Congress is synonymous with price rise, Nitish Kumar says

PATNA: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar today attacked the UPA government by saying that the Congress was synonymous with price rise. "Congress party ka dusra naam mahangai party hai....jab tak ye log satta mein rahenge mahangai badhti rahegi (Congress is synonymous with price rise .... as the Congress is in power prices will rise)," Kumar told reporters here. On the phone tapping of BJP leader...

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SC dismisses PIL for SIT probe into chopper deal

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a PIL seeking apex-court monitored probe by a special investigation team (SIT) or CVC into the alleged kickbacks in the Rs 3600 crore VVIP chopper deal. "It is not a correct forum," a bench comprising justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Prakash said while dismissing the PIL filed by an advocate. The PIL filed by M L Sharma had sought an SIT or Central...

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Samajwadi Party wins Bhatparrani by-election

DEORIA (UTTAR PRADESH): Samajwadi Party candidate AshutoshUpadhyaya on Thursday won the bypoll for Bhatparrani assembly seat, defeating his nearest rival, an independent candidate, by 34,102 votes. Upadhyaya alias Babloo, son of former Uttar Pradesh Minister Kameshwar Upadhyaya, got 73,100 votes, while the independent candidate, Sabha Kunwar, was polled 38,998 votes. According to returning officer...

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Yechury supports calling Raja as witness before JPC

NEW DELHI: CPM member in the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on 2G spectrum allocation Sitaram Yechury today supported calling former telecom minister A Raja as a witness before the panel saying it will help reaching "closer to the truth". "We have no objection if he comes. More the witnesses the merrier, closer to the truth we can get," he told reporters outside Parliament House. On Friday...

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Rajya Sabha to discuss chopper deal tomorrow

NEW DELHI: The AgustaWestland chopper deal had its echo in the RajyaSabha on Tuesday with BJP demanding a discussion on the issue and government agreeing to have it on Wednesday. "We are ready for a discussion on the issue tomorrow," minister of state for parliamentary affairs Rajiv Shukla said after BJP insisted on an immediate discussion on the issue. Raising the issue during zero hour, Prakash...

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Mamata is positive on NCTC: Sushilkumar Shinde

KOLKATA: Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde on Monday said that West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who had earlier objected on certain issues, has a 'positive mind' towards the National Counter Terrorism Centre. "I had talked to her earlier also on the NCTC issue. She has a positive mind (Unka toh maan hai)," Shinde told reporters when asked if he discussed the issue with the chief...

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PM greets Jayalalithaa on 65th birthday

CHENNAI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday greeted Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa on her 65th birthday. A statement issued by the state government here said the prime minister greeted Jayalalithaa over the phone on her birthday. Tamil Nadu governor K Rosaiah, leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj of the BJP, Communist Party of India national secretary D Raja, many MPs,...

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15 special teams constituted to crack Hyderabad blasts case, Andhra govt hopeful

HYDERABAD/MUMBAI: Two days after twin blasts rocked the city, the Andhra Pradesh government on Saturday claimed to have got "vital clues" to crack the case soon with the needle of suspicion zeroing in on banned terror outfit Indian Mujahideen."We have already gathered vital clues in the case. We are confident we will crack the case soon," state home minister P Sabita Indra Reddy said after a high-level...

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Hyderabad blasts: Shinde 'totally disappointing', opposition and UPA allies say

NEW DELHI: Home minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Friday came under sharp attack from opposition as well as UPA allies SP and DMK, which trashed his statement on Hyderabad blasts as "totally disappointing" and "devoid of any concrete and meaningful plan of action". Shinde made a statement in the House on Thursday's blasts saying government will make all possible efforts to apprehend the perpetrators...

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SC sets up special team to examine contents of Radia tapes

NEW DELHI: A six-member special team comprising five from the CBI and one from the Income Tax department was today constituted by the Supreme Court to examine the contents of tapped telephonic conversations of corporate lobbyist Niira Radia with politicians, corporate honchos and others. A bench comprising justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhaya said the working of the team will be supervised by...

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DRDO says it has capability to produce VVIP choppers

NEW DELHI: With the deal for procuring VVIP choppers from AgustaWestland facing the prospect of being scrapped, DRDO today said it has the capability to manufacture such helicopters even though it contended that producing anything entirely indigenously was impractical."We have the capability to manufacture any system. We are manufacturing LCH (Light Compact Helicopter). We have already manufactured...

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UPA won't return to power, Sharad Yadav says

BHOPAL: The Congress-led UPA government was "mired in corruption" and had "failed on all fronts", and there was no way it could return to power at the Centre after next general elections, NDA convener Sharad Yadav said on Tuesday. "The UPA government has been hit by one scam after another during its second tenure. There is no doubt that it has failed on all fronts and it would not return to power...

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British PM David Cameron seeks 'special' relationship with India

MUMBAI: British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday began his India visit seeking a "special relationship" between the two countries, saying it is "about the future and not the past" for which sky is the limit. "I want Britain and India to have a special relationship...this is a relationship about the future, not the past," Cameron said in his first public engagement here-- an interaction with...

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Markandey Katju is biased must quit resign from Press Council of India, Arun Jaitley says

NEW DELHI: BJP leader Arun Jaitley on Sunday asked Press Council of India (PCI) chairman Markandey Katju to quit, saying a person holding the post much be impartial. The Bharatiya Janata Party leader made the demand after accusing Katju of attacking non-Congress governments in Bihar, Gujarat and West Bengal on the basis of "his political preferences". In an article on the BJP web site, Jaitley...

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Sushilkumar Shinde should clarify on Arun Jaitley surveillance issue: BJP

NEW DELHI: Condemning the "unauthorised surveillance" on its leader Arun Jaitley, BJP on Saturday said it will not take things "lying down" and asked home minister Sushilkumar Shinde to clarify on who ordered the collection of his call details.BJP president Rajnath Singh also termed the issue as "serious" and demanded that all those involved in the incident should be brought to book. "Further investigations...

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Govt to scrap Rs 3,546 crore Finmecccanica chopper deal

NEW DELHI: The Rs 3,546 crore deal for 12 AgustaWestland AW-101 helicopters is going to be scrapped. The defence ministry on Friday initiated action for cancellation of the contract inked in February 2010. It issued a formal show-cause notice to the UK-based subsidiary of Finmeccanica to explain within a week why the contract should not be cancelled. The Times of India had reported on Thursday that...

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TDP leader Chandrababu Naidu falls, suffers minor injuries

HYDERABAD: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader N Chandrababu Naidu suffered minor injuries when a makeshift dais collapsed while he was garlanding a statue in Guntur district on Thursday, a party leader has said.The incident took place at Kolakaluru village in Guntur district during Naidu's 'padyatra' (march).A TDP leader said Naidu escaped with minor injuries to his leg as his security guards tried...

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2G scam: Rajnath Singh demands widening of probe

RAIPUR: Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) president Rajnath Singh on Wednesday demanded widening of the scope of a probe into prosecutor-accused collusion in the 2G spectrum scam case saying he suspected involvement of more influential people. "A detailed probe is needed to find out who all were behind revealing the prosecution strategy with one of the accused. Even there may be some ministers and officers",...

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Father wants son out of Kerala cabinet

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala Congress (Pillai) leader R. Balakrishna Pillai Tuesday asked Chief Minister Oommen Chandy to drop his (Pillai's) son and minister K.B. Ganesh Kumar from the cabinet.The father and son have been at war for over a year. A letter making this demand was handed over to Chandy by an aide to the senior Pillai.Ganesh Kumar is the forest, sports and cinema minister.At a meeting...

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Railways struggling to deal with Kumbh rush as stampede toll reaches 36

ALLAHABAD: Frantic relatives mobbed officials on Monday seeking information about victims of Sunday's stampede which has claimed 36 lives even as the railways had a tough time dealing with the rush of three crore Kumbh devotees thronging the city. There were chaotic scenes at the railway station and local hospitals here treating the 39 injured in the tragedy with relatives running from pillar to...

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