-The Hindu An important bill that seeks to protect women, including domestic workers, from sexual harassment at workplace was passed in the Lok Sabha on Monday, even as the House witnessed din and disruption over coal blocks allocation for the ninth day. The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Bill, 2010, was passed without discussion, as BJP members stood in the well, shouting slogans demanding the resignation of...

-The Times of India The government may be standing firm against scrapping coal block allotments to private companies but a high-level official panel for monitoring progress in these mines is pitching for largescale de-allocation to "defuse the current crisis" over Coalgate. "Out of the 90 coal blocks allocated to private players since 1993, 60 coal blocks with 6.7 billion tonnes (estimated reserves) valued at nearly Rs 2 lakh crore can be cancelled...

-Outlook Partha S. Bhattacharya, who was the chairman and managing director of Coal India Ltd (CIL) between 2006 and 2011, is credited with turning around the PSU. He spoke to Arindam Mukherjee on the heat and dust generated by the CAG report on allocation of coal blocks to private players. Excerpts: * Should the government allow the private sector into coal mining? There is plenty of coal for everyone. We are, at the...

-The Hindustan Times The coal-block allocation scandal is increasingly looking like a sequel to the 2G spectrum scam as far as the behaviour of the companies involved is concerned. As was with the telecom scam, many of the “coalgate” companies that cornered the government-allocated resource — like the spectrum — have used it to raise money from the market at hefty valuations. Promoters of more than 10 companies are believed to have...

-PTI CBI has sought more time from Central Vigilance Commission to submit its status report on its probe into alleged irregularities in coal blocks allocation and utilization.  CBI, which has registered a preliminary enquiry after receiving a reference from CVC, could not finalise its report in three months time frame because of "complex nature" of the case, agency sources said.  They said a three-month time limit, which expired on August 31, is a...