-The Hindu   Members of various trade unions in the private and public sectors, affiliated to 11 major central trade unions, will stage a countrywide strike on February 28, 2012 against the ‘anti-labour' policies of the UPA-II government. The Railways will be exempted from the protest. G. Sanjeeva Reddy, president of the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), affiliated to the Congress, told journalists here on Tuesday that despite various demonstrations by the...

-The Hindu   Rajya Sabha MP and Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi chaired the 30-member parliamentary panel that presented its voluminous report earlier this month on the Lokpal Bill 2011. The report has points of divergence with both the official Lokpal Bill draft and the Team Anna version. (The Union Cabinet on Tuesday night approved a Bill for the creation of the Lokpal with constitutional status that will have no control over the...

The government’s desperate race to redraft the Lokpal bill in time for passage this Parliament session has left political circles uneasy, with even some Opposition leaders conceding the dangers of lawmaking under such abnormal pressure. The Centre too is squirming at this “indecent haste”, prompted by its keenness to avoid another face-off with Team Anna. But it feels it has little choice in a political climate where “confrontationism” is giving the...

Last week's clash near Posco's project site in Odisha is brewing trouble for the South Korean steelmaker and the state government, with legislators demanding a probe into why the main accused in the clash has not been arrested. State legislators on Monday demanded the immediate arrest of Bapi Sarkhel, a Paradip-based contractor alleged to have masterminded Wednesday's clash, which left one dead and 25 injured. "When the police arrested local...

-Express News Service The government will introduce the Citizens’ Charter Bill in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said on Monday. Once introduced, the legislation, called The Right of Citizens for Time-Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Their Redressal, will be referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee. The move for a separate Bill dealing with the issues covered under the Citizens’ Charter of Team Anna had been...