
New Delhi: Launching an austerity drive to contain expenditure, the government today banned creation of new posts in its departments and holding their meetings in five-star hotels besides imposing curbs on foreign travel. The Finance Ministry has also asked all ministries and departments to reduce non-Plan expenditure by 10 per cent in the current financial year. "There will be a total ban on holding of meetings and conferences in five-star...

06:21 PM, May 31, 2012

Kochi: Aiming to promote Indian spices, the Spices board will be taking part in a two-day Special India promotion campaign from August one during the London Olympics to showcase the rich variety of spices grown in the country. Around 40 stalls would be set up on the South Bank Centre in London. The Spices Board will have at least seven stalls where Indian spices exporting companies can take up space....

06:31 PM, May 17, 2012

New Delhi: The National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) was his dream project, a nationwide counter terrorism body but it looks like the fate of the NCTC has been sealed even before it could take off. From a meeting with the state DGPs, to an amended standard operating procedure, to assuring the Chief Ministers in writing, the Home Ministry has done everything to break the NCTC logjam yet Chief Minister after...

09:47 PM, May 05, 2012

The Home Minister strongly defended NCTC, which he said would be an important pillar of the country's security infrastructure. ...

07:08 PM, May 05, 2012

New Delhi: Home Minister P Chidambaram on Saturday strongly defended his pet project, the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), which he said would be an important pillar of the country's security infrastructure. In a bid to dispel fears of some chief ministers that the proposed anti-terror intelligence hub would infringe on their policing domain, the Home Minister stressed that countering terrorism "is a shared responsibility" of central and state governments....

05:59 PM, May 05, 2012

New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee will be attending the meeting on the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) on May 5 and will be arriving in New Delhi on Wednesday evening. Mamata is likely to meet UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Thursday but no appointment has been made yet. The West Bengal Chief Minister is also expected to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on...

11:00 AM, May 02, 2012

Belgaum:Former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa is expected to meet Union Agriculture Minister and Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar in the first week of May, for reasons that have not come out in the open yet. However, sources said that Yeddyurappa is planning to give a shock to the BJP national executive, which has not considered his request for a suitable position in the partys hierarchy favourably. An MLC...

10:24 AM, Apr 26, 2012

New Delhi: Opposing amendments to the BSF Act, some state Chief Ministers on Monday demanded that discussions on the issue should be deferred and taken up along with the National Counter Terrorism Centre on May 5 as it also disturbs the federal structure of the country. Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar said since the proposed amendments to the BSF Act 1968 were against the laid down principles of a federal...

03:52 PM, Apr 16, 2012

New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Monday said the open Indo-Nepal border is emerging as a possible ingress point for anti-national elements because of strict vigil on the country's borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh. Speaking at the Internal Security conference of Chief Ministers in New Delhi, the newly-elected UP CM said the 550km-long border with the state requires special policing arrangement to put a check on any...

12:44 PM, Apr 16, 2012

New Delhi: The tenuous Centre-states relations came under more strain at the Chief Ministers' meeting on internal security in New Delhi on Monday. The Union Government faced flak from some non-Congress chief ministers for trying to step in on the domain of the state governments. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and her Gujarat counterpart led the states' charge that the Centre was bent on usurping the powers of the...

12:42 PM, Apr 16, 2012

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday said that the issue of internal security remains a big challenge in which the states and the Centre must work together and in harmony. On the controversial issue of National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), the Prime Minister said that the issue will be discussed on May 5 separately as requested by some Chief Ministers. Here's the full text of the PM's speech:...

11:24 AM, Apr 16, 2012

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday said that the issue of internal security remains a big challenge in which the states and the Centre must work together and in harmony. On the controversial issue of National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), the Prime Minister said that the issue will be discussed on May 5 separately as requested by some Chief Ministers. "Internal security situation by and large satisfactory since...

10:58 AM, Apr 16, 2012

New Delhi: Union Home Minister P Chidambaram on Monday said it's a worrying trend that people jump to support terror accused because of their religion. In his inaugural speech at the chief ministers' meet in the capital, the Home Minister said that 18 terror modules have been neutralised in 2011 and 3 in 2012 but the LoC and international borders are still vulnerable. "The state governments are the frontline in...

10:32 AM, Apr 16, 2012

New Delhi: Strengthening of counter terror capabilities and intelligence apparatus, Maoist violence, police reforms and capacity building will be high on agenda at the Chief Ministers conference on internal security to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday. The day-long conference will also deliberate on how India is being affected due to its troubled neighbourhood and its obvious consequences in the country like cross border terrorism, covert support...

01:21 AM, Apr 16, 2012

Ahmedabad: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh opposing the proposed move of giving sweeping powers to Border Security Force to arrest and search anyone anywhere in India, saying this is an attempt to "create a state within a state". In a strongly-worded letter to the Prime Minister ahead of meeting of chief minister to be held in Delhi on Monday, Modi warned against...

02:30 AM, Apr 15, 2012