Every passing day makes it clear that the proposed food security law may not come by for a while. One report quoting the Planning Commission even suggested that it can be expected only in 2012. This Twelfth Plan (2012-17) launch has support from the concerned dual Ministry of Agriculture as well as Food, Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution. In that eventuality it does mean a surge in food insecurity.A dispassionate...

List silent on charge sheet against CVC Thomas in palmolein case The Centre has informed the Supreme Court that sanction for prosecution is awaited in 126 cases registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act against various public servants including Justice Nirmal Yadav of the Uttarakhand High Court, who has been given a clean chit in the Rs.15-lakh cash-at-door scam during her tenure as judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. On...

Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar today said the government should take note of Ratan Tata’s statement that India risked turning into a “banana republic” and cautioned against the excessive use of the CBI. Pawar’s statement came in the middle of a CBI crackdown on an alleged bribes-for-loans scandal involving several top financial officials and real estate players in Maharashtra. Another real estate project, which was once associated with Pawar’s relatives, has been...

Friday’s Supreme Court rap to “uncle judges” who favour lawyers related to them has opened a Pandora’s box, with state-level lawyers’ bodies claiming to be flooded with phone calls from citizens and moving to mount pressure on the courts. Several state bar councils plan to meet or write to chief justices and the Centre, armed with resolutions urging judges to seek transfer if they have relatives practising law in their courts....

The Centre has nixed a demand from Delhi MLAs for a sharp 300 per cent salary hike. The Union government sent back the proposal saying a pay revision isn't due in Delhi until 2012 and the proposed conveyance allowances are way over the top for a small state like Delhi. Law and justice minister Mangatram Singhal confirmed that the Centre had indeed shot down the move.''The Centre has said a revision is...