-The Economic Times DANTEWADA: With both the Congress and BJP advocating an intensification of the military campaign against the Naxals, and the UPA government at the Centre even committing more troops to Chhattisgarh, local development in the state could become a casualty in the crossfire. "An outside force is less capable of discriminating between Naxals and villagers," says Vishwa Ranjan, former director general police, Chhattisgarh. Such an intensification will result in greater...

-The Hindustan Times Although crusader-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal seems optimistic about his Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) performance in the upcoming Delhi assembly polls, many voters apparently think otherwise. Many of the voters in Delhi hail Kejriwal's decision of launching the party, but they are not sure whether they would exercise their franchise in favour of the newly-launched 'people's party'. According to them, the party lacks local presence, has a one-point agenda and indicates no...

-The Telegraph Kolkata: The Mamata Banerjee government has decided to return nearly 10,000 acres from its land bank to 30,000-odd original owners by the end of the year with an eye on electoral gains, officials said. No one in the government would go on record but The Telegraph has seen a land and land reforms department order, sent to the departments holding the plots and the district authorities, to start the land-return...

-The Hindu The representatives of the recognised national and State-level political parties on Friday expressed satisfaction over the functioning of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT), developed by the Election Commission (EC) and made some suggestions for further improvement. The Commission said "the suggestions will be considered by the Expert Committee and the EC." Informed sources said the improved VVPAT could possibly be used for field...

-The Hindu The Election Commission has filed 2,655 FIRs in various police stations of Karnataka under Section 171B of the Indian Penal Code relating to bribery in view of Rs. 24.52 crore cash, gift articles including saris and watches, and liquor seized during the run up to the just concluded Legislative Assembly poll in the State. Informed sources said this was one of the highest numbers of FIRs registered by the poll...