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EC countermands Mainpuri polls

      New Delhi: The Election Commission today countermanded the October 13 by-election in Mainpuri Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh and said that the polls would now be held on December 20. The decision to this effect was taken after a two-member EC team had visited the constituency and collected all records and had reported incidents of large-scale rigging, booth capturing and intimidation of voters, EC spokesman A N Jha announced. These included the diaries maintained by the presiding officers and registers, in which the details of voters and ballot papers were maintained for an examination by the Election Commission. Earlier on October 18, a four-member EC team was sent to Mainpuri to verify opposition parties' complaints of large- scale irregularities during the October 13 bye-election. Following the complaints, the EC had stopped the counting of votes.

Fiery Bharati is now under the weather (Go To Top)

      New Delhi: Suspended BJP leader Uma Bharati was reported as being unwell on Thursday and has been advised rest, sources close to her said. A doctor is understood to have visited Bharati at her Vasant Kunj residence and advised her to take rest, the sources said here. Former party general secretary and Sangh Parivar ideologue, KN Govindacharya was among those who met her this morning. Swadeshi Jagran Manch All India Convener Murlidhar Rao also met her.

Taslimuddin granted bail (Go To Top)

      Patna: Union Minister Mohammed Taslimuddin was on Thursday granted anticipatory bail by a local court in connection with a cheque-bouncing case. The move came in view of a compromise reached between the two rival sides after the RJD leader had made the payment of Rs 2.42 lakh towards purchase of a vehicle. The District and Sessions Judge (Patna) S K Sharma allowed Taslimuddin's plea for anticipatory bail after a hearing. The Judicial Magistrate had on October 5 issued a non-bailable arrest warrant against Taslimuddin on the complaint of the dealer. The court, while issuing the non-bailable arrest warrant against the minister, had instructed the Superintendent of Police of Araria to execute it immediately and fixed January 20 for the next hearing.

Cabinet approves pension reforms proposal (Go To Top)

      New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Thursday cleared the decks for the long-awaited pension reforms by giving its approval to a proposal to bring in a legislation for setting up a separate regulator for the sector. Announcing the Cabinet decision, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said the new legislation would empower the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority to appoint pension fund managers. Asked if the legislation would be introduced in the winter session of Parliament, he said it was for the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs to decide. The proposed legislation would also lay down guidelines on the number of players, prudential norms, investment criteria and the capital requirement for the fund houses. Government is also expected to consider allowing Foreign Direct Investment in the sector. However, Chidambaram said this issue was not discussed in today's meeting. At present, there is an interim pension regulator, which was set up by the previous NDA regime.

UPA moot postponed following Arafat's death (Go To Top)

      New Delhi: A meeting of the Coordination Committee of the UPA government was postponed on Thursday due to the death of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. The Left parties, who were to attend the meeting, however, said that they would strongly raise the issue of hike in petroleum prices at the meeting whenever it took place. The four Left parties have also sent their written response to the government on its clarifications on FDI in the telecom sector as well as on the draft Patents (Amendment) Bill, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury said here before his deaprture for Ramallah, where he is going to attend Yasser Arafat's funeral. Besides these, the other items on the agenda would be the issue of EPF interest rates and the government's intent to bring an ordinance to provide direct affiliation to minority institutions. "We are opposed to the ordinance route and the government should bring in a legislation when Parliament meets a few weeks from now," he said.

       The Left-UPA Coordination Committee would meet this month and these issues would be on the agenda, Yechury said. On their opposition to oil price rise, he said firstly the global oil prices have now fallen below 50 dollars per barrel and no justification remains for continuing the hike. Secondly, when the administered price mechanism was dismantled by the erstwhile BJP-led government, it was promised that customs duty on petro products would be reduced. This has not been done so far, he said. "Rs 18 out of Rs 40 is the customs duty cost of petrol. If only this duty is reduced, the petrol prices may in fact go down", the CPI(M) leader said, adding that the oil companies were reaping profits due to the increase in prices. The parties are likely to demand rollback in price hike of LPG and diesel as these directly affect commonman.

Crackers worth Rs 50 lakh seized from illegal godown (Go To Top)

      New Delhi: The Delhi police recovered crackers worth Rs 50 lakh after it raided an illegal fireworks godown in North Delhi. Two persons have been arrested in this regard. Acting on a tip off, the police team seized around 17,000 kg of crackers. Police said they raided a godown in Burari on Wednesday night and seized the crackers, besides arresting two persons. According to the police, the main aim of storing crackers was to earn extra money because the accused are whole-sellers and cannot store more than 1100 kg of crackers. But, the police recovered 17,000 kg of crackers from their godown. "Actually we were enforcing unauthorised crackers in our district so as to get to know whether anybody is storing crackers illegally. Today, we got to know that there is a godown storing crackers illegally. Then we raided and opened the godown that was loaded with crackers. After investigation we recovered 17,000 kilograms of crackers worth rupees 50 lakh," said Rajesh Khurana, DCP, North Delhi. He added: "These are all very expensive crackers, including different kinds of crackers. There is more than one metre long Phuljadi, gift packets, Chinese sparkles. We have arrested two persons in this regard," he added.

New banking reform legislations (Go To Top)

      New Delhi: In a bid to carry forward far-reaching banking reforms, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday announced a slew of legislations that would be introduced during the winter session of Parliament, including amendments to the NPA Act and regulation of credit information companies. "Certain amendments to the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act have been necessitated. The Bill has been finalised and we hope to effect the amendments speedily," Chidambaram said addressing the bankers' conference 'Bancon'. "Along with the strengthening of SARFAESI Act, we propose to bring Credit Information Companies Regulation Bill in the winter sesssion of Parliament," he said.