Some projects under the Smart Cities Mission would not be able to meet the June 30 deadline and the respective state governments would be responsible for completing them thereafter, Union Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Housing and Urban Affairs. In its report on the …
After protracted wrangling, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) will on Wednesday begin the second round of audit of Reliance Industries spending on the flagging eastern offshore KG-D6 gas block. CAG officials are scheduled to reach RIL's Navi Mumbai office on January 9 to begin the scrutiny, sources privy to …
During the year, govt also contemplated to open up sector for commercial mining Coal fired a minefield of controversies in 2012, fuelled by CAG estimates of a huge Rs 1.86 lakh crore loss for allocation of coal blocks to business houses without auction which served as fodder to the Opposition …
Chances of the food security Bill becoming a law in the near future have dimmed with Parliament’s standing committee on food not submitting its recommendations in the winter session, which ended on Thursday. “There is no possibility of submitting the report in the winter session of Parliament, as all the …
A parliamentary panel has slammed the Environment Ministry for its "usual buck-passing approach" on conserving rivers and lakes and held it responsible for high levels of pollution in major Indian rivers. In its report tabled in Parliament today, Standing Committee on Science and Technology, Environment and Forests expressed its displeasure …
In a setback for UPA, the much-awaited bill on land acquisition has been pushed back to the Budget session. Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh failed to move the amendments to the land bill after protests from BJP leader Rajnath Singh, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, Trinamool Congress and the …
Asks Coal Ministry to begin allocating mines through bidding route without any time loss Early development of 54 identified mines is necessary to boost the country's coal production, a Parliamentary panel said today and asked the Coal Ministry to begin allocating mines through the bidding route without any time loss. …
Last week, a scathing report by the CAG on the performance of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) was tabled in Parliament. Lasting from 2005 to March 2012, JNNURM was the Central government’s largest ever initiative to address the challenges of India’s rapid urbanisation. The scheme envisaged a …
The government plans to introduce the new land bill in parliament early next week as it seeks to enact a law that gives handsome compensation to displaced persons and requires the consent of 80% of the affected people before any property can be acquired. Under the proposed new law, the …
The committee for strict monitoring of KG D6 block operator The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Gas has expressed its disappointment over the Petroleum Ministry’s failure to initiate penal action against Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) for its failure to achieve the production outlined under the Field Development Plan …
The Cabinet today cleared the controversial Land Acquisition Bill, making it mandatory to seek the consent of 80 per cent of affected landowners in case their land is acquired by private players. The Bill also provides for assent by 70 per cent of affected landowners in case their land is …
Food Security Bill, billed as the UPA government’s flagship programme, is way behind schedule even as the Parliamentary standing committee scrutinising the legislation is racing against time to finalise its report, having received as many as 1.70 lakh petitions. Not only does the committee on food and consumer affairs, headed …
Deploring the government for introducing a cap on subsidised LPG cylinders in an arbitrary manner, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Gas has asked the government to review the cap of six cylinders a household a year. It said such restrictions should not be placed on people having …
Amendments to the contentious land acquisition Bill not only seek to hasten the acquisition process through tight time-schedules but also contain a provision that virtually allows the law to be applied retrospectively to cases that witnessed protests in the past. The union cabinet is due to discuss the amendments to …
Stating that Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) had not granted full access to KG-D6 block records to Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister M. Veerappa Moily, on Tuesday, told Parliament that CAG had said that since full access to KG-D6 records was pending, the Petroleum Ministry should …
‘All the way from basic guidelines to implementation and monitoring of projects’. From basic guidelines to implementation and subsequent monitoring of projects, the Union Ministry of Urban Development’s flagship programme — the Jawaharlal National Urban Renewal Mission — has failed on all counts, says the Comptroller and Auditor General in …
The CAG has pointed out gaping loopholes in the implementation of the JNNURM, the Centre’s flagship urban infrastructure development scheme, ranging from diversion of funds to the tune of Rs115 crore to ineligible beneficiaries getting benefits, inadequate monitoring capacity and undue favours to contractors among several others. The Comptroller and …
With the issue of land reforms and the controversial Land Acquisition Bill dominating the fourth day of the five-day 'Jan Sansad', activists, academicians and hundreds of farmers expressed their reservations on the changes made to the bill-the Right to Fair Compensation, Resettlement, Rehabilitation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Bill- whose …
Last year’s Durban conference marked a breakthrough in global efforts to combat climate change. The EU and India played a key role in the final negotiations that unlocked the final agreement. We found the compromise that provided the basis for launching negotiations on a new global legal framework for climate …
New Delhi: Thanks to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s intervention, the land Bill will see two important changes before it is cleared by the Cabinet and introduced in Parliament. First, there will be a distinction in the consent requirement from landowners/affected people between cases of government acquiring land for public-private partnership …
