Speaking to chief secretaries from state governments at a conference in Delhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said his government has moved forward substantially in tackling corruption, but it has a long way to go.

PM Singh also said he is confident a strong anti-corruption bill will still pass in parliament even though it unfortunately failed in the upper house in December. The bill proposes setting up an independent ombudsman, or Lokpal.

The government has been dogged by several corruption scandals and a recent survey said corruption has cost billions of dollars and threatens to derail growth.

Speaking on growth in the country, PM Singh said the reduced projection of 7-7.5% is due to the continuing uncertainty in the global economy and the need for monetary tightening to curb inflation.

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To the amusement of some in the corridors of power, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has decided to install CCTV cameras in the ministers' chambers in Kolkata.

Officials say there have been frequent thefts in the administrative headquarters and the decision was taken at the top level in order to increase security at the premises. Others say this is probably a 24X7 watch on the ministers.

This will be the first time there will be cameras inside the ministers' chambers.

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A Delhi court has dismissed Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy's petition to make home minister P Chidambaram a co-accused in the 2G case. In his petition Swamy stated Chidambaram was as culpable as former telecom minister A Raja in determining the prices of spectrum and in allowing the dilution of shares.

Swamy said he was surprised by the court's decision and will now appeal against it in court with more evidence.

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Suddam Sanab, a sub-inspector at a police station in Mumbai has been caught on camera demanding Rs.25,000 from Dr. Fayzan Khan, threatening that otherwise he would frame Fayzan in a counterfeit currency case and brand him a terrorist.

Fayzan said last April he was arrested after he was found in possession of two counterfeit notes, and when he went to meet Sanab recently he was hit with the bribe ultimatum and told he would be accused of a connection with a terrorist called Zarrar, whom he did not know.

Fayzan approached the Anti Corruption Bureau who instructed him to set up Sanab, but the ACB did not help him raise the money for the bribe and the case faded into hibernation. The ACB when questioned said the bribe amount demanded was too much for them to arrange.

Finally Fayzan wrote a complaint to two police commissioners hoping he would get a response.

For his part Sub-inspector Sanab says Rayzan in fact offered him the money to back-pedal and slow down on his case.

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25-year-old Preeti Krishnachand Mishra from Thane and her paramour Jishan Munnar Shaikh 22, hired a man to arrange to kill her husband aged 30, in what is known as a 'supari' killing.

Police arrested the woman who hired a hit man to get her husband killed, and had tried to mislead the police by filing a missing person complaint, and later filed a case of murder against unknown persons after his body was found.

Police recovered the corpse of an unknown person with injury marks and started checking all the missing persons complaints. They found that a 30-year-old electrician was named in a missing persons complaint. Preeti identified the body as that of her husband Krishnachand.

In continued interrogation Preeti frequently changed her statements, and police learned from her neighbours that she often went out with a young man.

When Shaikh was summoned for interrogation he broke down and admitted he and Preeti gave a 'supari' of Rs.1 lakh to Akshay Suresh Gaikwad to kill Krishnachand who was stabbed to death by Akshay and two accessories .

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