Government promises to protect public interest in gas row

September 30th, 2009 Jamaica promises teachers $90M in back wagesKINGSTON, Jamaica — The government of Jamaica has agreed to pay public school teachers more than $90 million in back wages over the next three years. A Ministry of Labor statement says it will distribute $45 million next year and the remainder by 2012.

August 5th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new piece of research suggests that what an organization promises to employees-training opportunities, benefits, compensation, etc.-do not matter nearly as much as what the organization actually delivers. Samantha Montes and co-author David Zweig, professors at the Rotman School of Management and the University of Toronto Scarborough, have found that the influence of promises has little effect on employee's emotional reactions toward the organization, their intentions to stay with the organization, and intentions to engage in citizenship behaviours.

July 25th, 2009 KOLKATA - Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is planning to allow interest rate futures by next month, a senior official said here Saturday. "We are currently working on interest rate futures and the product should be introduced by August-end," M.S.

July 21st, 2009 PROMISES, PROMISES: Private deals on health careWASHINGTON — In cutting deals with hospitals and drugmakers, President Barack Obama is giving a private inside track to special interests that's at odds with his promise to make policy in the open. Obama promised Americans he would hold special interests at arm's length — that it would no longer be business as usual in Washington.

July 21st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Murli Deora on Tuesday said that the Government has decided not to increase the retail prices of kerosene and domestic LPG, in the interest of the common man, particularly the vulnerable sections of the society. Replying to a debate on the call attention notice in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, Deora said that to protect the consumer from the inflationary impact of rising international oil prices, Government has been modulating the retail prices of sensitive petroleum products, including petrol, diesel, kerosene and domestic LPG.

May 23rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - We have made a number of promises and we have promises to keep, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared Saturday at the first meeting of his newly-sworn in cabinet. In doing so, he was harking back to India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru who often cited the last stanza of Robert Frost's immortal poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening that runs thus: The woods are lovely, dark and deep/But I have promises to keep/And miles to go before I sleep/And miles to go before I sleep.

May 23rd, 2009 AONLA - On her first visit here after winning from the Aonla parliamentary constituency, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Maneka Gandhi Saturday vowed to fulfil her poll promises. "I am not like those politicians who forget their promises after winning elections," Maneka Gandhi told a gathering in Aonla in Bareilly district, about 250 km from Uttar Pradesh capital Lucknow.

May 20th, 2009 HYDERABAD - Immediately after taking oath as Andhra Pradesh chief minister here Wednesday evening, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy signed two files related to free electricity supply and low price rice - the two poll promises of the Congress.

April 25th, 2009 Groups ask White House to ease lobbying limitsWASHINGTON — Lobbyists and public interest groups asked White House officials on Friday to drop their ban on lobbyists discussing economic stimulus projects with Obama administration officials, but got no promises the policy would change, participants said. President Barack Obama issued the prohibition last month, saying he wanted to prevent lobbyists from influencing how the $787 billion economic stimulus package is spent.

April 24th, 2009 AHMEDABAD - Ashok Singhal, senior functionary of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Friday said that decades of Congress rule in the country had only brought 'insult' for Hindus and urged people to vote in a government that can 'protect the interest' of the majority community. Addressing reporters here, Singhal, VHP international president, attacked the Congress party for its affidavit filed in the Supreme Court in 2007 denying the existence of Hindu god Ram.

April 13th, 2009 SILCHAR - In a scathing attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress president Sonia Gandhi Monday said the BJP-led government compromised on India's national security by exchanging three terrorists for the Indian Airlines hostages in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in December 1999. 'Today one of them (Masood Azhar who later founded the Jaish-e-Mohammed) is masterminding terror acts in India and you know who was there in the government...it was Lal Krishna Advani who was then the deputy prime minister and also the home minister of India,' Gandhi told an election rally in the southern Assam town of Silchar.

April 9th, 2009 CHENNAI - Cheap rice, free TV, free power, free stove, cash dole... With just a week left for the start of the Lok Sabha polls, it's open season for promises.

March 21st, 2009 LUCKNOW - Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Friday said that she does not believe in releasing a party manifesto, and instead issued 'an appeal' to voters highlighting the achievements of her 22-month-old government. The 32-page appeal to the electorate of Uttar Pradesh, released at a press conference here, read: 'The Bahujan Samaj Party is the only party in the country which believes in doing and not just in making promises, which is why our party does not issue election manifestos.' Reading more like a list of achievements of her government, the appeal aims at urging the Uttar Pradesh voter not to get carried away by 'false promises' of other parties.

March 18th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Amid shifting power equations in Pakistan, former national security adviser Brajesh Mishra said President Asif Zardari could not deliver on promises despite being 'warm' towards India, adding a stronger Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani would be a better bet for New Delhi to deal with Islamabad. 'He (Zardari) was always warm to India ...

January 6th, 2009 BHOPAL - Governor Balram Jakhar Wednesday indicated that Madhya Pradesh may lower the interest rates on farm loans, saying the government was committed to fulfil the promises made to the people. Addressing the inaugural session of the 13th state assembly, Jakhar said the election results in the state showed the people have given their approval to 'my government's determination to build a new Madhya Pradesh'.