The reshuffle in the Cabinet of Ministers in the United Progressive Alliance II threw up a few surprises on Wednesday.
Coal ministry officials along with senior officials from Coal India and department of disinvestment would meet with capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India this month to take forward the process of listing the public sector unit.
The reshuffle in the Union Cabinet, carried out on Wednesday, appears to have some focus on assembly election-bound states like Kerala and Uttar Pradesh.
In a surprise development, S Jaipal Reddy was on Wednesday made the petroleum and natural gas minister in the reshuffle and expansion of the Cabinet, which saw the elevation of three ministers to the Cabinet rank and induction of three new faces.Praful Patel, Shriprakash Jaiswal and Salman Khursheed were promoted as Cabinet ministers while Congress leaders Beni Prasad Verma (Uttar Pradesh), Ashwani Kumar (Punjab) and K C Venugopal (Kerala) were the new inductions.
North-eastern insurgent groups are operating from Bangladesh and they have established links with the Inter Services Intelligence, the government on Wednesday informed the Rajya Sabha saying the matter has been taken up with Pakistan.
Home Minister Shivraj Patil said he would accept a proposal from Telugu Desam Party's C Ramachandraiah for providing a special package to Andhra Pradesh.
"The coal ministry intends to purchase the house and build a memorial on it," minister of state for coal Shriprakash Jaiswal told PTI, adding directions have been given to the officials of the ministry to purchase the house 'at any cost.' The minister said he, along with officials of Coal India Limited, will be visiting South Africa on August 17 in this connection.
The cases of persons under detention in the state were reviewed and 44 of them were released.
Upset over frequent disruptions caused by two Telugu Desam Party members of Parliament, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman P J Kurien on Friday threatened to suspend them for a day "for holding the House to ransom" but could not do so as members of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Trinamool Congress opposed it.
The issue of missing files relating to coalgate paralysed proceedings in Parliament on Tuesday with the Bharatiya Janata Party demanding an immediate response from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, even as the government said it will leave no stone unturned in tracing the documents.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked administrative ministeries to work out viable plan for disinvestment of BHEL and Coal India, including dividend payment, so as to achieve Rs 40,000 crore (Rs 400 billion) target in the current fiscal.
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Of late, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has been concentrating on Uttar Pradesh, where he has held four rallies over a span of one month. Clearly, this was a departure from the routine as UP was not even among the states where assembly elections were being held currently.
