Govt mum on Jaya bombshell
The Union government yesterday evaded responding to the latest bombshell from AIADMK supremo Jayalalitha. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said that he had neither seen Jayalalitha's statement, nor had he received a letter from her regarding his Cabinet.
CBI to file status report in Kesri assets case
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has said in the Delhi high court that it would file a comprehensive status report on probe into allegations that former Congress president Sitaram Kesri has amassed disproportionate assets to his income and bribed MLAs to get elected to Rajya Sabha in 1988 and 1994. The case would come up for hearing on May 21.
By George! He never said so on Kashmir
The Union ministry of defence has emphatically denied that its minister, George Fernandes, had even remotely implied that Jammu & Kashmir was not an "internal issue" of India. "Our attention has been drawn to totally unwarranted conclusions being drawn from Raksha Mantri's comments on Jammu & Kashmir...(He) had emphasised that the state of J&K is an integral part of India and that this position is beyond doubt," a spokesman of the Defence Ministry said.
Vananchal bill in LS soon: Marandi
The Centre is making "all possible efforts" to introduce a bill in the next session of the Lok Sabha recommending creation of a separate state of Vananchal, Union minister of state for forests and environment Babulal Marandi said yesterday. "The creation of a separate Vananchal state is now a certainty," Marandi said.
Mahajan panel for decontrol of sugar industry
Decontrol the sugar industry over two years and discontinue its supply through the Public Distribution System (PDS). Recommending this to the Government, the committee headed by former food secretary B B Mahajan has also called for a 40 per cent import duty on sugar to protect the domestic industry.
FM's hard-sell on BJP in US
India's new Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha has pledged that the Bharatiya Janata Party government would go ahead "full throttle" with economic reforms despite alarmist reports about the so-called swadeshi hand in the party. In the first foray by a BJP minister to foreign shores, Sinha told a highly sceptical audience of American and NRI investors that they had little to fear from the BJP.
