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...

-PTI The CAG probing the NRHM scam in Uttar Pradesh has found anomalies in spending of around Rs 5,000 crore under the scheme in about two dozen districts of the state. The state health department failed to give proper details of spendings worth around Rs 5,000 crore of the Rs 8,657 crore given to the state, \highly placed sources said. The Comptroller and Auditor General submitted a report on its findings to the...

The smart card versus unique identity number battle between P. Chidambaram and Montek Singh Ahluwalia will hit the ground tomorrow at Porthapur village in Andaman and Nicobar Islands when the home minister hands out the first tranche of 2.56 lakh resident identity cards. The resident cards are a rival to the unique identity number conceived by the Planning Commission to establish authentic identification for each resident and cut out corruption in...

—PTI The Bombay High Court on Monday allowed the Times Now news channel to furnish a corporate guarantee instead of a bank guarantee of Rs. 80 crore in connection with the defamation case filed by former Supreme Court judge P.B. Sawant. Times Global Broadcasting Company (TGBC), which runs Times Now, had sought modification of the High Court's September order, wherein it was asked to deposit Rs. 20 crore with the Court, and...

Police claim it's suicide, but medical report establishes signs of torture On the day Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh addressed a public gathering to mark the creation of Sukma district, carved out of Maoist-affected Dantewada, a custodial death in the Sukma police station underlines the difficulty in winning over a disaffected tribal populace in the backdrop of a violent counterinsurgency campaign. Podiyam Mara of Kondre village died in the police station on...