NEWS AND VIEWS

PUNJAB

HARYANA

JAMMU & KASHMIR

HIMACHAL

REGIONAL BRIEFS

NATION

OPINIONS

LETTERS

BUSINESS

SPORTS

WORLD

SPECIAL COVERAGE

CHANDIGARH

LUDHIANA

DELHI

L A T E S T N E W S

One or two TMC amendments can be accepted: PC

MUMBAI: Indicating that ally Trinamool Congress' demand for total deletion of provisions relating to Lokayukta in the Lokpal Bill may not be easy to meet, Home Minister P. Chidambaram today said the government may accept one or two of its amendments.

Blaming the BJP for Rajya Sabha's failure to pass the Bill on Thursday, he told a press conference here that the government was keen that the Bill was passed in the next session and had "hard work ahead".

"On December 29, they (Trinamool Congress) insisted that they are not satisfied with the proviso and that we must altogether delete part 3. Deletion of part 3 would have gone against the 'sense of the House' statement, which was that there must be a chapter on Lokayukta," he said.

The Minister said the government had thought it had convinced Mamata Banerjee's party in the Lok Sabha when a proviso to Clause 1 sub-clause 4 was added. "But after December 27, they changed their position." "You are right. We failed to convince TMC. But we are confident that in the time between now and the Budget session, we will be able to refine or redraft the provision and carry the TMC with us," Chidambaram said.

Indicating future strategy on the Bill, he said "We may have to refine and redefine. As far as passing the Bill in Rajya Sabha is concerned, we may accept one or two amendments.

It will be the same Bill, with one or two amendments. We cannot accept 187 amendments, it will be unrecognisable Bill." — PTI

Team Anna's core committee meeting postponed

MUMBAI: The core committee meeting of Team Anna, scheduled to be held at Ralegan Siddhi on January 2 and 3, has been postponed due to the Gandhian's ill health, his aides said on Saturday. "The core committee meeting has been postponed due to Annaji's ill health. The date of next meeting will be announced after four-five days," Hazare's aide Suresh Pathare said.

Hazare's associates were to meet at his native village Ralegan Siddhi in western Maharashtra, about 300 km from here, to chalk out their future strategies in fight against corruption. The 74-year-old social activist called off his three-day fast against a "weak" Lokpal Bill mid-way on December 28 due to poor health. He returned to his village the next day.

Knighthood for Indian-origin scientist

LONDON: Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, the Indian-origin scientist whose pioneering work in molecular biology won him the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, has been knighted in the New Years Honours List 2012. Ramakrishnan, a US citizen, is based at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. He has been conferred knighthood "for services to molecular biology", according to an official announcement here.

He will be called 'Sir Venkatraman Ramakrishnan' after Queen Elizabeth confers knighthood on him at a special function at the Buckingham Palace later in the New Year. Born in Chidambaram in Tamil Nadu, Ramakrishnan (58) studied at Baroda University, Ohio University and the University of California, San Diego. Ramakrishnan was awarded Padma Vibhushan in 2010. — PTI