L A T E S T      N E W S

Mamata rules out compromise

KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday gave no indication of resiling from her decision to withdraw support to the UPA government when she ruled out any compromise on her demands for roll back of the major reforms decisions taken by the Central government. 

“I will stick to my position, come what may... the (TMC) ministers will tender their resignations,” she told reporters, a day after she announced withdrawal of support and pull out of ministers, if the government does not go back on its decisions. 

Rejecting Finance Minister P. Chidambaram’s statement in Delhi on Wednesday morning, she told reporters that nobody from Delhi contacted her before or after the Centre took the decisions to hike diesel price, cap supply of subsidised cylinders and allow FDI in retail. 

“Minimum 24 cylinders should be given to a family in a year. How many times you will keep raising the petroleum prices? FDI in retail should be withdrawn,” Banerjee said. 

She said on September 14, 2012, the day the Union Cabinet took the decisions on FDI, she had told Congress president Sonia Gandhi that her party was opposed to these decisions. 

Recalling that the statement of former Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee that FDI in retail would not be implemented unless a consensus in reached among political parties, she said this is a commitment that the government adhere to. 

The West Bengal Chief Minister said the government should implement any decision on FDI in retail only after a legislation is passed in Parliament in this regard. “FDI, we are not... we will organise protest everyday.” (sic). 

Last night, Banerjee had announced that her party would withdraw support to the UPA and pull out its ministers in protest against the economic decisions. She said she could reconsider her stand if the government slashes the diesel price hike of Rs 5 by Rs 3-4 per litre, withdraws the decision on FDI totally and raise the cap on supply of subsidised LPG cylinders. 

Earlier in the day, Banerjee said a section of channels were spreading “misinformation” and “trying to create confusion”. 

“If I have something new to say, then I will let you know directly. I will reiterate that we have taken a decision, which is ‘of the people, for the people and by the people’ -- and also pro-people. We stand by it,” Banerjee said in her post on Facebook. 

“Again a section of negligible channels is spreading misinformation and disinformation at the behest of certain vested interests,” she said. 

“Always I have noticed that, whenever a strong stand is taken for the cause of the common people, such section tries to malign and create confusion. It is better not to trust such rumours, gossips and planted news,” the West Bengal Chief Minister said. — PTI

SP's flip-flop on meeting on future strategy

New Delhi: The Samajwadi Party today did a flip-flop, with its chief Mulayam Singh Yadav saying the party's Parliamentary Board would meet tomorrow to decide future course of action in the wake of the Trinamool Congress withdrawing support to the UPA government, but it was denied hours later.

"Tomorrow there is a meeting of the Samajwadi Party's Parliamentary Board. We will take a decision there," Yadav told reporters this morning when asked what the party would do in the wake of Trinamool Congress deciding to withdraw support to the government.

Hours later, SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav asserted that no meeting was planned for tomorrow.

"There is no meeting of the Parliamentary Board tomorrow.

There are no plans whatsoever to convene the Parliamentary Board," he told reporters after meeting Yadav.

Ram Gopal's statement came after he and another senior party leader Kiranmoy Nanda met the SP chief to discuss the political scenario following TMC's move to pull out of government.

Earlier, Mulayam Singh Yadav criticised the government, saying its policies had added to the burden of the common man and its "obstinate attitude" will weaken the Congress.

"We want wisdom should dawn upon the government. What have you (the government) given to the people apart from inflation and corruption? There is so much burden on the common man, so much burden on the farmers," he said.

Asked if the attitude of the central government was coming in the way of its smooth functioning, the SP chief said, "This obstinate attitude will only go on to weaken it (Congress). Due to this attitude, the Congress party will become very weak". — PTI

Cong-ruled states to increase LPG subsidy cap
from 6 to 9 cylinders

NEW DELHI: The Congress has asked party-ruled states to raise the cap on subsidised cooking gas cylinders from six to nine, it was announced on Wednesday.

The decision was taken by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi at the party's core group meeting here.

"Wherever we have a government, they will get three more LPG cylinders at subsidised prices," party general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said after the Congress Core Committee meeting.

This was also reiterated by Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni, who said the Congress chief had told party-ruled state governments that they should raise the cap on subsidised cooking gas cylinders by three cylinders at the rate of Rs 399 a cylinder.

Non-subsidised cooking gas cylinders shall be made available at Rs 750 a cylinder.

Last week, the government capped availability of subsidised cooking gas cylinders per family to six per year. The decision evoked immediate opposition from UPA allies, the opposition parties and various sections of society. — IANS

Long-range strategic missile Agni-IV test-fired

Balasore: India on Wednesday test-fired its nuclear-capable strategic missile Agni-IV with a strike range of about 4000 km from a test range off Odisha coast.

It was test launched with the help of a mobile launcher from launch complex-4 of ITR at Wheeler Island, about 100 km from here, at about 1145 hours, defence sources said.

A high performance on-board computer with distributed avionics architecture and high speed reliable communication bus and a full Digital Control System were used to control and guide the missile to the target.

“It is equipped with modern and compact avionics to provide high level of reliability,” a DRDO official said.

“The state-of-the-art Ring Laser Gyros based high accuracy INS (RINS) and Micro Navigation System (MINGS) complementing each other in redundant mode have been incorporated into the missile system in guidance mode,” the sources said.

The sophisticated missile is lighter in weight and has two stages of solid propulsion. The payload, with a re-entry heat shield can withstand temperature of more than 3000 degree Celsius, a defence scientist said.

The missile, is undergoing developmental trials by country’s premier Defence Research and Development Organisation.

The last trial of the missile, carried out on November 15, 2011 from the same base was successful. — PTI

Khar to meet Hillary Clinton on Friday

Washington: Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar will meet Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday during which the two leaders would discuss a wide range of bilateral and regional issues, including counterterrorism. 

Khar, who arrived in the US capital on Tuesday on a four-day official visit, was received at the airport by Pak Ambassador to US Sherry Rehman. 

She would hold a series of meetings with top officials of the Obama Administration, lawmakers and address think tanks. 

“Foreign Minister Khar is coming to see the secretary on Friday,” State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said. 

“I’m expecting that the full range of issues we have with Pakistan — bilateral, regional, et certera — will be covered, including our continuing effort to get our counterterrorism activities back up and running fully,” she said. 

From Washington, Khar would travel to New York to join President Asif Ali Zardari to attend the annual session of the UN General Assembly. 

“Secretary (Clinton) and Foreign Minister Khar have had a very strong relationship ever since Foreign Minister Khar took office. I think this is going to be at least their fourth meeting, if not more. Have met in Pakistan, they met in Tokyo, I think we’ve met one other time before, certainly at the UNGA last year. So they have a working relationship together,” Nuland said. 

“They have both rolled up their sleeves to try to stabilize and strengthen the relationship, and I think this is a good opportunity, obviously, for them to take stock of where we are and continue to try to move forward,” the Clinton spokesperson said.

Responding to a question on Haqqani network, Nuland said the US had been focused on its concerns about this terrorist network. 

“We’ve been continuing to encourage further squeezing by the government of Pakistan on the Haqqani network, and, you know, we have now made a full designation, as the secretary announced a week ago,” she said. — PTI