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After galvanising the cadrewith the appointment ofPriyanka
Gandhi Vadra as in-charge of eastern UttarPradesh, the Congress is
like-ly to put in place two State pres-idents in the politically
crucialState. The party is seriousabout gaining its lost clout inUP
with Rahul Gandhi onThursday asserting that thenext Chief Minister
in themajor Hindi heartland will befrom the Congress.
AICC sources said the
party high command is con-templating to appoint two partyUPCC
presidents, who willshare the responsibility of theeastern and the
western UP, justlike the division of responsi-bility between
Priyanka andJyotiraditya Scindia. Theincumbent UPCC chief,
RajBabbar, may be given otherrole, sources said.
While it has been a practicein the Congress to appointworking
presidents to aide andassist their chiefs, if the movetakes place,
it will be for thefirst time that a State will havetwo party
chiefs.
While senior party leaderand former Rajya Sabha mem-ber Pramod
Tiwari seems to bethe front runner for the easternUP Congress chief
post, thereis no clarity on who could headwestern UP.
Sources said Priyanka willstage a road show possibly inLucknow
next month. AsPriyanka’s political plunge gen-erated enthusiastic
supportfrom Congress leaders acrossthe country, posters urgingher
to contest the coming LokSabha election from Varanasicame up at
many places.
AICC sources, however,
said her candidature from anyLok Sabha seat has not beendecided,
but it is unlikely thatshe would be pitched againstModi.
Meanwhile, continuing histirade against Prime MinisterNarendra
Modi, Rahul onThursday exuded confidence inAmethi of reviving the
partyand prophesised that the nextChief Minister of UP would befrom
the Congress.
Rahul said people werefrustrated that the PM fooledthem by
making tall promises.He also accused Modi of“destroying”
Constitutionalinstitutions to protect hisparty’s illegal
interests.
“Gali gali mein shor hai,chowkidar chor hai. (Its com-mon
knowledge that the thechowkidar is a thief), Rahulsaid, adding,
“The PM says ithas no money to waive farmloans. On the other hand,
hisindustrialist friends get sopsand one Neerav Modi fledwith funds
of the poor.”
“Our PM swears by Godand then dishes out numeoruslies to fool
the people. Whereare the ‘achchhey din’ aspromised by him ?”
Rahulasked
Addressing a gathering inAmethi on Thursday, Rahul hitout at the
Centre over theRafale fighter jet deal saying theGovernment paid
�1,600 croreper aircraft when it was just�526 crore during the
UPAregime. “Our PM talked to hisFrench counterpart and forced
him to give �30,000 crore dealto a private company in
thecountry.”
“I have conveyed toPriyanka and Scindia that wehave to form
Governments atthe Centre and in UP thistime at any cost,” Rahul
told themedia.
Amid sloganeering, Rahulannounced that once the partycame to
power at the Centre,
Amethi and Rae Bareli wouldget food parks, national high-ways
and paper mills.
“In MP and Rajasthan weare setting up food processingplants in
large number to helpfarmers get good price of theirproduce. Such
things will alsohappen in Amethi and RaeBareli. My sister and I
will work24 hours for you,” the Congresspresident said. $���
(!"�3!450
The CBI has booked formerICICI bank CEO ChandaKochhar, her
husband DeepakKochhar and Videocon groupMD Venugopal Dhoot
foralleged cheating and corruptionin sanctioning loans to
thecompany, which caused a lossof �1,730 crore to the
bank,officials said on Thursday.
The CBI conducted search-es at three locations in Mumbaiand one
in Aurangabad,including at the head office ofVideocon Group,
NupowerRenewables — the companyrun by Deepak Kochhar andSupreme
Energy — once pro-moted by Dhoot.
The four private firmsnamed in the FIR are VideoconInternational
Electronics Ltd,Videocon Industries Ltd,Nupower Renewables Ltd
andSupreme Energy Pvt Ltd,besides unknown private andpublic
servants.
The FIR registered onTuesday slapped charges underIPC sections
relating to crim-inal conspiracy and cheatingand relevant
provisions of the
Prevention of Corruption Act. Some top names in the
banking industry like presentCEO of ICICI bank SandeepBakshi,
Sonjoy Chatterjee,Zarin Daruwala, RajivSabharwal, KV Kamath andHomi
Khusrokhan have comeunder the CBI scanner as theywere part of the
ICICI bankcommittees clearing some ofthe six loans worth
�1,875crore to the Videocon groupand associated companies.These
loans subsequentlyturned NPA, the FIR stated.
“The role of these seniorofficers of the sanctioning com-mittee
may also be investigat-ed,” the FIR said.
The agency had registereda Preliminary Enquiry onDecember 8,
2017 on the alle-gations that �3,250 crore worthof loans were
sanctioned by thebank to companies associatedwith the Videocon
group inviolation of the RBI guidelines.
Continued on Page 4
$��� (!"�3!450
The meeting of the high-powered selection com-mittee headed by
PrimeMinister Narendra Modi toappoint a new CBI Directorremained
inconclusive, offi-cials said on Thursday.
“A list of eligible officers,along with their dossiers,
wasshared with the panel mem-bers. But no decision wastaken.
Another meeting wouldbe called soon to finalise aname for the (CBI
chief) post,”an official said.
The dossiers of the officialsincluded only sketchy detailslike
the date of appointmentand date of superannuation.The names of
70-80 officers eli-gible for the post was present-ed to the panel
comprisingChief Justice of India RanjanGogoi and Congress leader
inthe Lok Sabha MallikarjunKharge.
Kharge and the CJI arelearnt to have sought specificdetails of
the career graph of
the eligible officers, a reasonwhy the meeting
remainedinconclusive, sources said.
The meeting, was held atthe Prime Minister’s residenceand was
attended by Gogoi andKharge.
Talking to reporters afterthe meeting, Kharge said,“There was
discussion on thenames. There was no mentionof their career
details, includ-ing relevant experience. We(referring to CJI Gogoi)
haveasked them to provide all thenecessary details. The nextmeeting
may be convened bynext week.”
The post of CBI head hasbeen lying vacant since January10 after
the high-poweredselection committee transferredthe agency chief
Alok Verma asDG of Fire Services, CivilDefence and Home Guards.
Verma’s removal wasnecessitated after a bitter feudwith his then
deputy RakeshAsthana. Both Verma andAsthana had traded charges
ofcorruption against each other.
In a midnight operation onOctober 23, the Governmenthad sent
both Verma andAsthana on forced leave pend-ing enquiries against
them bythe Central VigilanceCommission.
However, Verma chal-lenged the transfer through apetition before
the SupremeCourt. The apex court onJanuary 8 reinstated him as
CBIchief with riders that the issueof his transfer would decidedby
the PM-led panel.
While Verma refused tojoin as DG Fire Services, CivilDefence and
Home Guardsand resigned, Asthana wassubsequently transferred asDG
of Bureau of Civil AviationSecurity.
Presently, the CBI is head-ed by Additional Director MNageswara
Rao as an interimchief. The post of the CBIChief enjoys a fixed
tenure oftwo years.
On Wednesday, it wasreported that the list of officialsin the
race for the CBIDirector’s post are UttarPradesh and Gujarat
DirectorsGeneral of Police OP Singh andShivanand Jha
respectively,CISF chief Rajesh Ranjan, andBSF Director
GeneralRajnikarnt Mishra besidesSpecial Secretary
(InternalSecurity) in the Union HomeMinistry Rina Mitra,
sourcessaid. While Singh and Jha donot have any experience in
theCBI, Ranjan, Mishra and Mitrahave served in the CBI.
$��� (!"�3!450
Amid call for conducting2019 Lok Sabha electionsthrough ballot
papers, ChiefElection Commissioner (CEC)Sunil Arora on Thursday
madeit clear that the ElectionCommission (EC) is not goingback to
the era of ballot papers.
The CEC said political par-ties are the biggest stakehold-ers in
democracy, but there isno way the country will be“intimidated,
bullied orcoerced” into giving up elec-tronic voting
machines(EVMs).
“It is very unfortunate. Wehave had different results invarious
elections since 2014. Ifresult is x then EVMs are fine,if not then
EVMs are faulty.EVMs are not a football,” Aroralamented.
The CEC made theremarks at an internationalconference on “Making
our
Elections Inclusive &Accessible” ahead of NationalVoters Day
on Friday. Hisremarks came days after in thewake of an alleged
EVMhackathon event in London,where a self-proclaimed US-based cyber
expert made wildallegations with regard to thepossibility of
hacking EVMs.Most of these claims havealready fallen flat.
“However, I would like tomake it very, very clear oncemore. In
fact, it is not I, it is theentire ECI, it is the ECIs of thepast,
and it will be the ECIs ofthe future... We are not goingback to the
era of ballot
papers,” Arora said. “We are notgoing back to that era where
wehave ballot papers being lifted,musclemen being employedbesides
the delay in the count-ing and also too much harass-ment of polling
staff on theground,” he added.
The poll panel chief addedthat EVMs were being used inIndia for
more than 20 yearsand that voter verifiable paperaudit trail
(VVPAT) was alsointroduced.
“We are open to any criti-cism, any feedback from
anystakeholders, including politi-cal parties, because they are
thebiggest stakeholders. But atthe same time, we are notgoing to be
intimidated or bul-lied or coerced into giving upthese and
returning to the eraof ballot boxes,” he said.
Earlier, the EC hadapproached the Delhi Policeseeking probe
against SyedShuja, self-proclaimed US-based cyber expert whoclaimed
EVMs were tamperedwith in 2014 parliamentarypolls. Shuja made the
claim ata Press conference held inLondon on Monday via
video-conferencing. The Delhi Policehas file an FIR against
Shuja.
Continued on Page 4
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Six labourers were killed aftera pillar-less
four-storeyunder-construction buildingcollapsed at Ullawas
villagenear Sector 65 in Gurugram inthe wee hours of Thursday.
Thevictim labourers were asleepwhen the tragedy struck them.
“Those killed were on thesecond and the third floor,
thebuilding’s ground and firstfloors were vacant,” said aNational
Disaster ResponseForce (NDRF) official, involvedin the rescue
operation.
Three NDRF teams weredeployed. The rescue opera-tions were going
on at the timeof going to press. “Six bodieshave been retrieved
from theaccident site so far. The rescueteams are on job,” an
NDRFspokesperson said.
“Villagers had earlier askedthe contractor to stop work ashe was
constructing the four-storey structure without pillarsin the
building. Judicial probehas been launched in the inci-dent,” said
Sanjeev Singla,Gurugram SDM.
Continued on Page 4
$��� (!"�3!450
Terrorist-turned-soldierLance Naik Nazir AhmedWani, who died
fighting ultrasin Kashmir last year, will beconferred with the
highestpeacetime gallantry medalAshok Chakra on RepublicDay this
year. Wani was a sur-rendered terrorist beforebecoming a soldier in
2004.Earlier, the 38-year-old sol-dier was awarded Sena Medaltwice
in 2007 and 2018 forshowing exemplary bravery inanti-terrorist
operations.
Hailing from Ashmuji inKulgam, Kashmir, Wani diedon November 25
during afierce gunfight and hand-to-hand combat with militants
inShopian. He was part of anti-terrorist operations in SouthKashmir
and had joined 162Battalion of Territorial Army
after surrendering as a terror-ist. He is the first Kashmiri
sol-dier to be awarded the highestpeacetime gallantry award.
Hiswife, Mahajabeen, will receivethe award from PresidentRamnath
Kovind on January26 at Rajpath.
Wani exhibited the mostconspicuous gallantry in elim-inating two
terrorists andassisting in the evacuation ofhis wounded colleagues
andmade supreme sacrifice in thehighest traditions of the
IndianArmy, a Press release commu-niqué from the
President’sSecretariat said.
Giving details of theencounter wherein Waniattained martyrdom,
officialssaid here on Thursday he wasattached with 34
RashtriyaRifles; on November 23 his unitgot an intelligence input
aboutthe presence of six heavily
armed Hizbul and Lashkar ter-rorists at Batagund village.
Wani and his team wereentrusted with the task to blockthe likely
escape route of theterrorists.
“Sensing danger, the ter-rorists attempted breachingthe inner
cordon, firing indis-criminately and lobbinggrenades. Undeterred by
thesituation, Wani held groundand eliminated one terrorist ina
fierce exchange at closerange,” the statement said.
Wani then closed in on ahouse where another terroristwas hiding.
As the terroristtried to flee, Wani engaged himin a hand-to-hand
combat.Despite being wounded, hekilled the terrorist.
Under intense hail of bul-lets from the terrorists, heeliminated
the district com-mander of the Lashkar-e-
Tayyeba (LeT) and one foreignterrorist in an act of rawcourage.
“In the ensuing gun-fight he was hit multiple times,including on
his head. He alsoinjured another terrorist beforesuccumbing to his
grievousinjuries,” the Army said in astatement.
He is survived by his wifeand two children.
Army officials said herethroughout his life, Wani will-ingly
faced grave potentialthreats and was a source ofinspiration for
others.Incidentally, he was awardedthe Sena Medal last year
foreliminating a terrorist fromvery close range.
Wani was from a humblebackground and had workedfor the benefit
of the under-privileged section in his villageand surrounding area,
offi-cials added.
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With a survey predicting aBJP rout in Uttar Pradeshif the
Congress were to be partof the SP-BSP alliance in theLok Sabha
elections, specula-tion is rife about a possible re-alignment of
anti-BJP forces inthe State.
What gave grist to thisrumour is a statement ofCongress
president RahulGandhi in Amethi onWednesday that the Congressis
still open to an alliance withthe Samajwadi Party and theBahujan
Samaj Party.
“We have a common goalto defeat the BJP. Therefore, theCongress
is open for an alliance
if they (SP and BSP) approachthem,” he said.
“As I have said, I haveimmense respect for bothMayawati and
Akhilesh. Butthe Congress party is not goingto play on the back
foot. Not inUP, not in Gujarat,” said Rahul.
Rahul’s statement camejust hours after Priyanka wasmade incharge
of eastern UP.
By evening when the sur-vey was released saying the BJPwould be
able to win just 5 seatsif SP, BSP and Congress joinedhands,
murmurs started inOpposition ranks that all thethree major players
may joinhands and give a united fight tothe BJP.
Continued on Page 4
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Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal on Thursday saidthe Delhi
Government’s LawDepartment is examining togrant sanction for the
prose-cution of former president ofJawaharlal Nehru
UniversityStudents Union (JNUSU)Kanhaiya Kumar in a
seditioncase.
Kejriwal, however, accusedthe Centre of committing a big-ger
sedition by creating hurdlesin the works of DelhiGovernment.
“I do not know whetherKanhaiya has committed sedi-tion or not,
which is beingexamined by the Law depart-ment. On the other hand,
Modiji has stalled (works on) schoolsfor children, hospitals,
installation of CCTV cameras,setting up of mohalla clinics inDelhi
— is this not sedition?” Kejriwal said in atweet in Hindi.
The AAP-led DelhiGovernment is seeking legaladvice with regard
to grantingsanction for prosecution inthe JNU sedition case.
Last week, the ruling AamAadmi Party (AAP) and theDelhi Police
had traded alle-gations after a court ques-tioned filing of a
chargesheet inthe sedition case against formerJNUSU president
KanhaiyaKumar and nine others withoutprocuring required
sanctionfrom authorities.
The Delhi Governmentsources said rules laid down bythe court for
sanction of pros-ecution will be followed. Policehad filed the
chargesheet onJanuary 14, saying the sanctionfor prosecution was
pendingwith the Government.
“Why did you file (the
chargesheet) without approval?You do not have a legal
depart-ment,” court had asked theDelhi Police on Saturday.
According to thechargesheet, Kumar was lead-ing a procession and
support-ed seditious slogans raised onthe JNU campus during anevent
on February 9, 2016.
Former JNU studentsUmar Khalid and AnirbanBhattacharya were also
chargedwith allegedly shouting anti-India slogans during the
eventto mark the hanging ofParliament attack mastermindAfzal
Guru.
The event had taken placedespite the university admin-istration
cancelling the per-mission for the same followinga complaint by the
AkhilBharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad,which had termed it
“anti-national”.
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Delhi saw a sudden outbreakof H1N1 seasonal influen-za commonly
known as SwineFlu in the past few weeks.Some doctors in the city,
onThursday, blamed it on the badweather which seemed capableenough
of holding and thrivingthe viruses.
“Viruses can thrive whenthere is sudden change inweather which
is more capableof holding them. More cases arebeing reported now,”
said DrAtul Kakar, Vice-Chairman,Department of Medicine, SirGanga
Ram Hospital.
The hospital is presentlyseeing patients coming with alltypes of
influenza, includingSwine Flu, he said.
According to SeniorConsultant, Dr Vikas Maurya,Fortis Hospital
Shalimar Bagh,not many cases were reportedin December. “We have
seenweather changing suddenly inJanuary. Pollution was alsothere.
When air is dense, virus-es can contain in the loweratmospheres to
which peoplecome in contact easily. Wedidn’t see many patients
inDecember,” he said.
Their hospital is seeingaround 15 to 20 patients com-ing with
symptoms all types ofinfluenza with some of themgetting admitted on
regularbasis, however, the cases havecome down in the last two
days,Dr Maurya added.
“The severity of influenzais seen in the elderly and peo-ple who
already have chronicillness. In the hospital, thesetwo groups are
reporting severeinfluenza, others are comingwith normal symptoms,”
hesaid.
The data recently releasedby Integrated DiseaseSurveillance
Programme(IDSP), Ministry of Health andFamily Welfare, till January
13this year, Delhi recorded 168cases of Swine Flu which is alsothe
third highest number of
cases in the entire country. Fivedeaths have also been
reported.Last year, a total of 205 cases andtwo deaths from Swine
Fluwere reported, the data revealed.
Amid this, doctors havesuggested some basic precau-tions like
avoid physical contactwith the infected as it is high-ly contagious
and taking prop-er meals to boost immunity.
The Health Departmentof Delhi Government has alsoissued a health
advisory includ-ing the various precautions.
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With an aim to increase property tax col-lection by �30 crore,
StandingCommittee of South Delhi MunicipalCorporation (SDMC) on
Thursday estimatedproperty tax collection of �850 crore
whileproperty transfer fee collection of �700 crorefor the
financial year 2019-20.
The civic body has also scrapped a proposalto hike the property
tax rates on residentialproperties on Thursday. The Commissioner
inhis Budget speech had proposed to increaseproperty tax rates on
residential propertiesaccording to the category of colonies.
Presenting the budget proposals for thefinancial year 2019-20,
Standing CommitteeChairperson Shikha Rai also proposed
instal-lation of solar panels over all the municipalbuildings.
Following the recommendation ofCouncillors, Rai also proposed Rs
208 lakh forinstallation of CCTV cameras in respectivewards. Rai
added corporation would add addi-tional revenue of �5.5 crore by
putting adver-tisements in 11 markets under new adver-tisement
policy.
In order to recycle building waste likebricks, mortars and
cement blocks to producebyproducts like tiles, aggregate and silt,
theSouth Corporation will set up a constructionand demolition
plants at Bakkarwala andMaindangarhi, Rai said.
To develop scientific temper among stu-dents, the SDMC wwill
also develop 40 scienceclubs in its primary schools, Rai said.
Further,giving impetus on sanitation, she said an engi-neered
landfill site is being set up of Okhla tomanage the solid
waste.
Considering many motels and party lawnswhich are running without
having “addition-al built-up areas, violating municipal andGreen
norms, it was also announced toimplementation the policy with an
aim to putan end of illegal use.
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In order to provide a chance to the pris-oners to live a
respectable life aftercompleting their sentences, the
DelhiGovernment has decided toprovide certificate,
Diploma,Bachelors and Masters in Yogato the inmates of Tihar
Jail.Also, the inmates will be pro-vided foundation courses inYoga
Sciences for Wellness(FCYScW).
The Government has signed aMemorandum of Understanding (MoU)with
Moraji Desai National Institute forYoga, Tihar Authority and with
theMinistry of Ayush to provide course aswell as Government job
after theyrelease out of the prison.
“Yoga is one of the best exercises aswell as changes a person
both mentally aswell as spiritually. MoU has been signedwith
Ministry of Ayush, Director General(Prison) and Moraji Desai
NationalInstitute for Yoga. The move will helpinmates to earn
livelihood after complet-ing the sentence. It will be
authority’sresponsibility to ensure job for them,”Delhi Chief
Secretary Vijay Dev said.
“Tihar Jail is a correctional homethat aims to rehabilitate the
inmates intoa productive members of the Societywith positive mind.
Further, the mainaim of the project is to give the inmatesa
respectable job as well as earn theirlivelihood proudly,” Dev
added.
“The inmates will also conduct
research once they complete the course.They will research on the
people who doyoga and who do not, an official involvedin the
project,” said.
Tihar authorities will conduct vari-ous educational and cultural
andspiritual programs to the inmatesand this will be part of those
pro-grammes. Further, they addedthat course will be conducted ina
chain system. For instance, agroup of inmates will be trainedand
complete the course and they
will become teachers and will teach thefellow prisoners, he
added.
“We have titled the programme as‘Sanjeevan’ under which all the
inmateswill be provided yoga trainings. Themain objectives of the
Sanjeevan Projectare for wellbeing of the inmates for giv-ing them
life, making them alive, re-ani-mating and living together. The
prison-ers who successfully complete the abovesaid yoga course will
not only train theother prisoners of the jails in the yogasciences
and meditation but also enableto earn their livelihood proudly
aftertheir release from jails,” said Raj Kumar,spokesperson of
Delhi Prisons Authority.
The two yoga training programmesfor all the jail inmates are:
‘MastersTrainers Program’ under which a fourmonth certificate
course in yoga sciencewill be provided with 480 hours dura-tion for
75 male and 25 female inmates.The other one is foundation course
andwill be provided for a year with the dura-tion of two hours per
day, they said.
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Travelling will be smootherfor the people of Najafgarhand the
nearby villages as theGrey Corridor that will connectentire area
till Dhansa willstart by September this year.
The Delhi Metro RailCorporation (DMRC) has alsostarted the
construction the lastTunnel Boring Machine (TBM)on Thursday.
“The TBM will bore a 700-
metre-long tunnel betweenNajafgarh and Dhansa Standon the up
line and the samemachine will be subsequentlyused for tunnelling on
thedown line between the samestations. Entire tunnelling workon
both up and down lines willbe completed by Septemberlater this
year,” said Anuj Dayal,Executive Director,
(CorporateCommunication), DMRC.
This section is an extensionof the 4.295 kilometre long
Dwarka-Najafgarh Metro cor-ridor. The work for this sectionwas
formally awarded in late2017 and the target date forcompletion is
December, 2020.On the Dwarka-Najafgarh sec-tion, over 90 per cent
of con-struction work is complete andpassenger services expected
tostart by September this year.
The total distance betweenNajafgarh and Dhansa Stand is1.2
kilometres. The entirestretch is underground. While
700 metres will be constructedusing TBM, the rest will bedone by
the Cut and Covertechnology in which excavationis done for
underground con-struction and then the area iscovered again.
Delhi Metro currentlyoperates on a network of 327kilometres with
236 Metro sta-tions. This network includesover a hundred kilometres
ofunderground lines spreadacross the national Capital.
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Agar Malwa (MP): A 55-year-old farmer in Madhya Pradeshwas taken
aback when he got aloan waiver of just �13 insteadof �23,815 he was
eligible forunder a scheme announced bythe newly elected
CongressGovernment.
Shivlal Kataria, a residentof Nipania Baijnath village inAgar
Malwa district, has takenup the matter with the author-ities and is
hopeful of its reso-lution.
Earlier this month, theMadhya Pradesh Cabinet hadapproved a loan
waiver schemeunder which farm dues worth�2 lakh would be waived
foreach eligible cultivator.
"The list (of beneficiaries)is with the panchayat, which Isaw
the other day. It mentionsthat just �13 of mine (debt),instead of
�23,815 loan, hasbeen waived," Kataria said.
Being a poor farmer, heand his only son's family ekeout a living
from their two-acreland by growing soyabean, headded.
Kataria said he was over-whelmed with joy when the
Congress promised to write offfarm loans ahead of the assem-bly
elections.
"Undoubtedly, the schemeis a boon. Other farmers of myvillage
are reaping its benefit. Ihave taken up the matter withthe
authorities and I am hope-ful to get the waiver for the loanI took
some 10 months ago," hetold PTI.
When his attention wasdrawn towards the issue, AgarMalwa
Collector Ajay Guptasaid he will look into the mat-ter.
"Let me check... The dis-trict has a huge number of
farmers," the collector said.Chief Minister Kamal Nath
had announced the farm loanwaiver on December 18, 2018hours
after taking charge.
The process of submittingapplications to claim loan waiv-er
started on January 15 andwill end on February 5. The eli-gible
cultivators will start get-ting written off amount intheir bank
accounts fromFebruary 22.
Around 55 lakh farmers inMP are expected to benefitfrom the loan
waiver which willcost the State exchequer�50,000 crore. PTI
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Lucknow/New Delhi: TheEnforcement Directorate onThursday
conducted multiplesearches across various States inconnection with
its moneylaundering probe into the�1,500-crore Gomti
riverfrontdevelopment project in UttarPradesh Capital Lucknow,
offi-cial sources said.
The project was begun bythe previous Samajwadi Party(SP)
dispensation.
Sources said the raids werebeing carried out in variouspremises
of the accused andtheir associates in Uttar Pradesh(Lucknow and
Noida), Delhi,Haryana and Rajasthan by ateam of the
EnforcementDirectorate (ED) officials assist-ed by local
police.
The teams are looking fordocuments and evidence, theysaid.
The central probe agencyhad filed a criminal case underthe
Prevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA) inMarch last year. The ED
case
was filed after taking cogni-sance of a CBI FIR.
The CBI had taken over theinvestigation after the presentYogi
Adityanath-led BJP gov-ernment in Uttar Pradeshordered an inquiry
into thebeautification project of theGomti riverfront.
The Yogi Adityanath gov-ernment had asked for an inves-tigation
into irregularitiescommitted with a "criminalintent" in the
implementation ofthe Gomti River ChannelisationProject and the
Gomti RiverFront Development by theState's Department of
Irrigation.
The CBI had filed an FIRagainst then chief engineersGulesh
Chandra, S N Sharma,Qazim Ali, then superinten-dent engineers
Mangal Yadav,Akhil Raman, KamaleshwarSingh, Roop Singh Yadav
andexecutive engineer SurendraYadav.
Gulesh Chandra, MangalYadav, Akhil Raman and RoopSingh Yadav
have retired. PTI
Udhagamandalam (TN): Acourt here on Thursday direct-ed two
accused in theKodanad heist and murdercase to appear before it
onJanuary 29 on a plea by thepolice to cancel their bail.
When the petition by theinvestigating officer came upfor hearing
before district JudgeP Vadamalai, the governmentpleader argued that
theaccused, Sayan and Manoj werehampering the probe by
givingstatements on the case.
As the counsel for theaccused sought time to presenttheir
counter, the judgedeclined to cancel the bail andordered the two
accused toappear before it on January 29.
The Tamil Nadu govern-ment had last week moved thecourt to
cancel the bail grant-
ed to the duo in connectionwith the case.
Samuel Mathew, formerTehelka managing editor hadon January 11
released a 16-minute video in which the twoaccused in the case,
hadallegedly l inked ChiefMinsiter K Palaniswami to thecase.
On April 23, 2017, thesecurity guard of the Kodanadestate, the
late chief minister JJayalalithaa's retreat home inNilgiris
district, was murderedin a robbery attempt by a 10-member gang.
It emerged during theprobe that Jayalalithaa's formerdriver C
Kanagaraj and Sayanhad allegedly plotted the crime.
A total of 10 people werearrested in the case and achargesheet
was also filed. PTI
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Renowned social workerAnna Hazare said onThursday that he would
go onan indefinite fast from January30 to demand early appoint-ment
of Lokpal and would filePILs in High Courts across thecountry to
demand appoint-ment of Lokayuktas in respec-tive States.
While addressing his sup-porters, who have arrived at hisnative
village of RalegainSiddhi in Ahmednagar dis-trict from various
parts of thecountry, Hazare said that on the
morning of January 30, hewould start fast in the localYadavbaba
temple for an indef-inite period. He exhorted hissupporters to
stage dharnas infront of various offices acrossthe State from
January 30.
“Our activists would stagedharanas for the first four days.If
needed, they will also under-take fast after January 3,”Hazare
said.
Hazare said that during thecourse agitation planned byhim from
January, PILs wouldbe filed in the high courts ofeach state seeking
direction tothe respective state govern-
ment to appoint Lokayukthasin their states where there
arecurrently no anti-corruptionombudsmen.
Given that the anti-cor-ruption crusader has lost hiscredibility
that he enjoyed at theheight of the anti-corruptionmovement in
2013, Hazare’sannouncement did not evokeany political reaction.
Duringthe past five years of NarendraModi regime, he has been
seenas a man who has soft-peddledthe anti-corruption issue.Hence,
his fast is unlikely to cre-ate any ripples in the state
andnational political circles.
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Guwahati: Making its stand onthe Citizenship (Amendment)
Bill 2016, the Assam BJP onThursday said that the State canbe
saved from becoming a'Kashmir' only with the imple-mentation of the
Bill coupledwith enforcing the AssamAccord's Clause VI and ST
sta-tus to six communities.
Addressing a rally of partyworkers in Guwahati, stateFinance
Minister HimantaBiswa Sarma said he cannotallow Assam to become
thenext 'Jammu & Kashmir'.
Sarma's statement came aday after student outfits from allthe
northeastern States under thebanner of North East
Students'Organisation (NESO) gatheredin Guwahati on Wednesday
andwarned the BJP-led Governmentat the Centre and the Stateagainst
the Bill.
The students' bodies' rallyalso termed Prime MinisterNarendra
Modi and AssamChief Minister SarbanandaSonowal as "saviour and
pro-tector of illegal immigrants"from Bangladesh.
"In 1971 Hindus in Assam
accounted for 71 per cent of thepopulation. It came down to
61per cent in 2011. By 2021 if theeight lakh population of
HinduBengali from Bangladesh istaken out from Assam, thecommunity's
population ofAssam will reduce to a mere 51or 52 per cent, which
will pavethe way for Badruddin Ajmalor Sirajudin Ajmal to
becomeChief Minister of the State,"Sarma said.
"I do not require a certifi-cate if I am secular or commu-nal.
People are pitting Hindusagainst Hindus. Those oppos-ing Hindu
Bangladeshi do notknow that they have lost thepower to decide in 14
districtsof Assam. Already 30 seats
have gone, if the Bill comes in,we can still save at least
17assembly seats," said Sarma.
Earlier the UnitedMinorities Front (UMF) whichwas formed in 1985
as a reac-tion to Assam agitation want-ed citizenship to Hindus
fromBangladesh, later they changedtheir stand, Sarma said.
Targeting the religiousminorities of Assam, Sarmasaid members of
the All AssamMinority Students Union(AAMSU) have been
sendingmessages on social media tooppose the Bill. "However,
thesepeople are themselves eco-nomic refugee in Assam, whyare they
talking about whoshould get citizenship? I getthreatening messages
on mymobile," said Sarma.
Announcing that after2021, he will not be in politics,Sarma
said, "This is the lastbattle of Panipat. Those peo-ple who did
bloodshed inJammu and Kashmir areteaching us secularism. weare
committed to protect Jati,Mati, Bheti (identity, land
andhomeland)." PTI
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Mumbai: Justifying its decisionto allocate �100 crore for
theproposed Bal Thackeraymemorial, the MaharashtraGovernment on
Thursday toldthe Bombay High Court it waswithin its discretion to
allotland or money for a monumentfor a prominent person and it
cannot be questioned in court.The Government made the
submission before a divisionbench of Chief Justice N H Patiland
Justice N M Jamdar whichwas hearing two petitions chal-lenging the
State's decision toconvert the mayor's bungalowin central Mumbai
into amemorial for Shiv Senafounder Bal Thackeray.
The petitions were filed byactivist Bhagwanji Rayani andNGO Jan
Mukti Morcha inApril 2017 when theGovernment had proposed toset up
the memorial. When thepetitions came up for hearingon Thursday,
petitioners' advo-cates Pradeep Havnur andUday Warunjikar sought
toamend the pleas so as to alsochallenge the decision of theBJP-led
Govt to allocate �100crore for the memorial. PTI
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From Page 1Haryana Chief Minister
Manohar Lal Khattar hasannounced a compensation ofRs 3 lakh to
each family of thedeceased.
The deceased have beenidentified as Altaf from UP’s
Ambedkar Nagar, Joginder,Kuldeep, Vishal all residents
ofFirozabad; Ram PrakashPaswan, a resident ofSamastipur in Bihar.
The iden-tity of one of the deceased is yetto be ascertained.
“The Gurugram Fire
Department control roomreceived a call at 5.15 am froma local
about the building col-lapse in Ullawas village. Thebodies of the
men aged between30 and 40 years have beenrecovered,” said a senior
officialof Gurugram Fire Department.
From Page 1It was also alleged that
�64 crore were invested byDhoot through one of thecompanies,
Supreme Energy,founded by him, which wasalleged as quid pro quo in
thecomplaint that triggered theregistration of the PE by
theCBI.
During the course of thePE, the CBI found allegedirregularities
in sanctioningsix loans worth Rs 1,875 croreto Videocon
IndustriesLimited, VideoconInternational Electronics Ltdand four
other companies asso-ciated with the Videocon groupbetween June,
2009 andOctober, 2011, according to theFIR.
Chanda Kochhar was onthe sanctioning committeedeciding two loans
- Rs 300crore to Videocon InternationalElectronics on August 26,
2009and Rs 750 crore to VideoconIndustries Limited on October31,
2011.
Both these loans were sanc-tioned and disbursed in thealleged
violation of the RBI
guidelines. Most of these loans caused
a loss of Rs 1,730 crore to theICICI bank and consequentwrongful
gains to the borrow-ers and accused persons.
The term loan of Rs 300crore sanctioned to VideoconInternational
Electronics Ltdwas disbursed on September 7,2009. Next day, Dhoot
trans-ferred Rs 64 crore to NupowerRenewables Ltd, throughSupreme
Energy founded byhim.
The amount was trans-ferred through a “circuitousroute” using
company SupremeEnergy Limited founded byDhoot, alleges the FIR.
“This was the first majorcapital received by NRL toacquire first
power plant. ThusChanda Kochhar got illegalgratification through
her hus-band from VIL/V N Dhoot forsanctioning a loan of Rs
300crore to VIEL,” it alleged.
In addition to the loans toVIL and VIEL, four other loanswere
issued to MilleniumAppliances (Rs 175 crore), SkyAppliances (Rs 240
crore),Techno Electronics (Rs 100crore)and Applicomp India(Rs 300
crore) to repay theunsecured loan availed by thesecompanies from
VIL, addedthe FIR.
From Pag e1Following his claims, sev-
eral Opposition parties havedemanded the use of ballotpapers in
the coming LokSabha polls. CEC Arora point-ed out that EVMs and
papertrail machines are manufac-tured under highly
securedconditions by two PSUs --Bharat Electronics Ltd
andElectronics Corporation ofIndia Ltd -- who are doing alot of
work for defence estab-lishments.
Defending EVMs, theCEC said there was one resultin the 2014 Lok
Sabha elec-tions and a totally differentresult four months later in
theDelhi State elections. “Sincethen, we have had elections
inHimachal Pradesh, Gujarat,Karnataka, Tripura, Nagaland, Mizoram,
and nowChattisgarh, MP, Telangana,Rajasthan... The results havebeen
completely different indifferent times... My simplequestion is that
if the result isX, the EVM is right and theresult turns out to be
Y, theEVM is faulted,” he said.
In the recent Assembly
elections in Rajasthan,Chhattisgarh, MadhyaPradesh, Mizoram
andTelangana, a total of six inci-dents were reported.
“I am repeating, six anec-dotal or real incidents out of1,76,000
polling booths. I amnot defending those incidents.There were some
lapses onthose EVMs, that were noteven used for the elections bythe
cutting edge staff. Actionswere taken very swiftly, andthey met
their nemesis in 24to 48 hours. However, we arenot happy even with
those sixincidents. In elections, weshould have zero tolerancefor
any incident of suchnature,” he said. FollowingShuja’s Press
conference, BSPchief Mayawati had asked theElection Commission to
revertto ballot papers in 2019 LokSabha elections to ensure freeand
fair polls. Her new ally,Akhilesh Yadav, the SP presi-dent, too
echoed the sentimentsaying that reliability of theEVMs had come
under thequestion.
The Congress also soughtclarification from the
ElectionCommission over the claimsmade by Shuja. However, theBJP
and the JD(U) backedcontinued use of the EVMs inelections.
From Page 1Dr SP Pandey of Pandit
Govind Ballabh Pant Institutesof Studies in RuralDevelopment
said theCongress stake has gone upafter party inducted Priyankain
the mainstream politics.“Her induction as nationalgeneral secretary
as well as in-charge of eastern UP will def-initely invigorate
Congressworkers and the fight in UP isreduced to three corner.
Thisscenario will help the BJP,” DrPandey said.
If SP, BSP and Congressjoined hands it will prevent
division of Muslim votes andupper caste.
Political pundits saiddespite the Congress’ dismalperformance in
the recentelectoral battle in the Statewhen it won just two
LokSabha seats in 2014 and sevenseats in 2017 Assembly elec-tions,
Congress’ vote share isalmost 12 per cent. AfterCongress recent
success inMadhya Pradesh, Rajasthanand Chhattisgarh andPriyanka’s
nomination asnational secretary the party ishopeful of improving
its per-formance.
“Congress will be able toattract minority votes becausefor the
party has in the pasthas been the first choice ofMuslim voters, who
relaisethat only the Congress cancounter the BJP at the nation-al
level. Priyanka’s entry intoactive politics is bound to fur-ther
change the permutationand combination of all the par-ties,” Dr
Pandey said.
In this scenario, the lead-ers of the SP and BSP may haveto
rework their strategy toensure that the BJP did not cap-italise on
division of oppositionvotes in the State, he said.
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New Delhi: Railway hospitalsacross the country will soon
pro-vide treatment to eligible fami-lies under the Ayushman
Bharatscheme, an official statementsaid on Thursday.
In addition, eligible familieswill soon be able to get
benefitsunder the scheme at hospitalsunder the New Delhi
MunicipalCouncil and the North DelhiMunicipal Corporation, a
state-ment by the National HealthAuthority, the apex
bodyimplementing the insuranceprogramme, said.
The NHA on Thursdaysigned an MoU with theMinistry of Railways in
thisregard. The Union Governmenton September 23 had launchedthe
Ayushman Bharat PradhanMantri Jan Arogya Yojana,which aims to
provide a cover ofRs 5 lakh per family per year andis likely to
benefit more than 10crore poor families across thecountry.
As per the MoU, identifiedmedical establishments havinginpatient
hospitalisations underthe Ministry's Railway HealthServices
department across its16 zones will be empanelledwith the PMJAY to
implementthe scheme. It will providesecondary and tertiary care
toeligible individuals.
"The Government is com-mitted to developing a strate-gic
partnership with providersto strengthen service deliveryunder the
scheme so that thevision of AB PM-JAY becomesa reality. Empanelment
ofhealth care providers and insti-tutions is a key aspect of
thispartnership," Dr Indu Bhushan,the NHA CEO, said. Speakingabout
the collaboration, hesaid, "I am confident that ourpartnership with
the Railways,the NDMC and the NorthDelhi Municipal Corporationwill
go a long way". PTI
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Bengaluru: The rulingCongress-JD(S) coalition inKarnataka will
take a decisionon seat sharing for the comingLok Sabha elections in
three orfour days, coalition coordina-tion committee
chairmanSiddaramaiah said Thursday.
Ruling out any threat to theH D Kumaraswamy-led gov-ernment amid
alleged attemptsby the BJP to topple it, the for-mer Chief Minister
said bothparties will face the pollstogether.
Preliminary discussionshave been held on Lok Sabhaelections and
a meeting will beheld in three or four days todecide on the
constituencies, hesaid.
"..Keeping in mind the sit-uation in the constituencies, wewill
decide," Siddaramaiah toldreporters after the coordinationcommittee
meeting here.
Former Prime Minister
and JD(S) supremo H D DeveGowda will also be part of
thatmeeting, and it has been decid-ed both parties will go
togeth-er for the polls, he said.
On seats demanded byJD(S), Siddaramaiah said ithas not been
discussed.
"...We will decide on seatsand other things in the nextmeeting,"
he said.
Responding to a questionabout opinion within theCongress not to
give up seatswhere the party has sittingMPs, he said "We have not
dis-cussed it."
JD(S) secretary generalDanish Ali said "We only start-ed a
preliminary discussion onseat sharing, the process willcontinue and
it will take manyrounds to have a pre-pollalliance for Lok Sabha
seats. Itwill take some time.
There is no demand, ourcommon motive is to get the
maximum seats to the coalitionin Karnataka and reduce theBJP to
minimum. We will putwinning candidate and makehim contest," he
said.
Their expectation is JD(S)-Congress would win 25 plusout of 28
seats in Karnataka, hesaid.
JD(S) has alreadyexpressed its desire to contestin 12 seats, on
which theCongress party has some reser-vations.
The Congress has said seatsharing will be on 'candidate-merit'
basis.
Also, several seniorCongress leaders and MPs,including Veerappa
Moily, havereportedly asked the leadershipnot to cede nine seats
where theparty has its sitting MPs, toJD(S). There are also
voiceswith in the party not to field sit-ting MPs in certain
con-stituencies. PTI
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My Name was wrongly writtenas Madhuri Kushawaha in
theCertificate of 10th, 12th, andBA, Another all Documentslike
Adhar Card, Bank A/c myname is Madhuri Kushwahawhich is correct
Further I willwrite Madhuri Kushwaha only.
PD(8278)C
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Ahmedabad: The GujaratGovernment has said thosewho have settled
in the stateafter 1978 will not get the ben-efit of 10 per cent
reservationfor the economically weakersections (EWS) in the
gener-al category.
The move is apparentlyaimed at giving preference toGujaratis in
education andjobs and protecting their inter-ests.
However, the OppositionCongress and people fromother states, who
have madeGujarat their home, haveopposed the State Governmentover
the move.
The Gujarat Governmentbecame the first State in thecountry to
implement 10 percent reservation in StateGovernment jobs and
educa-tion for the economicallyweaker sections (EWS) in thegeneral
category.
To qualify for the newly-introduced 10 per cent reser-vation in
general category, theState Government onWednesday announced thatthe
family of the quota bene-
ficiary should have been resid-ing in the state since 1978.
Since the new rule wouldimpact thousands of youthsfrom other
states settled inGujarat, particularly fromHindi-speaking states,
theirapex organisation decided tomake a representation
toauthorities.
Maheshsingh Kushwah,president of Uttar BharatiyaVikas Parishad,
said it is an"injustice" to exclude thosewho have been living
inGujarat since four decades.
"Forty one years is a verylong period. Many who camebefore 1978
might have alreadydied. This is injustice to us.What about those
who camehere and settled permanently20, 30 or even 40 years
back?
Why they have they notbeen included? This criterionshould be 10
years," saidKushwah.
"We will discuss this issueamong ourselves and make
arepresentation to the stateGovernment seeking relax-ation in this
new rule," headded. PTI
Samastipur (Bihar): An RJDleader was shot dead here in thewee
hours of Thursday inSamastipur district, evokingcondemnation from
Oppositionleaders in the State including theparty's jailed national
presidentLalu Prasad.
Raghuvar Rai (50), Stategeneral secretary of the RJD anda former
deputy chairman of theZila Parishad, was gunneddown at Kalyanpur
while he wason morning walk,Superintendent of PoliceHarpreet Kaur
said.
She said motorcycle-borneassailants, whose identity andnumber
were yet to be ascer-tained, fled the spot after firingat Rai.
The leader was taken to ahospital in the neighbouringDarbhanga
district where hesuccumbed to injuries, Kaursaid.
Following the murder, theRJD supremo took to the micro-blogging
site twitter and trainedhis guns at Bihar Chief MinisterNitish
Kumar, though he didnot mention the latter by name.
Sharing a news report aboutRai's killing being the fifth
inci-dent of murder reported fromthe state in the past 24
hours,Prasad tweeted in Hindi: "Hefeels no shame, keeps sayingthere
is rule of law. People arebeing killed like insects in Biharand he
goes on playing the same
record".Prasad is serving sentences
in a number of fodder scamcases and lodged at a hospital
inRanchi for various ailments. Hisofficial twitter handle is
oper-ated by people close to him.
Prasad's younger sonTejashwi Yadav, leader of theOpposition in
the Bihar assem-bly, tweeted: "Nitish Kumar ji,please rein in the
goons whoenjoy state patronage. What isthe use of your keeping
theHome portfolio. Criminals havebeen killing workers of RJD
andRLSP but till date you have keptsilent."
Rashtria Lok Samata Party(RLSP) chief UpendraKushwaha also came
out with atweet alleging that the StateGovernment had become
"deaf,dumb and mute" and also usedthe Bihari slang "thethar"
(cal-lous) for the regime whileexpressing concern over thestate of
affairs. PTI
Jaipur: Rajasthan police hasissued a WhatsApp helplinenumber for
adult couples whomarry against the wishes oftheir family, to offer
protectionand counselling to resolve thematter amicably.
Complying with a highcourt directive, AdditionalDirector General
of Police,civil rights, Janga Srinivas Raoissued a circular on
Wednesday,asking all superintendents ofpolice and police
commission-ers in the state to provideassistance to the couples
facingthreats from their family mem-
bers and relatives.Rao said the number —
8764871150 — will functionround the clock, according toan
official release.
A woman IPS officer,assisted by a woman RajasthanPolice Service
officer, will bethe nodal officer for this ini-tiative, it
said.
SP (Crime Branch) LovelyKatiyar will be the nodal offi-cer till
further orders, therelease said.
After a complaint isreceived on the helpline, fam-ily members
will be counselledwith the help of community lia-soning groups to
resolve thematter, it said.
If needed, prohibitoryactions under CrPC may betaken or an FIR
may also befiled. Minors will be encour-aged to follow the advice
of thecounsel until they attain adult-hood, it said. PTI
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Madurai: The Madras HighCourt has come to the rescueof an
84-year old woman, whohad been running from pillarto post to prove
she is alive afterher daughter-in-law obtained adeath certificate
in a bid to grabher property.
The High Court benchhere took up the issue on itsown after a
media report on theoctogenarian's plight anddirected cancellation
of thedeath certificate of AThottiyamal, hailing fromRamanathapuram
district.
A division bench com-prising Justices K K Sasidharanand P D
AudikesavaluWednesday impleaded thewoman's daughter-in-law
andgrandson in the case and alsodirected the authorities to can-cel
the death certificate issuedin her name on September 27,2016 and an
enquiry into thematter.
The bench also directed theRamanathapuram municipalCommissioner
and district reg-istrar to file their replies andcancelled the inam
settlementby obtaining the woman's sig-nature by giving false
infor-
mation and transferring theland to her grandson PraveenKumar's
name.
According to the report,Thottiyammal had been livingwith her son
A Doss, who wasa sheristadar in the districtcourt, and had 12 cents
of land.She also had three daughters.
Her son died in an acci-dent in 2016. Earlier, he hadtransferred
the land to hisson Praveen Kumar by aninam settlement
withoutinforming Thottiyamal, whowas 81 then.
She alleged that she wasmisled by her son, who forgedthe
signatures of her threedaughters in the settlement.
After Doss's death, his wifeMeenakshi, a school teacher,produced
a legal heir certificateto claim benefits thoughThottiyammal was
alive.
The report said the elderlywoman realised she wasdefrauded and
lodged a policecomplaint, but no action wastaken. Even after a
directivefrom a local court inRamanathapuram to takeaction against
Meenakshi, noth-ing was done, it added. PTI
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Shillong: The Navy and theNDRF in a joint operation onThursday
retrieved the bodyof one of the 15 minerstrapped in the 370-foot
deepmain shaft of the illegal coalmine in Meghalaya,
officialssaid.
A statement from the
National Disaster ResponseForce (NDRF) said they alongwith the
Navy managed toretrieve an unidentified body ofthe trapped miner
from themain shaft at Ksan rat-holemine at about 3:00 pm.
The body of the trappedminer was spotted on January
16 and efforts were on to pullit out of the shaft of the
coalmine filled with water locatedin East Jaintia Hills district
ofMeghalaya.
The miners have beentrapped for more than a monthinside the
illegal rat-hole coalmine. PTI
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Responding to the longpending demand of mem-bers of the Pahari
community,J&K Governor Satya Pal Malikon Thursday gave his
assent tothe Jammu & KashmirReservation (Amendment) Bill,2014,
providing reservation tothe persons belonging to Paharicommunity,
clan or tribe hav-ing distinct cultural, ethnicand linguistic
identity, in theGovernment jobs.
The amendment providesfor addition of a separate cat-egory of
the persons belonging
to Pahari community, clan ortribe having distinct,
cultural,ethnic and linguistic identityamong the socially and
educa-tionally backward classes (otherthan Scheduled Caste
andScheduled Tribes).
The methodology andauthority for identification ofPahari
Community shall benotified by the Government.
Because of the remotenessand inaccessibility of the areasof
their residence, the Paharicommunity has historicallyfaced
considerable economicdistress leading to overall socio-economic
backwardness.
On one hand, they are notable to compete with othersections of
the society who arebetter placed in terms of socio-economic
position as also interms of access to services likeEducation and
Health Caredue to above mentioned dis-advantages. On the otherhand,
the Pahari People arenot able to derive any benefiteven at the
lower rung inrespect of getting employ-ment. The reservation
provided to them will go along way in improving theirstatus,
educational and jobopportunities.
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Tirunelveli: The Indian OilCorporation in collaborationwith jail
authorities will soon setup five petrol stations near pris-ons
across Tamil Nadu whichwould be operated by prisonerswhose conduct
has been foundsatisfactory, DIG Prisons(Madurai) Palani said
onThursday.
As part of this initiative, apetrol station would soon be setup
near Palayamkottai Prison inthis city. The petrol bunk wouldbe
operated by prisoners ofgood and satifactory behaviour,Palani said.
A seminar was heldhere for providing training forprisoners in
operating the petrolstation. PTI
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Bengaluru: The Congress onThursday formed a panel led bydeputy
Chief Minister Dr GParameshwara to inquire intothe incident at
Eagleton Resortwhere Kampli MLA J N Ganeshallegedly attacked
HosapeteMLA Anand Singh on January20.
"Police are searching forGanesh to arrest him. Already hehas
been suspended from theparty. Further, a committeeheaded by me has
been formedto inquire into the matter andfurnish a report to the
party highcommand," Parameshwara said.
He was talking to reportersafter meeting Infosys founder NR
Narayana Murthy at the BDAhead office.
Murthy had called onParameshwara to chalk out plansto improve
his 'alma mater'—National Institute of Engineeringat Mysuru.
He also gave some sugges-tions on improving the city.
Ganesh and Anand Singhhad reportedly entered into abrawl at
Eagleton Resorts on thecity outskirts where theCongress MLAs were
herdedtogether amid allegations ofBJP's attempts to poachCongress
MLAs. PTI
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The Central Bureau ofInvestigation on Thursdayarrested Srikant
Mohta, ownerof one of the biggest producingcompanies in eastern
Indiaassociated with a bevy of awardwinning films.
The noted film and tele-
serial producer, on who restsa sizeable part of theTollygunge
film industry,was arrested in connectionwith Rose Valley chit
fundcase, CBI sources saidadding he had allegedlyfobbed jailed Rose
Valleycaptain Gautam Kundu of�25 crore.
Kundu had allegedly toldCBI during interrogation thatMohta had
taken �25 crorefrom him for producing mak-ing a number of films
whichhowever would not see thelight of the day.
“And when Kundudemanded his money backMohta allegedly
threatenedhim with closing his ponzibusiness with the help ofsome
influential political per-son,” CBI sources said. Thetop
businessman who alsoowns other businesses includ-ing malls is
likely to be flownto Odisha where the caseoriginates for production
inKhurda district court, sourcessaid.
Mohta who had earlier
evaded appearance before theCBI on several occasions wason
Thursday picked up fromhis plush South Kolkata officeby a team of
Agency officials,driven to the CGO complexand then arrested.
The CBI was also exam-ining the veracity of com-plaints
regarding his connec-tion with the Sharada chitfund case.
Kundu was the chief ofRose Valley charged with swin-dling about
�28,000 crorewhereas Sharada chit fundcompany — led by Sudipto
Senwho is also in jail — is chargedwith cheating depositors ofmore
than �2,500 crore.
Srikant Mohta’s company— Shree Venkatesh Films —has produced a
number ofaward-winning films, likeChokher Bali, Raincoat,
ItiMrinalini, Memories In March,Autograph, Baishey Shrabonand
Hemlock Society casting agalaxy of top directors andactors from
Mumbai filmworld.
Meanwhile, coming downheavily on the BJP Governmentfor
“victimising and arm-twist-ing people who do not fall inline with
them,” seniorTrinamool Congress leaderand Minister Partho
Chatterjeeon Thursday said, “the BJP isknown for such vindictive
atti-tude. We have tolerated this foryears. They cannot stand
oppo-sition. Those who do not fall inline with them are
victimisedlike this. But one hopes law willtake its own course and
truthwill be revealed.”
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Jammu: The Pakistan ArmyThursday targeted forwardposts and
civilian areas alongthe LoC in Jammu &Kashmir's Rajouri
district withmortars and small arms, offi-cial said.
The Indian Army is effec-tively retaliating.
"Pakistan Army initiatedunprovoked ceasefire viola-tion by small
arms fire andshelling with mortars inSunderbani Sector since
0915hours", the Defence PRO said.
The Pakistan Army alsotargeted forward posts inMendhar sector of
Poonchdistrict on Wednesday night,officials said. Officials said
the
Pakistan Army is continuous-ly firing 120 mm and 81 mmmortars
when last reportscame in. The shelling and fir-ing has triggered
panic amongborder dwellers.
Northern ArmyCommander Lt Gen Ranbirhad said on Thursday
lastthat a befitting reply will begiven to ceasefire violations
byPakistani troops. PTI
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Chennai: A panel probing for-mer Tamil Nadu Chief MinisterJ
Jayalalithaa's death has reject-ed Apollo Hospitals' plea to setup
a medical board to helpexamine medical records relat-ed to her
treatment in 2016.
Citing the assistance pro-vided by government doctorsfollowing
its request to decipherthe medical records, the JusticeA
ArumughaswamyCommission of Inquiry dis-missed Apollo Hospitals'
appli-cation saying it could examineany number of doctors on
their(Apollo) side.
Specialists, including a car-diothoracic surgeon and a
bio-chemist from Madras MedicalCollege and Rajiv GandhiGovernment
Hospital here,scrutinised the medical recordsof Apollo Hospitals on
the lateleader's treatment, the com-mission said.
Affirming that it alone cananalyse the evidence, the com-mission
said, "This duty can bedischarged only by the com-mission, not by
the panel of doc-tors." It added that even if apanel of doctors is
appointed, itsopinion has to be weighed withthe evidence of the
doctorsalready recorded by the com-mission.
"This application is highlybelated...It is an attempt by
theApollo Hospitals to scrap theevidence already recorded by
the commission..That is thereason the applicant has comeforward
with this application atthe last stage of evidence," thecommission
of inquiry said.
The commission's standingcounsel, M MohammedJafarullah Khan,
objected tothe hospital's application sayingit was "intended to
stall" pro-ceedings of the commissionwhich had almost reached
thefinal stage.
He said the commissionalone can evaluate the "medicalevidence
and medical records"to see whether proper treatmentwas provided to
Jayalalithaa.
"Medical board cannot beconstituted to play a superviso-ry
role," Khan said.
The Apollo Hospitals herehad petitioned the commissionin
December 2018 to rope in 21specialists and set up a medicalboard to
examine the volumi-nous medical records related tothe 75-day
hospitalisation ofJayalalithaa.
Pointing out mistakes in thedepositions recorded by
thecommission, the hospital hadsaid the panel needed the sup-port
of a "medical board of cal-ibre" to help it come to a deci-sion.
The bloopers included"enterococcus", a bacteria, get-ting into the
commission'srecords as "endocarditis", whichis inflammation of the
endo-cardium and heart valves. PTI
Surat: Veteran actor and BJPleader Moushumi Chatterjeelanded in
a controversy forallegedly criticising a youngwoman announcer for
herchoice of cloths during an event-cum-press conference here.
Since the event was fol-lowed by a press conference bythe local
BJP unit, organised ata hotel on January 21, the pur-ported advice
by Chatterjee tothe anchor hired to handle theevent was captured by
camerasof several news channels.
As soon as the womananchor, wearing a shirt andpants, introduced
the guests tothe mediapersons and otheraudience present in a
hall,Chatterjee took the mic andexpressed her displeasure aboutthe
anchor's choice of dress.
"See, next time you come forsuch an event then make sure towear
Indian dress. We all wearmodern dresses but you have tokeep in mind
the place too. PTI
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Nashik: More than 20 migra-tory birds of different varietiesdied
after getting stuck in fish-ing nets at NandurMadhameshwar lake in
thedistrict, officials said onThursday.
Around 15 birds, whichsuffered injuries due to the fish-ing
nets, were rescued, theysaid.
The incident came to lighton Tuesday, officials said.
The lake is situated inNandur Madhmeshwar BirdSanctuary located
in Niphadtaluka in the district. The waterreservoir is popular
amongbird lovers as a number ofavians land there for their win-ter
sojourn.
"A large number of migra-tory birds of different varietiesarrive
in NandurMadhameshwar during winter,due to which the sanctuary
ispopular among bird lovers.On Tuesday, over 20 such birds
were found dead as they wereentangled in fishing nets spreadat
different locations in thelake," assistant conservator offorest
Bhagwan Thakare said.
"We have issued notices tothe fishermen concerned andasked them
to stick to the areaearmarked for them for fishingactivities," he
said.
Sources in the forestdepartment said specific areashave been
allotted to localfishermen for fishing, althoughsome of them put up
the fish-ing nets beyond these desig-nated points. Further
investi-gation is on. PTI
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Davos: United Nations chiefAntonio Guterres on Thursdaycautioned
that the world riskslosing the race against climatechange and the
political willseems to be slowing down inthis fight.
"I think the climate risk isthe most important systemicrisk for
the near future," he saidin a special address at the WorldEconomic
Forum AnnualMeeting here.
"I believe we are losing therace. Climate change is
runningfaster than we are... We are mov-ing dramatically into a
runawayclimate change if we are not ableto stop it, and at the same
time,I see the political will slowingdown," he said.
"This when technology ison our side and we see moreand more the
business com-munity ready to respond in apositive way and the civil
soci-ety more and more engaged, but
the political will is still very slow,and we see lots of
subsidies tofossil fuels, we see carbon pric-ing in a very limited
way, and wesee many still putting into doubtwhether climate change
is athreat. "In my opinion, it's themost important global
systemicthreat in relation to the globaleconomy," Guterres
said.
On globalisation, he saidwith all its fantastic improve-ments in
the world and the tech-nological progress, it hasincreased
inequality at the coun-try level. "There are people thatwere left
behind ... That has cre-ated a sense of frustration in therust
belts of these world and thishas been a factor of reducing
confidence, trust inGovernments, in political estab-lishments,
and in internationalorganisations like ours," he said.
He also warned that thepolitical mega trends show thatwe are
witnessing a multiplica-tion of conflicts, more andmore
interrelated and related toa threat of global terrorism butat the
same time the response ismore and more fragmented.
"We no longer live in a bipo-lar or unipolar world but we arenot
yet in a multipolar world.We are in a kind of chaotic sit-uation of
transition.
"The relationship betweenthe three most important pow-ers,
Russia, the United Statesand China, has never been asdysfunctional
as it is today andthis is true for the economy, butit's also true
in the paralysis ofthe Security Council in manyvery important
aspects," hesaid. PTI
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In 1958, a social and economic cam-paign, led by former Chairman
of theCommunist Party of China, MaoZedong, sought to transform
theChinese economy from an agrariansociety to an industrial
powerhouse. It is wide-ly believed that some of the policies
intro-duced during the Great Leap Forward even-tually led to the
Great Chinese Faminebetween 1959 and 1961. While Chinafocussed on
moving its workers from farmsto factories, simultaneously, it went
throughone of the worst famines in human history.
Peculiarly, in the years leading up to theGreat Chinese Famine,
Beijing was actuallyexporting significant amounts of grainswhile a
large population of the country wasdying of starvation. Why was
this so? Reasonfor this seemingly irrational policy wasapparently
an illusion of abundance. Inorder to avoid the wrath of their
bosses, itturned out that at each level of the bureau-cracy, every
person fudged the grain produc-tion marginally to show better
output thanwas the case actually. By the time this infor-mation
reached the top brass, an impressionwas already created that China
had enoughgrain to spare and, therefore, could fund theGreat Leap
Forward by exporting excess grain.As we all now know, the lack of
accountabil-ity and the verification of information even-tually
contributed to a famine that led to thedeath of tens of millions of
people over there.
While this may just be a morbid exam-ple, it does underline the
importance of thebureaucracy, which serves as the frameworkof a
democracy and crucially highlights theimportance of keeping this
frameworkaccountable. In this week’s column, thiswriter’s focus
will be on why it is importantfor Members of Parliament to
participate andspend more time in the House so as to ensuregreater
accountability.
Fundamentally, the bureaucracy formsthe other arms of the
Government becauseunlike the elected representatives, who maybe
voted out in an election or the judiciary,which has to justify its
decisions through rea-soned orders that may even be challenged
andare a matter of public record, the bureaucra-cy can really be
held accountable by electedrepresentatives, who are in turn
answerableto the public. This is one of the primary rea-sons why
both Houses, at the Centre and inthe States, must be more active so
as to ensurethat those individuals, who are actuallyresponsible for
the day-to-day working of thecountry, are held accountable along
with theMPs and MLAs.
While it is often thought that theParliament’s role is limited
to discussing anddrafting laws for the country, there are
othercrucial roles, too, that it fulfills. They are justas
important as the drafting and passing oflegislations, including
ensuring that individ-uals and departments, which are
responsiblefor running the country, actually do their job.This is
the role that ‘Question Hour’ is pri-marily meant to fulfill. It
refers to the first hourof a sitting Session of the Lok Sabha.
Duringthis hour, MPs are free to raise any question
pertaining to various issuesregarding the actual administra-tion
of the country. After a ques-tion has been raised, in accor-dance
with the applicable rules ofParliament, the concernedMinister, to
whom the query hasbeen addressed, is required toanswer in
Parliament itself. Thisis one of the many ways inwhich the Indian
public getsaccess to information and detailsabout the manner in
which actu-al work is being carried out by theGovernment.
Take for example, there is aquestion regarding the ‘SmartCities
Mission’, such as howmany smart cities have actuallybeen built or
what is the successof the said plan that was launchedby Prime
Minister Modi? The rel-evant Minister is required to pro-vide the
answer along with adetailed reply, placing such infor-mation on
record on the basis ofwhich the answer has been pro-vided. The
Minister’s speech isobviously made on the basis ofinformation
provided by theparticular bureaucrat, who isresponsible for the
implementa-tion of the plan. Therefore, if theanswer does not show
theGovernment in good light, auto-matically, there will be
pressureon the relevant bureaucrat toensure that the programme
isimplemented more efficientlyor he/she will have to explain whythe
scheme is not being imple-mented as intended.
Question Hour, therefore,not only ensures that the
Opposition keeps theGovernment in power honest butalso ensures
that the public is pro-vided with authentic data that
thebureaucracy has examined andvetted. Such questions,
therefore,indirectly force the bureaucracyto answer important
questionsand create an indirect account-ability mechanism by which
thebureaucrats can be held account-able.
The UPA did, in fact, con-tribute towards bringing
account-ability to the bureaucracy in amajor way through the
introduc-tion of the Right to InformationAct, 2005, but there is a
need toask more from the Parliament. Itis an extremely sad state of
affairsthat in the past three years,Parliament has functioned for
anaverage of 60-70 days a year. It is,therefore, imperative
thatParliament functions for at least120 days a year. Such
legislationhas been proposed in the past aswell by certain MPs as a
privateBill but there has, as yet, not beenenough momentum for such
aninitiative. This has been particu-larly disappointing. As
opposedto Britain, where Parliamentfunctions for around 120 days
ayear, over the past three to fouryea