Friday, March 2, 2007, Chandigarh, India
Updated at 3:00 am (IST)

Mulayam’s assets: CBI to probe
SC order also puts kin under scanner
New Delhi, March 1
In a severe jolt to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav just before the Assembly elections in the state, the Supreme Court today ordered a CBI inquiry into his and his family members’ assets by way of preliminary inquiry and gave free hand to the Centre to take action based on the agency’s findings.

Prefers judicial review to CBI
In video (56k)
Editorial: Assets or liability?

Badal to retain old faces
12 SAD, 5 BJP ministers expected today
Chandigarh, March 1
It is expected that all 17 ministerial berths in the Punjab Council of Ministers will be filled tomorrow by Parkash Singh Badal. He will be sworn in as Chief Minister. Sources said this decision was taken at a joint meeting of senior leaders of the SAD-BJP combine here tonight.

Editorial: Tasks for Badal

India: The Tasks Ahead
SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT
125TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS,
INAUGURAL SESSION

Vajpayee to miss oath ceremony
Chandigarh, March 1
Low back pain is holding former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee back as senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP)-led NDA will head for the city tomorrow morning to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the SAD-BJP government, headed by Parkash Singh Badal.

Kalam trips at function, but unhurt (Details on Nation page) Gursharan gets ‘Akademi Ratna’ (Details on Nation page) President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam is helped by his aides after he fell at the Sangeet Natak Akademi award-presentation ceremony in New Delhi on Thursday. President Kalam is the second President of India after S.D. Sharma to fall in public.— PTI photo

Din over Q ends in Houses
New Delhi, March 1
With Rajya Sabha chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat taking the lead to end the impasse in Parliament over the Quattrocchi issue, four days of stalemate in Parliament ended today after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told the two Houses that he did not hold any press conference exclusively on the issue and he had no intention to overlook Parliament.

Khanduri to be Uttarakhand CM
Dehra Dun: It took six hours for the BJP to reach a consensus on naming former union minister and sitting MP from the Pauri Garhwal constituency, B.C. Khanduri, as the new Chief Minister of Uttarakhand.
(Details on Nation page)

Bill on communal violence approved
New Delhi, March 1
The Cabinet has approved enactment of a leglistaltion which envisages providing relief and rehablitation to victims of communal violence and speedy dispensation of justice.

Houses of 16 Dalits ransacked

Saalwan (Karnal), March 1 In an alleged attempt to take revenge of the murder of an upper caste landlord certain persons today ransacked and damaged 16 houses of Dalits and burnt household items of three families in the Harijan basti at Saalwan village, 45 km from here this afternoon. A Dalit couple at Saalwan village show their household items burnt by miscreants of the village on Thursday. — Tribune photo by Ravi Kumar

Criminal cases against 20 new MLAs  Chandigarh, March 1 Twenty newly elected MLAs in Punjab have criminal cases pending against them, while another 20 of them are undermatriculates and 36 undergraduates.