Mamata invites bigwigs for the pre budget meet

Railway minister Mamata Banerjee has set a precedent by deciding to organise a formal pre-rail budget interaction with

industry bigwigs. Railway Board chairman S S Khurana sent out invites to the industrialists on Tuesday.

Sources said invites had been sent to apex chambers like Ficci, Assocham and CII along with leading regional chambers. Around 150-200 industrialists have been invited to Saturday’s meeting, including heads of Food Corporation of India, SAIL, Bharat Petroleum, Adani Ports (Gautam Adani), private shipyard builders, Siemens, Asea Brown Boveri, GE Infrastructure, GE Electric, Sumitomo and Hutchison. The meeting will be held at Railway Eco Park near Chanakyapuri in Delhi.

While Mamata is slated to address the industry heads, the meeting will be in the form of an interactive session, open to the media, where she will take suggestions for the railway budget as well as for new projects involving the railways. She had also met the business bosses last August, a few months after Trinamool’s Lok Sabha poll Success.

Source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Mamata-invites-business-bigwigs-for-pre-budget-meet-/articleshow/5533090.cms

Government gets 10 more days to declare Telangana formation plan

The all-party Joint Action Committee (JAC) of Telangana has decided to wait till February 7 for the central government to constitute

the committee with a time-bound programme for carving a separate Telangana state out of Andhra Pradesh.

In a meeting on Thursday night, the JAC also extended by 10 days the deadline for all legislators to quit over the demand for the formation of the separate state.

Union home minister P Chidambaram on Thursday announced that the central government would announce next week a committee on Telangana. The announcement came as the deadline set by JAC ended.

The central government's latest statement, however, failed to satisfy Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and other pro-Telangana parties.

At the marathon JAC meeting, leaders of the ruling Congress party managed to convince the JAC to extend the deadline.

"The Congress leaders have clarified that the proposed committee is meant for formation of Telangana state and that it will have a time-bound programme," JAC convenor M. Kodandaram told reporters.

"If the centre failed to announce the committee with a clear time-frame, the MLAs (legislators) will press the assembly speaker to accept their resignations," he said.

The JAC, however, decided to intensify the agitation to mount further pressure on the central government.

The meeting witnessed heated arguments as non-political organisations in the JAC opposed the idea of extending the deadline. Their allegation that the Congress government was once again trying to mislead people with an ambiguous statement evoked sharp reaction from ruling party leaders, who claimed that they were sincere in efforts to carve out a separate state.

Main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP), TRS, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other pro-Telangana groups felt that Chidambaram's announcement had again created doubts among people of Telangana. Strongly favouring a constitutional crisis to pressurise the central government, TDP leaders said a committee would serve no purpose.

Source : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Government-gets-10-more-days-to-declare-Telangana-formation-plan/articleshow/5512267.cms

BJP starts enrolment drive for primary membership

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has set for itself a target of enrolling at least two million primary
members over the next one month in the first phase of Sangathan Parva, which Chief Minister
Narendra Modi launched in Gandhinagar on Monday morning.
Modi was the first to enrol as a primary member.
Now, till August 5, party leaders will fan out across all districts and talukas, right up to the booth
levels, for enrolling members.
The enrolment has been made compulsory for all, irrespective of their position in the party or in
the government. Gujarat BJP president Purshottam Rupala launched the drive in Sector 2 in
Gandhingar where he moved his residence from Amreli district.
source : http://in.news.yahoo.com/48/20090707/814/tnl-bjp-starts-enrolment-drive-for-prima.html

Big leap from Rae Bareli to Rome

LUCKNOW: Fifteen-year-old Narendra Kumar looked highly excited while scanning the
check list. The passport, visa and tickets for the foreign trip were in perfect order. His wardrobe was complete and so was the 10-day crash course in
spoken English from a little coaching kiosk back in his home town, Rae Bareli. He had
already said goodbye to friends and family, left behind in Pure Gosai, a small hamlet in the
VVIP constituency.
Now, within a couple of hours “Narendra Kumar, son of Ram Bahadur, a labourer, and
Jagpata Devi, a housewife, one among nine siblings” (his opening lines at the coming J-8
summit in Rome) was about to make history by being the first in the village or even the
district to fly to Sonia Gandhi’s birth place.
source :
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Big-leap-from-Rae-Bareli-to-Rome/articleshow/4742261.
cms

Azhagiri reviews projects in Madurai

MADURAI: Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers M K Azhagiri reviewed the

progress of various development projects being carried out in the district during a meeting

with District Collector N Mathivanan here on Sunday.

Azhagiri discussed the issues including shifting of central market, establishment of a food

processing unit and various other projects the works of which are yet to be started in the

district.

Azhagiri promised the officials of Agriculture Department to take initiatives to provide

enough fertilizers to meet the needs of the farmers of the southern districts. No scarcity of

fertilizer like last year will be experienced this year. Fertilizers will be distributed through

Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies like the previous year.

Source:

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Azhagiri+reviews+projects+in+Mad

urai&artid=j|2eRng|5FM=&SectionID=vBlkz7JCFvA=&MainSectionID=fyV9T2jIa4A=&S

ectionName=EL7znOtxBM3qzgMyXZKtxw==&SEO

BJP demands Jharkhand assembly dissolution

Ranchi, July 02 (PTI) BJP today demanded that the Centre should review its decision to
recommend extension of President''s rule in Jharkhand and dissolve the state assembly.
"We demand dissolution of the house.
Fresh elections should be held in the state. This is the wish of the people of Jharkhand,"
BJP''s state unit president Raghuvar Das told newsmen here.
The party would meet on July 4 or 5 to chalk out a programme for agitation to put pressure
on the Centre for dissolution of the House, he added.
source :
http://in.news.yahoo.com/20/20090703/1416/tnl-bjp-demands-jharkhand-assembly-disso.ht
ml

Trinamool steals the show in civic polls, Congress trails ally

The Trinamool Congress has fared much better than its ally Congress in the civic polls held
on June 28, the results of which were announced on Wednesday. The Left Front was
routed by the Opposition alliance across 10 districts where 16 civic bodies went to the
polls.
Congress, which won four municipal bodies in 2004, lost one to the CPM in North Bengal
and could not wrest any civic body from the ruling Front. While the Trinamool, which had
only one civic body in 2004, wrested nine from the CPM in South Bengal.
source :
http://in.news.yahoo.com/48/20090703/814/tnl-trinamool-steals-the-show-in-civic-p.html

Mineral water for all villages, says Chief Minister

HYDERABAD: The Rajasekhara Reddy government announced yet another ambitious scheme,

this time to supply bottled mineral water to all villages in the State by March-end, starting with

tribal areas, prone frequently to water-borne diseases.

Dubbed the first such scheme of its kind, Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy asserted this

was feasible as the erection of a plant to provide mineral water to a population of 1,500 (five litres

each) a day will cost only Rs. 2 lakh. Inaugurating a two-day Collectors’ conference at Jubilee

Hall here on Friday, he said he would launch the scheme on August 15.

He also disclosed to Ministers, senior officials and Collectors attending the conference that he

would pay surprise visits to villages from Dasara to personally verify whether they had basic

facilities like roads and drinking water supply and whether welfare schemes were reaching the

intended beneficiaries. He would have permanent helipads built in all the 1,128 mandal

headquarters to facilitate his visits. On their part, the Collectors must improve the delivery

systems by strictly implementing the schemes without scope for delay and corruption. “There is a

cry of the common man behind every petition”. The Collectors must attend to public grievances

every Monday, he said.

The Collectors were asked to implement nine-hour free power supply to agriculture sector from

July 15 and the 30-kg rice quota for white cardholders and the Abhayahastham pensions for 1

crore women, both from October.

Source: http://www.hindu.com/2009/06/27/stories/2009062760940100.htm

Chidambaram cancels visit to Orissa's Nalco mine

Bhubaneswar (IANS): Home Minister P. Chidambaram, who has been reviewing the law and

order situation in Orissa, on Friday cancelled his visit to state-owned Nalco mine in Koraput

district due to some technical problem.

Mr. Chidambaram, who is on a two-day visit to the state, visited the anti-insurgency training

centre and the district armoury in Koraput, 500 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, Thursday and

held discussions with senior state police officers.

Source: http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/001200906261031.htm

US and Iran escalate war of words

Iran's president has compared his US counterpart, Barack Obama, to predecessor George Bush
in an escalation of the war of words between Tehran and Washington.
"Why do you speak so impolitely with this great nation?" Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said at a
petrochemical complex's inauguration ceremony in south Iran on Thursday.
He said in the speech broadcast on Iranian state television: "I hope you will avoid interfering in
Iran's affairs.
"This is our friendly advice; we don't want to see the big disgraces of the Bush era to be repeated
in the new US era."
source : http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/06/20096261178950796.html