The CPM’s top leadership has advised comrades in poll-bound Bengal to focus on corruption and price rise and how the Centre was playing with the “livelihood of the poor” but warned against targeting Mamata Banerjee personally. “Too much attack” on the rival could prove counterproductive, a top leader said. The decision to concentrate on graft and price rise came as the CPM politburo and central committee met in New Delhi today. Sources...

On the eve of the presentation of the Union Budget by Finance Minister Pranab Mukhrejee, Janata Dal (United) President Sharad Yadav said here on Sunday that his party wanted an agriculture-friendly budget and that emphasis be given to protect the fertile land of the country. “The Budget should take measures to save the agricultural sector of the country for the sake of food security. Steps should be taken to save the...

To many, ecology clearances coming in quick succession first for the 12-million-tonne steel project, including a captive power complex and a minor port that the South Korean Posco is diligently pursuing for close to six years and then for SAIL’s three mining leases at Chiria in Jharkhand appear as history bending revolutions. This is because the ministry of environment and forests, led by environment zealot Jairam Ramesh was till the...

On Monday evening, when the Group of Ministers (GoM) on corruption, headed by Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, meets, it is likely to decide to make a recommendation to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to end all discretionary powers enjoyed by Ministers, informed sources have said. This comes in the wake of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) submitting to the GoM a list of 38 departments in the...

Action plan should be finalised to end scourge before March 2012 A plan of action should be finalised within a month or so with the target of ending the pernicious practice of manual scavenging within the 11th Plan period that ends in March 2012, sources in the Social Justice Ministry said. This was the key outcome of a two-day consultation meeting which concluded here on Tuesday. Jointly organised by the Ministries of Social...