Welcoming the Supreme Court’s directives to the CBI and ED to carry out investigations into the 2G spectrum allocation scam, the main Opposition BJP on Thursday however, reiterated its demand for a JPC probe into the scam. The party clarified that Supreme Court’s directives have not diluted its stand favouring a JPC and contended that while the CBI would only investigate the “criminal conduct,” a JPC would look into all aspects of the scam.

The Goa NCP on Thursday evening asked two of its MLAs who are ministers in the Congress-led coalition to resign from the Cabinet after the duo met Congress leaders on Wednesday night, promising support to the party.

The Maharashtra home minister on Thursday said that the state police had no record of any telephonic conversation between Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh and slain Anti-Terrorism Squad chief Hemant Karkare on November 26, 2008.

Blaming the media for blowing out of proportion his claim of talking to slain police officer Hemant Karkare AICC, general secretary Digvijay Singh on Thursday said, his comments were not new and were in consistence with his earlier remarks. He, however, insisted that it is not secret that the police officer, who was killed during 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, was under “threat from Hindu fundamentalist”.

The Gurgaon police is planning to launch autorickshaws exclusively for women on a pilot basis to ensure that women feel safe while on the move. The proposal comes in wake of the gangrape of a BPO employee in New Delhi on November 24.

A 24-year-old labourer accidentally fell from the sixth floor of an under-construction hotel near IGI airport area on Thursday morning and died.
According to the police, the incident occurred at around 11.30 am in Mahipalpur where the building of IBIA, a five star hotel, is being erected by a leading private building construction company. The police has registered a case of negligence against the construction company.

The hearing on the Blueline bus phaseout in the Delhi high court was adjourned till December 21. On Wednesday, the high court had refused to give Blueline bus operators any relief.

The Centre has received intelligence inputs about the Taliban, and other Pakistan-based terror outfits, like the Laskhar-e-Tayyaba, planning strikes at Indian missions and other assets in Afghanistan. New Delhi has requested Kabul to deploy adequate Afghan security personnel at the Indian missions as well as other assets.

Chief minister Sheila Dikshit targeted the firms involved in various Commonwealth Games-related projects on Thursday saying that they compromised on quality despite being paid heavily. “Some of the ‘best’ firms involved in Commonwealth Games projects had cut corners with quality despite having taken ‘so much money’,” she said.

India Inc. and the banks breathed a sigh of relief on Thursday as not only did the Reserve Bank of India not increase any of its policy rates, it also produced a pleasant surprise in the form of a cut of one per cent in the statutory liquidity ratio (SLR), the amount that banks have to keep aside before lending. This means that borrowing will not get expensive. Rising interest rates have been a problem for India Inc.