Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Friday said there was no battle going on between him and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on security for sarpanches and empowering of panchayats.
Two days after a village head was gunned down in north Kashmir's Baramulla district, scare and panic has struck the elected village heads and representatives in the region, forcing many of them to resign.
However, as the region with the state's highest concentration of Muslims readies for polls on November 7 in the last phase of the elections, it is the Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress-Left alliance that draws considerable support from the community amid sporadic voices in Owaisi's support as they weigh their choices.
A Dalit woman's nose was chopped off after she was accused of practicing witchcraft in a village in Bihar's Khagaria district on Wednesday, said the police. Nunu Dai was beaten up and her nose was chopped off in Kainzari village.
Cops said it was still a matter of investigation as to who called the 'cow vigilantes' when the Dalits were skinning the cow and what was the motive behind giving such false information, which led to the brutal thrashing.
The ban was implemented recently by the panchayat of Suraj village in Kadi taluka of Mehsana. A fine of Rs 2,100 will be imposed on minor girls found using or owning mobile phones. They will only be allowed to use the mobile phones of their parents inside the house.
'People incapable of becoming a sarpanch and councillor are MPs now, all because of the Modi magic.'
Police arrested 11 people, including the main accused who is a 23-year-old school employee, the headmaster, staff and members of the school management, on Thursday night.
Thousands of grieving supporters and family on Wednesday bade a tearful adieu to Union minister Vilasrao Deshmukh whose mortal remains were consigned to flames at his native Babhalgaon village from where he began his political journey as an obscure sarpanch four decades ago.
The Jharkhand police on Tuesday arrested two persons, including a village sarpanch, for their alleged involvement with Maoists in the Saturday's landmine blast that claimed 13 lives, while the cadres released three persons from their custody.
The 3,064-page chargesheet, filed in a Jammu court under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and various sections of the Indian Penal Code, names self-styled commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen terror group Syed Naveed Mushtaq alias Naveed Babu and his alleged network of aides.
Barely three days after the killing of a former Naib Sarpanch in Malkangiri district, armed Maoists killed the son of a ruling Biju Janata Dal leader and block chairman in Bolangir district early on Wednesday, police said.
Some of the BJP panches and councillors who attended the meeting with Manoj Sinha said they were not impressed with what the new lieutenant governor told them.
The 61-year-old, who was administered the oath of office by Jammu and Kashmir High Court Chief Justice Gita Mittal at a simple function in the Raj Bhavan, also said he wants to accelerate development in the union territory, carved out of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir last year.
Killing of three political workers in the district by the militants three days ago has severely affected voter turnout in Kashmir's Pulwama district in Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency.
Known as 'vikas purush' (man involved in developmental work), Sinha is a three-time Lok Sabha MP who held charge of the communication ministry as a minister of State in 2016 when the telecom industry was engaged in the sale of spectrum.
Concern over Anna Hazare's health weighing on their minds, villagers of Ralegan Siddhi will arrive here tomorrow, the second day of his fast for a strong Lokpal Bill, after observing a bandh on Tuesday.
Community kitchens punctuate the sea of farmers who have descended on the site and are in no mood to relent or retreat until their demands are met by the Centre.
In Bihar, a diktat issued by the Maoists has forced 33 candidates to withdraw their nominations for the upcoming panchayat by-polls in the state. Fear of Maoists forced 33 candidates for posts ranging from the mukhiya (village headman) to sarpanch -- who had filed papers for different panchayats under Dumaria block of Gaya -- to withdraw their papers on the last day of filing nominations.
The first phase of the Panchayat polls in Jammu and Kashmir passed off peacefully without any incident on Wednesday. The authorities had made elaborate security arrangements for today's polls during which people exhibited enthusiasm in electing the representatives at the village level.
From carrying portraits of their sons and husbands who have committed suicide due to agrarian distress to picketing to doing sewa 24x7 at langars, women have shown a rare determination not to capitulate before the government.
Amit Shah, who missed campaigning in Bihar, made a two-day trip to Bengal starting November 5 to oversee BJPs preparedness for the state polls.
Hundreds of villagers took to the streets along with their cattle to protest the Delhi Police's action. They were later detained by the local police.
The National Investigation Agency has summoned Shivam Dhakad, an associate of murdered former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sanch pracharak Sunil Joshi, to New Delhi for questioning.A team of the NIA is currently probing the killing of Joshi and Shivam has been summoned in this connection, officials said. Shivam, who is a resident of Dewas in Madhya Pradesh, was recently released on bail. He is also an accused in the murder of Kok Singh Solanki, a village sarpanch.
Upset over not getting an appointment with Rahul Gandhi, the sarpanch of Anna Hazare's village and his colleagues on Tuesday decided to return home saying that now even if they got an appointment the village will decide whether to meet the Congress leader or not.
A woman was killed and five persons were injured on Sunday as Pakistani troops intensified shelling on border posts and civilian area in Poonch and Rajouri in continued ceasefire violations that have claimed six lives in two days, drawing strong protest from India.
Earlier, Singh had said that the "mental state" of Grewal needed to be probed before drawing conclusions about his extreme action.
Militants early Sunday gunned down a special police officer in north Kashmir's Sopore town, 54 kms from capital Srinagar, in Baramulla district.
'Within and outside their homes, all married women in this region must cover not only their heads, but in some cases, faces too,' discovers Geetanjali Krishna.
A deputy sarpanch was stabbed to death allegedly by a group of Naxals in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra, police said on Tuesday.
Mayura Janwalkar travels to Kedambe, a tiny village in Maharashtra's Satara district, now better known as 26/11 hero Tukaram Omble's home. An excerpt from 26/11 Stories Of Strength by The Indian Express.
A group of four-five 'Nihangs' (Sikhs armed with traditional weapons and dressed in loose blue top) were travelling in a vehicle and they were asked to stop at a vegetable market by the Mandi board officials at around 6.15 am, police said.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived at Tembhali village in Maharashtra's Nandurbar district at 12 past noon on Wednesday. He was accompanied by Congress president and National Advisory Committe chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
From a gram panchayat ward member to a member of Parliament, elected representatives at different levels of the political pyramid, cutting across party lines, have resigned from their posts in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions to protest the 'unilateral decision' of the Congress to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh.Ministers, both at the Central and state level, hailing from the region, haven't yet decided on their resignations, despite mounting pressure.
The argument that there is nothing wrong in barring illiterates from contesting elections is extremely flawed, when by the same yardstick many sitting MLAs and MPs would not be eligible to contest even panchayat polls, says Devanik Saha.
Nihar Das Pattnaik, the company's manager, CSR, and three others -- Arun Mohapatra, Debasish Swain and Prasant Rout - had gone to Patana village to conduct a survey of households for inclusion in the CSR activities.
This is the ninth consecutive day that Pakistan violated the ceasefire. There have been 41 violations of the ceasefire accord this year so far. There has been over 230 ceasefire violations along the Indo-Pakistan border this year.
Pakistani troops violated the ceasefire twice overnight by pounding civilian hamlets and Indian forward posts with 120 mm and 82 mm mortar bombs along the LoC in Poonch district, drawing retaliation from the Army.
The shop owner Munni Lal Ahirwar has alleged in his complaint that the villagers looted food grains as they did not have cash to purchase it, police, however claimed that no such incident took place and it was only a minor scuffle.
US president Barack Obama's visit to Mumbai is not good news for many section of Mumbaikars whose livelihoods have been affected by stringent security arrangements. Operations of about 80 ferry launches that ply from Gateway of India have been suspended for three days.
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