Union ministers Ambika Soni, Ashwani Kumar and AICC spokesperson Manish Tewari figure in the list of Punjab Pradesh Congress Coordination Committee that was finalised along with the lists of other state office-bearers by party president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday.

Amid the private power distribution companies (discoms) asking for power tariff hike, the chief minister Sheila Dikshit on Tuesday stated that the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) would decide on the issue. At the same time power cuts have begun in several areas of the capital as heat conditions intensified in the capital.

Former chief minister and AGP leader Prafulla Kumar Mahanta here on Tuesday said that many IAS officers, who were pro-actively involved in the misrule of the Congress Party, are seeking to flee the state by taking deputation outside the state.

Investigators probing the murder case of Shobhit Modi, who was stabbed to death outside his south Delhi residence last week, are suspecting that his three friends, including two girls, are “trying to hide certain aspects” that could crack the murder mystery.

“Regardless of what the extremist elements of both sides want the world to believe, there is still hope for the Valley and Kashmiriyat,” said chief minister Omar Abdullah in a tweet soon after Aasha Jee became the first Kashmiri pandit woman to be elected a panch from the Muslim-majority Valley on Monday night.

A Delhi court has asked city police commissioner B.K. Gupta to initiate a departmental inquiry against an inspector for allegedly botching-up probe into a murder case that resulted in acquittal of a “dreaded criminal”.

The announcement of the UP Pradesh Congress executive committee has started generating considerable heat in the party circles.
The 51-member committee is filled with regional imbalances and over 20 districts have gone completely unrepresented.

Arrested in the Commonwealth Games scam, former chairman of the Organising Committee Suresh Kalmadi, lodged in a single-prisoner cell in Tihar’s jail number 4, can now make calls to family, friends and lawyers. The Tihar Jail officials on Tuesday announced extended phone facilities to the inmates.

The Congress is confident of forming governments in Assam and Kerala and expects to join a Mamata Banerjee-led government in West Bengal.
The feedback from the five states, after the voting, is encouraging for the Congress Party. Barring Tamil Nadu, the reports from Assam, Kerala, West Bengal and even Puducherry are on the expected lines, well placed sources said here on Tuesday night.

A group unidentified assailants barged into the Muthoot Finance group’s Pandav Nagar branch on Tuesday afternoon and held the staff hostage before decamping with jewellery and cash reported to be worth crores.