New Delhi: The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) on Thursday opposed scrapping of the provision which requires the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to seek government's permission for probing bureaucrats in corruption cases. The DoPT raised the issue during a power-point presentation at the maiden meeting of the Group of Minister headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram which discussed the issue of giving greater autonomy and more financial powers to the agency, official sources said.
The GoM was set up in the wake of strong observations by the Supreme Court on the functioning of the CBI which was described as a "caged parrot". The apex court had also suggested to the government to consider ways to make the CBI independent and free from any interference of the political executive.
The DoPT, which is the nodal body governing the CBI, came out strongly against any proposal to scrap Section 6A of the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act which requires the agency to seek permission of the central government before intitiating a probe against an official of the rank of Joint Secretary and above in a corruption cas, the sources said.
The proposal giving more financial powers to the Director of the CBI did not find much support in the meeting, which was attended by Chidambaram, Law Minister Kapil Sibal, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid and Minister of State for Personnel V Narayanasamy, the sources said. Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde could not attend the meeting as he
10:44 PM, May 23, 2013
New Delhi: The Group of Ministers formed by the PM to review the SC observations on the CBI met for the first time on Thursday in New Delhi. Union Ministers P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, Salman Khurshid and MoS PMO V Narayanasamy were in attendance. However, CBI Director Ranjit Sinha, who was one of the special invitees to the meeting, did not attend it. Coming out of the meeting, Sibal said...
05:11 PM, May 23, 2013
New Delhi: The first meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) to ensure greater independence for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will take place on Thursday in the Finance Minister's office. The government had set up the GoM after the Supreme Court had pulled it over the lack of functional autonomy to the CBI. The Supreme Court in its order has asked the government to bring a law which...
02:20 PM, May 23, 2013
The Congress government in Andhra Pradesh is under pressure after two ministers named in the Jagan Reddy disproportionate assets case stepped down on Sunday night. Voices of dissent from within gained ground even as Jagan's wife Bharathi Reddy wrote to the Prime Minister, alleging the CBI probe is unfair and that her husband is being victimised. ...
08:44 PM, May 20, 2013
Karan Thapar discusses the future of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), called a caged parrot by the Supreme Court of India, with a panel of experts. ...
09:55 PM, May 15, 2013
New Delhi: The government on Friday formed a Group of Ministers (GoM) to deal with the issues raised by the Supreme Court on the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in its recent hearing on the agency's affidavit on the coal scam probe. The SC had indicted the government for its interference in the agency's functioning and asked it to come up with an affidavit on steps to make the CBI...
05:52 PM, May 10, 2013
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday filed its affidavit on the coal block allocation scam report with the Supreme Court, in which the agency's director Ranjit Sinha has said the draft of the report was shared with Law Minister Ashwani Kumar, a charge that the Congress has been rejecting. The director has also said the draft of the report was even shared with the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) ...
11:49 PM, Apr 26, 2013
New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday filed its affidavit on the coal block allocation scam report with the Supreme Court, in which the agency's director Ranjit Sinha has said the draft of the report was shared with Law Minister Ashwani Kumar "as desired by him", a charge that the Congress has been rejecting. The director has also said the draft of the report was even shared...
11:39 AM, Apr 26, 2013
New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will inaugurate the joint conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justice of High Court in Delhi on Sunday. The conference will discuss the ways and means to streamline the justice delivery system in the country. Chief Justice of India (CJI) Justice Altamas Kabir will preside over the function. With the establishment of three new High Courts of Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura in March 2013,...
08:27 AM, Apr 07, 2013
New Delhi: Conceding to the demands of non-Congress Chief Ministers, the Centre has diluted the much touted NCTC with Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde exuding confidence that the anti-terror hub would see the light of the day during the Chief Ministers' conference in New Delhi next month. Shinde said all the apprehensions of the opposing chief ministers have been allayed as the "operations" part has been taken out from the...
04:38 PM, Mar 28, 2013
Sources said that in the final draft, the word 'sexual assault' has been replaced by 'rape', thus making the anti-rape bill women-centric. The age of consent for sex has been reduced from 18 to 16. ...
11:59 PM, Mar 13, 2013
The Group of Ministers (GoM) that met on Wednesday to thrash out differences over the anti-rape bill has finalised the changes to it, Union Minister Kapil Sibal said. The Cabinet will take up the draft on Thursday. ...
08:06 PM, Mar 13, 2013
After differences in the Cabinet, the government's proposed anti-rape legislation has finally made some headway. A Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram is likely to finalise the anti-rape Bill for Cabinet approval on Wednesday. The government is likely to stick to the gender specific word 'rape' not sexual assault, sources said. ...
07:50 AM, Mar 13, 2013
The Cabinet once again failed to approve the draft of the proposed anti-rape Bill on Tuesday. There are differences in the Cabinet over provisions like reducing the age of consent from 18 to 16 years. A group of ministers will not consider the draft and look into the points of differences and come back to the Cabinet by Wednesday. ...
08:30 PM, Mar 12, 2013
The Cabinet is likely to stick to gender specific term 'rape' in the proposed anti-rape Bill, which sources said would be brought in Parliament on March 20. Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday said that the Bill would be finalised by the Group of Ministers on Wednesday and the Cabinet would consider it on Thursday. ...
07:46 PM, Mar 12, 2013
In a shake-up in her cabinet, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Wednesday sacked three ministers and inducted an equal number, all of them first-time MLAs. Tourism Minister Gokula Indra, Health and Family Welfare Minister VS Vijay and School Education Minister NR Sivapathy were removed from the cabinet. ...
06:36 PM, Feb 27, 2013
Andhra Pradesh ministers from the Andhra-Rayalaseema regions will camp in New Delhi from Monday to prevail upon the Congress high command as well as the Centre not to divide the state. "We want Andhra Pradesh to remain united. We will present our case strongly to the party high command and the Centre in a democratic manner," School Education Minister S Sailajanath told reporters after a meeting of ministers here this...
06:20 PM, Jan 19, 2013
An Empowered Group of Ministers on telecom on January 3 deliberated upon several issues regarding spectrum auction due this fiscal, but did not reach a final decision and would meet again on January 7. "EGoM deliberated on 1800/900 MHz spectrum but it could not discuss CDMA (800 MHz). Auction does not seem possible by January 18 but will take place during this fiscal," a top source said. ...
03:22 PM, Jan 03, 2013
The Empowered Group of Ministers on telecom is scheduled to meet on Thursday to discuss modalities about the spectrum sale due this fiscal. The EGoM, headed by Finance P Chidambaram, will discuss the auction plan prepared by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) after Cabinet approved the sale of unsold GSM spectrum in 1800 Mhz band and in the premium 900 Mhz spectrum band. ...
10:15 AM, Jan 03, 2013
New Delhi: The BJP-led Goa government, under pressure to act against those responsible for Goa's mega mining scandal, has said in a letter to a Supreme Court-appointed panel that it would be filing first information reports (FIRs) against former chief ministers Pratapsingh Rane and Digambar Kamat for their alleged complicity in the mining scandal. Drafted by Chief Secretary B. Vijayan, the 68-page letter says decisions taken by Rane and Kamat...
12:24 PM, Dec 04, 2012
