A six-point charter with terms and reference for a committee to lay a road map for Telangana is ready. The file has been approved by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Home Minister P Chidambaram and Law Minister M Veerappa Moily. It will be taken to the prime minister on Friday for final clearance.
The Centre on Monday said it has no role to play in the issue of impeachment process of Karnataka high court chief justice P D Dinakaran except notifying the committee constituted by the Rajya Sabha Chairman.
With fresh violence over Telangana statehood in Andhra Pradesh, the Congress on Thursday indicated if things failed to normalise early, it would delay a solution to the vexed issue.
There are indications that the Centre will order a reinvestigation of the case against former Haryana director general of police S P S Rathore, convicted of molesting a teenaged girl who later killed herself, in the face of public outcry that he got away with a light punishment and that should be charged with abetment to suicide.
Amid a grouping of political parties from Telangana stepping up its campaign for a separate state, Centre today said it had no plans to set up a second States Reorganisation Commission and ruled out imposition of President's rule in the state.
The Congress today said its alliance with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam was "quite strong" and it had no plan to tie up with AIADMK "as on today".
Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday accused the Centre of stoking fire by announcing the "shocking decision" about creation of separate Telangana state and said the onus lay with it to douse it.
The Centre on Saturday sought to downplay the growing momentum for carving out of small states in some regions after the decision on Telangana and said cooperation of (undivided) states and political parties is needed in addressing such demands.
Seeking to take the wind out of defiant Y S Jaganmohan Reddy's sails, Congress on Monday announced Rs 1 lakh each to the families of those who committed suicide in the wake of the death of then Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and his father Y S Rajasekhar Reddy.
The Congress on Tuesday attempted to drag Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani and the saffron party into the Malegaon blast case controversy, accusing the BJP's prime ministerial candidate and the party of making the 'first political interference' in the terror case. "The internal security of the country is today threatened by two As -- Advani and Abhinav Bharat," senior party leader M Veerappa Moily told reporters.
A day after Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan pointed at delays in granting sanction to prosecute corrupt government officials, Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily on Sunday said there was a need to "revisit" constitutional provisions giving protection to civil servants.
Noting that the law will take its own course, Veerappa Moily said the revelations in the Ishrat Jahan encounter were a "very serious matter for the country and any other foreign country, Narendra Modi would have been in some other place."
Former Chief Justice of India A M Ahmadi, whose dilution of charges in the Bhopal gas case has created a storm, on Saturday said he would not like to enter into the blame game over the issue of accused getting light punishment.
Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily on Saturday attacked a top aide of Rajiv Gandhi for suggesting that the then prime minister may have had a role in the release of former Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson accused in Bhopal gas case, saying he was a new convert to the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena camp.
The government has said that Ajmal Amir Kasab, who has been sentenced to death in the Mumbai terror attacks case, may be hanged in a year.
Taking note of the sentiments expressed by different sections of the society, the Centre on Sunday said it would not take a hasty decision on legalising homosexualityNoting that the parties concerned had moved the Supreme Court against the recent Delhi High Court judgment decriminalising homosexuality, he said the apex court had issued a notice to the Centre. "We are yet to react to it. We are considering the views to be taken (by the government)," Veerappa Moily said.
Parliament attack case convict Afzal Guru cannot be hanged till other mercy petitions pending before his are disposed of, feels the government.
The government hailed the consensus among major political parties on the Women's Reservation Bill on Sunday and said no single party could claim credit for it.
"An impression is created that Congress president Sonia Gandhi personally talked to M Karunanidhi to keep the Hogenakkal project on hold," he said in a statement in New Delhi on Wednesday, backtracking on his previous statement in Bangalore on the subject.Karunanidhi has already said that the decision was not based on any request made by the Congress and was meant for the welfare of the people of both the states.
Union Minister Jairam Ramesh is back in the Congress's high-profile Group on Future Challenges, which also has Rahul Gandhi as its prominent member. Ramesh, who was earlier the convener of the Group, was dropped after its first meeting late last year, without any official explanation. Confirming his return, senior party leader M Veerappa Moily, who heads the panel said, "Ramesh is now a member of the group".
Union Law and Justice Minister M Veerappa Moily on Thursday welcomed the move of the Supreme Court judges to make public the details of their assets. "If they have come forward to disclose it, it is welcome," he said.
The Bill also seeks to extend nomination of Anglo-Indian communities to the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies by another 10 years. The Constitution (109th Amendment) Bill 2009 moved by Law Minister M Veerappa Moily seeks to extend the reservation beyond January 25, 2010 when the time period of 60 years under Article 334 of the Constitution lapses.
The conference was seen by many as a show of strength by the Opposition with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, his Jharkhand counterpart Hemant Soren and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav joining in to raise their voice against oppression of backward classes.
The Administrative Reforms Commission, ARC plans to come out with a set of codes for the political executive and civil servants, to counter corruption.
Right now what we need, as much as we needed them all along in the life of this nation, is proper law enforcement. Also, the law enforcement has to be done legally. That seems a little odd when said, but that's what we need.
'This kind of poisonous and anti-national activities happening in the country and the economic failure of the Modi government may boomerang in the form of a Congress revival.'
Excerpted from Sahara: The Untold Story by Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
'We in India are incredibly lucky in our judiciary. Taken as a body it is undoubtedly free of taints. But let us not pretend that every single member of this elite corps is free of controversy.'
Coming down hard against Arvind Kejriwal for ordering an FIR against him and others for raising gas prices, Petroleum Minister M Veerappa Moily on Saturday said the former Delhi chief minister doesn't understand fundamental laws.
The new rates, which are likely to be at $8-8.4 against the current price of $4.2 per million British thermal unit, are based on the recommendations of a committee that was appointed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the request of Moily's predecessor, S Jaipal Reddy.
Could Jairam Ramesh's frank comments work to the BJP's advantage?
EC on Monday asked the government to defer notifying doubling of price of the fuel produced by companies such as Reliance Industries till general elections are completed.
Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily reviewed the progress on the ambitious 1,680-km project with Turkmenistan Minister for Oil and Gas Mukhammetnur Khalylov, who is in New Delhi to attend the eighth Asia Gas Partnership Summit.
Some senior Congress leaders, including Kapil Sibal and Shashi Tharoor, met at their senior colleague Ghulam Nabi Azad's house in New Delhi on Monday evening after the Congress Working Committee debated their letter to the party's interim chief Sonia Gandhi seeking urgent organisational reforms.
Dudley, whose company last year made the largest foreign direct investment in the oil sector, followed it up with a meeting with Finance Minister P Chidambaram.
The ambit of the G-23 grouping increased this time as some more leaders -- Patiala MP Preneet Kaur, former Gujarat chief minister Shankar Singh Vaghela, former union minister Mani Shankar Aiyar and former Haryana speaker Kuldeep Sharma -- joined them.
He was speaking on the sidelines of a function to inaugurate the new building to house the Environment Ministry.
Festive atmosphere and bonhomie prevailed in Lok Sabha on Thursday with members donning traditional dress and head gears and many taking oath in their mother tongue.
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