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But Prime Minister Man- mohan Singh will have to worry about whether he will be able to run his government for the next four years after alienating some of the parties supporting the UPA from outside -- the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Samajwadi Party (SP) and pos- sibly even the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which are implaca- bly opposed to passing the bill.

These parties have 27 MPs in the 245-member Rajya Sabha (effective strength 233) and 46 in the 543-member Lok Sabha.
Their withdrawal of support would leave the UPA with 274 members in the Lok Sabha (excluding Speaker Meira Kumar and Madhu Koda, who is in jail).

With 272 members needed for a majority, any further loss in numbers could make the passing of financial bills, includ- ing the Budget, harder in the Lok Sabha.

Source: Hindustan Times HARD CHOICE: Women's Bill: Cong In Bind ,If Passed, Party Will Lose Allies It May Need Later

Some members of Parliament, assemblies and other elected representatives have not sent in their share, forcing the party leadership to issue the warning.

Last week, treasurer Motilal Vora wrote a stern letter to all members, through general sec- retaries in-charge of states and the state unit chiefs, that the requisite sum be deposited either with the central office or the Pradesh Congress Committee, or the state party panel, as the case may be.

At present, party members from Bihar are vulnerable as the state goes to the polls this year.

"Such a sword should always hang," said All India Congress Committee (AICC) leader Keshava Rao, who is in charge of West Bengal, where elections are due next year.

Vora's letter, sent with party chief Sonia Gandhi's approval, is in line with the report of Manmohan Singh committee on party finances that was adopted in 2002. Party MPs, legislators and salaried mem- bers of boards and autonomous bodies are required to donate a month's salary for party fund, it says.

Every AICC delegate has to pay Rs 600 annually and a Pradesh Congress Committee member Rs 300. It is Rs 200 for a year for lower rung.

Source: Hindustan Times No ticket, Cong warns `defaulting' members

Apart from them, the high-profile list includes parliamentarians, former MPs and bureaucrats. Details of unauthorised occupants of government accommodation were given by the Central Public Works Department in reply to a RTI query by activist Subhash Chandra Agrawal recently.

While the family of V P Singh continues to hold on to a bungalow in Teen Murti Marg, Mr Jethmalani, a minister in the NDA regime, retains a house on Akbar Road. Ms Chaudhury and Mr Ashwini Kumar, ministers in the previous UPA regime, and former Samajwadi Party MP MP Saleem Sherwani occupy bungalows in the posh Lodhi Estate. Mr Tytler is overstaying in a house on Gurudwara Rakab Ganj road. NCW member Manju Snehlata Hembrom is overstaying in government accommodation at Chanakyapuri.

The government has failed to get the occupants to vacate these accommodations even 10 months after the Lok Sabha elections. The RTI applicant had asked the government why it had not taken recourse to forcible eviction, as it was done in a couple of cases including that of RPI's Ramdas Athawale. The urban development ministry's directorate of estates replied that such steps would be "taken under the provision of Public Premises Act when considered necessary."

Source: Economic Times VIPs Turn illegal Occupants In Lutyen's

Nearly 800 out of the 4,400 BJP delegates who were made to put up in tents during the party's three- day national council and executive meeting in Indore felt under the weather.

A total of 518 party members visited the allopathic health centre at the conclave venue, while 225 participants sought ayurveda or unani remedies to treat their ailments.

The common complaints ranged from headache, body ache, cough and cold to diarrhoea as well as other gastrointestinal problems. Also, medical advice was largely sought by those who stayed in ordinary tents as against the VVIP ones.

" Most patients who suffered from fever, cold, body ache and gastro- related problems had come from faraway places such as Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Himachal Pradesh," L. R. Shrivastav, one of the doctors on duty, said.

During the three- day stay, many participants staying in tents had a harrowing time because of mosquitoes and the stiff breeze.

On Wednesday, the first day of the meet, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan was seen demanding more mosquito repellent to keep the bugs at bay. And BJP president Nitin Gadkari sought extra blankets to shield himself from the chill.

" I wish the mediapersons had stayed here to see how we have forsaken five- star comfort. I had to use two blankets at night," Gadkari said. He added that he was unable to sleep for two nights because the tent walls were too thin to provide protection from the cold winds.

Source: Mail Today By Anup Dutta Swollen Sickbay At BJP's Tent Meet

Antony's re- election from Kerala is almost certain. But the same cannot be said about others such as highprofile Union ministers Ambika Soni, Jairam Ramesh, Anand Sharma and M. S. Gill.

This is because the Prime Minister may reshuffle his council of ministers to synchronise with the Rajya Sabha elections.

Intense lobbying for re- election has already started as the Congress does not have enough votes to get them re- elected from the states they come from.

This has put commerce minister Anand Sharma, who represents Himachal Pradesh and will retire on April 2, in a spot.

The party does not have the adequate strength in the state and hence he is trying to get into the Upper House from either Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra or Assam.

Former petroleum minister and 10, Janpath loyalist Satish Sharma, too, faces a similar predicament. The Congress does not have the numbers in Uttarakhand to get him re- elected.

From Punjab, information and broadcasting minister Soni, sports minister Gill, Ashwini Kumar, D.P. Sabharwal, Varinder S. Bajwa and Naresh Gujral will retire. The party can get only two of them re-elected.

Since Punjab has the highest Scheduled Caste population in India, Congress insiders want Sabharwal, a Dalit, to be re-nominated. This means only one more can get the ticket.

source: Mail Today By Kay Benedict Cong ministers face uncertain RS future

According to a senior government official familiar with the matter who did not want to be identified, this follows last week's decision, by the cabinet, to accept the recommendations of the 13th Finance Commission (TFC). The cabinet's decision means the government, in effect, has accepted TFC's blueprint for fiscal consolidation that revolves around a new expenditure management strategy which ensures commercial viability of projects and also tackles the problem of burgeoning subsidies. It also means a reaffirmation of the govern ment's disinvestment agenda and an endorsement of a three-year transition to a sin gle goods and services ta (GST) regime.

The acceptance of TFC's rec ommendations signal the gov ernment's return to fiscal rec titude, a move that is signifi cant in the context of the dra matic fiscal slippage in 2009-10--to 6.8% of gross do mestic product (GDP).

While one dimension of the Budget will reflect the recom mendations of TFC, another will reaffirm the government's inclusive agenda, particularly with respect to financial inclu sion--a recent study of the Re serve Bank of India found that nearly 70% of rural households do not have access to institu tional credit of any kind--and food security.

TFC is a statutory body tasked with suggesting ways in which taxes should be shared between the federal government and the states. The report is expected to be tabled in Parliament on 25 February.

The commission, chaired by former finance secretary Vijay Kelkar, was constituted in 2007 and its terms of reference expanded in August 2008 to "suggest a suit ably revised road map with a view to maintaining the gains of fiscal consolidation through 2010 to 2015".

anil.p@livemint.com

Source: Live Mint By ANIL PADMANABHAN Disinvestment strategy:  UPA Set To Roll Out New Fiscal Reforms

In a note issued last month, the expenditure secretary had informed the ministries about an amendment to the rules regarding the sanction of foreign trips of officials. Previously, foreign tours of the officials, irrespective of their rank, had to be approved by the minister concerned. According to the amended rules, officers of joint secretary rank and above will require prior permission from the minister while the trips of director and under secretary-level officers can be approved by the secretary of the ministry. Since the number of junior level officers is larger in number, the new order ends up giving greater powers to the secretary. "This amounts to clipping the wings of ministers," remarked a senior UPA minister, adding that these are among the few powers, which a minister enjoys.

Officials pointed out that a minister could punish or reward a bureaucrat through his powers to write their annual confidential reports, transfers and sanction of foreign trips. However, the well-entrenched bureaucracy has been slowly chipping away at the powers of politicians, which has created tension between the two.

Source: The Tribune By Anita Katyal Ministers upset over grading guidelines

The petroleum ministry's proposal, which could increase inflationary pressures on the economy, entails raising the prices of diesel, petrol, cooking gas and kerosene by as much as Rs2 per litre, Rs3 per litre, Rs50 per cylinder and Rs3 per litre, respectively, overturning decades of control by the government to shield consumers from global market fluctuations. Petroleum minister Murli Deora said his ministry will send its recommendations on the fuel pricing proposal on Wednesday to the cabinet for discussion.

Home minister P. Chidambaram told reporters that the issue was not discussed at the Congress' core committee meeting on Wednesday, which was also attended by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her political secretary Ahmed Patel, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, defence minister A.K. Antony and law minister M. Veerappa Moily.

State-owned oil refineries have sought the easing of the controls that pull down their earnings, though they are compensated in part through oil bonds given to them by the government. The removal of price controls would help private sector oil marketing companies such as Reliance Industries Ltd, Essar Oil and Shell India that so far haven't been able to match the subsidized prices at which state-owned refiners sell fuel.

Source: Live Mint By LIZ Mathew & Utpal Bhaskar Congress hedges its bets on fuel price increase

The publicity blitzkrieg appears prompted not just by the runaway success of the Bharat Nirman campaign before the 2009 Lok Sabha elections but also the recognition that credit for central schemes should not be usurped by state governments.

As part of its new outreach strategy, the Press Information Bureau (PIB) has envisaged public information campaigns that will encourage direct contact with the aam aadmi with particular focus on rural areas. According to the proposal drawn up, campaigns currently at about 100 a year will be increased substantially to ensure that every district in the country is targeted at least once in three years.

Issues that are likely to be top of the mind include rural employment guarantee scheme, education through popularising the Right to Education law, infrastructure, civil nuclear energy deal and women's empowerment.

The campaigns itself are likely to be outsourced while PIB's role will be reserved for monitoring, evaluation and organisation. Sources said the budget has been increased substantially from Rs 9.50 crore to over Rs 14 crore for 2010-2011.

Interestingly, Satav has a political lineage. His mother Rajni Satav is a former Minister and Maharashtra Women's Commission chairman. He got into politics because of his mother's influence, which even reportedly worked to get him a ticket. Last year, Satav fought Assembly election from Kalamnuri constituency in Hingoli district of Maharashtra.

The decision was taken by Rahul, who is AICC general secretary in-charge of the Indian Youth Congress and the NSUI, after meeting the office-bearers of the Youth Congress. Satav, an MLA from Kalamnuri in Maharashtra, replaces Ashok Tanwar, the MP from Sirsa.

Party sources said that Rahul Gandhi held discussions with a large number of office-bearers of the IYC from different States before arriving at the decision to make Satav the new president of the organisation.

Sources said that the decision is clearly weighed by the party's desire to promote an OBC from a State other than Haryana, UP, Bihar or rest of north India. Satav is the third Youth Congress chief from Maharashtra. He has been preceded by Mukul Wasnik and Gurudas Kamat. A senior leader said, "There was also a view in Youth Congress that Rahul's coterie of confidantes is dominated by Thakurs or Rajputs - like Kanishk Singh, Bhanwar Jitendra Singh and even Digvijay Singh." Satav's selection is seen as an attempt to allay such complaints.

The 35-year old Satav beat other youth leaders, including two-time MLA from Khilchipur in MP Priyavrat Singh and Raja Amrendra Singh from Muktesar in Punjab.

Speaking in Guwahati yesterday, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat came out in support of north Indians facing attacks in Mumbai. "Mumbai is for all Indians," Bhagwat said. "Whole of India is for all Indians and all Indians can earn livelihood anywhere in India."

"Language, caste, sub-castes, groups, tribes can be different, but all are sons of India," the RSS chief said, adding that "this is a misconception that employment has decreased at our place (Maharashtra) because of migrants... A solution to this grievance should be found, but the solution is not that you refuse people of your country to migrate to your area."

Today, RSS leader Ram Madhav went a step further.

"The Sangh Parivar has asked its volunteers in Maharashtra to try and prevent the spread of anti-north Indian and anti-Hindi feelings," Madhav told reporters in Jabalpur.

The RSS, Madhav said, was opposed to discrimination on the basis of language, and demanded steps to check disturbances on the issue. "There should be no discrimination on the basis of language," he said in reply to a question. "The Sangh is of the strong view that India is one from Kashmir to Kanyakumari."

In Mumbai, former Maharashtra chief minister and senior Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi reacted sharply.

"The time has come to remind RSS that Mumbai belongs to Marathi people only and they should get priority here," Joshi said. "Mumbai's glory is due to hard work of Marathi people and they have full right over the city."

Source: The Indian Express Now RSS says Mumbai for all Indians, Sena disagrees

The absence of manpower threatens the execution of the well- thought out proposal of ` one- man- one- post', which was given the vote of confidence by general secretary Rahul Gandhi.

The Congress central team includes nine general secretaries, eight state in- charges and 39 secretaries. Of them, eight ministers are doubling up as office- bearers.

Last week, All- India Congress Committee ( AICC) general secretary Oscar Fernandes said the party would appoint new senior office- bearers as many of the posts were now held by central ministers. Fernandes said a reshuffle of the AICC " was due".

Party sources said apart from manpower scarcity, the much-awaited AICC revamp was being held up by the delay in the shuffling of the Union council of ministers by the Prime Minister. Both have to be synchronised for effective use of available leaders, a party insider said.

Shortage of dynamic leaders is telling in key states such as Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. Compounding the problem, the party is facing acute factionalism in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh (especially after the death of chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy), Goa, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.

Source: Mail Today By Kay Benedict Manpower shortage hits revamp plan of Congress

Tenure of 65 Rajya Sabha MPs is ending this year between April and August. Of these, 24 (including Shivraj Patil who is now a governor) belong to the Congress. But the ruling party is in a position to win only 17 seats on the basis of its legislative strength in the states.

This means that the Congress tally, which stands at 72, will come down to 65.

The party is expected to decide after a couple of weeks who it will renominate and from where. This could require some reshuffling. For instance, the Congress will draw a blank in BJP-ruled Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand from where it had got Anand Sharma and Capt Satish Sharma elected.
In Bihar, R.K Dhawan was elected with the RJD's support.

Representing 14 states, the 24 MPs also include seven who complete their tenure in April.
The remaining will complete their term in June and July.

The Congress members whose tenures are ending are from Andhra Pradesh (5), Punjab (4), Assam, Karnataka, Maharashtra (2 each), Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Bihar and Jharkhand (1 each).

The party hopes to win three seats from Andhra Pradesh and Punjab, two from Rajasthan and Maharashtra and one from Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

It's learnt that the decision was taken at the highest level in the state because flag hoisting was seen as a ``needless provocation'' to separatist and extremist elements, who have for years been throwing stones at paramilitary forces positioned there. Signifying a shift in security strategy, it was felt by the Omar Abdullah government that there was no traction to be obtained from such symbolic gestures.

Flag hoisting at Lal Chowk began at the height of militancy in the state in 1991 when BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi took out the `Ekta Yatra' from Kanyakumari to Srinagar, ostensibly to symbolize India's assertion in an area where Pakistani flags were seen in a grim reminder of separatists' defiance. Security forces used to have their own Republic Day celebration at Lal Chowk and distribute sweets, which would be followed by the hoisting of the Tricolour on the Clock Tower at the centre of the market. The ceremony now seems to have passed into history.

He is struggling with the burden of five inept Union ministers belonging to the Congress's alliance partners.

And there is precious little he can do because severing ties with them would be akin to snapping the coalition government's lifeline.

Nationalist Congress Party ( NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee, DMK leaders A. Raja and M. K. Alagiri and NCP leader Praful Patel form the ` infamous five'. Key ministries such as food, agriculture, civil supplies and consumer affairs ( Pawar), railways ( Mamata), telecom ( Raja), chemicals and fertilisers ( Alagiri) and civil aviation ( Patel) have lost sheen because of their abysmal performance.
And the biggest " non- performing asset" in the UPA could be Pawar.

He made the government see red not only with his inability to control rising prices of essential commodities but also with his penchant for periodic forecasts. He has often ` predicted' rise in the prices of rice, sugar and milk products in the recent past, allegedly helping hoarders to stock up on food products.

A Mumbai- based Pawar watcher and financial consultant alleged that the profit of big sugar companies have increased up to 1,000 times in the past six months. Share prices of these firms have registered a 300- per cent increase.

But the consumers and farmers remain the worst hit.

The analyst said: " Despite the bumper production of wheat, he ( Pawar) created artificial shortage." During portfolio allocation, Pawar had bargained hard and retained the agriculture ministry in UPA II. He also forced the Congress brass to club food, civil supplies and consumer affairs with the agriculture ministry to derive " maximum benefit". Another analyst said Pawar was able to influence a number of cooperatives, including those of sugar and milk, to his advantage and " profit" by clubbing all the four departments.

Mamata, too, has been labelled a " non- performer" eight months into the railway ministry. The Congress is reportedly deeply concerned about Mamata's lack of interest and initiative in the ministry which she took over from Lalu Prasad. A case in point: of the 15 cabinet meet ings held recently, Mamata skipped nine. She is a ghost figure in Rail Bhawan and often remains holed up in Kolkata.

Source: Mail Today Inept Allies Bog Down UPA Govt, Non- Performers Leave Cong Red- Faced But PM Can't Do Much About It