Many bureaucrats in Sashtri Bhavan where the fertiliser ministry is housed are totally disenchanted and disgruntled over the unique behaviour of the union minister of fertilisers.
The presidential order paves the way for Sonia Gandhi's re-appointment as chairman of the National Advisory Council, a post that has the rank of a Cabinet minister.
The assembly elections in the states of Haryana, Maharashtra and Arunachal Pradesh will be held in a single phase on October 15, and the Election Commission (EC) is likely to take a final decision on the matter by Tuesday, say sources in the EC.The EC is also expected to hold a press conference next week to announce the schedule.EC staffers are busy making draft notifications, which will be sent by special couriers to the governors of the election-bound states.
In a sudden development, Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday sought the views of senior Congress leaders, over the recent diplomatic developments involving Pakistan and United States.Gandhi, after hearing Bharatiya Janata Party's opposition to the End-Use Monitoring Agreement with the US, decided to seek the opinion of senior Congress leaders about the issue.Congress president Sonia Gandhi is understood to have discussed the Indo-Pak join statement with them.
Gopal Krishna Pillai, senior Indian Administrative Service officer of the 1972 batch, is going to be the next Union Home Secretary. Pillai, who is serving as the Union Commerce Secretary, will take over from current Union Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta in mid-June. Gupta is slated to be appointed as the governor of Tripura.
Pulok Chatterjee, a long time loyalist of the Gandhi family and Dr Manmohan Singh, is likely to succeed K M Chandrasekhar as the Union Cabinet Secretary from January 2010. Chatterjee has served as the district magistrate of Rae Bareli and later worked with Sonia Gandhi, when she was the Leader of Opposition, during the National Democratic Alliance regime. When the United Progressive Alliance came to power, Chatterjee was made the Joint Secretary in PMO.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has said that the Kashmir issue was a political problem that could not be resolved by administrative or security measures.Calling for good relations between India and Pakistan as they directly impact peace in the state, he said his people's primary focus remains on a lasting solution to the Kashmir problem through political means, with participation of all stakeholders.
Senior Bhartiya Janata Party General Secretary Arun Jaitley on Friday dismissed speculations about Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi becoming a challenge to the party's prime ministerial candidate L K Advani. "Politics is not so juvenile that Anil Ambani or Sunil Mittal can get anybody in the PM's seat," Jaitley affirmed while talking to reporters at the BJP headquarters in Delhi.
Actor-turned-politician Chiranjeevi met Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswamy in New Delhi on Monday to seek a common symbol for his party Praja Rajyam. Chiranjeevi, who was accompanied by former union minister P Shivshankar, submitted a memorandum to the Election Commission, requesting that the rules for issuing a common symbol be amended. As per the EC's rules, a regional political party needs to secure six per cent of the votes and two elected representatives.
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