RLD chief Ajit Singh, after meeting the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday, stated that he has been assured of the government bringing a bill to amend the Land Acquisition Act in the coming session of Parliament. Mr Singh led a delegation to the Prime Minister to apprise him of the issue of the farmers in western UP being up in arms against land acquisition by the UP government.

The blame game between the leaders of the two national parties — the Congress and the BJP — on the PAC’s draft report on the 2G scam is violating the spirit of functioning of parliamentary committees which do not function on party lines. While Congress leaders are mounting pressure on the Speaker to reject the report, the Opposition has made Union minister P. Chidambaram the main target of its attack.

Rajya Sabha DMK MP Kanimozhi was on Tuesday exempted from personal appearance for two days in connection with the 2G spectrum scam case by a special Central Bureau of Investigation court which allowed her to appear on May 12 before the Chennai income-tax office to respond to summons for alleged tax evasion.

The government, in order to boost cross-LoC trade in Jammu and Kashmir, is working towards making banking facilities available to the traders replacing the existing bartering system.

The ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) is under great pressure to permit the partial release of Bt brinjal. The 19-member Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) has informally conveyed to the ministry its keenness to introduce the controversial Bt brinjal at the earliest.

The Supreme Court's rejection of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) plea asking for more stringent punishment for the accused in the Bhopal gas tragedy was a "telling comment" on the government's attitude, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said on Wednesday.

In an apparent setback to the campaign for those seeking stringent punishment for the accused in the Bhopal gas disaster, the Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed CBI's curative petition against an earlier apex court judgement that diluted charges against the accused.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday lifted its gag order on the media restraining it from broadcasting and publishing contents of the taped conversations of former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh with top politicians and Bollywood stars.

In West Bengal, the Marxists are out in the cold. Exit polls broadcast by several television channels after the last phase ended in the state on Tuesday afternoon indicated a complete rout of the Left from its strongest bastion, West Bengal, where it has ruled for 34 years. In Kerala, however, it appears to be a neck-and-neck fight between the ruling CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front and the Congress-led United Democratic Front.

India has handed over to Pakistan a fresh list of its most wanted 50 fugitives allegedly hiding in that country which includes runaway don Dawood Ibrahim and some 20 members of his underworld group.