Goa bureaucrats burnt midnight oil to save minister

October 13th, 2009 LUCKNOW - Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Tuesday took a leaf out of Congress's book by prescribing austerity for her cabinet colleagues and senior bureaucrats. In an unusual diktat issued here Tuesday, Mayawati directed her cabinet colleagues as well as top bureaucrats to shun meetings and parties at five-star hotels, with immediate effect.

October 5th, 2009 UK plans cutback on public sector salary increasesLONDON — The British government plans to freeze the salaries of top bureaucrats and offer only minimal increases to other senior workers in an effort to control the country's spiraling deficit, a treasury official said Monday. Another government official said the plan would effect about 750,000 public sector workers, including doctors, judges and senior bureaucrats.

August 11th, 2009 Obama defends health care effort against criticsPORTSMOUTH, N.H. — President Barack Obama is defending his health care overhaul against criticism that it would be a government takeover.

August 4th, 2009 PANAJI - The Goa government is in consultation with the central government over creation of a separate cadre of civil servants for the state. "The possibility of having our independent cadre of IAS (Indian Administrative Service) and IPS (Indian Police Service) officers is being explored in consultation with the government of India," Chief Minister Digambar Kamat said in a written reply tabled in the assembly Monday.

July 16th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra Thursday said Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi's house in Lucknow was "conveniently" ransacked and set ablaze by members of her own party to divert attention from the derogatory remarks she had allegedly made against Chief Minister Mayawati. "Making a comment of offering a sum of Rs.1 crore (to Mayawati) is an absolutely shameful act.

July 1st, 2009 Calif. Senate fails to break budget deadlockSACRAMENTO — The California Senate has shut down for the night after failing to approve a stopgap plan to stave off the need for IOUs and ease the state's $24.3 billion budget deficit. Voting largely along party lines, the Senate rejected three bills designed to save $5 billion, including $3.3 billion in education funding cuts that had to be enacted by midnight Tuesday.

May 4th, 2009 KATHMANDU - As Nepal's first Maoist Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda announced his resignation in a televised address to the nation after an escalating quarrel with allies and President Ram Baran Yadav, a senior minister in the outgoing cabinet blamed India for the debacle, saying New Delhi's bureaucrats had committed an 'enormous blunder'. 'India supported the army and the president in their unconstitutional acts against democratic forces,' Maoist Finance Minister Baburam Bhattarai told IANS.

May 2nd, 2009 JALALABAD - Trying to strike an emotive chord on the issue of female foeticide in Punjab - a state with one of the worst sex ratios in the country - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday called upon people of the prosperous state to wash the blot of killing daughters. 'I am the proud father of three daughters.

April 27th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Supreme Court Monday ordered a special probe panel to investigate the role of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and top state officials in the 2002 communal riots and submit a report within three months. A bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and Justice Asok Kumar Ganguly also ordered the Raghavan Committee panel, headed by former CBI Director R.K.

April 21st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Former chief election commissioner N. Gopalaswami said Tuesday, a day after demitting office, that bureaucrats don't need to resign when their recommendations get rejected because they send 'thousands of files' of which some get accepted and some don't.

April 20th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Supreme Court Monday decided it will hear in May a lawsuit that alleges delay in sanction by the Kerala government to prosecute former state power minister and Communist Party of India-Marxist state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan in a corruption case. The aex court had initially declined to hear the public interest lawsuit and dismissed it.

April 20th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Supreme Court Monday decided it will hear in May a lawsuit that alleges delay in sanction by the Kerala government to prosecute former state power minister and Communist Party of India-Marxist state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan in a corruption case. The aex court had initially declined to hear the public interest lawsuit and dismissed it.

February 25th, 2009 JAMMU - Two former bureaucrats are among 17 candidates in the fray for the March 7 elections to the Jammu and Kashmir legislative council, or upper house, for which the last day for filing nominations was Tuesday. Seventeen candidates filed their nominations papers for the elections to the 11 vacant seats in the legislative council, an official said.

February 25th, 2009 JAMMU - Two former bureaucrats are among a host of candidates in fray for the March 7 elections to the Jammu and Kashmir legislative council, or upper house, for which the last day of filing nominations was Tuesday. The Congress has fielded B.R.

February 6th, 2009 CHANDIGARH - The Punjab government Saturday announced the setting up of a commission of eminent personalities, including academics and retired bureaucrats, to help reform the state. Setting up the Social Development and Governance Reforms Commission, the Punjab government hopes to bring in reforms in its existing system to put the state back on the path to progress, officials said here.