New Delhi: The Congress core group met a short while back to discuss the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) affidavit on coal block allocation scam report with its allies and backed Law Minister Ashwani Kumar.
Kumar told the core group his job was to look at the legal points in the draft and that he had done nothing wrong. Allies said the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would be the next target since the affidavit said the draft was shown to the Joint secretary in Prime Minister's Office (PMO).
The affidavit also says the final status report was not shared with any govt official. Congress President Sonia Gandhi was against the Law Minister's resignation and said opposition demands need not be take seriously.
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02:25 PM, Apr 26, 2013
New Delhi: A Parliamentary standing committee on coal and steel, which will submit its report on Tuesday, contains a few explosive conclusions. There could be trouble both for the UPA and NDA as the report says all the coal blocks distributed between 1993 and 2008 were unauthorised and not done in a transparent manner. Meanwhile, the report observes that no bidding process was held for coal allocations. Though it is...
08:16 AM, Apr 23, 2013
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home has decided against lowering the age of juveniles below 18 years of age despite suggestions by several members. This came as the Home Ministry said the Women and Child Development Ministry was examining the matter. Some members also opposed a recommendation on the issue saying without consulting experts, the panel should not rush to conclusions. ...
12:30 PM, Feb 27, 2013
The Food Security Bill was cleared by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Friday. The Bill was passed despite members of the Opposition raising objections over coverage for the poor and quantity of grains supplied. ...
09:28 PM, Jan 11, 2013
New Delhi: A parliamentary committee has expressed unhappiness over allocation of coal blocks to private firms - most of which have failed to develop them - instead of Coal India Ltd (CIL), prompting the government to state that 116 mines will be allotted to the state-owned firm. "A paradoxical situation is arising in the country wherein the coal blocks are being allocated to private parties most of which are failing...
03:44 PM, Sep 03, 2012
New Delhi: With several government agencies including the Railways seeking its land for their use, the Defence Ministry has made it clear that it has no surplus land to share with others and needs additional land to keep up with the demands of the armed forces. Making a detailed presentation before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence recently, top officials of the Defence Ministry said there is "no surplus land"...
10:25 AM, Jul 22, 2012
New Delhi: Rajya Sabha MP Sachin Tendulkar was made a member of a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information and Technology on Thursday. The 31-member panel is currently examining the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Second Amendment Bill, 2011. Bollywood actor and another Rajya Sabha member Rekha has been included in the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution. The panel, with 31 members, is examining the Bureau of...
07:49 PM, Jul 19, 2012
New Delhi: The Standing Committee's report on land acquisition has been slammed by India Incorporate. This came after the committee insisted that land acquisition by the government can only be done for infrastructure and social projects and not for private profit. Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) President Adi Godrej said, "The Standing Committee report on land will adversely affect the manufacturing sector as it doesn't factor in industry needs. The...
07:33 AM, May 18, 2012
New Delhi: A Parliamentary Standing Committee will submit its report on the Land Acquisition Bill on Thursday. Some proposals look fairly radical including the one allowing acquisitions only for welfare works and not profit. They are likely to get the go-ahead from the UPA government, which is under pressure from allies like Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The norms for land acquisition will be more...
08:52 AM, May 17, 2012
New Delhi: The number of projects undertaken by the urban development ministry for transition to quasi-urban society has not been accompanied by a commensurate increase in the supply of basic urban services, a report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Urban Development said on Wednesday. The committee chaired by Member of Parliament Sharad Yadav said that the urban population has increased from over 28 crore in 2001 to 37 crore...
02:18 AM, Apr 26, 2012
Abhishek Manu Singhvi quit as chairperson of the Standing Committee on Law and Justice as well as from the post of Congress spokesperson. ...
11:57 PM, Apr 23, 2012
New Delhi: In a dramatic turn of events ahead of Parliament session that begins on Tuesday, Abhishek Manu Singhvi on Monday quit his official posts following the CD controversy. He quit as the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice and also as the Congress spokesperson. Sources say the BJP is likely to raise the issue in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday and Singhvi is also likely...
09:33 PM, Apr 23, 2012
Abhishek Manu Singhvi resigned as the Congress spokesperson on Monday following the CD controversy. ...
09:30 PM, Apr 23, 2012
New Delhi: Congress Rajya Sabha MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi has quit as the chairperson of Parliament Standing Committee on Law and Justice and as the Congress spokesperson following the CD controversy. Following is the full text of Singhvi's statement on his resignation: I have decided to resign as Chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law, Justice. Personnel and Grievances and have informed the Hon'ble Congress President accordingly. I have also decided...
06:30 PM, Apr 23, 2012
New Delhi: The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence on Friday decided to seek regular feedback from the Defence Ministry on India's preparedness in the event of war. Sources said that the three service chiefs, who were not invited to attend the meet on Friday, "will be called either at the next meeting or later, but will be called for sure". In a previous meeting, several members had asked the Chairman...
01:42 PM, Apr 20, 2012
New Delhi: The Parliament's Standing Committee on Defence is slated for a meeting on Friday. On the agenda of the meet is the report on Demands for Grants of the Defence Ministry for the year 2012. However, what could make for some drama is the exclusion of the three service chiefs from the meet, as there was no official request made for their attendance. NDA members on the panel, though,...
07:28 AM, Apr 20, 2012
New Delhi: The three service chiefs are unlikely to be called before Parliament's Standing Committee on Defence to give an account of the state of preparedness of the forces. This has become clear with sources in the committee and outside saying that the move has been given up as it would unnecessarily send a wrong signal at a time when the talk of a trust deficit between Government and defence...
12:43 PM, Apr 13, 2012
New Delhi: Criticising Parliamentary Standing Committee report on the Lokpal Bill, Anna Hazare, who is back in Delhi to launch the third chapter of his agitation, reiterated his demands of inclusion of lower bureaucracy and merging the CBI with the Lokpal. "If the Government does not do it by December 22, I will launch an agitation in the poll bound states," threatened Hazare. "The Standing Committee has even crippled the...
09:38 PM, Dec 10, 2011
New Delhi: Parliament Standing Committee on Friday tabled its Lokpal Bill draft report with 16 dissent notes, which failed to impress Team Anna and the Opposition who have rubbished the report. Anna Hazare will be arriving in the capital on Saturday after he rejected the Lokpal report. He said he will be sitting on a one-day fast at Jantar Mantar on Sunday. Team Anna has invited all political parties to...
06:39 AM, Dec 10, 2011
New Delhi: After the fiasco on retail FDI, the UPA government is facing failure in another key reform it has long contemplated - hiking FDI cap in insurance from 26 per cent now to 49 per cent to give Indian insurance firms an avenue to raise much-needed growth capital. The Parliamentary Standing Committee has rejected the government's proposal to raise FDI in the Insurance sector. The government is likely to...
06:55 AM, Dec 09, 2011
