Harish Rawat sworn in as new Uttarakhand CM

Union Water Resources Minister Harish Rawat was sworn in as the eighth Chief Minister of Uttarakhand.
 
Mr.  Rawat was administered the oath of office by Governor Aziz Qureshi at Raj Bhawan lawns along with a 11-member Cabinet all of whom were ministers in the Bahuguna government.

Rawat's name was approved by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, senior party leader Janardhan Dwivedi told reporters here after a five-hour-long meeting of the Congress Legislature Party. Rawat was Union Cabinet Minister for Water Resources.

Nepal and India have amended a bilateral transit treaty

Nepal and India have amended a bilateral transit treaty to facilitate the export of goods from a third country through India.

only goods of Nepalese origin were allowed to be exported through India to third countries. The amendment to the "export procedure" in the Memorandum to the Protocol to the Treaty of Transit of 1999 will facilitate the transit of goods of third country origin exported from Nepal, said a statement issued on 31-01-2014 by the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu.

This restriction has now been removed and now goods of non-Nepalese origin would be allowed transit through India for export to third countries.

It will also allow the movement of diplomatic cargo exported from Nepal and transiting through India.

Harish Rawat sworn in as new Uttarakhand CM

Harish Rawat, a Union Minister, was on  01-Feb-2014 sworn in as the new Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, succeeding Vijay Bahuguna who was asked by the Congress high command to step down in a bid to boost the party's prospects ahead of the April-May Lok Sabha polls.

India’s first monorail takes off in Mumbai

The Chief Mininster of Maharashtra , Mr. Prithviraj Chavan inaugurated country's first Monorail in Mumbai after years of delays and overcoming many a operational hiccups

  

commercial operations of the 8.9-km first phase connecting Wadala-Chembur stations on the northeastern fringe of the megalopolis will commence tomorrow with the first train leaving the Wadala station at 7 AM,", said Chavan after inaugurating the service.

He said the second phase will take a one more year for completion

The service will be open to public for regular commuting from tomorrow.

The central Government proposes 2-yr tenure for IAS, IPS, IFoS officers

According to new rules aimed at checking political interference, the central Government proposes minimum 2 year tenure for IAS,IPS and IFoS officers. However, they can be transferred by Civil Services Board to be constituted by states under the new rules circulated by Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) of the central government.

 

Officers of the three premier services IAS, IPS and IFoS will now spend a minimum of two years in each posting,

States have now been mandated to constitute a Civil Services Board, which is to be headed by the chief secretary. However, the competent authority may reject the recommendation of the Civil Services Board by recording the reasons for the same. For transfer and postings of Indian Administrative Service officers, the board will have the senior-most Additional Chief Secretary or Chairman, Board of Revenue or Financial Commissioner, or an officer of equivalent rank and status as member, and Principal Secretary or Secretary of the Department of Personnel in the state government, as member secretary. For the posting and transfer of Indian Police Service officers, the board will have two more members Principal Secretary or Secretary, Home, and the Director General of Police. For Indian Forest Service officers as well, the board is to have two additional members Principal Secretary or Secretary, Forest, and the state's Principal Chief Conservator of Forest. "All appointments of cadre officers shall be made on the recommendation of the Civil Services Board," state the rules, which were notified by the DoPT

Union cabinet gives green signal to changes in OBC list

Based on the recommendations of the National Commission for Backward Classes, the Union Cabinet gave its approval for making amendments in the Central List of OBCs in respect of 60 castes in 13 states by way of inclusion, correction, deletion of these castes and communities.

The amendments will notify 115 changes recommended by the NCBC, an official statement said on Thursday.

The states where these castes and communities belong to are Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal, and three Union Territories of Chandigarh, Delhi and Puducherry.

Vijay Bahuguna quits as Utterkhand CM

According the directions of the  the party high command, Vijay Bahuguna, the Chief Mininster of Utterkhand , submited his resignation to Governor Aziz Qureshi.

It is widely believed that Union Minister Harish Rawat has emerged as a strong contender to succeed him.