If the telecom companies have their way, India’s over 600 million telecom subcribers will have no where to go if they have a dispute with their service provider. They have so far scuttled any move to have an ombudsman and the telecom department had also rejected the idea of an ombudsman when it was first mooted by the telecom regulatory authority.

With the draft direct taxes code under fire for its proposal to tax long-term savings, among other issues, the finance ministry said Wednesday that a revised draft would be released for public comment within a month, and address these concerns.

India on Wednes-day pressed for a “meaningful devolution package based on the 13th Amen-dment” and announced a slew of measures to aid quicker rehabilitation of Tamils displaced by conflict and to revitalise trade and security ties with Sri Lanka.

The government is planning changes in the law to make divorce quicker and easier for Hindu couples. The Union Cabinet will consider a proposal Thursday to amend the Hindu Marriage Act 1955 and the Special Marriage Act 1954 to make “irretrievable breakdown of marriage” a ground for divorce.

The Bhopal gas tragedy verdict continued to roil the political firmament, forcing the Centre to reconstitute a Group of Ministers on Wednesday to go into a “range of issues” on the world’s worst industrial disaster in 1984, including relief and rehabilitation for the victims. Union home minister P. Chidambaram will head the 10-member body.

In what is giving the government considerable concern in the ongoing battle against the Maoists, it is learnt that following the recent imposition of President’s Rule in Jharkhand the ultra-left rebels have started shifting their operational base from that tribal-dominated state to parts of West Bengal.

The Delhi high court on Wednesday refused to restrain the MCD from sealing unauthorised constructions within Metro station premises in the city.
Justice Manmohan Singh passed the order after going through the petition of the DMRC, which pleaded before the court to give the matter an urgent hearing.

Three persons were injured, one of whom was serious, when they were hit by a overspeeding Chevrolet Optra at New Rajender Nagar in Central Delhi on Wednesday. The driver has been arrested.

Local residents and the Air Force have objected to development of a landfill site at Bawana-Narela in outer Delhi by the MCD on the grounds that it would affect flying of helicopters and make the area inhabitable with foul smell.

In yet another case of daring daylight robbery, four unidentified armed assailants struck at a trader’s shop in northwest Delhi on Wednesday afternoon by holding four staff members hostage at gunpoint and allegedly looting Rs 22 lakhs.