Some of the security and intelligence agencies, which currently enjoy immunity from public scrutiny of their functioning, may soon be brought under the realm of the Right to Information Act of 2005, as the government is finalising amendments to the Act.This is one of the key recommendations of a study before the United Progressive Alliance government, as it reviews the landmark law that had brought in considerable transparency in the function of the public institutions.
The United Progressive Alliance government says it will table the civil nuclear liability bill in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, but before that it hopes to resolve the continuing differences with the opposition parties over the wordings of some key aspects of the bill.
The first task before Mukherjee, who was also in charge of the finance minister in the previous government, would be to present the budget for 2009-10 and spell out policies and priorities of the new United Progressive Alliance government. The minister at his office was received at by key finance ministry functionaries, including finance secretary Ashok Chawla, revenue secretary P V Bhide, expenditure secretary Sushma Nath and chief economic advisor Arvind Virmani.
Moderate turnout was recorded in the first four hours of polling across five assembly constituencies across Punjab, West Bengal, Gujarat and Kerala where bypolls are underway on Thursday.
Outlay for the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology has come down from Rs 1,665 crore (Rs 16.65 billion) in 2009-10 (revised estimates) to Rs 1,600 crore (Rs 16 billion) in 2010-11.
Both houses of Parliament were adjourned till noon within minutes of assembling on Tuesday following uproarious scenes over the issues of plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka, Indo-US civilian nuclear deal and attacks on north Indians in Maharashtra.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appears a natural choice as the prime ministerial candidate of the United Progressive Alliance in the next elections and it may be 'too early' for Rahul Gandhi, Nationalist Congress Party chief and a key UPA partner, Sharad Pawar has suggested.
A key meeting of senior United Progressive Alliance government ministers and political parties, including the Congress and its Left allies, failed to secure a political consensus on the showpiece Special Economic Zones initiative.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal, a key ally in the United Progressive Alliance, on Wednesday strongly opposed the Women's Reservation Bill in its present form. The party did not rule out withdrawing support from the Congress-led coalition at the Centre if its demand for quota within quota, for Dalit and minorities in the legislation, was not conceded. RJD's rigid stand might throw a spanner in the efforts of the UPA to ensure passage of the Bill in the Monsoon Session of Parliament.
CP!-M general secretary Prakash Karat has written to External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, government's key interlocutor with the allies on the deal, asking for immediate convening of a meeting of the UPA-Left committee on the nuclear deal by mid-March.
"All international treaties on major issues should be ratified in Parliament," the CPI(M) said.
The four-day meeting of RSS 'prant pracharaks' (state organisers) is also expected to discuss the government's move to 'de-toxify' National Council of Educational Research and Training textbooks and sacking of governors linked to the RSS
Those joining Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers for the first time include three former chief ministers -- Shivraj Singh Chouhan (Madhya Pradesh), Manohar Lal Khattar (Haryana) and H D Kumaraswamy (Karnataka).
The Left has already made it clear that its top leaders Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury, A B Bardhan, D Raja, Abani Roy and Debabrata Biswas will be their nominees in the committee, which is expected to be a political one.
The Left parties, which hold the key to United Progressive Alliance's success in the Presidential election, appeared to be pushing for their own candidate for the polls.
"The government seems to have lost its will to carry out the CMP and more and more it is functioning only to benefit a section of our people," Bardhan lamented.
G K Pillai, who heads the government's SEZ panel, demystifies SEZs and the controversy surrounding them.
Asked whether his party would support any decision taken by the Congress, Karunanidhi said: "Oh yes."
The Bharatiya Janata Party said it is pro-economic reform but wants the government to stoop before it can conquer on securing its support for key legislative changes, chiefly in banking, insurance and pensions, which form part of the reform agenda.
'We have the majority. We will survive even when we go ahead with the deal,' Praful Patel told rediff.com 'We have 234 (Lok Sabha) MPs in the UPA, add 39 members of the Samajwadi Party and the Independents who have declared support to us,' a Congress leader added. 'We believe it touches the mark of 272.'
The Bharatiya Janata Party is set to take up the issues like clemency to the mastermind of the attack on the Parliament, Mohammed Afzal Guru.
"Congress is the biggest party in the UPA. There is no question of NCP, Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam or Rashtriya Janata Dal or any other party coming close to their numbers and if tomorrow Congress decides to nominate Mrs Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi, it's not a question for NCP to decide," NCP General Secretary Praful Patel said.
The CPI-M said that it would pull down the government if it 'falters' on foreign policy and 'succumbs' to US pressure. "If it falters, we will pull down the government. We cannot afford to be drawn into the strategic tie-ups. We will not permit the government to succumb to the US pressure," party leader Sitaram Yechury said.
'Never in the history of any government, the first 100 days have been characterised by the daily turmoil that we witness in Parliament,' according to the PM.
Unfazed by the recent controversies, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi described the United Progressive Alliance Government at the Centre as the "real merchant of death".
The BJP has identified about 40 issues and decided to reserve certain days to raise major issues.
Bardhan has said they must remember that they do not have a majority and cannot do without Left support.
The government came in for a scathing attack in the Lok Sabha on Monday from friends and foes alike over handling of the economy.
The Samajwadi Party on Saturday refused an offer by the United Progressive Alliance to join the Cabinet, saying its first priority was to prepare for the coming Lok Sabha elections. The offer was made to the SP in the first meeting of the coordination committee it had formed with the UPA in the wake of the Manmohan Singh government winning the July 22 trust vote its the support.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's move to get reservation for women in legislatures promises to shape the political discourse ahead of key state polls and Lok Sabha elections, and a parliamentary approval to the long-contested proposal will be used by the Bharatiya Janata Party to burnish his credentials as a decisive leader.
'We trust Congress President Sonia Gandhi's assurance that her party will not give up the coalition dharma,' the DMK said.
Unlike 2004 when Sonia Gandhi took things into her hands and hit the road and stitched up alliances, there is a lack of grip this time, as if things are on auto pilot. Cabinet meetings get over in minutes. People are glibly talking of a third front government in 2009 supported by the Congress.
The work on seat sharing with other allies will begin from Thursday, he told reporters.
The decision was taken to keep the BJP out of power.
The demand comes in the backdrop of the UPA government granting a special Rs 3,225 crore package to Bihar, ruled by key UPA constituent Rashtriya Janata Dal, in the Union Budget 2004-05 ahead of the assembly elections in the state.
While Modi has spent fewer days abroad than his predecessor (270 days versus Dr Singh's 306), he has travelled more extensively and actively than any other Indian PM.
