Lok Janshakti Party leader Ram Vilas Paswan on Thursday said the creamy layer should not be excluded from reservation benefits while Congress leader Digvijay Singh said Parliament was supreme in policy issues.
The Bharatiya Janata Party in Bihar is in trouble ahead of the upcoming state assembly polls as two of its ally the Lok Janshakti Party and the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party on Sunday played pressure game to bargain for more seats.
Fresh elections are the only solution to the Bihar impasse, CPI National Secretary D Raja said.
Paswan said the committee will not interact with the Janata Dal (United) till it severed ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance.
This year, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been conferred Padma Vibhushan for his achievement in the field of public affairs.
Keeping its word to make drugs affordable to consumers, the government on Thursday announced caps on margins on the sale of pharmaceutical products.
One of the demands is that export duty should be rolled back in view of industry promising to hold the price line. A decision will be taken soon," Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan told reporters. The industry has also promised to restrict export at the existing level and the government is monitoring the situation closely, the minister said, adding that "we are satisfied with the industry's action."
Finance Minister P Chidambaram's budget announcement to cut the excise duty on drugs from 16 per cent to 8 per cent received a loud applause from many corners. However, the common man is yet to see its impact as there are many loose ends to be tied up and loopholes to be plugged before drug prices show any downward trend.
Bharatiya Janata Party and other National Democratic Alliance members were on their feet demanding an explanation from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the spat, which they said was "very serious".
The Union Minister for Chemicals, Fertilisers and Steel Ram Vilas Paswan on Monday said from April 1 onwards, the prices of drugs would include local taxes.
A day after Minister for Steel, Chemicals and Fertiliser Ram Vilas Paswan told Parliament that steel prices would come down by Rs 500 a tonne on account of the 2 percentage point reduction in Cenvat, makers of flat and long products quietly raised prices by Rs 1,500 to Rs 3,000 a tonne on March 4.
The Union Cabinet on Friday cleared the proposal to hike dearness allowance for central government employees following the rise in inflation.
The 11-member Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance has frozen the prices of all decontrolled medicines until March 31, 2005, in view of high inflation.
Chirag Paswan is young. He is articulate. He has no political baggage. All he needs is the blessing of Chanakya, observes Asmita Bihari.
Chemical and Fertiliser Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Friday unveiled an expansion plan for government sector undertakings involved in the production of steel and particularly Steel Authority of India.
"There is neither any confrontation [with Lalu] nor any understanding [for the October assembly polls]," he told reporters in New Delhi.
"I have already floated this idea to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Jan Morcha patron V P Singh and now the ball is in their court," Paswan, also the Union Steel and Fertilizers Minister, told reporters in Lucknow.
Veteran doctor and educationist from Karnataka Belle Monappa Hegde and archaeology legend B B Lal were also given the Padma Vibhushan awards.
Steel and Fertilisers Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Friday asserted that government would pursue reservation for socially backward classes in the private sector as per commitment made in the Common Minimum Programme.
Concerned over rising coking coal prices and insecurity of supplies, Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Saturday asked public sector steel producers to scout for mines abroad.
At a time when the BJP's stars are at the top on the eve of the Lok Sabha polls, the Puri-Joshimath Sankaracharyas may have kick-started a row whose efforts might be to divide Hindus, not in the name of castes, but on what passes for greater belief, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
It is estimated that over 95 per cent of drugs being produced in India are off-patent and would not be affected by introduction of product patent,
Paswan was admitted to a cardiac speciality hospital in Patna on Saturday morning after he omplained of uneasiness, congestion and pain in the chest.
Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Thursday ruled out any divestment in the companies under the ministry and said the department had not received any letter from the finance ministry over the issue.
India's total fertiliser subsidy burden in the current financial year is more than double the budgetry allocation of Rs 24,500 crore (Rs 245 billion) as announced in the Budget.
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