New Delhi: After days of sustained pressure, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was finally forced to act against his ministers charged with corruption and interference. Law Minister Ashwani Kumar and Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal were both forced to quit on Friday. Both of them called on the Prime Minister on Friday evening and submitted their resignations. While Ashwani Kumar was sacked for interfering in CBI's coalgate probe report, Pawan Bansal...
07:55 AM, May 11, 2013
Bangalore: Over 200 members of the newly elected 225-member Karnataka assembly are 'crorepatis' (multi-millionaires), said an election watchdog after analyzing their declared assets. Of 218 assets studied by the Karnataka Election Watch (KEW) showed that 203 of them, that is 93 per cent, are "crorepatis", up from 63 per cent who were 'crorepatis' in the outgoing assembly, the NGO said in a release on Friday. The Congress, which won 121...
05:55 AM, May 11, 2013
New Delhi: Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and Law Minister Ashwani Kumar were not the first from in the United Progressive Alliance-II to have resigned on corruption charges. The others who stepped down on corruption charges are: A Raja - The DMK leader held the portfolio of communication and information technology when an alleged scam in allocation of 2G spectrum took place. A report of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG)...
04:40 AM, May 11, 2013
Shimla: Former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal on Friday criticised the state government for cut in special plan assistance in the annual plan for 2013-14. He said the assistance has been reduced from Rs 1,400 crore in 2012-13 to Rs 1,350 crore during 2013-14 which is a cause of concern as it would retard the pace of development. Reacting to the reports regarding cut in special plan assistance,...
02:15 AM, May 11, 2013
Patna: Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar on Friday night hailed the resignations of Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and Union Law Minister Aswani Kumar but said it came too late. "It came too late," Kumar said when asked for reaction on resignations of Rail minister Bansal and Law minister Kumar. Bansal resigned on Friday night following a directive from the Congress leadership as the government's image continued...
12:27 AM, May 11, 2013
Pawan Kumar Bansal on Friday evening resigned as Railway Minister following allegations of corrupt practices by his close relatives and aides. Sources say that Bansal was forced to resign after Congress President Sonia Gandhi met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and asked him to force the Railway Minister to put in his papers. ...
11:36 PM, May 10, 2013
New Delhi: BJP on Friday stepped up its pressure on the government by demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after the resignations of Railway Minister and Law Minister, saying the "consequences should follow." "Now, there is no logic in the Prime Minister's continuance. Having decided to drop the Law Minister who was protecting the Prime Minister, then the consequences should follow. The consequence is that the Prime Minister...
11:26 PM, May 10, 2013
New Delhi: Law Minister Ashwani Kumar's rise in politics and elevation to the cabinet was as dramatic as his fall. Elected to Rajya Sabha in May 2002, Kumar, a former Additional Solicitor General, climbed the ropes fast, sometimes creating heartburns among his colleagues in the party. Belonging to Gurdaspur in Punjab, Ashwani was an Additional Solicitor General before being elected to the Upper House in 2002. He was re-elected to...
11:23 PM, May 10, 2013
New Delhi: Just hours after the resignation of Pawan Kumar Bansal as Railways Minister, Ashwani Kumar, the other Congress leader embroiled in a controversy, resigned as Law Minister. On a day of dramatic developments, Congress President Sonia Gandhi met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and it was decided that both should be asked to put in his papers to contain any further damage to the government that has already been plagued...
09:52 PM, May 10, 2013
Pawan Kumar Bansal on Friday resigned as Railway Minister. ...
09:44 PM, May 10, 2013
Pawan Kumar Bansal resigned as Railway Minister on Friday. ...
09:30 PM, May 10, 2013
Chandigarh: Stepping up the heat on Pawan Kumar Bansal who resigned as Railway Minister on Friday following his nephew's arrest in a graft case, BJP on Friday called for a CBI probe into three firms floated by his relatives which had allegedly profited under "shelter" provided by him. "The turnover of these firms, with family members of (Bansal) as their directors and share-holders, increased many times in the past five...
09:22 PM, May 10, 2013
Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, who is facing allegations of being involved in the cash for posts scam in the Indian Railways, resigned on Friday. Reacting to the development, BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said the resignation came too late and said Law Minister Ashwani Kumar should also resign. ...
09:21 PM, May 10, 2013
Bangalore: Siddaramaiah, who would be the new Karnataka Chief Minister, today said putting the 'collapsed" administration back on track would be a major challenge facing him in his new role. "The development of the state has gone 10 years back", Siddaramaiah told reporters after he was elected leader of the Congress Legislature Party. In the May 5 Assembly polls, the Congress had decimated the ruling BJP and staged a spectacular...
07:41 PM, May 10, 2013
Bangalore: Rustic in appearance at times, outspoken Siddaramaiah is not known to mince words and hide his ambitions. And whenever some ruling Bharatiya Janata Party members tried to taunt him over his ambition, Siddaramaiah, Leader of Opposition in the outgoing Assembly, used to get aggressive and declare without hesitation that he would become the Chief Minister. On Thursday, he was proved right after being elected Congress Legislative Party leader and...
07:17 PM, May 10, 2013
New Delhi: Pawan Kumar Bansal on Friday evening resigned as Railway Minister following allegations of corrupt practices by his close relatives and aides. Sources say that Bansal resigned after Congress President Sonia Gandhi met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and asked him to force the Railway Minister to put in his papers. The question now being raised is whether Ashwani will be sacked too. The big questions - Can the PM...
06:51 PM, May 10, 2013
New Delhi: Pawan Kumar Bansal on Friday evening resigned as Railway Minister following allegations of corrupt practices by his close relatives and aides. Sources say that Bansal resigned after Congress President Sonia Gandhi met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and asked him to force the Railway Minister to put in his papers. Bansal has already sent his resignation to the Prime Minister. Mallikarjun Kharge, a senior Congress leader from Karnataka, is...
06:08 PM, May 10, 2013
Bangalore: Prominent backward caste leader S Siddaramaiah is set to be the next Chief Minister of Karnataka after he was elected as the Congress legislative party leader by party MLAs on Friday. Siddaramaiah, along with the new cabinet ministers of Karnataka, will be sworn in on Monday morning. Speaking to CNN-IBN, Siddaramaiah said he was thankful. "My election as CLP leader was unanimous. I thank all MLAs. The CLP has...
05:09 PM, May 10, 2013
Bangalore: The Congress gets one step closer to deciding the Karnataka Chief minister after party leaders met a legislative meeting on Friday. Sources say that most of the MLAs in the state have backed Siddaramaiah to be the next Chief Minister. Siddaramaiah was always the frontrunner but there were other claimants as well such as Labour Minister Mallikarjun Kharge. Congress leader D Sivkumar said, "Siddaramaiah has moved a resolution that...
03:24 PM, May 10, 2013
New Delhi: The net is closing in on Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal following allegations that his family members were involved in corrupt practices. The Railway Minister has stopped attending office, a sign perhaps that he is on the way out. Bansal did not attend Thursday's Cabinet meet as well even as Law Minister Ashwani Kumar attended it. Several family members and aides of Bansal are under scrutiny for alleged...
02:59 PM, May 10, 2013
