New Delhi: The UPA on Monday announced the constitution of a coordination committee under the chairpersonship of Sonia Gandhi to ensure cohesive functioning of the alliance, a demand that was placed by ally NCP during its recent stand-off with the Congress. Leaders of all the constituent parties are part of the mechanism, though key allies, the DMK, the TMC and the NCP, are yet to name their representatives. According to...
07:19 PM, Aug 06, 2012
Solapur: Dismissing reports that Union Minister Sharad Pawar had opposed him becoming Leader of the Lok Sabha, Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said on Sunday that Pawar was his "political guru" and had always helped him in his political career. "Pawar is not a person with a small heart. How can he crush a plant that he has nurtured? He has not opposed my name for the post of...
06:20 PM, Aug 05, 2012
Mumbai: Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Saturday called upon the Maharashtra government to improve its intelligence set-up to prevent a repeat of the serial blasts in Pune earlier in the week. "This is the second time in two years that blasts have taken place in Pune, this time it is fortunate that there were no casualties. Repeated blasts like this are not good for the state," Pawar told reporters here....
02:37 AM, Aug 05, 2012
Mumbai: Noting that blasts reflect poorly on the state administration, Union Minister and NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday asked party leader and Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil to focus on improving the performance of the police and intelligence departments. Addressing a press conference, Pawar said when incidents such as blasts happen, not only innocent people lose lives, but the attitude of the society to a particular community changes....
07:16 PM, Aug 04, 2012
Bangalore: The Centre on Thursday asked the state government to send a fresh proposal for assistance to tackle drought. The proposal would be discussed during Group of Ministers (GoM)meeting in New Delhi on August 7 or 8. The memorandum submitted by the government had less to do with measures required to tackle drought and more about structural problems that Karnataka is facing. We have asked them to send a fresh...
12:07 PM, Aug 03, 2012
New Delhi: Even as the states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat and Rajasthan remain drought-affected, the southwest monsoon lashed the Gangetic West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, West Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, West Madhya Pradesh, Madhya Maharashtra, Vidarbha and Chhattisgarh in the past 24 hours. In some relief for the parched north India, Delhi too got rains for the second consecutive day on Wednesday. The city received 15.6 mm of rains till 8:30...
11:36 AM, Aug 01, 2012
New Delhi: Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar will on Wednesday begin his 3-day tour of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat and Rajasthan - the country's four worst drought-affected states. Pawar will lead a team to drought-affected areas in the four states, during August 1-3 to assess the rain deficit and water scarcity situation. The Agriculture Minister will first visit Maharashtra on Wednesday and later Karnataka on Thursday. He will also hold meetings in...
06:43 AM, Aug 01, 2012
New Delhi: Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Tuesday noted that 400 out of the 627 districts in India had received deficient rainfall but said it was for the states to declare a drought. "The centre does not do that...it is for the states to declare drought in their districts," Pawar told reporters after he headed a meeting of an empowered group of ministers (EGoM) on drought in New Delhi....
01:01 AM, Aug 01, 2012
New Delhi: An Empowered Group of Ministers headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar is expected to meet on Tuesday over relief measures to tackle the drought-like situation unfolding in several states. There is 21 per cent rainfall deficiency across the country, which is affecting the sowing of kharif crops. Sources say the EGOM will primarily focus on addressing fodder and water scarcity, besides insulating farmers from higher input costs. The...
07:20 AM, Jul 31, 2012
New Delhi: Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar will lead a team to drought-affected areas in four states Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat and Rajasthan - during August 1-3 to assess the rain deficit and water scarcity situation. "The meeting will be held with the Chief Ministers of the affected states and will review the rainfall deficiency and its impact on kharif crops, water and fodder availability," a senior Agriculture Ministry official said. The...
11:31 PM, Jul 30, 2012
New Delhi: Senior NCP leader Praful Patel has been included in the Group of Ministers to tackle corruption, a development which assumes significance against the backdrop of recent complaint by the UPA ally that its voice was not being heard in Government functioning. Patel was nominated in the important GoM by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a few days back, sources told PTI in New Delhi. However, he did not attend...
08:45 PM, Jul 30, 2012
New Delhi: The crowds at Jantar Mantar, the venue of the indefinite fast by Anna Hazare and his team, continued to remain impressive on the second day of fast by the anti-corruption crusader on Monday. This after more than 6000 people came to support Anna during the weekend. While the protests by Anna and his team were on, members of India Against Corruption on Monday took to the streets, this...
06:59 PM, Jul 30, 2012
New Delhi: A group of Anna Hazare supporters on Monday staged a protest outside Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar's residence but Team Anna said it has no role in the incident. Around 50 youths reached Pawar's 6, Janpath residence on Monday afternoon and tried to enter the premises. However, they were prevented by the security personnel. Soon, more police personnel arrived at the scene and detained the protesters. This is the...
06:00 PM, Jul 30, 2012
Thane: Voicing concern over deficient monsoon rains, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Sunday said the country may face a "serious" situation if it does not rain in the next two months. "Everything depends on the return of rains in August and September. But if it doesn't, the situation would become serious," he said. Pawar was speaking at the inauguration of a skywalk at Bonkode in Navi Mumbai. Monsoon rains...
02:41 AM, Jul 30, 2012
Pune: With the country receiving deficient rainfall, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Sunday said weather experts did not seem to be optimistic about revival of monsoon in the parched regions, forcing the government to draw water management plans till July next year. "Reports from experts on the monsoon making up the deficit in the rest of the season are not optimistic. We are making plans for water management till...
10:34 PM, Jul 29, 2012
Union Agricultural Minister Sharad Pawar has raised an alarm over possible drought this year. "Low rainfall has led to drought problem in several regions of the country. I am hoping and praying that there will be adequate rain in August and September which will provide relief. But as of now the situation is worrying," said Pawar. ...
03:08 PM, Jul 29, 2012
New Delhi: Monsoon rains continued below average in the past week, the weather office said on Thursday, keeping much of India's rain-fed areas still thirsty halfway through the June to September season. Monsoon rains were 20 per cent below average in the week to July 25 after a 22 per cent shortfall the previous week. But the rains improved over rice and soybean growing areas of eastern and central India,...
07:41 PM, Jul 26, 2012
New Delhi: Nearly a week after skipping work over problems with the Congress, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar resumed office on Thursday, a day after NCP-Congress announced a truce. The NCP's tiff with the Congress came to an end on Wednesday with both parties agreeing to set up coordination centres. Pawar had stopped coming to the ministry from June 23, and also was not responding to calls from ministry officials. ...
11:28 AM, Jul 26, 2012
New Delhi: NCP leader Praful Patel on Wednesday evening did a u-turn and said the NCP never wanted to opt of the UPA alliance. While speaking to IBN18 Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai, Praful said, "We were not fighting all guns or anything. We were simply stating a fact better coordination both at the Centre and the State and I think after the meeting with Mrs Gandhi and Dr Manmohan Singh, I...
10:20 PM, Jul 25, 2012
New Delhi: The week-long NCP-Congress crisis is finally over as both the parties agreed to set up coordination committees in Delhi and Mumbai to resolve differences. NCP leaders Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chief Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday evening in New Delhi to bring an end to the stand off. Addressing the media after the meeting, Praful said that he and Pawar discussed...
06:29 PM, Jul 25, 2012
