-Express News Service   The government today decided to create a 4.5 per cent sub-quota for backward minorities within the 27 per cent quota for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in jobs and admission to educational institutions.   The political significance of the move lies in its timing just ahead of elections in Uttar Pradesh. The sub-quota was one of the Congress’s 2009 poll promises, but it appears in the current context to be targeted...

The government is going to make a final attempt to push Sonia Gandhi’s pet legislation, the Food Security Bill, at the Cabinet meeting this Sunday. Cabinet approval is vital if the Bill is to be introduced in Parliament within the few remaining days of this session. This could possibly be the last session before Assembly elections in five states. Food Minister K V Thomas told Business Standard, “We are trying to introduce...

Not allowing the dust to settle on the mismanagement of the Centre's flagship employment guarantee scheme in Uttar Pradesh, Sanjay Dixit, member of the Central Employment Guarantee Council, on Sunday, alleged UP has violated the norms of the scheme. In a letter to Union minister for rural development, Jairam Ramesh, Dixit has drawn attention to an MIS report generated by UP, which indicates details of expenditure on works where there...

Its eye on the UP Assembly elections, the Centre is going to package the reservation for backward Muslims being planned out of the 27 per cent OBC quota as part of a series of reservation measures, covering a large bracket of beneficiaries. Apart from designating the quota for Muslims as part of a larger reservation for “minorities”, the UPA government is planning to promise a quota for “the most backward”...

Expenditure incurred on advertisements to be recorded in ‘shadow expenditure register' Advertisements inserted by candidates contesting the forthcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh will have to be signed by them as well as by two witnesses in order to differentiate these from paid news and deter the candidates from having their way. The district election officers would ensure that the expenditure incurred on the advertisements was recorded in the ‘shadow expenditure register',...