In its final order, the environment ministry had concluded that the upfront payment of Rs 200 crore as Environment Restoration Fund for violations and damage done was not permitted under the Environment Protection Act. Consequent to this order, the penalty that could be imposed on any confirmation of violation in the future is a maximum of Rs 1 lakh.
Scheme faces pincer attack with a proposed higher proportion of expenditure on material, reducing the budget available to pay wages and focus on implementing it only in 2,500 blocks.
Supreme Court says guidelines were breached, no criteria were followed while allocating the blocks.
The Supreme Court on Monday held that all coal block allocations made since 1993 till 2010 before pre-auction era during previous National Democratic Alliance and United Progressive Alliance regimes have been done in an illegal manner by an "ad-hoc and casual" approach "without application of mind".
'The BJP's numbers in this government are almost the same as those enjoyed by the Congress under P V Narasimha Rao when the reform process was kicked off in 1991.' 'As before, the only constraints on the prime minister's actions are internal, not external.' 'They come from his own assessment of the political consequences of any action,' points out Mihir S Sharma.
Speaking at a programme at Kolaghat in West Midnapore district, the chief minister said, "We are against forceful acquisition of land. In West Midnapore district the Haldia Development Authority and West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation have land banks. "We will allot land for projects from there."
A 'White Paper' versus 'Black Paper' battle erupted on Thursday as the Centre and the Congress unveiled documents and crossed swords over the handling of the Indian economy during the nearly 10 years of the BJP-led NDA rule and the previous 10-year tenure of the Congress-led UPA government.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, projected to come to power by exit polls, may review some of the decisions taken by the present United Progressive Alliance government, senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu said on Wednesday.
A coalition government, led by National People's Party leader and outgoing chief minister Conrad Sangma, will be sworn-in on Tuesday morning in Meghalaya, while an all-party government, led by Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDDP's) Neiphiu Rio will take oath later in the day in Nagaland.
The Bill has already been passed by the Lok Sabha.
After a dream debut seven years ago when he was sworn in as deputy chief minister after being elected MLA for the first time was followed by a slump in his political fortunes, Tejashwi Yadav has finally come back to center-stage as the kingmaker and deputy to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
The list of the 314 MPs, however, does not include Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, who is also a BJP MP, they said. The majority mark is 268.
The NSSO had enumerated 79,306 households in rural areas and 45,374 in urban regions.
The Congress admitted that the Section 66A of cyber law was poorly drafted
The first public-private partnership (PPP) initiative in bottled drinking water has taken shape at Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, with a Rail Neer plant set for commissioning.
Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and charged that the National Democratic Alliance government has 'dictatorial' tendencies even as her party's leaders met in New Delhi to draw up a strategy for painting the ruling alliance as being "anti farmer".
Chandrababu Naidu's latest announcement that the Telugu Desam Party would be a part of the just-conceived "Federal Front", on Thursday took senior party leaders by surprise as it currently maintains a cordial relationship with the Left.
The chairperson of the Censor Board has sent her resignation to the government. So have some other members. They have alleged interference by the government and corruption in the board.
Traditionally, most PSUs have been cash-rich, which added to their value. However, the government has been tapping regularly into their cash resources to boost revenue for the exchequer
The new system will entail a periodic revision in the price of subsidised LPG cylinders so that the subsidy remains fixed.
In two and a half years, first PM-like action by Modi: Rahul Gandhi on India's surgical strikes
On his first day in office, Army Chief Gen Dalbir Singh Suhag on Friday warned Pakistan that India's response to any beheading-like incident in future would be "more than adequate, intense and immediate".
These are valuable suggestions and one hopes the Budget will make a start on that.
With the exit polls predicting Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi led National Democratic Alliance government at the center, not only have the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders started allocating portfolios but also revealing their priorities for the next government.
Former Gujarat Director General of Police R B Sreekumar, who had taken on Narendra Modi on fake encounter issue, on Tuesday filed a defamation and conspiracy case against the Bharatiya Janata Party prime ministerial candidate and other party leaders, accusing them of launching a malicious campaign against him by raking up the two-decade-old Indian Space Research Organisation spy case.
On the decision of revoking provisions of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, Modi said this was the wish of 130 crore Indians.
"We are trying to transform India's economy where there is a premium on honesty... We switched over from a system which promotes it (corruption, dubious political funding, bribery) into a more ethical system which the developing economies in the world has followed," Jaitley told Times Now.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday took a swipe at the Congress and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam over dynasty politics and alleged corruption, calling them "2G, 3G, 4G" parties and said the time has come in Tamil Nadu to throw away these and give the power to a "son of the soil".
Congress charged the Narendra Modi government with tarnishing India's image by saying that the location of Dawood Ibrahim was not known.
Chidambaram said there was no tension between the finance ministry and the Reserve Bank of India.
The minister said it was important to have a flag carrier.
Swamy gave notice in the Rajya Sabha for moving Breach of Privilege Motion against Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad over his remarks related to the AgustaWestland issue.
The I-T officer can go back up to six years to scrutinise the books of accounts of the assessees.
He also advised Congress chief Rahul Gandhi to "learn" from former defence minister Pranab Mukherjee "lessons on national security."
The opposition is likely to put up a joint candidate for the July 18 presidential election despite not having numbers on its side, and consultations in this regard have already begun.
The Indian Air Force has 31 fighter squadrons as against authorised strength of 42 squadrons.
This comes despite sharp criticism received from various RSS affiliated organisations
In a virulent attack on BJP, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Saturday said the Lok Sabha polls are vital to safeguard cherished national ideals like "unity and secularism" which were under threat.
Many exit polls predicted that SP-BSP alliance in Uttar Pradesh is likely to trump the BJP in the country's politically most crucial state.
Many often stereotype Andhra Pradesh politics as being star-struck, but as Pawan Kalyan's political journey shows, stars are turning out to be a passing cloud.
