Lok Sabha mandate "one-sided", casts aspersions on poll process: Sandeep Pandey, others

By A Representative
A group of social activists led by senior academic Sandeep Pandey, supporting Mayawati’s demand to re-conduct polls using ballot papers, have said that :the manner in which recently conducted Lok Sabha elections have given an unprecedented one-sided mandate favouring Bhartiya Janta Party "casts aspersions on electoral process.”
Organized under the Lok Rajniti Manch, they said in a statement, “It appears as if BJP had managed a grip to control all institutions in democracy to get its desired results. We demand that to ensure citizens of India continue to believe in democracy, 100% VVPAT and EVMs data be tallied.”
The statement adds, “If irregularity to large extent is found then as demanded by national leader of Bahujan Samaj Party’s Mayawati, entire election be conducted using ballot paper.” The statement has been also signed by Rajeev Yadav, Gaurav Singh (Lucknow), Yugal Kishore Shastri (Ayodhya), Faisal Khan (Delhi), Lubna Sarwath (Hyderabad), Gurumurti M (Bengaluru), and Mahendra Yadav (Patna).
It says, “To improve election process better, full transparency needs to be brought in electoral bond related process, by which political parties are receiving donations; receiving donations from foreign companies be stopped; and cap on maximum donation to a political party by a company at 7.5% of its last 3 years profit be restored.”
It adds, “Just like maximum election spending is fixed for a candidate, likewise a maximum election spending limit be ascertained for political parties and expenses be accounted for entire five years, not just 15 days before polling. Maximum election spending limit be fixed keeping in mind an ordinary citizen and not big political parties.”

Right to walk, right to livelihood: Clearing footpaths 'can't mean' clearing out the urban poor

By Aseem Mishra* India’s cities are locked in a quiet but intensifying struggle over one of their most contested public spaces: the footpath. For pedestrians, a footpath is basic infrastructure—a strip of ground that should allow people to move safely, independently and with dignity. For millions of informal workers, the same stretch of pavement is a workplace, a source of daily income and often the difference between survival and destitution.

Ample evidence of child labour in South Gujarat's cash rich sugarcane belt: Study

By Rajiv Shah A recent German government-funded study , undertaken jointly by the NGO Prayas Centre for Labour Research and Action and the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, which mainly deals examines the working conditions of migrant workers in the cash-rich sugarcane zone of South Gujarat, has gone a long way to suggest large scale prevalence of child labour during the harvesting season.

Women lawyers petition Supreme Court, seek reconsideration of Aug 4 order on bar council co-option

By A Representative A group of women advocates who stood sixth and seventh among female candidates in the recent Bar Council elections have filed a petition before the Supreme Court, seeking a recall and reconsideration of the Court’s August 4 order determining the mechanism for co-opting women into State Bar Councils.

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