-The Hindu Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat on Wednesday demanded an independent inquiry into the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report, which has pointed out serious lapses and wrongdoings in the Rs. 52,000-crore farm debt waiver scheme. Ms. Karat was talking to journalists at the party office here, before resuming her programme of “Sangharsh Sandesh Jatha,” which began from Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar on March 4. She said...

-The Times of India The Cabinet on Thursday will consider a Bill providing for time-bound delivery of services like pensions, passports, caste certificates, ration cards and tax refunds with a penalty of Rs 250 a day subject to a maximum of Rs 50,000 for default. The right of citizens for time-bound delivery of goods and services and redressal of grievances Bill is to be enacted under the concurrent list, which means all...

-IANS On the defensive after its personnel were caught on camera thrashing a young woman in public in Tarn Taran district, Punjab Police Tuesday said that it was "examining all evidence" of the incident. Punjab Police Director General of Police (DGP) Sumedh Singh Saini told media here: "Whatever the facts may be, whatever the provocation, it was wrong to raise a hand or lathi (cane baton) on a lady." Saini said two police...

-Live Mint Evasion of duty of over Rs.50 lakh to be made non-bailable offence; arrest provisions under service tax proposed The government may find itself in hot water on budget proposals that make duty evasion beyond a certain threshold a non-bailable offence, allow arrest on suspected withholding of service tax, and provide tax authorities powers to recover dues from a defaulter’s bankers.   Although finance minister P. Chidambaram in his budget presentation on 28...

-The Hindu “The purpose of a Budget – and the job of a Finance Minister,” P. Chidambaram declared in his speech, “is to create the economic space and find the resources to achieve the socio economic objectives.” Now that the presentation of and the spate of initial responses to the budget are behind us, it may be appropriate to ask how far the Minister went in accomplishing his self-defined task. Mr. Chidambaram...