Kolkata, December 31: Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said he will spend an entire month interacting with all stakeholders and look into their suggestions and proposals to be included in the budget.
“I will spend a full one month interacting with all stakeholders for suggestions and proposals for budget,” Mukherjee said here.
Chandigarh, December 31: Haryana Dairy Development Cooperative Federation has given a new year gift to milk producers by increasing milk procurement rate by Rs 20 per kilogram with effect from January 1, 2010.
However, there will be no change in the selling price of pasteurised milk to the consumers.
While disclosing this here today, spokesman of Animal Husbandry and Dairy Development said that for average fat of 6.5 per cent, the increase in rate would be Rs 1.34 paise per kilogram.
Mumbai, December 31: Come Saturday, the BSE Sensex, the barometer of domestic stock market, is all set to enter its silver jubilee year.
The 30-scrip Sensex was launched by the Bombay Stock Exchange, the oldest bourse in the entire Asian continent, on January 2,1986 with 1978/79 as the base year. It had closed that day at 549.43 points.
New Delhi, December 31: Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor was back on twitter today, describing as “excellent” his meeting with senior minister S M Krishna, who had publicly ticked him off for questioning the new visa rules on the social networking site.
“Sorry abt(about) silence ydy (yesterday).1stday (first day) back, full schedule. Excellent mtg (meeting) w (with) EAM Krishna on wide range of fp (foreign policy) issues.
“Saw visiting colgs (colleagues) fm (from) Missions abrd (abroad),” he said in his latest tweet.
New Delhi, December 31: Home Minister P Chidambaram today expressed concerns over the “pretty depressing” situation in Lalgarh, the Maoist stronghold in West Bengal where the state government has failed to contain the movement of the ultras.
“I am disappointed over the Lalgarh situation…The situation is pretty depressing…despite adequate number (of) Central paramilitary forces (being) sent to them in June 2009, the West Bengal government has not been able to contain the problem,” Chidambaram told reporters during his monthly interaction here.
Mathura, December 31: RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat favours opening of more Hindi-medium schools than English-medium ones.
“The demand for running more English-medium schools from Vidya Bharati should not be entertained.
“We can save our mother tongue by promoting Hindi-medium schools,” Bhagwat said yesterday while interacting with managers and principals of schools run by Vidya Bharati and key office bearers of the Sangh here.
He said he is in favour of imparting education that protects Indian culture and traditions.
Allahabad, December 31: Thousands of devotees thronged the holy confluence of Ganga, Yamuna and mythical river Saraswati here today to take a holy dip on the auspicious occasion of Paush Poornima, which also marked commencement of annual religious congregation Magh Mela.
Braving chilly winds that accompanied a drizzle and foggy weather, devotees began gathering at Sangam since early this morning to take a holy dip on the last day of the year, which has been marked by the coincidence of Paush Poornima and partial lunar eclipse.
New Delhi, December 31: Bhupinder Prasad was today appointed Secretary, Justice in the Law Ministry, becoming the first person to occupy the post, which has so far been under the direct control of the Home Secretary.
With her appointment, the Law Ministry will have a separate Secretary in the Justice Department. So far, the Union Home Secretary used to head the Department of Justice.
A 1976 batch IAS officer of the Union Territory Cadre, Prasad was so far Special Secretary in the Department of Justice.
Pune, December 31: An over-par card notwithstanding, Ashbeer Saini opened up a seven-shot lead going into the last round of the All-India Junior Golf Championship at the Poona Club Golf Course here today.
The Kapurthala lad carded a round of one-over 72, taking overall tally to two-over 215 for the tournament.
Bangalore’s Khalin Joshi, who started the round tied for the lead, slipped out of contention with a round of eight-over 79.
At nine-over 222, he is now in sole second place, with Anukar Chadha another three shots further back at 12-over 225.
Ahmedabad, December 31: Anti corruption wing of Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) here today arrested an Income-Tax officer and a chartered accountant(CA) on charges of bribery, from Dahod district here.
According to CBI officials, a CA Gajendra Shah was caught “red-handed” while accepting a bribe of Rs 2.5 lakh on behalf of the I-T officer, Ward-2, Dahod, Bharat Shah.
Bharat Shah was scrutinising income tax returns filed by a complainant and demanded bribe of Rs 3 lakh through a CA Gajendra Shah, for passing order in favour of the complainant, they said.
Jammu, December 31: Jammu and Kashmir will host the 55th under-19 boys and girls National School Games in Tennis Ball Cricket here from tomorrow.
The five-day event, being held under the aegis of School Games Federation of India, will see 12 states of the country taking part, the Minister for Youth Services, Sports, Medical and Technical Education R S Chib told reporters here today.
Around 500 players and officials are expected to participate in the event.
Mumbai, December 31: Favourites Air India and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited today entered the final of the first All India Public Sector T20 cricket tournament organised by New India Assurance here.
AI notched up a narrow one-run victory over Food Corporation of India in the semifinal, restricting FCI to 152 for six after making 153 for nine to reach the summit clash.
In the other semifinal, BSNL crushed Airport Authority of India by 104 runs.
Kolkata, December 31: Amid rising food prices hitting the household budget, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said he has no “instant solution” to the problem.
“Unlike instant coffee, there is no instant solution to such vexed problem as inflation,” he told reporters when asked about the steps being taken by the government to check food inflation which almost touched 20 per cent during the third week of December.
Discounting the possibility of excess liquidity pushing up inflation, Mukherjee said liquidity is not responsible for the current inflationary pressure.
Ahmedabad, December 31: Additional chief secretary of general administration department (personnel) A K Joti was today appointed as the chief secretary of Gujarat.
Joti takes over charge from D Rajgopalan, who retired today, official said.
Joti, a 1975 batch IAS officer, was the senior most officials after Rajgopalan, officials said.
–Agencies
Kolkata, December 31: Punjab rode on an unbeaten 99 from Mohita Handa to take the day one honours against Hyderabad today in the quarterfinals of three-day under-16 tournament for Vijay Merchant Trophy at Murshidabad.
At stumps, Punjab were 274 for four with Handa being the top-scorer, while Jaipreet Singh (58) and Manpreet Singh (50) contributed with the bat as well.
At Cooch Behar, Delhi were 151 for five against Uttar Pradesh with Nitish Rana remaining unbeaten on 77. M Javed took three for 44 for Uttar Pradesh.
Navsari, December 31: A notice has been issued to the authorities at spiritual guru Asaram Bapu’s ashram in Khergam village here ordering them to vacate over 17,000 sq mt of land that had been allegedly encroached by them, district officials said today.
Chikli taluk Mamlatdar Alpesh Bhatt while issuing notice yesterday has asked the ashram authorities to vacate the land within three days, and if there in non compliance, further action would be taken, they said.
Hyderabad, December 31: Welcoming Union Home Minister Chidambaram’s statements on the Telangana issue, TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao today said all stakeholders should now cooperate to facilitate the formation of a separate state.
“… The Centre made a clear statement today. We welcome this. This is a new year gift to the Telangana people,” he told reporters here.
New Delhi, December 31: Dismissing the charge of “flip- flop” on the part of Centre on Telangana issue, Home Minister P Chidambaram today said the January 5 meeting of political parties from Andhra Pradesh is to devise a “mechanism and roadmap” on resolving the problem.
“The January 5 meeting is the first step in the consultations. In the first step we have called the recognised parties in the state to devise a mechanism and a roadmap (on the issue,” he told a press conference, the state chief minister has been invited to the meeting in his official capacity.
Helsinki, December 31: A gunman killed three men and a woman in a shopping centre in the Finnish city of Espoo Thursday.
The man, still on the loose, was identified by police as a 43-year-old with a criminal record.
Witnesses said the man, dressed in black, fired multiple rounds from his automatic pistol, causing panic in the Sello shopping centre.
Police released no initial information about possible additional casualties.
New Delhi, December 31: Rise of Congress, further decline of BJP and the relegation of the Left and some regional parties to the margins marked the highs and lows of politics in 2009 as price spiral poses an intense challenge to the government in the new year along with Naxal and cross-border terror.
Kabul, December 31:At least eight US civilians were killed in an attack on a military base in Khost province in eastern Afghanistan, the US State Department said. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the attack took place on Wednesday on a US military base near the Pakistani border. In Washington, the dead and the at least eight wounded were feared to be mostly Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) workers or intelligence contractors.
Hyderabad, December 31: If the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is not enthused by the Delhi invite, the development has surely thrown the Telugu Desam Party into a tizzy and has Congress leaders, particulary those from Telangana, in raptures.
A relieved Chief Minister K Rosaiah said he would be attending the meeting on behalf of the State and observed that the Centre’s move proved that it was committed to finding a solution to any problem through democratic means.
Hyderabad, December 31: After promising that they would not come in the way of the New Year celebrations in spite of prohibitory orders being in force, the police on Wednesday clarified that revellers would not be allowed to have a free run on the roads.
The police would be curbing drunken, rash and negligent driving, overspeeding and triple-riding on the New Year’s Eve.
City Police Commissioner B Prasada Rao said traffic police would take up extensive checks to curb the above mentioned offences and other traffic violations as such acts could lead to fatal accidents.
Hyderabad, December 31: Dismissing the charge of “flip- flop” on the part of Centre on Telangana issue, Home Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday said the January 5 meeting of political parties from Andhra Pradesh is to devise a “mechanism and roadmap” on resolving the problem.
“The January 5 meeting is the first step in the consultations. In the first step we have called the recognised parties in the state to devise a mechanism and a roadmap (on the issue,” he told a press conference, the state chief minister has been invited to the meeting in his official capacity.
Hyderabad, December 31: For any research scholar, it is indeed a remarkable sight to see two leading economists of the country sharing the stage together.
But when the chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council C Rangarajan and former RBI Governor YV Reddy arrived here to participate in a conference, they faced embarassing moments after pro-Telangana supporters blocked their way and prevented their entry into the University of Hyderabad today.