The government has approved the 'Terms of Reference' for the 16 Finance Commission, which makes recommendations on sharing of tax revenues between the Centre and states. The recommendations would cover a five-year period commencing April 1, 2026, Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said on Wednesday, giving details about the decisions taken at the Cabinet meeting last evening. The commission would submit its report by October 31, 2025, Thakur said.
A Trinamool Congress legislator on Sunday threatened to not support any bill tabled by the government in the West Bengal Assembly in the future and abstain from voting in the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls in the state if 'atrocities' on his loyalists allegedly by a rival faction continued, even as the Bharatiya Janata Party said the collapse of the Mamata Banerjee government was just a matter of time.
Suspended IPL Commissioner Lalit Modi on Wednesday hit back at the BCCI, questioning the legality of its July 3 Special General Meeting convened to determine his fate and called it a "khap panchayat".
The court noted that no appreciable steps have been taken ever since an order was passed by it on June 13 to deploy central forces in sensitive areas for the poll process.
Eleven persons were injured in a clash between the Trinamool Congress and Congress party workers at Sabong in West Midnapore district as the first phase of panchayat polls began on Thursday in West Bengal. In another incident, senior Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Surya Kanto Mishra was involved in an altercation with local Trinamool Congress supporters outside a polling booth at Khadurdah gram panchayat area in West Midnapore district.
Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress on Wednesday announced five guarantees for women, including annual direct cash transfers of Rs 1 lakh to one woman from each of the country's poorest families and 50 per cent quota in all new recruitments in central government jobs.
High drama was witnessed during the Himachal Pradesh Cabinet meeting on Saturday with ministers Jagat Negi and Rohit Thakur leaving midway following a 'heated debate' over policy decisions, sources said.
The situation in the district worsened on Friday with the flames reaching the high court colony in the Pines area.
'Currently, our individual first premium would be in the Rs 3,000-Rs 3,200 crore range. We want to take that to about Rs 6,000 crore in three years.'
The Cabinet on Thursday approved the proposal for enhancing reservation for women in Panchayats from the present 33 per cent to 50 per cent with the provision being applicable to all seats filled through direct election, office of chairpersons and of offices reserved for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
The Congress' strength in the 230-member MP assembly came down to 65 after Shah's exit.
Karanatka's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party toll early leads in the crucial zilla and taluka panchayat elections on Tuesday by emerging victorious in 12 out of the 30 districts in the fray. However, party insiders say that the results were below their expectations.
The Odisha assembly has a strength of 147 MLAs while there are 21 Lok Sabha MP seats in the state.
Coming down heavily on khap panchayats, the Justice J S Verma Committee on Wednesday said means adopted by them have assumed "unreasonable proportions" and asked the government to ensure such bodies do not interfere with choices made by people regarding marriage.
The apex court has upheld a Haryana legislation disqualifying a gram panchayat member from becoming a sarpanch if he or she had more than two living children.
Braving opposition from a section of villagers, Sottathatti panchayat president K Raju was presiding over a meeting after hoisting the national flag at a school.
One person was on Thursday killed in a clash between Trinamool Congress and Communist Party of India-Marxist supporters in North Dinajpur district during the fifth and final phase of West Bengal panchayat elections, taking the toll in poll-related violence to 21 since the exercise began.
Banerjee said the Border Security Force must work impartially as the BJP "may not be in power tomorrow".
Clashes resurfaced after four months on Sunday and Monday morning. Guns were allegedly used in the clashes between CPI-M workers and Trinamool Congress-backed Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee members, leaving five injured.
Efforts have also intensified to extinguish the raging forest fires in the state, especially in the worst-affected areas of Nainital, Haldwani and Ramnagar forest divisions, forest officials here said on Sunday.
The recoveries made from the gunned-down terrorist included two assault rifles along with two magazines and 234 rounds of bullets, five pistols with 10 magazines and 60 rounds, 15 hand grenades and 12 fuses for IEDs.
The Delhi Police late on Thursday night arrested Ranglal Singhal, who, according to his confession, stabbed his son Gaurav in his house while the preparations for his wedding were in full swing.
Police earlier claimed the three "Naxalites" were killed on a forested hill between Bhomra-Hurtarai villages under Koyalibeda police station limits on Sunday morning in an encounter with security personnel during an anti-Naxal operation.
A first information report (FIR) has been lodged and efforts are on to trace the culprit while taking note of a message on social media using abusive language against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and threatening to kill him, police said on Thursday.
'If people don't see you, they might be hesitant, but once they see you, they are confident that this is the person they will vote for,' says political debutant Shambhavi Choudhury, 25, alumnus of the Lady Sriram College and the Delhi School of Economics.
The report said while earlier reservations for women were a matter of ridicule, now stories of women being puppets in the hands of male relatives and similar anecdotal accounts have become rare.
Kharge will take care of IT & BT along with existing portfolio, while Large & Medium Industries Minister M B Patil has been given the additional charge of Infrastructure Development.
The court made the observation while dismissing a petition connected with defection in one of the local self government bodies in Idukki district.
Deriving from Narendra Modi's continuing charisma, the proposed scheme, if and when implemented, can cut both ways. That is to say, if Modi can win, he can lose. Or, someone else in his place, later on, could lose as much as he could win in his time, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
The sources said Bose briefed Shah about the prevailing situation and his assessment of the polls marred by violence that claimed 15 lives.
Villages in Maharashtra are gearing up for e-panchayats as rural people adopt new methodologies for rural development.
The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved a proposal to increase reservation for women to 50 per cent in panchayats.
There will be eight more phases of Panchayat polls in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Bharatiya Janata Party government in Gujarat on Tuesday announced 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in local bodies like panchayats, municipalities and civic corporations on the basis of a commission's report, paving the way for polls in these self-governing institutes.
Man rapes woman. Woman files complaint. The village Muslim jury throws the victim out. Rapist gets away scot-free.
Of the 20,831 voters in this assembly constituency, an overwhelming majority of around 18,000 are not tribals.
Amid sporadic violence, nearly 70 per cent of 1.1 crore rural voters Sunday exercised their franchise for Panchayat Samiti and Zila Parishad elections in Punjab.
A village pradhan and a former village functionary in the border district of Lahaul and Spiti have been arrested on the charges of sedition after they allegedly threatened to seek China's help for development of the region.
Counting of votes for four legislative council seats representing panchayat quota in the state is scheduled to be taken up on Thursday and the results are expected by noon.
A Kudumbashree worker, who had gone missing last week, was found allegedly murdered and buried in a ditch in the compound of a former colleague's house in Tuvvur in this district, police said on Tuesday.
