The Centre on Friday announced a new scheme for assistance towards damaged movable and immovable property during action by Central paramilitary forces and the Army in Jammu and Kashmir. A home ministry spokesperson said that the scheme is effective from June 3 this year.

In an effort to reach out to the aam aadmi, Union information and broadcasting ministry has decided to promote setting up of community radio stations across the country. The plan is to create awareness regarding government policies and programmes at grassroots levels.

The Centre has decided not to use the armed forces in anti-Naxal operations and is now looking at involving ex-servicemen for de-mining operations and assisting state police forces in the fight against Maoists. After the defence ministry turned down the home ministry’s proposal, including the request for more IAF choppers to ferry

In another revelation in the ongoing controversy over the events post-Bhopal gas tragedy which led to release of former Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson, former Madhya Pradesh home secretary K.S. Sharma on Friday said that then chief minister Arjun Singh may have given directions to officials for his release. He also claimed that despite being the home secretary he was not kept in the loop and “not informed about Anderson’s release”.

An expert panel headed by the Madhya Pradesh additional solicitor-general, Vivek Tankha, will be looking into the legal aspects concerning the Madhya Pradesh trial court verdict on the Bhopal gas tragedy case.

The Congress core group met here late on Friday evening under the chairmanship of party president Sonia Gandhi and is learnt to have discussed issues arising out of the ongoing controversy.

Many of the AICC functionaries on Friday found a friend in BJP leader and Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, as the latter also demanded an explanation from one of his predecessors and senior Congress leader Arjun Singh on how former Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson fled the country. Mr Chouhan, however, also claimed that his government would go to “any extent” to get justice for the Bhopal gas victims.

Two departments of the Union urban development ministry do not seem to be in consonance with each other on whether or not Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar is still the allottee of 6, Krishna Menon Marg bungalow in the New Delhi area.

The Centre put off any decision on deploying the armed forces in anti-Maoist operations with a crucial Cabinet Committee on Security meeting ending inconclusively on Thurs-day. Differences of opinion between the home and defence ministries led to the CCS meeting ending without any clear way forward, sources said. The CCS,

The civil aviation ministry is planning to acquire and install “soft ground arresters (SGAs)” — a type of sand-like material with gravel that is capable of stopping the movement of aircraft travelling at high speed within 30 metres beyond “table-top” runways in the country.