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Dhawan, Karunakaran dropped as Congress reconstitutes CWC

         New Delhi: The Congress party today reconstituted its Working Committee, inducting 23 new members. Former chief ministers of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh Ashok Gehlot and Digvijay Singh have been made general secretaries.Congress leaders K Karunakaran and R K Dhawan have been dropped, while Jyotiraditya Scindia is the only under 40 representative in the CWC, but as a special invitee. The old guard, however, still holds fort, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and senior Congress leaders Arjun Singh, Ahmed Patel, Ambika Soni, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Natwar Singh being included. Margaret Alva, Mohsina Kidwai, Motilal Vohra, Mukul Wasnik, Pranab Mukherjee, Salman Khursheed, Satyavrat Chaturvedi, Shivraj Patil are also part of the CWC. G Venkataswamy has been appointed Congress Deputy Leader of Lok Sabha, while Karan Singh will be the deputy leader for the ruling party in the Rajya Sabha. Pawan Kumar Bansal is the party's chief whip in the lower hose of the Parliament with Krishna Tirath as his deputy. Special CWC invitees include Subbarami Reddy, Krishna Tirath and Wasim Ahmed. Among the permanent CWC invitees are Ajit Jogi, Buta Singh, Karan Singh, Solanki Janardhan Reddy, Oscar Fernandes, SM Krishna Ramesh Chennithala, Lalthanhawla.

Montek formally takes over as Deputy Planning Commission chief (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today administered the oath of office and secrecy to the non-civil servant and non-minister members of the Planning Commission. Montek Singh Ahluwalia was sworn in as the Deputy Chairman of the Commission. Other members who took the oath include Kirit Parekh, BL Mungekar, Syeda Hamid, Abhijit Sen, Anwar-ul Hoda and BN Yugandhar. Immediately after taking oath, Ahluwalia said the Commission had played a crucial role in the development of the country, as "historically, the Finance Ministry has never done the allocation (for plan expenditure)." The Commission, he said, would lay due emphasis on allocation for social sectors, infrastructure and rural development and even restructure plans for their development. Noting that development did not just mean spending the money, he said it required making efforts and having the right policy in place. The full Planning Commission will be meeting for the first time later in the day. Chaired by Manmohan Singh, it will review the entire funding pattern of development programmes and explore the possibility of direct funding to panchayats. The meeting assumes significance as it is being held after the Chief Ministers' conference on Panchyati Raj and rural development during which the Prime Minister had expressed the need for a revamp of rural development programmes.

Jamir takes over as Goa Governor (Go To Top)

          Panaji: Former Nagaland Chief Minister S C Jamir was today sworn-in as the Governor of Goa, a fortnight after the sacking of his predecessor Kedar Nath Sahni. Jamir was administered the oath of office by Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, A P Shah in the presence of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, members of the state cabinet and other dignatories at Raj Bhavan. Talking to reporters here after the swearing-in ceremony, he refused to comment on the Union Government's decision to sack four governors and also denied that he had received any demands for the dismissal of the BJP-led government in the state. "I am here to help the Chief Minister. I am a Governor now, not a politician and am here not to play politics," Jamir said. "I have been in politics for 46 years. I wanted to take some rest and that is why I have chosen a place like Goa where I can take rest and also help the people," he added.

VHP protest against fresh Godhra riots probe (Go To Top)

          Godhra (Gujarat): Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) activists marched through the streets of Godhra today to protest against Railway Minister Laloo Prasad's departmental probe order into the Godhra carnage in which over 50 people were killed. "The statement that the railway minister Lalu Prasad Yadav gave in Parliament to announce a fresh probe into the Godhra riots is nothing but a farce. The statement has been made especially to release the Godhra riots accused," claimed senior VHP leader Shambhu Prasad Shukla. Former Rajya Sabha MP Gopal Singh Solanki said that Lalu's order was aimed at that the forthcoming assembly elections in Bihar and to woo Muslims.