The MCD contractors, who have been on strike protesting against pending payments of their dues for the past 18 months, have now threatened to bring their counterparts involved in the Games-related projects within the ambit of agitation. They had earlier been claiming that CWG contractors have been kept away from the strike, which began on July 21, in “national interest”.

The pressure to show that projects are being completed in time for the Games has begun telling on the civic agencies and others related to the Games extravaganza as they seem to be on a spree of declaring a stadia “inaugurated” even when several crucial works remain. The Sunday fiasco of inaugurating a leaking weightlifting stadium, CPWD officials maintain, may have been avoided had they been allowed three or four more days.

Delhi BJP leaders on Monday held a protest at Jantar Mantar in the city against the alleged corruption in the projects of the Commonwealth Games.
The Delhi BJP’s protest was led by the city unit chief Vijender Gupta and other senior leaders.

In a major deviation from past practise, Costa Rica’s Christiana Figueres, who is heading the United Nations climate talks, has demanded that nations strive to take small steps to achieve their goals rather than attempt an all-encompassing deal to stop global warming. This statement is bound to have strong repercussions in the ongoing five-day summit, especially since the developing countries feel the need for developed nations to adhere to a stricter regime.

The BJP is in a dilemma over the caste census issue. With the RSS opposed to the issue and a section within the party strongly supporting it, the party, it was learnt, is likely to favour inclusion of caste in the Census but would refrain from going into details of the individual castes. The party is likely to favour broad category of castes like

The meeting of chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday ended without even preparing a roadmap for a permanent solution.

The Centre on Monday in the Supreme Court said clear no to giving permanent commission to women officers of Indian Army in “combat” and other tough services but yielded to give the benefit to them with retrospective effect in the judicial and education service.

Facing intense public criticism for “mishandling” the Bhopal gas tragedy case, the CBI on Monday finally filed a curative petition in the Supreme Court for restoration of the charge of “culpable homicide not amounting to murder” against the UCIL top brass, who got away with a lighter punishment of two years despite causing the death of over 5,295 innocent people and permanent multiple ailment to 5.68 lakh others.

Amid allegations of costly purchases, hiring and jacked up contracts in connection with the Commonwealth Games-2010, the revenue intelligence agencies have now begun probing how the Organising Committee’s (OC) own budget for conducting the Games went up from Rs 737 crores in 2005-06 to cross the Rs 2,000 crore-mark, an increase of about 300 per cent.

Jet Airways, JetLite and Jet Airways Konnect on Monday announced closure of all check-in counters 45 minutes prior to departure in the six metros of Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kolkata from August 4 instead of the earlier 30 minutes.