Cauvery row: Karunanidhi seeks Sonia's intervention
New Delhi: According to a DMK press release, DMK chief M Karunanidhi has written to Sonia Gandhi to intervene in the Cauvery issue and asked the Karnataka government to release water immediately. The Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs will meet tomorrow to discuss the Cauvery issue. Karunanidhi said all political parties in Tamil Nadu were united on the Cauvery issue.

In the meanwhile, Congress President Sonia Gandhi held discussions in Delhi with DMK and Congress leaders from Tamil Nadu on the Cauvery water issue.
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Jakhar and Bhatia to be Governors of MP and Kerala
New Delhi: Senior Congress leaders Balram Jakhar and R L Bhatia, have been appointed as Governors of Madhya Pradesh and Kerala respectively. A Rashtrapati Bhavan communique said tonight that these appointments will take effect from the dates they assume charge of their respective offices.

Jakhar, a former Lok Sabha Speaker, had lost the recent Lok Sabha elections from Churu in Rajasthan while Bhatia lost to cricketer-turned-commentator Navjot Singh Sidhu in Amritsar. Jakhar, 81, was Agriculture Minister in the Narasimha Rao Government.Bhatia, 83, was Minister of State for External Affairs from 1992 to 1996. He has been elected to Lok Sabha five times.

The two leaders replace R P Gupta (Madhya Pradesh) and Sikander Bakht (Kerala) who died while in office.
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Rajya Sabha polls: The Elders (and losers) file nominations
BJP nominations
New Delhi: Prominent BJP leaders have filed their nomination s fro the Rajya Sabha polls which are scheduled for June 28.
Yashwant Sinha has filed his nomination papers from Jharkhand. Former union ministers Murli Manohar Joshi and Arun Shourie and industrialist Lalit Suri have also filed their nominations from UP.

In Rajasthan, former vice chairperson of Rajya Sabha Najma Heptullah, former union finance minister Jaswant Singh, state chief of the party, Lalit Kishore Chaturvedi and Jat Mahasabha leader Gyan Prakash Pilani have filed their nominations.

BJP President M Venkaiah Naidu filed his nomination for the Rajya Sabha elections to fill one of the four vacancies from Karnataka. Shakuntala Hegde, wife of former state CM Ramakrishna Hegde, also filed her papers as the BJP candidate.

Congress nominations
Chandigarh: Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil who had lost the Lok Sabha elections from Latur in Maharashtra, filed his papers in the state assembly secretariat here.Congress General Secretary Ambika Soni has also filed her nomination papers for the ensuing Rajya Sabha elections from Punjab.

Soni had recently resigned her Delhi RS seat even though she had 18 months left for her tenure. Industrialist M A M Ramaswamy filed the papers with the Legislative Assembly Secretary for one of the seats in Karnataka. Ramaswamy will have an easy win with JD (S) having 58 votes with a surplus of 13, which are expected to be cast in favor of the candidate of its ruling coalition partner.

Congress would have to mobilize the support of 12 more MLAs apart from 13 of the JD (S) to ensure the victory of its second candidate.

Jaya Bachchan files from UP
Lucknow: Noted film actress Jaya Bachchan today filed her nomination papers for Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh as a Samajwadi Party candidate.
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Montek is Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission
New Delhi: The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, has reconstituted the Planning Commission with Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia as the Deputy Chairman, an official statement said here today. Other members of the Commission are Dr Kirit Parekh, former Director of Indira Gandhi Development Research Institute; Dr V.L. Chopra, former Director General of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research; Dr Balchandra Mungekar, Vice-Chancellor of Mumbai University; Dr Abhijit Sen, former Chairman, Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) and at present a Professor at JNU; Dr Syeda Hamid, Member, National Commission for Women; Dr B.N. Yugandhar, former Director, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Institute of Administration, Mussoorie; and Dr Anwar Ul Hoda, former Deputy Director General (WTO) and at present Professor at International Council for Research in International Economic Relations (ICRIER).
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Kanchan Bhattacharya is India's first woman DGP
Dehradun: Kanchan Chaudhry Bhattacharya today took charge as the Director General of Uttaranchal Police and became the country's first woman to head a police force.

Bhattacharya, a 1973 batch IPS has held many important posts including a 10-year-long stint in the CBI. Bhattacharya, who inspired the famous TV serial Udaan, says she will make the police more responsive to the needs of the common people.
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Tata Power files affidavit against CEA report
Mumbai: Tata Power Company has alleged that the Central Electricity Authority report, based on which the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) rejected its claim that Reliance Energy Ltd (REL) should equally share standby charges with it, was biased in REL's favour. TPC has filed an affidavit at the Mumbai High Court accusing both REL and the CEA of "wilfully suppressing" information that the latter is working for Reliance as consultant for a fee of Rs 55 lakh for setting up an FGD plant at Dahanu, where its 500 MW power station is located.

Tata Power said it received this information from the Environmental Association of Dahanu along with copies of documents filed by REL before the Dahanu Taluka Environmental Protection Authority. The MERC had ordered TPC to refund Rs 322 crore to REL for the excess payment of standby charges during 1998-99 and 2003-04. It had asked TPC and REL to bear charges payable to the MSEB for providing standby power to Mumbai on a 77:23 per cent basis.
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Coal price hike to hit steel industry: ISA
New Delhi: The Indian Steel Alliance (ISA) said the upward revision in coal prices by Coal India Ltd would have an adverse impact on the steel industry as a whole. " The prices of raw material, which goes into making of steel, specially coking coal and iron ore, have been continuously increasing, adversely affecting the available margins for the steel industry,'' ISA said in a statement.
It said that even as raw material prices are being increased, consumer associations of steel have been lobbying hard against any hike in steel prices.
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