-Express News Service   The report of the Standing Committee on Law and Justice on the Lokpal Bill, which was tabled in Parliament Friday, obviously saw more divergence than convergence, with 17 of the 30 members recording their dissent. In fact, the position of the dissenting three Congress members, Meenakshi Natarajan, P T Thomas and Deepa Dasmunsi, was closer to the Opposition on three important points — they suggested that the Central Vigilance...

A parliamentary committee is set to reject the National Identification Authority of India Bill 2010, inflicting a severe blow to Unique Identification Authority of India chairman Nandan Nilekani and raising doubts about Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's pet project. Former IT czar Nilekani, who holds cabinet minister rank as UIDAI chief, had been keen on the enactment of the Bill so that a statutory National Identification Authority could be established. The Bill,...

-The Economic Times   After agreeing to inclusion of Group C government employees within the ambit of Lokpal, the standing committee on law and justice examining the bill recommended its exclusion from the proposed ombudsman's jurisdiction.  The standing committee, which completed its work on Wednesday after deliberating on various points contained in the draft Lokpal bill, had asked BJP, Left and other members to submit their dissenting notes to the panel.  Members, therefore, were...

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik today slammed the Centre’s move to allow 51 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in the retail sector by demanding immediate scrapping of the UPA’s “ill advised and regressive” retail policy. “In our considered view, this policy is ill-advised and highly regressive. I would, therefore, earnestly request you to reconsider the matter and withdraw this policy immediately,” said Naveen in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Apart...

An Orissa lawmaker, wheelchair bound since Maoists targeted him seven years ago, was shot dead in front of hundreds of people today as he distributed land title rights to villagers in a rebel-infested zone. The afternoon attack was the third by suspected Maoists on Umerkote MLA Jagabandhu Majhi, who was said to have been popular because of his social work. “It might be a Maoist attack. The area falls in a Maoist...