Delhi

New Delhi, Jul 2 (PTI) A demand to frame a law to regulate fake news and indecent language on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook was made in the Rajya Sabha Tuesday.

Raising the issue through a Zero Hour mention, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said communal riots and societal divide is being created by circulation of fake news on social media.

"Studies have shown that fake news is more dangerous than terrorism," he said.

New Delhi, Jul 1 (PTI) Former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Monday said the 12 and 18 per cent tax slabs in goods and services tax (GST) could be merged going forward as revenues increase, thereby effectively making it a two-tier tax.

Penning a Facebook post on the second anniversary of GST rollout, Jaitley said as many as 20 states are already showing more than a 14 per cent increase in their revenues and do not require the centre to compensate them for revenue loss arising out of GST implementation.

Bhubaneswar, Jun 30 (PTI) Asserting that the Jammu and Kashmir issue was not just related to law and order or security, the Communist Party of India (CPI) asked the NDA government at the Centre on Sunday to spell out what exactly it wanted to do in that state.

CPI national secretary D Raja also accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of "forcing" the regional parties to toe its line and claimed that the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha was "compelled" to support the saffron party.

New Delhi, Jul 1 (PTI) The Supreme Court Monday dismissed a PIL seeking a direction to the Centre to earmark and declare Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Gilgit as parliamentary seats.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi also imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on former RAW official Ram Kumar Yadav for filing the petition and termed it "legally untenable".

New Delhi, Jun 29 (PTI) Upon reopening on July 1 after a six-week summer vacation, the Supreme Court will deal with very sensitive issues, including the Ayodhya land dispute, review pleas in Rafale case and the contempt case against Rahul Gandhi for wrongly attributing to the court his "chowkidar chor hai" slogan.

The top court, which would function with its full judicial strength of 31 judges under the stewardship of Chief Justice (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, is likely to deliver its verdict in the review pleas in Rafale case.

New Delhi, Jun 30 (PTI) As many as 340 infrastructure projects, each worth Rs 150 crore or more, have shown cost overruns to the tune of over Rs 3.3 lakh crore owing to delays and other reasons, a report said.

"Total original cost of implementation of the 1405 projects was Rs 18,09,681.47 crore and their anticipated completion cost is likely to be Rs 21,39,924.38 crore, which reflects overall cost overruns of Rs 3,30,242.91 crore (18.25% of original cost)," the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation's latest report for March 2019 said.

Lucknow, Jun 29 (PTI) As many as 35 office-bearers of Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee resigned from their posts on Saturday continuing the spate of resignations in the party following its Lok Sabha election debacle.

The state unit's senior vice president Ranjit Singh Judev, general secretary Aradhna Mishra Mona, vice president RP Tripathi and many others have resigned taking moral responsibility for the party's defeat, an official release of the party said.

New Delhi, Jun 28; PTI/GANASHAKTI:  The number of women constables in the Railway Protection Force (RPF) is less at present and the government has decided to fill up 50 per cent of the 9,000 vacant posts notified with lady constables, Railways Minister Piyush Goyal said in the Rajya Sabha Friday.

"At present, the percentage of lady constables in RPF is 2.25 per cent. The number (of women constables) is less in the entire Railways. Keeping this in mind, the prime minister gave a direction for recruitment," Goyal said during the Question Hour in the Upper House.

New Delhi, Jun 28 (PTI) The government's fiscal deficit touched 52 per cent of the budget estimate for the full year in the first two months of 2019-20.

In absolute terms, the fiscal deficit or gap between expenditure and revenue, was Rs 3,66,157 crore, as per the data released by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA).

The fiscal deficit was 55.3 per cent of 2018-19 budget estimate in the year-ago period.

Patna, Jun 28 (PTI) Union minister and Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan was on Friday elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Bihar.

He was declared elected and the certificate was handed over to him, Bateshwar Nath Pandey, the Returning Officer and secretary to Bihar Legislative Assembly, told PTI.

The certificate of election was given to him in presence of a host of senior NDA leaders including Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi.