Responding to concerns over the rise in inflation to 5.45 per cent, Finance Minister P Chidabaram said on Sunday that there was a supply-side constraint on essential commodities like pulses and the government would look at higher duty-free imports
'At this moment you cannot give her asylum because if you do, then you are directing public anger against India.'
"SP had supported the UPA government to fight communal forces, but it has utterly failed to do so," he claimed.
India's inflation rate shot up to its highest level in more than 16 years this month, increasing the chances of the fourth rise in interest rates in Asia's third-largest economy since June.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is learnt to have asked Cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar to ensure that the supply of sugar, edible oil and pulses is not hampered during the ensuing Diwali and Navratra festivals.
The government will have to move a bill in Parliament to repeal the three agri laws, which were at the centre of protests by farmers for the past year, Constitution and legal experts said on Friday.
Rejection of the three central agriculture laws is one of the three resolutions approved by the Maharashtra cabinet on Sunday which will be moved in the monsoon session of the state legislature beginning Monday, sources said.
The opposition alliance that will take on the ruling National Democratic Alliance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections will be called Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) and an 11-member committee will be set up for coordination, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge announced after a meeting of the parties in Bengaluru.
Despite winning several times in court against the primary school council of the West Bengal government's education department, Sengupta has not been able to get his proper salary as per the present pay scale. The latest order in his favour from the high court came on Thursday, but Sengupta was sceptical after the fate of earlier orders.
Finance minister has made life difficult for seniors under the pretext of preventing tax frauds.
Amid indication that prices of compressed natural gas (CNG) may go up in Delhi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said if the hike is allowed, it would compound the problem of the common people who are already hit hard by price rise.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram said on Thursday that the government would ensure ample supplies of essential commodities including food grains to check prices and assured more fiscal steps to contain inflationary pressures.
With both friends and foes warning that spiralling prices of essential commodities might sound the 'death knell' for the Manmohan Singh government, reining in inflation will be a task for the UPA to accomplish to escape the ire of voters. As the government is caught in the web of coalition politics, the Congress-led UPA has to do a tight-rope walk so as not to annoy its Left partners and at the same time keep the voters in good humour by containing inflation.
The Congress president also came down heavily on the BJP over the Adani issue.
'Internal security, inflation and incompetence' of the United Progressive Alliance government are going to be the buzzwords of the saffron party to attack the Congress in the 2009 elections. "The Congress claims to champion the cause of the common man. And it is the same common man who is suffering because of this government's policies," party leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said. While deciding the BJP nominees, the formula would be "party, principle and personality."
Almost 50% respondents said Modi has not done enough to check prices of essential commodities.
Rajnath Singh, president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, has predicted two third majority for the Shiromani Akali Dal and Bharatiya Janata Party alliance in the Assembly polls in Punjab for which the voting will conclude at 5 pm on Tuesday.
There has been relaxation in curfew for women and children on Friday to help them collect essential commodities being distributed in the area.
"These are essential commodities which have great impact on inflationary expectations," Reddy told reporters on the sidelines of a function in Mumbai on Monday. High food and crude oil prices were in a way anticipated and 'the pressures have been flat,' he said.
The report, which was submitted to the apex court on March 19, 2021, was made public on Monday. The three-member committee had also suggested many changes in the laws, including giving freedom to states to make Minimum Support Price (MSP) system legal.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday squarely blamed those with political agenda for the deadlock in the Centre's talks with protesting farmers.
Several Biharis from worst-hit Tinsukia and Dibrugarh districts are opting to leave the state.
Labh Singh, who runs a salon in Kurukshetra, has put up a stall a Singhu border and is providing free service to the protesting farmers. He has come with five workers.
'I was posted in different states of the country. We are also the son of a farmer. I come here as a farmer'
Despite the government's efforts to control prices, inflation continues to rise, as prices of pulses, spices, eggs, fish and meat among other things continued to rise.
'Interestingly in spite of slightly more than half (52%) the respondent farmers opposing the three new agri laws, almost 44% respondent farmers said the Modi government was 'pro-farmer'
Olympic medallist boxer Vijender Singh, who joined the farmers' agitation at the Haryana-Delhi border on Sunday, said he will return his Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award if the Centre's new farm laws are not withdrawn.
Her statement came ahead of a crucial round of talks scheduled to be held between the Centre and representatives of the agitating farmers during the day.
The Congress leader also accused the Central government of lying on national television.
Taking to Twitter, the Delhi chief minister said peaceful demonstration was a constitutional right of the farmers.
Sri Lankan government on Monday admitted that it has run out of cash to buy fuel as pumps in most filling stations across the country have run dry, exacerbating the deepening foreign-exchange crisis that has crippled the island nation's economy.
Kiran Vissa, co-convenor of National Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, said that amendments to the EC Act have nothing to do with farmers' welfare but instead meant to please big players and agriculture companies. This is because small and marginal farmers don't have the storage capacity to attract provisions of the EC Act.
Decrying the hike in diesel prices as "unjustified" action, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Tuesday demanded its roll back and withdrawal of powers granted to oil companies to regulate fuel prices.
Former finance minister P Chidambaram on Friday rejected Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's contention in Lok Sabha that UPA government left behind double digit inflation.
Many people in the city fear that even going to markets could pose a threat and departmental stores have started reporting a gap in demand and supply of commodities.
