Union Minister for Heavy Industries Vilasrao Deshmukh on Saturday said he saw nothing wrong in Maharashtra Congress ministers donating money for party chief Sonia Gandhi's public rally near Nagpur.
The government said on Friday it is considering offloading 10 per cent of its equity stake in navratna public sector unit Bharat Heavy electricals Limited.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Cabinet of ministers on Saturday declared their assets.
When contacted, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh declined to comment.\n
Union minister and a key member of the Lokpal bill drafting committee Kapil Sibal on Thursday said that Team Hazare's version of the legislation was unacceptable, as some of its provisions were against the basic tenets of the Constitution.
Some MCA sources had said on Monday itself that there is no change in the five-year ban imposed on the Bollywood star on May 18.
Maharashtra Industries Minister Ashok Chavan will be the next chief minister of the state.The decision comes after long deliberations by the Congress high command, which on Wednesday had asked Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to resign, following the terror attack in Mumbai last week. Chavan has been nominated the leader of the state Congress Legislature Party by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters on Friday.
The Bombay High Court on Wednesday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation, the investigating agency in Adarsh Housing Society scam, to look into the allegations of involvement of Union ministers Vilasrao Deshmukh and Sushil Kumar Shinde, and submit a progress report by next week.
Union Heavy Industries Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Saturday asked people not to attach much importance to what the Thackerays say and accused the family members of fighting among themselves to strengthen their political base in Maharashtra. "Don't attach much importance to what they say. It is their family problem, to strengthen their (respective) political base," the former Maharashtra chief minister said.
Six persons were arrested in connection with the clashes between two groups of Congress workers during the rally of United Progressive Alliance chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi in suburban Goregaon, Mumbai, on Thursday evening.
Congress leaders involved in the discussions have said that two parties have agreed to a formula where the Congress will contest 174 seats and NCP 114. Discussions are presently centred around constituencies in Western Maharashtra and Mumbai where both the parties have staked their claim.
The government is working out a scheme that will facilitate finance for the auto component industry hit by economic slowdown and increasing competition from abroad.
The budget presented by the Maharashtra Finance Minister Jayant Patil on Wednesday evoked mixed response with the Congress describing it as a progressive and development oriented while the opposition terming it as a budget devoid of any merit. Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh described the budget as a progressive one which would greatly help common man and farmers as it has given special emphasis on agriculture -- irrigation, water conservation and housing.
Maharashtra's Deputy Chief Minister-designate Ajit Pawar has always been known in state political circles as the real power centre in Nationalist Congress Party founded by his uncle Sharad Pawar 11 years ago.
Azad was always a reluctant chief minister; coping with the swine flu scare might make him yearn for his former job.
The arterial Pedder Road connects Tardeo and Malabar Hill localities in south Mumbai and is home to many affluent people.
Immediately after Parliament agreed to Anna Hazare's three key demands on Lokpal Bill, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday sent him a letter conveying the same and urged the Gandhian to give up his 12-day fast. "As you know, Parliament today discussed Lokpal related issues. You will be happy to know that both Houses of Parliament have passed a resolution on the three points raised by you," Dr Singh said in the letter which was handed over to Hazare.
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Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh maintained that Maharashtra continues to remain the top destination for industrial investment in the country.
Will the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) rival the planned financial hub of Mumbai or will GIFT be complimentary to and a feeder to its Mumbai counterpart?
Call this Ahmedabad's reply to Mumbai or Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's repartee to his Maharashtrian counterpart Vilasrao Deshmukh's promise of a global financial hub.
The Gujarat International Finance Tec-City project in near-coma It was once seen as Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's reply to then counterpart Vilasrao Deshmukh's plans for a finance city in Mumbai.
The United Kingdom will investigate the reports claiming two of the eight terrorists arrested in the Mumbai terror attack are British nationals.A nine-member team from Scotland Yard has left for Mumbai to probe the British links of the arrested terrorists. Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh had told a TV channel on Friday that two arrested terrorists were 'British citizens of Pakistani origin'.
Farmers will finally have a right to decide if their land can be acquired or not for special economic zones in Maharashtra.
Nitish Kumar requested Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to deal with such divisive elements with an iron fist. "I expect the Maharashtra government to act tough and protect our students," Nitish Kumar said in Patna on Monday morning.
At the peak of the slowdown in December 2008, the government had announced a 4 per cent across the board cut in CENVAT that helped in reducing prices and spurred demand. Besides, the states were encouraged to buy more buses for urban transport under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission to give a fillip to the battered commercial vehicles segment.
In a setback to film producer Subhash Ghai, the Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the Bombay high court order quashing the 20 acre land allotted to his film institute in Mumbai. A bench of justices H L Dattu and C K Prasad also pulled up former Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh for allotting the land in 2004, saying the CM cannot bend or bypass rules to give away government land.
Dow India would comply with all the directives stated by the government to work outa solution to the current situation, the company said. Recently the company's research facility at Chakan was razed by a group of villagers, following which members of the Warkari sect claimed responsibility for the act, saying they would not allow the facility to come up at a place which is sacred to the followers of the 17th century Bhakti movement saint Tukaram.
Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray has demanded building of a 'Amarnath House' or 'Vaishnodevi House' for Hindus on the lines of 'Haj House' in Mumbai for Muslims.
Sources in the Maharashtra Congress and the NCP have said that the scheduled cabinet expansion may have to be put off.
Union Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, former chief minister of the state, had a meeting with Gandhi on the issue. Chief Minister Ashok Chavan also arrived in New Delhi in the evening for talks with central leaders.
Announcing this at a function in Pune, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said the decision to double the FSI for new urban townships has received the Cabinet nod. He said the new townships would decongest big cities offering residential premises to a growing number of urban population. The developers in these areas would be charged an extra amount by the government for the additional FSI which would be utilised for other projects, he said on Sunday.
In its internal assessment, the Congress hopes to get around 91 seats, while it expects the NCP to get 49 to 51 seats. The coalition will need at least 145 MLAs for a simple majority to form the government in the 288-seat Maharashtra Assembly. The coalition is confident that it will manage some independent MLAs and small parties to keep its government afloat.
P Chidambaram was conspicuous by his absence on the dais at the second day of the plenary.
Amid speculation that the candidature of Rajendra Shekhawat, son of President Pratibha Patil, has been cleared for Maharashtra Assembly polls, the state Congress leadership left it to the party high command to decide the issue of tickets to kins of senior leaders.
Although the stated objective of Chandurkar for the motion was the 'breach of privilege' of the House by Nand Lal in the matter of orders issued by the State Election Commissioner on elections to posts of local self-government bodies, there was speculation that Chandurkar, a Deshmukh loyalist, was targeting state CEO over his anti-Deshmukh stance. Lal alleged there was 'political vendetta' behind the assembly's decision to send him to two-day civil custody.
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