After its senior leaders defied Election Commission strictures over the model code of conduct, the Congress-led UPA government has started working quietly on giving the code statutory backing. If it is successful, complaints pertaining to code violations will go out of the purview of the EC. The “secret” agenda notes circulated for the seventh meeting of the group of ministers (GoM) on corruption, headed by union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, scheduled...

A well-established nexus between coal smugglers, Maoists and a section of police has ensured illegal mining is a thriving trade in the coal belt and it was no different in Bokaro today, barely 24 hours after a cave-in led to the death of five women at Jhungurghuttu, just about 400 metre away from Chandrapura police station. According to an intelligence bureau report, coal mined illegally from areas in Chandankyari, Chandrapura and...

Sending a clear message that the 2G spectrum allocation of 2008 is a scam and not the result of a government policy decision, the Supreme Court today quashed the grant of 122 UAS licences and allocation of spectrum to 12 private companies. Even as the trial in the 2G case progresses in a Patiala House trial court in Delhi, a bench of Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly held...

-PTI Sunil Verma, Project Manager of the Construction and Design Service (C&DS) of the Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam, in the rank of Assistant Engineer, was found dead at his Vikas Nagar residence here on Monday. His name had figured in the alleged irregularities in the implementation of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) schemes. According to Inspector-General (Crime) G.P. Sharma, Mr. Verma, 55, shot himself with his licensed revolver around 8.30 a.m. The C&DS...

The government, the largest owner of landed property in the country, is preparing a comprehensive land sale policy to raise revenues and check corruption in government-owned property deals. The finance ministry will shortly move a cabinet note for bringing in a new uniform policy on 'land alienation' by government agencies, with an eye on removing discretionary powers of individual ministers and bureaucrats, said a government official. In big cities, large tracts...