SC wants fixed tenure for babus
Tells political bosses to refrain from giving verbal orders to civil servants
New Delhi, October 31
In a move to protect IAS officers against the whims and fancies of ruling parties and improve governance, the Supreme Court today directed the Centre and the states to set up within three months Civil Service Boards (CSBs) to provide guidance on their postings and transfers and disciplinary action against them. IAS officers should also be provided a minimum tenure of service at each place of their posting, the apex court ruled.

Patna Blasts
Suspect excapes from NIA custody, ‘re-arrested’ in UP
Lucknow, October 31
Terror suspect Meher Alam, accused of involvement in Sunday's Patna serial blasts and who escaped from the custody of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), was arrested in Kanpur late Thursday. While police officials refused to comment on the high profile arrest, sources said he was picked up from the Sapt Kranti Express headed for Delhi.

UP clash: DGP admits to lapses

A forensic team collects samples in Muzaffarnagar’s Mohammad Raisingh village, on Thursday. The UP Police chief admitted to lapses on the part of the force. — PTI Details on Nation Page

HC quashes Punjab warehousing corporation chief’s appointment
Chandigarh, October 31
The SAD-led Punjab Government’s brazen attempt to reward politicians for changing loyalties has backfired. The government was today left red-faced after the Punjab and Haryana High Court quashed the appointment of businessman-turned-politician Joginder Pal Jain as the Punjab State Warehousing Corporation Chairman.

After losing their daughter to social stigma, Jind family wants to migrate
Jind, October 31
The fire charred her body, but it liberated her of the “shame” she feared the most: that of being forever seen as a “rape victim”. All of 16, Meena (name changed) believed she couldn’t live with the stigma and immolated herself in the courtyard of her paternal uncle’s house in a village in Jind district on October 6 last year after she was gang raped.

Khurshid to take up truce violations with Pak
New Delhi, October 31
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid will raise with Pakistan Prime Minister’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz the continuing ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops along the LoC when the two meet here on the margins of the ASEM (Asia-Europe Meeting) Ministers’ Conference to be held at Gurgaon in the second week of November.

Indira was wrongly advised on Bluestar: KPS Gill Blames PMO, but takes no names in his biography Gives clean chit to Army New Delhi, October 31 More than 29 years after the controversial Operation Bluestar in June of 1984, Punjab’s former Director General of Police Kanwar Pal Singh Gill has claimed that then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi would not have allowed the operation, but was wrongly advised to do so as it was presented as the only option by her advisors.