LOCAL NEWS

The voter turnout in the first phase of the Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections failed to match the voter turnout in the 2014 election when it was still a state and not a Union Territory. The first assembly election held after a gap of 10 years was expected to break previous voting records. Instead, the voting percentage has come down at many assembly constituencies compared to the turnout in 2014. Improved security situation, no election boycott call by separatist groups and also participation by Jamaat-e-Islami were seen as factors that may boost poll participation. According to the Election Commission, 61 per cent voter turnout was recorded for 24 seats in the first phase. In the… Read More »Jammu And Kashmir Phase 1 Polling Turnout Didn’t Reach 2014 Election Level

Repeating her charge that the floods in West Bengal are a “man-made” disaster, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and blamed the release of water by the Damodar Valley Corporation from reservoirs in Jharkhand for the situation. Her government has also “sealed” the state’s borders with Jharkhand, ruled by INDIA ally Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), and stopped the entry of heavy vehicles.  In her letter on Friday, Ms Banerjee said that all districts of South Bengal – Purba Bardhaman, Paschim Bardhaman, Birbhum, Bankura, Howrah, Hooghly, Purba Medinipore and Paschim Medinipore – have seen devastating floods because of an “unprecedented, unplanned and unilateral release of an enormously huge volume of water… Read More »On Bengal Floods, Mamata Banerjee’s Big Move Against Ally-Ruled Jharkhand

The Supreme Court on Friday told the Centre that the “Collegium is not a search committee” and there cannot be any discretion in accepting its reiterated recommendations. “The Collegium is not a search committee. It has a certain status in the constitutional fabric. This is not a case of a search committee, where it makes a recommendation and there is an absolute discretion whether to accept or not,” a bench headed by CJI DY Chandrachud told Attorney General (AG) R Venkataramani, the highest law officer of the Centre. The Bench, also comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, asked AG Venkataramani to file a chart indicating the status of reiterated recommendations and the difficulty in… Read More »“Collegium Not Search Committee”: Top Court Over Pending Recommendations

The central government’s attempt to set up a fact-checking unit has been struck down by the Bombay High Court after standup comic Kunal Kamra filed a petition against the Centre’s move. Justice AS Chandurkar said the Information Technology Amendment Rules, 2023, which empowers the Centre to set up fact-check units (FCUs) for identifying false online news went against Articles 14 and 19 of the Constitution. “I am of the opinion that the amendments are violative of Article 14 and Article 19  of the Constitution of India,” Justice Chandurkar said, and struck down the proposed IT amendments.

<p>West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday in order to bring attention to severe flooding affecting South Bengal. The floods have impacted districts such as Paschim Bardhaman, Purba Bardhaman, Bankura, Birbhum, Howrah, Hooghly, Purba Medinipur, and Paschim Medinipur. She remarked that that the state would cut off all ties with Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) for unilaterally releasing water which led to floods in south Bengal districts.</p> <p>In her letter, Banerjee attributed the floods to the “unprecedented, unplanned, and unilateral” release of nearly 5 lakh cusecs of water from the Maithon and Panchet dams, which is managed by the DVC. She called it the worst flood in… Read More »Bengal CM Mamata Writes To PM Modi, Threatens To Cut Ties With DVC Over ‘Man-Made’ Floods, Urges Funds