First phase panchayat elections in Bihar turn out peaceful! Patna: despite apprehensions, the first phase of the Bihar panchayat polls held amidst tight security today has turned out to be largely peaceful. Polling is being held at 12905 booths spread over 37 districts for 28,639 posts of village chief, sarpanchs, gram panchayat members, gram kutchery panch, panchayat samiti members and district board members. There are 1.43 lakh candidates in the fray. People queued up at polling booths despite a boycott call by Maoists. Director General of Police Neelmani said that polling was peaceful... 

Three lakh women candidates contesting panchayat polls in Bihar Panchayati Raj: Women's empowerment! Patna: according to reports in the press, almost three lakh women candidates are to contest the 10-phase panchayat polls in Bihar starting tomorrow. This is a direct consequence of the fact that in 2006, Bihar became the first state in India to reserve for women 50 percent seats in panchayats, providing a rare opportunity to nearly half of the state’s 10.38 crore population to empower itself. According to an official of the state election commission nearly three lakh women are... 

Dates for Panchayat polls in Bihar announced Ballot boxes to be used instead of EVMs... Dates for Panchayat elections in Bihar have now been announced. Starting from April 20th election will be held in 10 phases. Stretching over a month, the Final phase will see voting on 18th May with 23 blocks going for the polls. The notification for the elections will be issued on 21st February. The point to be noted here is Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) will not be used in these elections. As announced earlier, elections will not be organised on party lines. The details for different phases and the number... 

Egypt and the panchayat elections in Bihar: Tunis, Cairo, Rome, Patna! Patna: global events in the last few weeks have proved that the world is both a very big and a very small place. It is unimaginably big, but it may on occasions shrink into a very finite Tahrir square of Cairo, which looks somewhat smaller and cramped on the TV compared to our own Gandhi maidan. It has also proved that the ability of human beings to tolerate oppression for long stretches of time is as mysterious as their ability to choose moments to decide enough is enough – and it is this spirit that has turned... 

Panchayat elections: the primary school of democracy Patna: on the occasion of the National Voters day, the Bihar social welfare minister Parveen Amanullah quite appropriately appealed to the people to vote in large numbers with the same zeal they showed in the 2010 assembly elections. She also stressed how wide participation in the forthcoming panchayat elections in April 2011 is a must for the strengthening of democracy. It is however important to note that the Panchayati system is not a way road to democracy and has its own pitfalls. It is well known how difficult if not impossible it... 

2011 Panchayat elections not to be fought on party basis: a welcome decision Patna: the uncertainty over whether the forthcoming panchayat elections would be fought on party basis is now over. Finally, soon after the Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi’s statement that his party was not in favour of fighting Panchayat elections on party basis in 2011, CM Nitish Kumar confirmed that he had no such intention either. This has brought a prolonged state of indecision to an end. Nitish in his elaborate explanation of his position spoke of the narrow time frame and the difficulties of selecting candidates... 

Should political parties fight panchayat elections in Bihar? Patna: yesterday the deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi announced a slew of measures to be implemented in the panchayats of Bihar. They are as follows: 1.Construction of panchayat buildings from where the panchayat officials will have to operate. 2. Appointment of 25,000 staff for panchayats as development officials, accountants and engineers. As part of the same executive announcements, the deputy CM made a political point which we need to take note of. According to him, the BJP in Bihar is against panchayat elections being...