The Supreme Court on Friday slammed Communications Minister Kapil Sibal for his remark that the official auditor's report was "utterly erroneous" in assessing the loss on award of telecom spectrum at Rs.1.76 lakh crore ($40 billion). "It is unfortunate," said the apex court bench of Justice G.S. Singhvi and Justice A.K. Ganguly. The court said the minister must be more responsible and directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to proceed with...

The West Bengal Government has constituted a medical board to decide on the beneficiaries of compensation in the firing in Netai village in Lalgarh on January 7. While Rs. 2 lakh would be paid to those killed in the firing on a crowd of villagers, allegedly from the house of a CPI(M) leader, Rs 1.5 lakh would be paid to those critically injured and Rs 50,000 to persons with less grave...

Even though the Central Government agreed to link the wages paid under MG-NREGA to the Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labourers (CPIAL), it shied away from paying statutory minimum wages in various states of India. Their logic for this: Lack of clarity on who will bear the extra financial burden—the Centre or the states? A letter from the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to UPA and NAC Chairperson Sonia Gandhi dated 31...

“Government callous to plight of people groaning under spiralling prices of food items” Nine political parties, including four Left parties, on Thursday announced a week-long nationwide agitation against price rise. The United Progressive Alliance government was callous to the plight of people groaning under spiralling prices of food items, they alleged. “We have decided to jointly conduct a week-long agitation against the price rise from February 3 to 9. During the...

Mamata Banerjee today asked the government to withdraw its decision to decontrol oil prices, the demand coming on a day arch-rival Left announced a weeklong protest from early next month over the petrol price hike. Both spoke of the burden on the masses as the bitter enemies rehearsed for poll battles ahead: in Bengal, where Mamata is looking to topple the Marxists, and in Kerala, where the ruling Left is on...