SIMI members could be regrouping in Gujarat: official

September 9th, 2009 GANDHINAGAR - The Gujarat government has decided to establish a department of climate change to attract more renewable energy generation projects to the state. A senior official in the chief minister's office here said Wednesday the Gujarat government has already implemented its solar and wind energy policy and will prepare a biomass energy policy now.

September 4th, 2009 GANDHINAGAR - Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is expected to lead a business delegation to Oman later this year to discuss developing a port in the state with the Gulf nation's assistance, an official said here Friday. According to the official in the chief minister's office, Modi has accepted an invitation from Oman's Commerce Minister Maqbool Ali Sultan to discuss trade relations and building a port on Gujarat's coast.

September 2nd, 2009 GANDHINAGAR - Around 15 percent of Gujarat's standing crops have been destroyed because of deficient rains between July 27 and Aug 29, an agriculture department official said. Eleven districts in central and north Gujarat received 40 percent less rainfall for a little over a month after July 27.

August 2nd, 2009 GANDHINAGAR - To probe the alleged nexus between bootleggers and police, the Gujarat government has ordered scrutiny of the service records of the cops allegedly linked to the illicit liquor deaths in the state last month. The scrutiny is being carried out to know if these policemen were earlier posted in any other area in Gujarat where cases against bootleggers had been filed previously.

July 10th, 2009 GANDHINAGAR - Gujarat Assembly Speaker Ashok Bhatt Friday took serious offence when opposition Congress members arrived in the house wearing black dresses as a mark of protest against the hooch tragedy which has so far claimed 110 lives in Ahmedabad. Expressing his anger over the opposition members' black protest, Bhatt said the act was not in good taste and was against the traditions of the house.

July 4th, 2009 GANDHINAGAR - Gujarat agriculture officials met here Saturday to discuss the impact of scanty rainfall on groundnut, cotton and other crops. The state has also readied a contingency plan in case the monsoon eludes till July 10.

July 1st, 2009 GANDHINAGAR - All 41 major and minor ports along Gujarat's 1,600-km coastline have been put on high alert following an Intelligence Bureau (IB) alert that terrorists could target maritime facilities on India's west coast. "All the key ports along Gujarat's coast at Kandla, Mundra and Pipavav were already on high alert after the Mumbai terror attack (of Nov 26) but now even the smaller ports have been put under heavy security cover," a senior Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) official said here Wednesday.

June 30th, 2009 GANDHINAGAR - The Gujarat government is planning to build a 1,460-km pipeline for the transportation of gas from the Krishna-Godavari (KG) fields off the Andhra Pradesh coast to other parts of the country. The state government has submitted a proposal in this regard to the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB), a senior official in the department of energy here said.

June 23rd, 2009 GANDHINAGAR - Amid worries of a delayed monsoon, large parts of Gujarat have received pre-monsoon showers in the 24 hours to Tuesday afternoon, an official said here. A total of 56 sub-districts in 17 districts have witnessed pre-monsoon activity with rains ranging from 3 mm to 10 cm being received during the period, the agriculture department official said.

May 26th, 2009 GANDHINAGAR - A 52 MW wind power plant that Suzlon Energy is executing for Gujarat State Petroleum Corp (GSPC) in Gujarat will be commissioned in September, a state government official said. "The work on the project site in the Kutch region has started.

May 24th, 2009 GANDHINAGAR - Gujarat will shortly contact Sri Lanka following its offer of assistance to set up resorts along the state's 1,600-km coastline. "At the Vibrant Gujarat summit in January, Sri Lankan officials had offered to help us set up resorts on the Saurashtra-Kutch coastline on a public private partnership (PPP) model," a senior state tourism department official said.

April 10th, 2009 GANDHINAGAR - As many as 558 people have filed nominations for the 26 Lok Sabha seats in Gujarat. The nomination papers were filed April 8 and 9, a senior poll official at the State Election Office said Friday.

April 9th, 2009 GANDHINAGAR - Gujarat has sought more paramilitary forces for poll duty, pointing out that the state has been on the terror map, an official said here Thursday. 'As of now, the central government has allotted 100 companies of paramilitary forces for poll duty in Gujarat against the state government's demand for 375 companies considering that Gujarat is a potential terrorist target,' the senior home department official told IANS.

March 30th, 2009 GANDHINAGAR - With exactly a month to go before Gujarat holds elections April 30, poll officials will meet here Tuesday to review arrangements for polling. Deputy Election Commissioner J.P.

March 27th, 2009 GANDHINAGAR - Gujarat Minister for Higher Education Maya Kodnani Friday surrendered before the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which has named her as one of those who led mobs in the Naroda Gaam and Naroda Patiya localities in which 106 people were killed during the 2002 Gujarat riots. Kodnani, who quit from her post Friday morning after the Gujarat High Court rejected her anticipatory bail, was joined by former Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) general secretary Jaideep Patel, who also surrendered before the SIT.