News and Views

Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhara Rao has assured Chief Minister Oommen Chandy that the issues at University of Hyderabad would be settled soon.

The Telangana Chief Minister telephoned Mr. Chandy in response to a letter from Mr. Chandy urging him to end excesses by police and authorities against students of Hyderabad University immediately.

Thiruvananthapuram: Though Congress drew up a preliminary list of candidates, it could not reach seat sharing agreements with UDF constituents such Janata Dal (U) and RSP in talks held today.

Talks with JD (U) had to be aborted following strong disagreement on Janata Dal (U)’s demand for Mattannur and Elathur seats.

The Congress also did not agree with demand of RSP for six seats, though it was willing to concede five. Talks with Kerala Congress (Mani) and Kerala Congress (Jacob) are pending.

The Vigilance and Anti Corruption Bureau has sought clarification on the Cabinet decision to cancel the office order redistributing work.

Seeking clarification on the confusion created by the Cabinet decision on disclosure of information under RTI, Vigilance Director Sankar Reddy has written to the government that the withdrawal of the circular alone would not bring clarity on the matter. The work relating to enquiries against present and former ministers and all India service officers were redistributed and brought under the top secret (T) section for administrative convenience including issue of no-objection certificate to officers.

The BJP has released its second of set of 51 candidates for Assembly elections in Kerala.

The list, approved by the Central Election Committee of Party on Friday with president Amit Shah in the chair include cricketer Sreesanth (Thiruvananthapuram), film director Ali akbar (Koduvally) and actor Bheerman Raghu (Pathanapuram)

Thiruvananthapuram: Seat sharing talks in the UDF is nowhere near closure even as the Congress is planning to take its draft list of candidates to Delhi for approval of Congress high command on Sunday.