New Delhi, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma and Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has rejected the Parliamentary standing committee's suggestion to delete a clause in the Land Acquisition Bill allowing the government to acquire land for public-private-partnership (PPP) projects Talking to media here, Sharma said that they would be putting up this point in front of the cabinet as it may hamper investments. "You cannot take a view which is regressive, which prevents the rules of manufacturing, which will virtually hamper the investors' sentiments. We have to encourage investors in our economy particularly in the manufacturing sector and jobs will only be created there. I have taken on board fully the concerns of the manufacturing and engineering sectors of the industry and what has been conveyed by captains of the industry," he said. "We will be placing this very firmly before the cabinet because we cannot take any step which in fact goes against the original spirit and de-industrialises this country or brings down industrial growth and investments," he added Sharma also said that he was in touch with Jairam Ramesh on this matter and hopes for a proper ...
Read Full Story

New Delhi, With food silos overflowing, the government has decided to push export of foodgrain. While an in-principle decision was taken at a meeting convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday evening, the details will be thrashed out by the department of food. Commerce & industry minister Anand Sharma said that public sector companies under his charge have been asked to step up the export of foodgrain "on commercial terms" as this will also help the government deal with excess stock of food. He, however, said that no decision had been taken on providing incentives to export foodgrain as the cost of carrying the stock was already high. In April, there was a stock of around 53 million tones of grain, which is expected to exceed 75 million tonnes by next month once the Food Corporation of India's wheat procurement programme is complete. The large pile of grain has added to the government's already bloated food subsidy bill and woes have been mounted by inadequate storage space with tonnes lying in the open. The minister said that Indian Railways has also been asked to provide rakes to move the grain to ports for exports. Public sector companies such as STC, ...
Read Full Story

New Delhi, The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to former IPS officer R K Sharma as it seemed to agree with the Delhi government's petition that Delhi High Court did not take into account vital evidence while acquitting the main accused in the Shivani Bhatnagar murder case. Responding to Delhi government's petition challenging the acquittal of Sharma and others, a bench of Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana P Desai prima facie agreed that the HC had erred in disbelieving a series of recorded conversations between Sharma and his alleged accomplices just because the prosecution could not explain one set of recorded conversations. "The appeal court appears to have not taken into account material evidence," the bench said, after additional solicitor general Harin Raval and advocate Siddharth Dave argued that for the HC not to take into account a series of recorded conversations between Sharma, allegedly the mastermind of the conspiracy to murder Shivani, was miscarriage of justice. Raval showed to the bench the constant telephonic communication between Bhagwan Sharma and R K Sharma, and said the HC had completely ignored this vital piece of evidence. Justices Alam ...
Read Full Story

Dehradun, Union Commerce and Industry minister Anand Sharma today said that the "industrial package" in Uttarakhand was intact and that the BJP was "misguiding" people by claiming otherwise. During a press conference here today, Mr Sharma, when asked to respond to the oft-repeated claim of BJP leadership regarding the UPA government withdrawing the industrial package, claimed that except the "sunset clause" already present in the package regarding excise, all other concessions were in place in the hill state. The BJP government was "misleading" the public, he stressed. He also said if the Congress comes to power, the industry would get further boost and steps would be taken to create employment. He said stress would be laid on setting up food processing units and set up integrated food chain so that almost 60 per cent of fruits and vegetables, which now perishes, could be saved and job opportunities also increased. He also said the Congress would put an end to builder, mining and other mafia which was flourishing in the name of development and looting the state resources. Vital sectors like education, housing, industry, trade and tourism would flourish under ...
Read Full Story

Chandigarh, February 5 (Doaba News Service) The Punjab BJP today decided in favour of a youthful leadership to take the party into the next Assembly elections in two years’ time by “electing” party general secretary Ashwani Sharma as its president. The new president, whose election was said to be “unopposed” by central observer Ram Lal Kovind, who said that all 43 delegates had seconded his candidature, set out to emulate BJP president Nitin Gadkari and said his actions would speak louder than words. Ashwani Sharma, who preferred not to speak about contentious issues only reminding mediapersons that he may be new to them but was 21 years old in the BJP, was quite frank with his party cadres. In this speech after being elected to the top post, Sharma said, “I admit there have been shortcomings in the working of the party in the past three years”. He said the party would have to reach out to the people in the next two years to win their confidence. The new state president also made it known that he did not like politics revolving around photo opportunities. “I would rather like to live in the hearts of party men”, he said while advising legislators and ...
Read Full Story

Jalandhar, February 4 (DNS)- Ashwani Sharma is likely to be the new president of the state unit of the BJP. Party insiders said after holding consultations with senior leaders, the party high command had asked the state unit to elect Ashwani as the president. Other candidate in the race for the post of the president was Kamal Sharma. He is also general secretary of the state unit. At present, the party is headed by Prof Rajinder Bhandari. The BJP president, Nitin Gadkari, held a meeting with members of the state core committee of the party in New Delhi last night. Gadkari also held a one-to-one meeting with all members of the committee. Sources said except one senior leader, all other leaders supported Ashwani. Among those who met Gadkari were Prof Rajinder Bhandari, Manoranjan Kalia, Balramji Das Tandon, Madan Mohan Mittal, Navjot Singh Sidhu and other senior leaders. The main supporters of Ashwani were Kalia, Mittal and Sidhu. Harjit Singh Grewal and Avinash Rai Khanna also supported his candidature . Sources said earlier also, the party had reached on a consensus to elect Ashwani as president last week. However, his election had to be postponed as some senior leaders had ...
Read Full Story

Sangrur, January 24 (DNS)- Acting in a case of deficiency in service, the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum (DCDRF) has ordered the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) to pay Rs 10,000 as consolidated amount of compensation to Gurcharan Singh of Issra village near Dhuri. The forum also directed the CMO-cum-registrar (births and deaths), Sangrur, to issue the birth certificate of Jagtar Singh on the basis of the certificate of the Punjab School Education Board. Member of DCDRF Harvinder Sharma said the complainant Gurcharan Singh had averred that he applied in the CMO office to issue birth certificate of Jagtar Singh depositing Rs 7 as the requisite fee on May 4, 2009. He said repeated visits of the complainant to secure birth certificate turned the exercise futile, despite its dire need. Ultimately, the complainant learnt that the relevant page of entry of birth of Jagtar had been torn. He added that even the educational certificate submitted in the CMO office to prove date of birth, besides in writing by village panchayat failed to yield any result. ...
Read Full Story

Jalandhar, Jan.22 (DNS)- Keeping alive the tradition of Academic Paper Presentation, teachers of CT Public School participated today in the sixth phase. It not only created aplomb but also updated the teaching faculty and enhanced their knowledge in numerous specific fields. At the very outset, Mrs. Anuradha Sharma presented her paper on “Educational Reforms”. She spoke on the Reforms made for class X by the Human & Resource Development Minister, Mr. Kapil Sibal and enlightened the teaching faculty regarding the changes done by him in catering quality education to the students throughout India, and how they can be benefited by these reforms. There after, the next academic papers were presented by Miss Pooja Sharma from English Department. She spoke on the topic Library – and its uses in modern era. Miss Pooja made the audience aware regarding the role of library, its usage by teacher and taught, its history, computerization of library, clipping management, its functioning etc. She accentuated up on the role of librarian in schools and colleges, as librarian is a one who can inculcate reading habits amongst the student community. The Principal of the school, Mrs. ...
Read Full Story