India concerned over SAFTA violations

Voicing concern over Pakistan’s non-implementation of South Asian Free Trade Area (Safta), the government said Islamabad’s Safta notification on July 1, this year, was limited to tariff concessions for India on items in the positive list.

During the Dhaka SAARC council of ministers’ meeting in August this year, India had “very forcefully raised concerns regarding non-implementation of Safta by Pakistan, pointing out that this was a negation of Safta and jeopardised its implementation,” commerce minister Kamal Nath said in the Lok Sabha.
Govt to close down six jute mills

Maintaining that it was incurring a loss of Rs 4,600 crore, the government on Tuesday informed the Lok Sabha that it had decided to close down four sick jute mills of the National Jute Manufacturers Corporation (NJMC) but revive two others.

The two mills to be revived are Kinnison and Khardah for which proposals have been sent to the Bureau for Rehabilitation of Public Sector Enterprises, textiles minister Shankersinh Vaghela said during the question hour.

Rs 20 crore in fake currency seized in three years

Fake currency having a face value of almost Rs 20 crore has been seized in the last three years from different parts of the country, the Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday.

Home minister Shivraj Patil said the menace was not only due to a foreign country, but people within were also involved in the racket.

Bill to regulate private detective agencies in the pipeline

Efforts were being made to bring a Bill in the budget session to regulate all private detective agencies in the country, home minister Shivraj Patil told the Lower House on Tuesday.

“The home ministry has prepared a draft of a Bill which has been sent to the law ministry for its views. We will try to bring the Bill in the next (budget) session of Parliament,” he said during the question hour.