The Delhi cabinet on Friday decided to call a special session of the assembly to take up the Jan Lokpal Bill that seeks to punish corrupt officials on February 16 at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium instead of the historic Ramlila ground as announced by ruling Aam Aadmi Party earlier.
The Jan Lokpal Bill is likely to be approved by the Delhi Cabinet on Tuesday as its draft has almost been finalised by a panel headed by chief secretary.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said that his office has been kept under the purview of the Jan Lokpal Bill, whose broad contours have been finalised, and the bill will be taken up in the cabinet early next week.
The Delhi Cabinet on Monday cleared the draft of the much talked-about Jan Lokpal bill which provides for covering all public servants -- from chief minister to Group D employees -- and seeks life term as maximum punishment for those found guilty of corruption.
Reconciliation talks between the two warring factions in Aam Aadmi Party appeared to have been collapsed with chief minister Arvind Kejriwal insisting on Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan quitting the national executive, ahead of the crucial National Council meeting on March 28.
Softening his stand on the Lokpal issue, Anna Hazare on Saturday suggested moving ahead with the amended Bill presented in the Rajya Sabha and said improvements in the legislation could be brought through amendments later.
Bharatiya Janata Party's PM candidate Narendra Modi on Sunday targeted Rahul Gandhi yet again, saying while nothing is being done to check price rise and corruption, the Congress leader has been only coming out with "akashwani" (celestial voices).
'The CBI and its independence was discussed in great detail. We invited and sought the views of the CBI director as well as several government officials. But the ingenious solution to the problem came from within the committee. The effort was to somehow find a solution. It would not have been possible to draft this Bill if members had not been liberal in their views and if they had not been prepared to rid themselves of their political bias.' Congress MP Satyavrat Chaturvedi, who headed the Parliamentary committee which proposed the recommendations for the Lokpal Bill, speaks to Anita Katyal in an exclusive interview.
Bhushan questioned the appointment and removal processes of the Lokpal laid out in the bill, which was recently cleared by the Aam Aadmi Party cabinet, saying they would put the ombudsman at the mercy of the city government.
Fate of more than ten Governors, including Karnataka's H R Bhardwaj and Punjab's Shivraj V Patil, appointed by the outgoing UPA government hangs in balance with indications that the new dispensation may politely ask them to vacate the Raj Bhavans.
Names of CMs of Punjab and Karnataka along with a former CM found mention in the list.
Congress supporters in Assam are upbeat about their party vice president Rahul Gandhi's upcoming road show in the villages along with a massive rally in the state during his visit on February 25 and 26.
Yediyurappa said he would decide on members to be inducted into the ministry after consulting party president Amit Shah.
This has been the CM's shortest stint in power -- three days.
Bharatiya Janata Party veterans like Murli Manohar Joshi, Kalyan Singh and V K Malhotra may be accommodated as governors as their names are doing the rounds for appointment in gubernatorial posts in key states like Karnataka, Maharashtra and Haryana.
Days ahead of the retirement of present Central Bureau of Investigation chief, government introduced a bill in Lok Sabha to include the leader of the largest opposition party in the panel to select the head of the agency in the absence of a recognised Leader of the Opposition in the House.
BJP said if voted to power, it would bring out a 'white paper' on the financial health of the state under the Congress rule.
Congress on Tuesday cautioned against probe "inspired by political vendetta", as Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal ordered filing of an FIR against its party leader and Petroleum Minister M Veerappa Moily alleging collusion in hike in prices of natural gas from KG basin.
Congress on Wednesday hailed party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi's "key role" in the passage of the historic Lokpal Bill, which was cleared by Parliament, while asserting that it was committed to bringing in an anti-corruption code in the country.
Welcoming the passage of Lokpal Bill in the Rajya Sabha, India Inc said that once enacted it will help weed out corruption, boost investor confidence and expedite the decision making process.
The letters by Hazare and Gandhi were released by the All India Congress Committee on Tuesday, on a day the Bill was slated to come up for consideration and passage in the Rajya Sabha.
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The Delhi poll results have thrown up several "giant killers" who led a life of anonymity and were political novices before they entered the electoral battle on AAP tickets.
Yeddyurappa has 15 days to prove his majority in the assembly.
Claiming that the SP supremo had threatened him with dire consequences, Amitabh Thakur sought protection from the Centre.
Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has accused BJP of practicing "politics of blood" by pitting one religion against another and one caste against another to come to power at any cost, escalating the Congress attack against the opposition party.
'Justice is done, I stand vindicated...' Yeddyurappa tweeted.
Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar is the 27th King of the Wadiyar dynasty.
After embarrassing his own government by publicly thrashing its ordinance on convicted legislators in public, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Friday trained his guns at the Maharashtra government for rejecting the Adarsh Inquiry Commission report.
Invoking Sardar Patel, BJP's prime ministerial hopeful, Narendra Modi asked the people of Gujarat to pay homage to the legendary freedom fighter by voting him to power in Delhi, and said if he is sent to jail he will open a tea stall there.
Congress Vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday raked up "snoopgate" controversy to lash out at BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi saying the BJP's PM nominee is so desperate for power that he can even "divide the nation" to achieve his goal.
Commissions of inquiry are potentially powerful instruments to fix responsibility on public functionaries, but everything possible has been done to blunt this instrument, says Dr Madhav Godbole, retired Union home secretary.
'The CBI should be bifurcated and the CBI's charter should be restricted to anti-corruption cases.'
'The investigation of major criminal cases having national and international implications, and national crimes spread over more than one state may be entrusted to a new national crime bureau,' recommends Dr Madhav Godbole, the former home secretary.
Promising Central Bureau of Investigation probe into mining, chit fund and other scams in Odisha, Congress on Friday said it would review all MoUs signed by BJD government in the state in last 10 years, provide pucca houses to landless and allowance to unemployed youths if voted to power.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the Centre to take its prior "leave" before going ahead with the appointment of the Central Vigilance Commissioner and Vigilance Commissioner and also sought records pertaining to the selection process in a sealed cover.
"You can't meddle with patriotism. Everything is alright but patriotism can never be compromised," says retired Supreme Court judge N Santosh Hegde.
Senior Indian Police Service officer Amitabh Thakur, who is locked in a tussle with ruling Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and took his fight to the Centre, was on Monday night suspended by the Uttar Pradesh government.
Notwithstanding intensified efforts by BJP's Karnataka unit to bring him back to the party, B S Yeddyurappa on Monday said none from central leadership had contacted him.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday lifted its embargo and allowed the Centre to go ahead with the appointment of Central Vigilance Commissioner and a Vigilance Commissioner from the list of candidates shortlisted by it.
The manifesto was unveiled by Jayalalithaa at a public rally, in a departure from usual practice of release at party headquarters in Chennai.
Bringing corruption into the heinous crime category, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved official amendments to an anti-graft legislation enhancing the penalty under it to a maximum of seven years imprisonment from the present five years.
