The appointment of a new chief information commissioner has been deferred as the scheduled meeting of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with Leader of Opposition L K Advani has been postponed. Official sources said the meeting of the three-member committee comprising the Prime Minister, Advani and Law Minister Veerappa Moily has been postponed without citing any reasons and no new date has been given.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Union Home Minister P Chidambaram will undertake an aerial survey of flood-affected areas of Karnataka's Bellary district on Monday.
Defence Ministry has declared 7 blocks including RIL's KG-D6 which has been in production since September 2008 and its gas discovery block NEC-25 for reasons like overlapping with proposed Naval base or being close to missile launching and Air Force exercise area.
Moily walked from his residence at 3, Tughlak Lane, to the Race Course Metro Station, where he boarded a Yellow Line train and alighted two stops later at the Central Secretariat station, a short walk from Shastri Bhawan, the seat of the Oil Ministry.
In a much relief to the common man, Oil Minister Veerppa Moily said that the cap on subsidised liquefied petroleum cylinders is to go up to 9 in a year.
The Oil Ministry will raise the cap on supply of subsidised cooking gas (LPG) to 9 cylinders per household in a year provided the Finance Ministry agrees to give an additional Rs 3,000 crore in 2012-13.
Terming the remarks made by Hurriyat hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani and writer Arundhati Roy at a seminar in New Delhi as 'most unfortunate', Law Minister M Veerappa Moily on Tuesday said freedom of speech cannot violate patriotic sentiments of the people."Yes, there is freedom of speech, but it can't violate the patriotic sentiments of the people," he said.
The output has dropped after hitting a peak of about 62 mmscmd in August, 2010.
Irom Sharmila with Magsaysay Award winner Sandeep Pandey.
Congress Member of Parliament Jaganmohan Reddy's open rebellion against his party has worsened the factional politics in Andhra Pradesh. Some political experts believe that the crack in the Congress' ranks may lead to mid-term polls, while others think that the party's top brass will issue a show-cause notice to Jagan, asking him to explain his actions.Veerappa Moily, Congress leader in charge of Andhra Pradesh, is scheduled to visit the state on Friday.
The first meeting of the Group of Ministers on inclusion of caste categories in the census is likely to be held on July 1.
The Congress on Saturday ruled out any change of leadership in the United Progressive Alliance government in view of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's illness, saying the question was 'most irrelevant'. There cannot be two prime ministers and under the Constitution, senior party leader M Veerappa Moily told reporters after releasing a report of the Administrative Reforms Commission on e-governance."The question is most irrelevant," he said.
Praja Rajyam Party chief Chiranjeevi is expected to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday, raising hopes of an alliance between the two parties in the forthcoming Rajya Sabha polls in Andhra Pradesh.
The government employees could lose their job after 20 years of service if they failed to come up to the expectations of their superiors under a new system of assessment suggested on Friday.
Among the new entrants in the council headed by the Prime Minister, which will now have 147 members, are Ambika Soni, Dayanidhi Maran and Salman Khursheed have made their entry as Union Ministers while BJP leaders Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley have come in as Leaders of Opposition in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha respectively.
With Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi appearing before the Special Investigation Team in connection with a 2002 riots case, the Centre on Saturday said it was 'unfortunate' that a chief minister has 'landed' himself in such a situation.
The government said on Tuesday that it would hold a discussion on the Women's Reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha and not bulldoze the passage of the evolutionary measure involving amendment of the Constitution.
Faced with strident opposition from the Samajwadi Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal over the Women's Reservation Bill, the government on Monday said it does not want to 'bulldoze' the Constitutional amendment and would favour a 'healthy debate' before going ahead with it. After a day of high drama in the Rajya Sabha, where the bill was moved for consideration, Law Minister Veerappa Moily slammed the Opposition parties for the way they protested against it.
Veerappa Moily on the Administrative Reforms Commission's measures against terrorism.
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had a brief meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on salient features of the Budget.
Apparently embarrassed by the resignation of two party Members of Legislative Assembly from Telangana to protest the Terms of Reference of the Sri Krishna committee, the Congress high command has summoned the two legislators to Delhi for talks.R Damodar Reddy and Ch Mutyam Reddy left for the national capital on Tuesday to hold talks with Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily, in-charge of party affairs in Andhra Pradesh, and other leaders.
It is pertinent to mention that the ministry of defence had agreed to vacate the spectrum only during middle of this year.
The ruling Congress party in Andhra Pradesh finally got a dash of glamour with popular Telugu actor Rajasekhar and his wife and film director Jeevitha formally joining the party.
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram is expected to issue a statement on Wednesday on Telangana, which the party hopes would undo some of the damage of the December 9 midnight statement by Chidambaram, without in any way going back on the statement made by the home minister.
In a bid to find a way out on the Telangana issue, the Centre and the Congress on Tuesday began hectic consultations with MPs from Andhra Pradesh, a day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said a decision would be taken soon to "bring everything in order".
The United Progressive Alliance government is inching towards a premature demise. It is a matter of time before the Left parties severe its ties with the government or the government gears up for a confrontation with its Left supporters by going ahead with the India-US civilian nuclear agreement. Congress media manager M Veerappa Moily gave a hint of the latter possibility in interactions with news television channels on Wednesday night.
The government on Monday ruled out imposition of President's rule in Andhra Pradesh, saying it was 'absolutely foolish' to even think about it.
Union Home Secretary G K PIllai has said Hyderabad will be the capital of Telangana. MPs from the non-Telangana areas will meet Home Minister P Chidambaram and Law Minister Veerappa Moily.
In the aftermath of the announcement to form a separate state of Telangana, the Congress party is now facing new problems.
The United Progressive Alliance government on Wednesday said a solution to the contentious Telengana issue is 'under discussion' but refused to set a timeframe for it.Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily said the issue is under discussion but the government has not yet arrived at a decision to the issue, which hogged the limelight following violent protests by the Telanagana Rashtriya Samiti and an indefinite hunger strike by its chief K Chandrasekhar Rao.
The government on Tuesday said it has accepted all the recommendations made by the Liberhan Commission in the backdrop of the Babri Masjid demolition and 'positive action' would be taken on them.
For the past one-and-a-half months, railway minister Mamata Banerjee has stopped her informal interactions with finance minister Pranab Mukherjee after a sharp exchange on telephone over a municipal election issue.
"The courts of law will take their own course...there are processes involved because definitely there will be an appeal filed in the high court. Therefore, it is premature to comment on this," Law Minister M Veerappa Moily told media persons in New Delhi.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met Leader of Opposition L K Advani and Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily on Friday to decide on the new Chief Information Commissioner but the meeting remained "inconclusive".
As oil minister, he has overseen India's petroleum and natural gas needs. But now he also runs the environment ministry, where he has issued permits for 100 stalled projects in a month-long spree that has delighted industry but shocked green activists.
The five discoveries -- D4, D7, D8, D16 and D23 - hold 0.805 trillion cubic feet of reserves, or about one-fourth of the restated reserves in the currently producing Dhirubhai-1 and 3 (D1&D3) fields in KG-D6 block, and are worth $10 billion.
Government will assist the Supreme Court in arriving at a "right decision" on the issue of decriminalising homosexuality and no decision should be expected from the Union Cabinet on the matter, Law Minister M Veerappa Moily said on Sunday.
The campaign for making Y S Jaganmohan Reddy, son of the late Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Rajasekhara Reddy, gathered pace on Friday with his supporters losing no time and taking up the issue with Congress President Sonia Gandhi.
Rosaiah was administered the oath of office and secrecy at a simple ceremony by Governor Narayan Dutt Tiwari at the Raj Bhavan.
The Congress saw no hand of Y S Jaganmohan Reddy in the rebellion in newly constituted Andhra Pradesh ministry over the allocation ofportfolios and expressed confidence that it will soon be over. "It's not some kind of a Jagan plot. It could be a bargain tactic to take advantage of the tough situation," a senior party leader, who declined to be identified, said.