After a long wait and series of meeting with state leaders, Bharatiya Janata Party chief Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday appointed Mr Surya Pratap Shahi as the party’s Uttar Pradesh unit chief.

The operational and logistical preparedness of the CRPF was critically reviewed by home minister P. Chidambaram on Wednesday when he met the CRPF top-brass at the paramilitary forces’ headquarters here on Wednesday.

Former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Wednesday hits out at the regular disruptions of the proceedings of Parliament by stating that “it leads to criminal wastage of huge public money”.
On the criminals entering into politics, the former Speaker said, “This has led to criminalisation of politics or rather politicisation of crime.”

Members of Parliament would soon get parliamentary bulletins and synopsis through e-mail as soon as they get uploaded on the websites.

Kalinga Nagar Industrial Estate, India’s upcoming steel hub, on Wednesday plunged into turmoil with the death of a tribal man allegedly due to police firing. Tension gripped Chandia, Gadpur. Bamiagotha and other adjoining villages as Laxman Jamunda, a 65-year-old tribal, fell to the police bullet. The locals informed that Laxman, a resident of Chandia, was fired from behind while he was trying to flee the village carrying his granddaughter on his shoulder to escape the “police atrocity.”

Top corporates like Tata Power, Jindal Steel and Reliance Energy have lined up to develop infrastructure in rural India for the first time under the revised Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (Pura) scheme.

External affairs minister S.M. Krishna made a strong pitch for increasing trade ties between India and Kazakhstan during a meeting of the India-Kazakhstan Business Forum in the Kazakh capital on Wednesday.

Home minister P. Chidambaram on Wednesday is believed to have expressed his displeasure, when environment minister Jairam Ramesh met him to clarify his position. Mr Ramesh was under fire from Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his remarks against the home ministry’s policies on China. In Beijing, he described home ministry’s policy on China as “paranoid and alarmist”.

In a unique initiative, the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) and the Survey of India (SoI) will map the entire 1500 km coastline to draw up a hazard based mapping process in order to help protect the coastal population from cyclones, tides and tsunami.

Defence minister A.K. Antony asserted on Wednesday that it was the UPA government which had taken a recent policy decision to permit permanent commission for women in more streams in the armed forces but added that he could not ignore the views of the Indian Air Force (regarding litigation by several women petitioners).
The minister was asked whether the MoD would challenge a recent Delhi high court verdict before the Supreme Court.