Politics

Lucknow, January 18: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati today held a meeting to review law and order situation in the state and directed officials to take stern action against those involved in illegal activities.

“The range wise review of law and order was made and the CM directed to keep a check on crime and criminals,” Special DG law and Order Brijlal told reporters here.

During the review meet, Mayawati emphasised that while dealing with crime, the status economical, political or social of criminals should not create hindrance and officers should act in free and fair manner.

Jaipur, January 18: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot today asked Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries in the state to relinquish discretionary powers, giving way to a more transparent and collective decision making process.

In accordance with UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s initiatives announced in recently concluded AICC plenary session, Gehlot issued letters to the Cabinet/State Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries, asking them to review and relinquish discretionary powers, an official said

Lucknow, January 18: Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi here Tuesday exhorted partymen to pull up their socks and come out on the streets with the aim to bring the party back to power in the country’s most populous state.

He was here to address the valedictory session of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee’s two-day coordination committee meeting.

In his brief speech, the Gandhi scion urged partymen to give up their docile and passive approach and gear up for the next state assembly elections due in 2012.

Lucknow, January 18: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi may soon hold a public rally in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda to mark the party’s protest against “total breakdown of law and order”, following the rape of a minor girl by a legislator of the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) there.

Disclosing this here Tuesday, state Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi said: “This follows today’s Lucknow visit of Rahul Gandhi, who has not only expressed his desire to hold a rally in Banda but has also agreed to discuss the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.”

New Delhi, January 18: The Congress Tuesday asked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to convey to the apex court whatever it wanted to on the issue of money stashed abroad by Indians and not give a “running commentary”.

Party spokesman Manish Tewari said that initiatives to unearth details of the money of Indians in foreign banks had been taken by the UPA government.

“If any initiative was taken to get names from Germany, it was by the UPA. If facts were placed before the Supreme Court, it was by the UPA,” Tewari said.

Chandigarh, Janaury 18: Terming reports of his differences with Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda as rumours, Finance Minister Ajay Singh Yadav Monday said that there are some people who are running this “false propaganda” against him.

“I have no differences with the chief minister. In fact, I always stand beside him, supporting him in his initiatives. I have full belief in the Congress’ policies and even my ancestors were staunch followers of this party,” Yadav told reporters here.

Panaji, January 17: Leader of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in Goa legislature Mickky Pacheco Monday said that Home Minister Ravi Naik was providing protection to the drug trade in the state.

Mickky also blamed Chief Minister Digambar Kamat for rampant drug trade in Goa, because “the buck stopped with the chief minister”.

Addressing a press conference late Monday after a meeting with the NCP state executive, Mickky said that Naik should be sacked and a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe should be initiated into the police-politician-drug mafia nexus case.

Bhubaneswar, January 17: The Congress party was never serious about the problems of the poor and peasants in the country, Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari said here Monday.

After ruling the country for the most number of years since independence, it was the Congress leaders and workers who became richer, not the poor common man, he alleged.

Addressing a rally of nearly two lakh people in Bhubaneswar, Gadkari said more than ten lakh farmers have committed suicide in the past due to the Congress-led government’s poor economic policy.

Bangalore, Janaury 17: Karnataka’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Monday elected its legislator Vimala Gowda as deputy chairperson of the state legislative council, ignoring opposition boycott of the poll.

Council Chairman D.H.Shankara Murthy announced that Gowda was elected “unanimously” as hers was the only nomination to fill the vacancy caused by the removal of the incumbent, Puttanna of the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), from the post Jan 15.

Kolkata, January 17: In a bid to intensify its mass contact programme ahead of assembly polls slated for later this year, West Bengal’s ruling Marxists launched a door-to-door fund-raising campaign for setting up a research centre on Jyoti Basu on the former chief minister’s first death anniversary Monday.

Kolkata, January 17: Trinamool Congress, UPA constituent at the Centre, on Sunday said it was not consulted before a decision regarding the latest hike in petrol prices was taken, even as CPI-M’s labour wing announced a three-hour transport strike tomorrow.

“Our leader Mamata Banerjee met Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee last evening at the airport here, and even there the decision on hiking prices was not communicated to her,” Trinamool MP Sudip Bandopadhyay told reporters here.

Kolkata, January 16:Flaying the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for failing to control rising food inflation and repeatedly hiking petroleum prices, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Sunday said it will launch a countrywide agitation involving all Left and secular parties.

“On the one hand, the government fuels inflation. But still it talks about trying to curb price rise… The government has failed to control food inflation. We have been asking them to curb the forward trading of food items,” Karat told media persons after a two-day CPI-M politburo meeting here.

Kolkata, January 16: The six-member Election Commission team, looking to assess the law and order situation following an upsurge of violence in West Bengal, where assembly polls are due in May, started arriving in the state Sunday.

Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar Sudhir Kumar Rakesh, who will lead the high-level team, reached here Sunday afternoon followed by Additional Director General of Jharkhand Police (Law and Order) D.K. Pandey.

New Delhi, January 16: General Secretary Prakash Karat (R) with West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Industry Minister Nirupam Sen and Left Front Chairman at the party’s politburo meeting in Kolkata on Saturday. Photo: PTI
The CPI(M) on Sunday stuck to its demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee enquiry into the 2G spectrum scam, but said it did not want the Budget Session of Parliament to be stalled on the issue.

Kolkata, January 16: The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Sunday slammed the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government for failing to control rising food inflation and repeatedly hiking petroleum prices and said it will launch a countrywide agitation.

“As far as price rise is concerned, price of petrol has again increased by Rs.2.52. On the one hand, the government fuels inflation. But still it talks about trying to curb price rise,” CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat told media persons after a two-day politburo meeting here.

New Delhi, January 15:The BJP today termed as ‘unjustified and
unwarranted’, the decision of the petroleum companies to hike the
price of petrol by Rs 2.50 a litre from midnight tonight and
demanded rollback of the hike in the interest of taming the price
rise and inflation.

New Delhi, January 15: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Saturday asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to clarify if he had misled parliament after the Supreme Court “indicted” the government for not revealing names of those who had stashed away money in foreign banks.

BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said the prime minister had told the country that he would initiate steps to recover money illegally stashed in foreign banks within 100 days of assuming power.

Lucknow, Jan 15 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati announced some 600 new projects and welfare schemes worth Rs.4,000 crore on her 55th birthday Saturday.

She also chose to give a new name – “Jan Kalyankari Diwas” (public welfare day) – to her birthday that she used to earlier term as “Arthik Sahyog Diwas” (financial support day).

Kolkata, January 15: Setting aside his serious self, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday likened himself to an “antique” among the country’s politicians, saying he was sticking to the political wicket for the last five decades.

“I am one of the oldest politicians alive, almost an antique in the political arena and who has been sticking to the wicket for the last five decades occasionally expressing a desire to retire, but still somehow sticking to the wicket,” the 75-year-old Congress veteran said.

Lucknow, January 15: Apparently with an eye on next year’s Assembly elections, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati unveiled over 600 projects worth Rs 4,000 crore on the occasion of her 55th birthday today.

She also announced the implementation of Janhit Guarantee Act, aimed at making government officials accountable to public and ensuring timely delivery of services, especially those related to dalits, poor and down trodden.

Describing the Act as “historic”, she told a function here that the idea is to fix accountability on officers who would be penalized in case of laxity.

New Delhi, January 15: As may be expected, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are targeting each other’s main weak spots in their current political confrontation, but their mutual vulnerabilities are making it some kind of dead heat.

While the BJP has had no difficulty in cornering the Congress on corruption, given the latter’s long flawed history going back to the Bofors howitzer scam of 1987 and even earlier, the Congress has hit back where the BJP is most susceptible – its anti-Muslim record.

Kolkata, January 15: Ahead of Assembly polls in four states and one Union Territory, the two-day Politburo meeting of the CPI(M) began here this morning, as the party battles through a difficut time in its strongholds.
General Secretary Prakash Karat and other members of the party’s apex body are attending the meeting, which is likelty to discuss poll strategies in West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Pondicherry, besides the issues of price rise and 2G Spectrum scam.

Lucknow, January 15: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Saturday announced the release from jail of a 17-year-old rape victim who had been implicated in a theft case by a ruling Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA from Banda.

Mayawati made the announcement soon after her 55th birthday celebrations here.

The girl was implicated in a false case of theft by BSP legislator Purushottam Naresh Dwivedi and jailed. The release follows a report by the state Criminal Investigation Department, confirming she was implicated in the case.

Dwivedi was arrested three days ago on rape charges.
–IANS

Lucknow, January 15: Two 55-kg cakes are waiting to be cut on Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s 55th birthday on Saturday.

Mayawati herself will cut one of them at the official celebration in the morning at the newly constructed state-of-art Ambedkar Auditorium of the Ram Manohar Lohia Law University here. The other cake will be cut by a group of local citizens later in the day.

Jammu, January 14: Opposition PDP today slammed the Omar Abdullah-led government in Jammu and Kashmir for being “most corrupt” and said the Chief Minister is repeating the same blunders which were committed by the previous National Conference regime under his father Farooq Abdullah.

“Present dispensation is one of the most corrupt and anti-people regime of the State. The present NC government is repeating the same blunders which were committed by the previous National Conference regime from 1996 to 2002,” PDP general secretary Thakur Balbir Singh told a public meeting in Kathua district.