IT Chandigarh

Chandigarh: The local unit of BJP announced bandh in chandigarh in protest against the decision of J & K government regardint the cancelation of allotment of land to the Amarnath Shine Board.

Chandigarh: The Two month long campaign for panchayat and municipal bodies has come to an end and the elections are again dominated by SAD-BJP. Akalis swept the election in 11 malwa towns.

Chandigarh: Despite being under pressure to make amends in its package of sops to industry in hilly states from other states, Central government departments, including chemical and fertilisers ministry headed by Ram Vilas Paswan and the Economic Advisory Committee headed by C. Rangaranjan (which has also recommended that excise exemption to units involved in contract manufacturing be withdrawn), had postponed any decision on the issue till the Uttarakhand (February 2007) and Himachal Pradesh (December 2007) elections were through.

Soon after the Himachal elections, the Department of Central Excise issued a notification that the excise exemption does not apply to non-manufacturing units in these states.

“The units into packaging were earlier allowed excise exemption as any value addition, by the excise department’s own definition, was a part of manufacturing. Now, after this notification, such units, which are not more than 3 to 4 per cent in Himachal, will not be able to claim exemption. But it would not impact the majority of industries here,” says Rajendra Guleria, chairman of Himachal CII, who sees it as a move to “please other states”.
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Chandigarh: A Week after they were suspended from the Congress for anti-party activities, Bhajan Lal and his two aides, Dharampal Malik and Rakesh Kamboj, today resigned from the Vidhan Sabha. The resignation, however, would be effective from June 1, 2008, they said.

The announcement of their resignation was made by rebel MP Kuldeep Bishnoi at a press conference at Gurgaon, held jointly with Dharampal Malik and Rakesh Kamboj today. Bhajan Lal was not present on the occasion.

At the Rohtak rally on December 2, even Kuldeep Bishnoi had announced his “post-dated” resignation from the Lok Sabha, effective from June 1.

“We felt compelled to resign as we were feeling suffocated under the present government. There is a general dissatisfaction regarding functioning of the Congress party and the state government. Aspirations of the people have been belied. The government has also failed to fulfill the promises made in the party election manifesto,’’ said Dharampal Malik, while talking to The Indian Express on phone.

Malik said they had sent their resignations to Haryana Vidhan Sabha Speaker Dr Raghubir Singh Kadian by fax and through post. Kadian, whose father expired yesterday, could not be contacted as he was away in Jhajjar for the last rites of his father. Bhajan Lal and Kuldeep Bishnoi reportedly held a meeting in New Delhi later today to discuss the matter.
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