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• The railway ministry, controlled by firebrand West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress, has done a somersault on proposed amendments to the Railway Protection Force (RPF) Act.Faced with the opposition from Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, the ministry was likely to withdraw the proposed amendments.Sources said Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi discussed the issue with the Trinamool chief, who earlier held the ministry before becoming the chief minister. She advised Trivedi to withdraw the amendments, sources said.

• After getting the Union government to put the launch of National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC) on hold recently, the state governments again trained guns at the Centre opposing the proposed amendments to the RPF Act. Jayalalithaa had recently shot off a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, describing the proposal as "another blatant attempt by the government to usurp the powers of the states".Patnaik also joined the chorus against the proposed amendments and wrote to the prime minister, asking him to instruct the railway ministry not to proceed with the move.Earlier, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his Himachal Pradesh counterpart Prem Kumar Dhumal had also expressed their reservations over the issue.The state governments feel the proposed amendment was against the federal structure of the Constitution.

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