An Empowered Group of Ministers on drought headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Wednesday approved Rs 1,207-crore relief package to Maharashtra. "Rs 1,207 crore drought relief package has been approved for Maharashtra," Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, who is also a member of the EGoM, told PTI after the meeting of the minister.
'There is ample evidence to suggest that attacks on the PM's probity and his connections with business houses do not resonate with voters.'
Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar will head the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on the effective management of issues related to drought.
The ministry had sent a draft proposal for the consideration of the Empowered Group of Ministers to price all domestically produced natural gas -- be of state-run ONGC or private sector Reliance Industries - as per the formula suggested by the Rangarajan Committee.
The EGoM meeting, attended by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and Food Minister K V Thomas among others, reviewed the situation in drought-hit states like Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat and Rajasthan.
The EGoM was originally scheduled to meet on Wednesday but has been deferred because of non-availability of certain ministers in the grouping.
An Empowered Group of Ministers on drought headed by Sharad Pawar on Friday sanctioned Rs 480 crore as immediate relief to Gujarat for rural drinking water and also announced increase of man days under MGNREGA from 100 to 150 per person.
The meeting of the EGoM, the first after Pranab Mukherjee resigned as the Finance Minister to contest Presidential election, was to decide on auction of telecom spectrum.
The 78-year-old Naveen is on the cusp of creating history. He must win the forthcoming Assembly polls to become India's longest-serving chief minister, a record held by Sikkim's Pawan Kumar Chamling.
Reacting to reports that Home Minister P Chidambaram may be appointed as head of the Empowered Group of Ministers on telecom, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday said, this is a "cruel joke" on the nation and goes against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's claim of maintaining a high level of integrity.
The EGoM headed by Defence Minister A K Antony was scheduled to meet on Tuesday to consider abolishing the priority ranking in natural gas allocation so that fuel currently consumed by urea plants can also be diverted to fuel-starved power plants.
Telecom Commission has recommended that existing mobile operators vacate airwaves in the 900 MHz band at the time of renewal of licences in 2014 -- a move that GSM players say would cost them over Rs 66,000 crore (Rs 660 billion) in replacing infrastructure.
The ministry wanted to use spectrum in the 700-MHz band for mobile TV services.
Montek Singh Ahluwalia supports operators' plea. He tells the finance minister that existing players should not be charged for the remaining licence period.
"The Empowered GoM will discuss what to do with the proposals where land acquisition is not an issue and where it is an issue," Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a pitch for electing a strong and stable government in an uncertain world beset by geopolitical tensions as the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday released its manifesto, prioritising development and welfare while shunning populist measures and contentious issues like the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Petroleum Minister Murli Deora has sought reconstitution of an empowered group of ministers to decide on allocation of gas from RIL-operated KG-D6 fields to new customers. Deora, who met T K A Nair, principal secretary to the prime minister on Sunday, has formally written to the Cabinet secretary for reconstitution of the eGoM on the lines of the previous ministerial group headed by the then External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
With a high-powered ministerial panel on fuel pricing being scrapped, a cabinet committee may consider raising the prices of diesel, LPG and kerosene, Oil Minister S Jaipal Reddy indicated on Wednesday but refused to say when the issue would be taken up.
They will take call on the number of telecom circles in which spectrum to be auctioned.
The prime minister emphasised on improving the intelligence mechanism.
Pawar, who postponed Monday's scheduled meeting of the EGoM, saying he was busy, sent a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to relieve him as head.
As of now, monsoon rains are deficient by 21 per cent across India, affecting sowing of kharif crops. Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab and West Rajasthan have been the worst-hit regions this year.
The empowered group of ministers has been reconstituted after Pranab Mukherjee, who was heading it, resigned as Finance Minister to contest the Presidential elections.
Monday's meeting of the empowered group of ministers on pricing of gas from Reliance Industries' D6 block in the Krishna-Godavari basin has proved inconclusive.
Besides Mukherjee and Deora, the EGoM would have power minister Sushilkumar Shinde, fertiliser minister M K Alagiri, law minister Veerappa Moily and Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.
The ministerial panel is now likely to meet on June 24 or 25.
Finance Minister is unhappy over lack of storage capacity.
The high-powered panel, headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, which was to discuss the roadmap for auction of unsold GSM spectrum in Delhi, Mumbai, Rajasthan and Karnataka, has been deferred twice last month.
Narendra Modi is India's most successful prime minister and the greatest global leader of current generation, billionaire Mukesh Ambani said on Wednesday as he flaunted his group Reliance Industries' Gujarati heritage and its over USD 150 billion (Rs 12 lakh crore) investment in last 10 years.
The two major changes include: keeping an option open for supplying more than 3 kg of subsidised foodgrains to general households and widening its reach to include lactating women, destitute and aged people and providing nutritious food to children.
The government on Friday said it would be able to meet the budgeted target of earning Rs 40,000 crore from the telecom sector this financial year, even as the response to the recently concluded auction of 1,800-MHz band spectrum was lukewarm.
An Empowered Group of Ministers, headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, will seek legal opinion from Attorney General on its decision to charge around Rs 27,000 crore one-time spectrum fee from existing telecom operators.
The base price would be made public only after the close of market hours on Thursday.
Government will offload 9.5 per cent of its ownership.
Top sources in the government told Business Standard the Congress managers wanted the rise in prices to be a collective decision of the United Progressive Alliance and also make sure allies could not wriggle out of the exercise to take harsh economic decisions.
The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is upset with the prime minister's office for not including DMK's M K Alagiri in the Empowered Group of Ministers on drought.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee asked all chief ministers to reduce state levies on diesel, kerosene and cooking gas to mitigate the impact of the price hike on the common man.
Still battling the fallout of last month's steep Rs 7.54 a litre hike in petrol price, the government on Friday said it is not considering raising rates of diesel, domestic gas (LPG) and kerosene for the moment.
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