Civil aviation minister Praful Patel on Friday blasted delays in according environmental clearances for the Navi Mumbai airport project and said that one cannot be “overly obsessive like developed nations” (about adoption of the strictest environment standards). Expressing his “anguish” without naming environment minister Jairam

The Supreme Court on Friday warned the private professional institutions in the country against lacking in faculty standards despite charging high fee from the students and even threatened closure of those institutions not adhering to the set standards.

Claiming an unprecedented unity of the Opposition parties, JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav on Friday appealed to all the trade unions, youth organisations to lend their support to the July 5 Bharat Bandh called by more than 13 parties. However, the RJD-LJP in Bihar combine and BSP in UP have gone separate ways to protest the hike in the petroleum products.

In what smacks of sheer lack of sensitivity, Lok Sabha MP Anurag Thakur was busy celebrating his appointment as Bharatiya Janata Party youth wing chief on Thursday just a few kilometres away from a village in Himachal Pradesh mourning for a young man who died in the Maoist massacre of CRPF jawans on Tuesday.

Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi may be eyeing a role at the national level but he will have virtually no role in the Assembly elections in five major states next year.
These states are West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India’s stepping up the pace in its bid to seal suspended IPL chairman Lait Modi’s fate and Saturday will be be the first big step towards that end.

The immense popularity of cricket in India is giving the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee sleepless nights. OC chairman Suresh Kalmadi on Friday sought the intervention on the sports ministry to convince the Board of Control for Cricket in India to reschedule India’s two-match Tests series against Australia to avoid a clash with the 11-day extravaganza.

In a freak incident, a Delhi police head constable died at the Connaught Place police station here when the service revolver of another cop went off accidentally on Friday at around 11.15 am, the police said. The deceased has been identified as T.P. Illyas, 49, a native of Kerala, residing in Malviya Nagar. He was posted with the armorial team of New Delhi police district and looked after the training of new recruits and maintenance of arms.

Technology will assist security personnel in keeping a hawk’s eye within and outside the Commonwealth Games venues. The Commonwealth Games Organising Committee is putting in place technology systems at each stadium for electronic surveillance.

A victim of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Jagdish Kaur, who lost five family members including her husband, on Friday told the court of additional sessions judge (ASJ) Sunita Gupta that the police was allegedly hand in glove with rioters and remained a mute spectator to the ongoing massacre.
“Delhi police was with the killer rioters and I have no faith in them,” said Ms Kaur, deposing before the ASJ.