted out], we will call for the Right to Reject [corrupt] candidates. There should be decentralisation of power in governance right up to the village level.'' The social activist was interacting with journalists at the Press Club of India here. Mr. Hazare praised...