Latest news
PM Modi to Address 50,000 Indians in Dubai Today: 10 Developments
MMNN:17 Aug. 2015
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will today address a massive Indian diaspora at a huge stadium in Dubai on the second day of his trip to the United Arab Emirates.
The cricket stadium where the PM will speak to 50,000 migrant workers from India can seat 40,000 people and will be packed to capacity. Screens have been set up outside for those who do not gain entrance.
Some 2.6 million Indians live and work in the UAE, according to Indian embassy figures. The embassy estimates about 60 per cent of those are blue-collar workers.
About 200 workers broke into applause when Mr Modi arrived at an indoor basketball court yesterday at a large labour camp in the Industrial City of Abu Dhabi. The PM chatted with the workers, enquiring about the place and their welfare and jobs, but made no comments to the media.
The agenda for his address, expected to be broadcast on local radio stations, is " to convey that the safety, security and welfare conditions for Indian workers should not be ignored," a senior Indian government official told news agency Reuters.
In November, India launched a campaign for higher wages for its workers in the Gulf states. Indian diplomats raised the minimum salaries they recommend because of higher living costs.
On Sunday, the PM toured the main mosque in Abu Dhabi, in what is being sent as a strong message of his commitment to religious freedom and communal harmony back at home.
Dressed in a cream-coloured kurta with an orange and white stole, the PM posed for a selfie with the ministers who accompanied him to the mosque.
PM Modi's two-day visit to Abu Dhabi is the first by an Indian Prime Minister since Indira Gandhi's trip in 1981.
PM Modi will meet Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan as well as Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed al Maktoum, who is also the UAE Prime Minister.
He will seek to engage Abu Dhabi, one of the richest sovereign wealth funds in the world, to invest in India as well as expand cooperation in the energy sector. Abu Dhabi accounts for 9 percent of India's energy needs and India wants to increase that.
Separatist leader Asiya Andrabi booked for waving Pak flag, making anti-India speech
Srinagar:MMNN:17 Aug. 2015
Chief of radical women’s outfit Dukhtaran-e-Millat (DeM, Asiya Andrabi, who had stoked a controversy by addressing a rally organised by 26/11 attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed-led Jamat-ud Dawah (JuD) in Pakistan over phone, was booked by the authorities under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, said reports on Monday.
In her telephonic address to the rally, organised in Lahore on August 14, Andrabi had greeted the people of the neighbouring country on their Independence Day and spewed venom against the Indian establishment.
JuD chief Saeed was seen sitting on the stage during Andrabi’s address.
Hours before her address, the DeM chief had celebrated Pakistan’s Independence Day at her residence. Dozens of DeM activists had gathered in Bachpora area of the city where they celebrated Pakistan’s Independence Day and waved Pakistani flag.
Andrabi’s telephone address triggered a controversy with BJP’s Jammu and Kashmir unit president Jugal Kishore demanding strict action against her.
“These are instances of treason and will not be tolerated at all…Asiya Andrabi should be arrested.I expect that she would have been arrested by now and a case of treason would have been registered against her.”
Congress spokesman RPN Singh demanded that concrete action should be taken against those working against the state.
“The NSA-level talks are slated to be held on August 23-24. A lot of talks have happened and the government claims about a breakthrough. But, with the terrorists attacking India, there is an urgent need to take concrete action against them, whether it is Hafiz Saeed or Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi via these talks with Pakistan.”
JKNPP leader Harsh Dev Singh noted that this was not the first time that Andrabi has indulged in such acts. “I don’t understand why these people have been given a long rope by the present government in J-K.
They ought to have booked the culprits by now, because it’s not the first time that Asiya is indulging in such kind of anti-national activities… So, we feel unnerved by the government’s approach in taking action against people like her.”
Andrabi had earlier also celebrated Pakistan’s National Day on March 23 this year and hoisted the flag of that country, following which the police had registered a case against her under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.
Vice President greets nation ahead of Independence Day
NEW DELHI:MMNN:14 Aug. 2015
Vice President Hamid Ansari on Friday greeted the people ahead of India's Independence Day on Saturday and said the country should strive towards attaining social equality.
Ansari said in a statement: "I extend my warm greetings to the people of our country on the joyous occasion of our Independence Day."
On this Independence Day,
the country should resolve to strive towards attaining social equality and dignity for every citizen of India, he said.
"On this auspicious occasion,
we take pride in the achievements of our nation and salute the sacrifices of our valiant freedom fighters," he added.
Beef Ban, Yoga Day, Land Bill Feature in August 15 Security Advisory
NEW DELHI:MMNN:14 Aug. 2015
As India gets ready to celebrate Independence Day tomorrow, the Al Qaeda is keen to strike naval bases in Mumbai and Kochi, the Home Ministry has warned.
A terror alert is standard every year ahead of August 15. A detailed advisory to states, which summarizes intel inputs collected over recent months to ensure security agencies are aware of all possible dangers, says that terror group Al Qaeda "could consider Indian naval facilities and other unsecured waterfronts as potential targets". It refers to naval bases in Kerala and Mumbai.
The note says that information gleaned in September last year suggests the outfit "plans to target BJP offices, commercial, tourist, religious, aviation and railway infrastructure in various states." It also references the "unhappiness" of Muslim groups to a recent ban on beef on some states, the celebration of an annual Yoga Day, the importance given by the new government to Sanskrit in schools, as well as farmers' unhappiness with the controversial land reforms of PM Narendra Modi as causes worth scrutinizing for information and intelligence inputs.
The Prime Minister will deliver his annual Independence Day speech from the Red Fort tomorrow morning, where security has been carefully detailed. Last year, the PM decided against using a bulletproof enclosure on stage.
The advisory says inputs from last year suggest possible targets by other Pakistan-based terror groups and their Indian branches include the famous Lotus Temple and metro stations in Delhi and malls in Uttar Pradesh and Noida.
Just weeks ago, a police station in Gurdaspur in Punjab was attacked by terrorists from Pakistan. Four policemen and three civilians were killed in a gunbattle that lasted nearly 12 hours. The Home Ministry's missive reiterates the growing concern that Pakistan's ISI is "encouraging the Indian Sikh terrorists/radicals based in Pakistan to assist in sending the explosives/arms and ammunition/funds to the Indian territory".
Clean cities list shows why Modi chose ‘dirty Varanasi’ to launch Swachh Bharat
Varanasi:MMNN:12 Aug. 2015
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi, where he launched the Swachh Bharat Mission in November last year, is among the country’s dirtiest in a pre-Swachh Bharat list released by the Union Ministry of Urban Development. Varanasi stood at 418 in a list of 478 cities ranked according to its cleanliness. Since coming to power in May 2014, more than 30 Union ministers have paid over a 100 visits to Varanasi, highlighting the priority the Centre has for the Prime Minister’s constituency.
Yet, there appear to be no concrete steps from the state or the Union government. According to sources in Varanasi Municipal Corporation (VMC), not a single new project has been sanctioned for the temple town either by the Centre or the Akhilesh Yadav government. Moreover, no separate funds have been allocated to help improve sanitation facilities.
“No new fund has been provided by either the Centre or the state government for cleanliness of the city but the municipal corporation has improved the situation in the last one year, using its own resources,” BK Dwivedi, Additional Municipal Commissioner, Varanasi told The Indian Express. There are about 1.70 lakh households in Varanasi that generate 650 tonnes of solid waste daily.
Varanasi Municipal Corporation (VMC), in 2010, had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with A2Z firm, launching a door-to-door collection system and treatment of waste. According to municipal officials, the firm initially collected waste for a year, and then stopped. In 2013, it resumed collection, but stopped a few months later. “That firm also did not complete the establishment of a waste treatment plant which is now lying non-functional. VMC stopped payment to the firm. The firm then challenged the VMC’s decision in court and the matter is now sub-judice,” Dwivedi said.
He added that VMC has started cleaning the city using its own machinery and man power of about 2,700 workers. “We are committed to making Varanasi waste-free very soon. VMC has cleaned Assi ghat in a very short time and 22 public toilets in one-and-half year have been built to stop defecation in the open,” Dwivedi said.
After the Urban Development Ministry released its report last week, top VMC officials started supervising cleanliness work. Municipal Commissioner Shrihari Pratap Shahi and Dwivedi have both begun inspecting the city, monitoring the collection of waste from residential and commercial areas. Mayor Ram Gopal Mohle has also sought daily reports about the work being carried out across the city. Mohle had led a team of Varanasi administration and municipal officials to Kyoto, Japan in April this year to shape Varanasi as a ‘Smart City’ on the lines of Kyoto.
Modi himself had visited Japan last year and signed a pact with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe to turn Varanasi into a ‘smart city’. Kyoto Mayor Daisaku Kadokawa had then made a presentation on how Kyoto made the transition from a historic city to a modern and clean city of the 21st century while continuing to maintain its heritage. In October, Kenichi Ogasawara, Deputy Mayor of Kyoto, surveyed Varanasi, assuring officials that technical experts from Japan will assess the need of the city and help improve its civic infrastructure while continuing to maintain its ancient architecture.
SC stays HC order cancelling Maran's bail
NEW DELHI:MMNN:12 Aug. 2015
The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the Madras High Court order cancelling former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran's anticipatory bail.
Issuing notice to the CBI, the court asked the probe agency to respond to Maran's challenge in two weeks.
The court posted the next hearing on September 14.
Justice T.S. Thakur asked whether political vendetta was behind the push for Maran’s arrest. Asking the CBI whether it was trying to "fix" him, Justice Thakur asked, “Why the CBI need to arrest a man for Rs.1 crore pending phone bill. When the FIR was filed in 2013, why didn't you make any arrest? What were you doing for nearly three years?”
The bench, which initially posed tough questions to Maran’s counsel, later turned the heat on the CBI and questioned its insistence on custodial interrogation.
"In the NRHM scam in UP, there is a loss of Rs. 800 crore public money. But not a single arrest. Here you want to arrest for 1 crore phone bill dues. Are you trying to get at him?", asked Justice Thakur to the CBI.
“If you think the phone lines were fixed as part of conspiracy, question him, question the BSNL officials. Why arrest him?" he said.
"Is it a matter of prestige for you to arrest him? Nobody should get away after causing public loss. .. but custodial interrogation?. How did you assess the 1-crore loss? You say no bills were raised. Anyway he is willing to pay? You raise the bill now and he will pay up," Justice Thakur said.
Immediately, Shyam Diwan, appearing for Maran, said, "There is no criminality in this case, only monetary claim. We will pay if any dues".
Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for CBI referred to the facts of the case to stress that it was a huge corruption case and said, "Maran used clout in government to fix lines for use of the huge media house Sun TV that his family runs.
"We want his custody to prove the conspiracy involving Maran, Sun TV network and BSNL", the A-G appealed.
"People overstay in official bungalows... can you call that corruption?, Justice Thakur asked the CBI.
"Why should anticipatory bail not be allowed in economic offence cases? You have to explain your objection", Justice V. Gopala Gowda asked the CBI.
Protests, black bands back as Parliament session enters last week
NEW DELHI:MMNN:10 Aug. 2015
The monsoon session of Parliament entered its last week on Monday even as the opposition Congress appeared unrelenting protesting in the well of the Rajya Sabha. They entered the House with placards and wearing black arm bands.
Twenty five Congress MPs were suspended last week by the Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan for five days for disrupting proceedings leading to the boycott of the House by nine opposition parties, worsening a bitter stand-off and dimming chances of key bills being passed in the monsoon session.
On resumption of the session on Monday, the Janata Dal (U) and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) gave notices on various issues. The JD (U) had moved an adjournment motion in RS on Bihar governor's appointment issue while the RJD had given notice on the Jharkhand stampede incident.
Both the adjournment motions were, however, disallowed by the speaker.
Following protests by Congress and heated exchanges between Opposition and treasury benches, Rajya Sabha adjourned till noon.
The Lok Sabha, too, was adjourned till noon due to Opposition uproar over Lalit Modi, Vyapam controversies. The speaker adjourned the House after Congress rejected SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav's suggestion that she convenes a meeting to break logjam.
Before the session resumed, the BJP managers had tried to reach out to the Opposition parties to pass, at least, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill, but there are apprehensions of a fresh round of protests.
Union minister of state for environment and forest, Prakash Javadekar had alleged during a press conference that the Congress is trying hard to block the nation's development by creating a logjam situation in Parliament.
Teen Harassed On Bus. 20 People Refused to Help. Now, She's in Hospital
JAMSHEDPUR:MMNN:10 Aug. 2015
When two men tried to molest a young teen on a bus in Jharkhand, she shouted for help.
Of the 20 people who were traveling with her, nobody responded.
So on Saturday afternoon, she jumped from the bus in Jamshedpur and is now in hospital with injuries on her head, legs and chest.
The driver of the privately-run bus has been arrested along with the two stalkers. The conductor is still missing, said the police.
The teen, a Class 9 student, was heading home from school.
She has told the police that after two passengers made lewd remarks to her, she asked others on board for help.
When one man then moved towards her, she leapt from the front door.
"They (the stalkers) were friends of the driver and conductor," said Anoop T Mathew, a senior police officer.
Sushma Swaraj an expert in theatrics, indulging in drama: Sonia
NEW DELHI:MMNN:7 Aug. 2015
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday attacked external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj for her emotional statement on tainted former IPL chief Lalit Modi, saying she was indulging in drama.
"Sushma Swaraj is an expert in theatrics," she told reporters at the venue of opposition protests outside Parliament over the suspension of 25 Congress MPs.
This comes a day after Swaraj made a statement in the Lok Sabha denying charges that she helped tainted former IPL chief Lalit Modi in getting travel documents in the UK and questioned Sonia what she would have done to help a woman suffering from cancer
Party vice president Rahul Gandhi said there was a clear case of wrongdoing on Swaraj's part as nobody else in her ministry knew about her communication.
He also alleged there was a case of quid pro quo, saying the minister's family -- her husband and daughter were lawyers for Lalit Modi's firm -- received money.
"She should tell the country exactly how much money has Lalit Modi paid her family to keep him out of jail and away from Indian authorities," he said.
Sonia added that she would not have broken the law to help the former IPL chief if she were in Swaraj's place.
Swaraj had said Modi's wife Minal was suffering from cancer and that she wanted her husband to be by her side at a hospital in Portugal. The Union minister also read from doctors' testimonies to show that Modi's wife was going through a particularly critical phase of her treatment.
"If helping a woman cancer patient is a crime, then I admit having committed this crime and am ready to face any punishment from this House for it. If Sonia Gandhi had been in my place, would she have left a woman cancer patient to die?" an emotiotionally charged Swaraj asked.
The minister also claimed that she has not recommended to UK authorities for Modi's travel papers, and had left the decision entirely to them
Hours after her speech Congress hit back saying her speech was "hogwash" and contradictory to her earlier stand.
Congress leaders asked how Modi was travelling all over the world with the documents, if it was granted on humanitarian grounds.
Congress has stalled proceeding throughout the monsoon session saying that it will not call off protests within the Houses unless the government removes Swaraj and Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje for their help to Lalit Modi.
A special Mumbai court had issued a non-bailable arrest warrant (NBW) against Lalit Modi in connection with a case of money laundering following a plea by the Enforcement Directorate.
Key accused in 1993 blasts, Mustafa Dossa claims he surrendered and was not arrested
MMNN:7 Aug. 2015
Mustafa Dossa, another accused in the 1993 Mumbai blasts, told a TADA court that the CBI framed him and that he hadn't been arrested, Mumbai Mirror reports. Dossa was named co-accused in the case in 1995 but was not chargesheeted. According to the report, Dossa alleges that he was framed by the CBI with help of the Gujarat Police.
The Tada court is recording statement of Dossa and 6 others in a trial being conducted for the accused who were arrested late. Dossa filed an application under Section 313 of the Criminal Procedure Code, a provision that allows him to present his version of events in place of the evidence gathered against him.
In his statement to the court he says that he had returned to India of his own volition to take part in the investigation. However, the CBI says that he had been arrested at the Delhi airport in 2003 and charged. Dossa claims he was in Dubai at the time.
Yakub Memon, who was hanged on July 30 as accused in the same case, had also related a similar story. Yakub had said that he had surrendered to the CBI in Kathmandu, while the CBI claimed to have arrested him in Delhi.
According to the report, Dossa told the TADA court that returning to India was his own decision and that he was framed because the CBI failed in catching the key conspirators, which included his brother Mohammed along with Dawood Ibrahim and Tiger Memon.
According to Dossa, in 2003 when CBI claims to havewas arrested him, he was in Dubai. An Indian national had been murdered and in the crackdown he was one of the 50 suspects. Dossa said he came back to India when he was told to leave the UAE. He said he asked the Dubai authorities to contact India and send him back.
The report says that Dossa met with CBI officials in Dubai who told him that his presence was required for the ongoing 1993 Mumbai blasts investigation. Dossa says the CBI arranged for an emergency certificate for him as well as airfare
In his statement to the court, Dossa says, "Since the CBI is unable to arrest the main accused in the case, I have been falsely implicated on the basis of false and fabricated evidence". According to Dossa, he returned because knew he had nothing to do with the blasts but agreed to return to India to prove his innocence.
Dossa has been accused of transporting explosives to Mumbai as well as sending people to Pakistan for training in order to carry out the 12 blasts that took place on March 12, 1993. Over 3,000 kilo of RDX were brought into the country but only 10% of it was used. The blasts killed 257 people.
Now, you can interact with PM Narendra Modi using this app
NEW DELHI:MMNN:5 Aug. 2015
The iPhone users will now be able to interact with Prime Minister Narendra Modi using a "Narendra Modi Mobile App".
"Updates, interaction with me, volunteering & more exciting features on
'Narendra Modi Mobile App' for iPhone. Download http://nm4.in/nmiosapp," the prime minister tweeted on Tuesday.
Description of the mobile app states: "Official App of Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi.
It brings to you latest information, instant updates and helps you contribute towards various tasks.
"It provides a unique opportunity to receive messages and e-mails directly from the prime minister," it adds.
Attack on BSF convoy in Udhampur a worrying development: Omar
SRINAGAR:MMNN:5 Aug. 2015
Former Jammu & Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday said the attack on a BSF convoy in Udhampur was a "worrying development" as the area had remained free from militancy for a long time.
"An attack on this stretch of the NH (National Highway) after a very long time.
Worrying development because area was militant free," Omar wrote on micro-blogging site Twitter.
Two BSF jawans and a militant were killed while eight others injured when militants attacked a convoy of the BSF on Jammu-Srinagar highway near Samroli in Udhampur district early this morning.
The attack, which comes days after terror struck Dinanagar of Punjab, is the first in the district in over a decade.
Udhampur was one of the four districts of Jammu & Kashmir from where the Omar Abdullah-led state government wanted the controversial
Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) to be revoked citing considerable improvement in the situation.
The other districts were Srinagar and Budgam in Kashmir Valley and Jammu district in Jammu region.
Heavy rains hit several parts of India, over 100 people killed, lakhs affected
NEW DELHI:MMNN:3 Aug. 2015
The monsoon mayhem continues in the northeastern and eastern states and over 100 people have died and lakhs have been affected. Manipur, West Bengal, Odisha are the most affected states.
The Centre has rushed National Disaster Response Force teams to Manipur for rescue and relief operations after 20 people were killed in a landslide on Saturday. Home Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to the Manipur Chief Minister and assured him of all help.
The landslide was triggered by incessant rainfall in the Zoumoal village. Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju will visit the affected areas on Monday to take stock of the situation. Heavy rains have also led to flash floods and inundated many villages in the Chandel district.
In West Bengal, floodwaters have washed away National Highway 60 and a dam also broke by 30 feet causing a major flood in the area. It has been raining heavily in south Bengal after Cyclone Komen made landfall in neighbouring Bangladesh last week.
At least 48 people have been killed and 7 lakh have been affected by the rains in districts like Howrah, South 24 Parganas and Midnapore. Several parts of Kolkata is still under knee-deep water.
Several parts of Kolkata too remained under knee-deep water. Home Minister Rajnath Singh has spoken to Mamata Banerjee discussing about the flood in the state.
In the neighbouring state of Odisha, the situation is no different. Over 4 lakh people have been marooned due to massive floods in Odisha. The Met department said the flood situation has been aggravated by Cyclone Komen. Water from Bangladesh has entered North Odisha and inundated about 20 villages. The situation has turned worse due to heavy rainfall.
The flood fury continues in Himachal Pradesh after heavy rains triggered a landslide in Kangra district on Saturday. While the landslide damaged several houses in Dharamshala, flash floods have killed 4 people in the district so far. There has been massive damage to property and several cattle have been killed. Locals said financial help from the state government has been scarce with only a few thousand rupees being given to those affected.
The rain woes continue in Gujarat as heavy rains followed by floods have led to the death of 16,000 cattle. Numerous people were also stuck in the floods. The Army said it has evacuated more than 1,000 people to safer areas and provided them relief items.
Rains are wrecking havoc in Rajasthan as well. The Ministry of Home Affairs has said that 28 deaths have been reported in the state so far. Karanpur city received the maximum rain recording rainfall of 5 cm. Meanwhile, more than 12 villages remain flooded.
The civil administration has pressed 25 rescue teams into action to look into the situation. Eight NDRF teams have also been deployed.
Parliament logjam: Sonia targets PM; Rajya Sabha adjourned till noon
New Delhi:MMNN:3 Aug. 2015
The government has convened a meeting of major parties on Monday to discuss ways to end the stalemate in Parliament in an attempt to save the rest of the monsoon session and push its key reforms.
Before that, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is holding a meet with senior ministers in Parliament to discuss strategy and likelihood of a statement by the PM in the House to break the logjam, reports said. After which a proposal to carry on discussions in Parliament will be brought forward at the meeting of the 15 parties at 12pm.
"Congress must understand they are not only stalling Parliament proceedings but are creating hindrance in the progress of the nation," said minister of state for parliamentary affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.
Sources said the government was keen to strike a compromise deal but without buckling to the opposition's demand for the ouster of scandal-hit foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh chief ministers Vasundhara Raje and Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
Meanwhile, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi lashed out at the prime minister over his silence, saying that the champion of 'mann ki baat' retreats to 'maun vrat' whenever there is a scandal involving his colleagues.
"He has been conspicuous by his deafening silence on blatant transgressions by his EAM (Sushma Swaraj) and two of his CMs," said Gandhi at the meeting of Congress parliamentary party.
She said the PM has turned out to be a master repackager, a skillful salesman, a sharp headline grabber and a clever news manager.
"There will be no productive discussions and no meaningful proceedings as long as those responsible for gross wrong-doings remain in office," she added.
Rajya Sabha was also adjourned till noon after Congress uproar over Lalit Modi and Vyapam issues.
The NDA chose not to call an all-party meeting, limiting the interaction to parties with more than eight MPs. This means parties like the RJD, DMK, PDP and LJP have been kept out.
"In the last all-party meet, discussions went on for three-and-a-half hours. But it yielded no results," said a minister.
The monsoon session has already witnessed four all-party meetings but the impasse continues. With just nine working days to go before the session ends on August 13, the ruling dispensation is worried about key bills stuck in the logjam, especially the Goods and Services Bill. Government managers feel if the constitution amendment bill is not passed this session, GST rollout may be delayed by another year.
The Congress, which has relentlessly held up House proceedings since they began on July 21, also plans to hold a meeting of its parliamentary party hours ahead of the all-party meet. The meeting will be addressed by party chief Sonia Gandhi.
Party leaders said Gandhi's speech at the Congress parliamentary party meeting would set the tone for the multi-party meeting later.
At internal strategy meetings, NDA floor managers debated if forming a joint parliamentary committee to look into the charges against the BJP leaders could break the logjam, sources told HT. A section in the government also said at the meetings that the Centre must at least urge the opposition to allow passage of the constitution amendment bill on GST.
The CPI(M) and Congress, however, said no "concrete proposals" had come from the government so far.
"If it comes out with a proposal, all opposition parties will have to collectively decide on it," CPM's Sitaram Yechury told HT over phone from Raigad, Maharashtra.
The government and Congress engaged in a verbal clash on Sunday, with the ruling side alleging "obstructionism" on part of the opposition which in turn blamed Modi's "arrogance" for the Parliament logjam.
With half of the monsoon session virtually washed out, the government asked Congress to introspect and said it can have "honourable exit" by having a debate on the row surrounding Swaraj and Lalit Modi.
Pitching for the GST bill that will allow a single national tax to be levied on all goods and services, finance minister Arun Jaitley attacked the Congress in a Facebook post, "The Congress should accept and seriously introspect, after having ruled the country for the longest time, that negativism hurts the country. Should its obstructionist tendencies inflict an economic injury on the country?"
Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who addressed a press conference at BJP headquarters, termed Congress as "confused" and claimed that it has put itself in an "untenable position" and "pushed itself against the wall" by demanding resignations of Swaraj, Raje and Chauhan.
The Congress' Anand Sharma, however, argued it was the government that did not want the impasse to end.
"If the parliamentary affairs minister says that we have done more work in the past one year than was done in 10 previous years, the credit goes to the Congress. We are the original reformers and helped them pass legislation like the insurance bill, coal bill and companies bill."
The opposition also went into a huddle to chalk out strategy. Congress president Sonia Gandhi, leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, deputy leader in the upper House Anand Sharma and the party's Lok Sabha leader Mallikarjun Kharge met for an hour on Saturday. Gandhi held consultations with party lieutenants on Sunday too.
Four Indians kidnapped in Libya, ISIS hand suspected
NEW DELHI:MMNN:31 July 2015
Four Indians have been kidnapped by militants in Libya, reported on Friday.
All four abducted Indians were teaching in Tripoli in Libya.
They were abducted in Sirte.
ISIS militants are reported to be behind kidnapping of Indians
The ministry of external affairs to trying to ascertain more information about kidnapped Indian teachers.
Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj has briefed PM Modi about the hostage situation in Libya.
Meanwhile, the suspense still continues over 39 Indians who were kidnapped in Mosul town of Iraq by ISIS militants over a year ago.
Union minister of state for external affairs V K Singh said government was in "close and regular" contact with relevant Iraqi government authorities to obtain information on their whereabouts and safety.
Enclave Exchange: The road to improved India-Bangladesh ties begins at midnight
MMNN:31 July 2015
The landmark exchange of 162 enclaves (51 in India and 111 in Bangladesh) at midnight on July 31 will be one of the biggest boosts to the bilateral relationship since the Ganga water sharing treaty at Farakka signed in 1996. Over the decades, India-Bangladesh ties have seen their fair share of highs—from the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971 to the Sheikh Hasina government’s crackdown on anti-India terror groups.
But it has also had lows—like the anti-India sentiment fomented by former Bangladeshi prime minister Khaleda Zia’s government. Tonight’s implementation of the Land Boundary Agreement signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Dhaka visit in June, will be another high point in the relations between the two countries.
This exchange of enclaves will represent an end to the 68-year-long misery of over 50,000 stateless people, reports The Independent . The 37,334 people in the Indian enclaves inside Bangladesh and 14,215 in Bangladeshi enclaves inside India have been deprived of such facilities as electricity, education, road connectivity and healthcare.
New Age reports that in terms of area, this swap will account for 17160.63 acres of land being returned to Bangladesh and 2267.68 acres to India.
Additionally, a 6.5 kilometre-long unmarked border will also be demarcated, as the process of granting a nationality to the tens of thousands living in limbo in the enclaves gets underway.
Naturally, the mood in Bangladesh is buoyant with numerous events planned for midnight, reports The Dhaka Tribune.
The Bangladesh-India Chhitmahal (Enclave) Exchange Coordination Committee has planned a list of festivities that kicks off with the hoisting of the Bangladeshi flag and permanent lowering of the Indian tricolour, at the stroke of midnight.
The itinerary includes a candle-lighting ceremony (68 candles for the 68 years of suffering, The Daily Star points out), a torch-lighting ceremony, a flag rally, fireworks displays, a boat race, horse racing and a demonstration of Bangladeshi martial art lathi khela (stick playing).
While significant, this development must be put into context. As think-tank Gateway House had highlighted, the two countries will now need to find solutions to issues like smuggling, illegal immigration and trafficking that a long unsettled border has created, and the problem of sharing the water of the 53 rivers (not including the resolved Ganga) that flow between both countries. For this, Modi will have to balance the interests of Indian states (given the country’s federal structure) and relations with neighbours.
CM Prakash Singh Badal meets family of cop killed in Gurdaspur terror attack
Dinanagar,Gurdaspur:MMNN:29 July 2015
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today met the family members of police officer Baljit Singh who died during the terrorist attack at Dina Nagar and paid his last respcts to the martyr by laying wreaths on his body.
Badal spent more than half an hour with the family of the martyr, who was cremated here today with full police honours, and assured them that their demands would be considered sympathetically.
Talking to mediapersons at the house of the slain SP (Detective) in Santpura locality here, he said he had a telephonic conversation with Home Minister Rajnath Singh yesterday and informed him about the situation in the state after the attack.
On another question about the ill-equipped weaponry like outdated bullets with the state police, Badal said the state government would make it a priority to equip the police with sophisticated weapons with the Centre’s help.
He, however, lauded the efforts of Punjab police and SWAT team for their bravery in killing the three terrorists. According to Badal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also lauded the role of Punjab police in fighting the militants.
Replying to another question about the foreign visit of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, Badal said Sukhbir had gone abroad before this incident and he was available to handle the situation.
Commenting on the remarks of former Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh that Badal was playing dirty politics, Badal said he is in a habit of criticizing the government for nothing.
On the alert sounded by National Security Advisor Ajit Doval over a possible terrorist attack in Punjab, Badal said he was not aware of any such alert and Punjab DGP could answer about it better. Meanwhile, the city observed a bandh as a mark of respect to the martyr.
Sanjeev Chaturvedi, Anshu Gupta win Ramon Magsaysay Award
New Delhi:MMNN:29 July 2015
Whistleblower bureaucrat Sanjeev Chaturvedi and human rights activist Anshu Gupta are among five persons from India, Laos, Myanmar, and the Philippines who will receive Asia’s coveted Ramon Magsaysay Award.
In a statement issued early on Wednesday morning, the Board of Trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF) announced five awardees.
"Thank you; this is a great honour. I'm speechless; it seems honesty and one's struggle for justice don't go unnoticed," Mr. Chaturvedi told The Hindu confirming the development.
The 2002-batch Indian Forest Service officer, who is currently embattled in a protracted battle with the Centre over alleged harassment for his tough stance on graft, was the former Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) at the AIIMS in New Delhi.
According to the foundation, Mr. Chaturvedi has been awarded for “his exemplary integrity, courage and tenacity in uncompromisingly exposing and painstakingly investigating corruption in public office, and his resolute crafting of program and system improvements to ensure that government honorably serves the people of India.”
'Recognition for cloth as a charitable product'
Anshu Gupta, the founder of NGO Goonj, the statement said, is being recognised for “his creative vision in transforming the culture of giving in India, his enterprising leadership in treating cloth as a sustainable development resource for the poor, and in reminding the world that true giving always respects and preserves human dignity.”
Mr. Gupta, who left his corporate job to start the non profit organisation Goonj in the year 1999, is an elated man today.
Talking to The Hindu, Mr. Gupta said: “It’s definitely a great recognition for me and my team. It has been a beautiful journey working for Goonj. I am happy that we have been able to change many lives in the course of time.”
“Now I feel that what we are trying to do is going in the right direction. I feel that finally cloth has been recognised as a charitable product,” he added.
On being asked about his future ventures after this he said: “We will just continue to do the kind of work that we are doing. I don’t think there will be any change in the way me or my team operates. People might start looking at us in a different way but that’s a separate thing.”
Goonj is a non-governmental organisation based in Delhi, which works in 21 states across India in disaster relief, humanitarian aid and community development. It has converted 1,000 tonnes of used clothes, household goods and other urban discards into usable resources for the poor.
“I never worked on target, I tried to utilise the maximum potential,” Mr. Gupta said.
Other awardees
The other awardees are Kommaly Chanthavong, from Laos who is being recognised for her efforts to develop the ancient Laotian art of silk weaving, Ligaya Fernando-Amilbangsa from the Philippines for “her single-minded crusade in preserving the endangered artistic heritage of southern Philippines".
Kyaw Thu from Myanmar, the statement said, was being recognised for “his generous compassion in addressing the fundamental needs of both the living and the dead in Myanmar — regardless of their class or religion — and his channeling personal fame and privilege to mobilize many others toward serving the greater social good.”
This year’s Magsaysay Award winners will each receive a certificate, a medallion bearing the likeness of the late President, and a cash prize to be conferred upon them during a formal Presentation Ceremony to be held on August 31 2015 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines in the Capital.
5 killed as terrorists storm Gurdaspur police station, security tightened at Parliament
Dinanagar,Gurdaspur:MMNN:27 July 2015
India tightened security on its border with Pakistan on Monday after terrorists dressed in army uniform stormed a police station in Punjab's Gurdaspur district, killing at least five people and injuring eight others. The dead included three civilians and two homeguards.
Unconfirmed reports, however, put the death toll at eight.
Union home minister Rajnath Singh said he had spoken to the head of the Border Security Force and "instructed him to step up the vigil on India-Pakistan border". An alert was sounded in the Parliament complex after the Gurdaspur attack. Security was tightened at the North Block after the terror incident.
The terrorists struck a moving bus in Dinanagar at 5.30am, spraying bullets at passengers, injuring four. The assailants then targeted a health centre followed by a building where the families of police personnel reside and hurled grenades before entering the police station.
The army was mobilised as the 'fidayeen' militants were holed up in Dinanagar police station complex. Special forces, too, were deployed and a gunbattle was on several hours after the attack began.
According to police, the attackers first targeted a roadside eatery and took off in a Maruti 800 with Punjab registration number. They shot dead a roadside vendor near the Dinanagar bypass.
They then opened fire on the bus before targeting a community health centre adjacent to the Dinanagar police station. The gunmen then entered the Dinanagar police station and opened fire in which five policemen were seriously injured.
The militants also targeted another part of the complex where the families of police personnel reside.
Minister of state for home Kiren Rijiju said reports the attackers were holding people hostage inside the police station appeared to be false.
The incident took place 11km away from Gurdaspur city - close to the India-Pakistan border - and 80km away from Amritsar.
Television footage showed the white Maruti car with its windshield peppered with bullet holes, and broken glass and bullet casings on the passenger seat.
Five bombs were also found on a railway track in the state, suggesting a coordinated series of attacks around the time India is marking the anniversary of a near-war with Pakistan in northern Kashmir in 1999.
The improvised explosive devices didn't go off despite a passenger train from Pathankot to Amritsar passing over them at 5.15am as the wires were not properly connected, said deputy superintendent of police Pathankot (rural) Prabhjot Singh Virk. The IEDs were not immediately defused as the army's bomb disposal unit from Jalandhar was awaited.
The home minister spoke to Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval on the Gurdaspur siege. Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting with Union ministers Manohar Parrikar, Arun Jaitley and Venkaiah Naidu to discuss the situation.
"The MHA is monitoring the situation in Gurdaspur and Punjab," he posted on Twitter. He said he was hopeful that the situation will be soon brought under control.
Officials said schools, colleges and other institutions were shut in the town in view of the incident.
The attack in Punjab was eerily similar to attacks in the border belt of Jammu, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah tweeted. "Will be very interested to see what emerges about the identity of the terrorists involved in the Gurdaspur attack this morning," Abdullah tweeted.
Army commandos and a Quick Response Team (QRT) were called in to tackle the situation.
India observed the Kargil Diwas on Sunday to salute its soldiers who fought against Pakistani troops and guerrillas who sneaked into Jammu and Kashmir in 1999.
The incident comes weeks after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif spoke for about an hour during a summit in Russia, raising hopes of an improvement in perennially difficult relations.
Supreme Court hears Yakub Memon's petition to stay execution
New Delhi:MMNN:27 July 2015
The Supreme Court on Monday was hearing the petition of Yakub Memon, the lone convict in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts, who has sought a stay on his execution set for July 30 on the ground that he has not exhausted all legal remedies available to him.
Memon, who has spent over two decades in jail, had also said that the death warrant for his execution was issued when his curative petition was pending consideration by the court.
The SC had rejected Yakub's curative petition saying it was void of merit on July 21. On the same day, he filed a mercy petition before the Maharashtra governor seeking commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment. He also approached the apex court afresh for staying his execution. If his pleas are dismissed, he will be hanged at the Nagpur Central Jail on July 30, the day he turns 53.
The apex court by its March 21, 2013 verdict upheld his death sentence while commuting the death sentence of 10 others (one having died subsequently) to life imprisonment. The court on April 9 again dismissed Yakub's plea for the review of his death sentence, as it had earlier dismissed a similar plea seeking a recall of its March verdict.
Yakub and 11 others were slapped with the death penalty by the special TADA court in July 2007 for the dozen explosions that ripped through India's financial capital, killing nearly 260 people at various landmarks and leaving more than 700 injured.
Yakub, a chartered accountant and the only well-educated member of the Memon family, was found guilty of criminal conspiracy, arranging money for buying vehicles used by the bombers and organising air tickets to Dubai for some of them. He has for long said that he had no direct participation in planning or executing the bombings.
He has been behind bars since 1994, when the CBI purportedly arrested him in Kathmandu. Sources in the Mumbai Police department said he had returned voluntarily. Tiger Memon, along with mob boss Dawood Ibrahim and his brother Anees Ibrahim, are considered to be the key conspirators behind the 1993 blasts.
Indian investigators have accused Pakistan's intelligence agency ISI of aiding the plotters, an allegation that Islamabad has denied. Both Tiger Memon and Dawood Ibrahim are believed to be holed up in the neighbouring country.
Growing support for Yakub's plea
A day ahead of the SC hearing of his last-ditch appeal, hundreds of politicians, jurists and activists appealed to President Pranab Mukherjee to spare Yakub's life, adding fuel to a raging debate over the issue on a day actor Salman Khan sought mercy for the death row convict.
The signatories included eminent lawyer Ram Jethmalani, BJP's Shatrughan Sinha, Congress's Mani Shankar Aiyer, CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury, CPI's D Raja, actor Naseeruddin Shah, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, activist Tushar Gandhi, lawyer Vrinda Grover and economist Jean Dreze.
"Blood-letting and human sacrifice will not make this country a safer place; it will, however, degrade us all," said the signatories. "Grant of mercy in this case will send out a message that while this country will not tolerate acts of terrorism, as a nation we are committed to equal application of the power of mercy and values of forgiveness, and justice."
Bollywood superstar Khan had posted a series of tweets on Sunday to argue against Memon's hanging but later apologised after his comments sparked strong reactions from political parties, social media users and his own father.
"I had tweeted that Tiger Memon should hang for his crimes and I stand by it," he said, referring to the convict's brother. "What i also said is that Yakub Memon should not hang for him. I have not said or implied that Yakub Memon is innocent."
The clarification from Khan, who was himself convicted in a deadly hit-and-run accident this year, came after dozens of angry protesters, many of them shouting slogans and waving BJP flags, gathered outside his Mumbai home and demanded an apology.
"My dad called & said I should retract my tweets as they have the potential to create misunderstanding. I here by retract them," the actor tweeted. "I would like to unconditionally apologise for any misunderstanding I may have created unintentionally."
Protests erupted against Khan in several parts of Maharashtra as state revenue minister Eknath Khadse said those sympathising with Memon should also be punished, while special prosecutor in the blasts case, Ujjwal Nikam, called the actor's tweets an attempt to "undermine the image of the Indian Judiciary."
AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi also sparked a row by saying Yakub was being hanged because he belonged to a particular religion while the death sentences of those convicted in the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi were commuted to life imprisonment.
In response, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday said efforts were being made to give communal colour to the death penalty to Yakub and asked people not to question the court verdict.
Congress leader Digvijaya Singh said the court's decision had come and "we must all follow the course of the law", but questioned the BJP government for supporting the hanging of Yakub while "asking agencies to proceed slowly in bomb blast cases like Malegaon, Modasa, Samjhauta express, Ajmer Dargah Sharif involving people from the Sangh".
However, former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju called Yakub's death sentence a "gross travesty of justice" as the evidence based on which he had been found guilty was "very weak".
"This evidence is retracted confession of the co-accused and alleged recoveries," he said and added that "everyone knows how confessions are obtained by the police in our country by torture."
Another former apex court judge, justice Harjit Singh Bedi, said in a letter to The Indian Express that the SC should take suo moto notice of his article and only after hearing both sides, remand the case to the trial court to take further evidence on the question of the sentence or, in the alternative, the evidence itself. He also mentioned that he was against the imposition of death penalty.
Yakub's wife, Rahin, also pleaded for her husband’s death penalty to be reduced to life imprisonment, saying she believed he was innocent and had willingly surrendered to authorities.
"I have full faith in the judiciary. I ask for pardon from the government of India for Yakub so his death sentence can be commuted," she told a news channel.
Grenades Target Vodafone Tower, Aircel Showroom in Srinagar
SRINAGAR:MMNN:24 July 2015
Terror struck the heart of Srinagar today with grenades being thrown at an Aircel showroom and a Vodafone tower in an attempt to disrupt public communications.
In May, more than 50 communication towers were shut down in the Sopore area of Northern Kashmir, just 50 km away, after a string of attacks and threats by terrorists.
A man working at a mobile phone shop had been shot dead along with another who had a cell phone tower installed on his property.
Officials have said that terrorists want to prevent people from sharing intelligence with security agencies involved in counter-insurgency efforts in the Kashmir Valley.
The new coalition government of the BJP and Mufti Mohammed Sayeed took over in February.
30 km away from Srinagar, in Pulama, in what is being seen as a throwback to the period of militancy that seared the region, posters have appeared warning beauty parlours to shut down within 24 hours, and ordering schools to ensure that girls cover their heads with the hijab.
The posters carry the name of the Hizbul Mujahideen.
In May, a previously unknown terrorist group called Lashkar-e-Islam warned people working for or with telecoms companies to stop, saying that cell phone services were being used to target members of the group.
Posters had appeared in the Sopore area, demanding phone companies shut down their operations.
"We also warn shopkeepers who recharge cell phones to stop it. If not, they will be killed," read one poster.
Fencing champion Hoshiyar Singh allegedly thrown out of train, dies
Lucknow:MMNN:24 July 2015
A physically-challenged fencer died after he was allegedly pushed off a moving train by railway policemen at a station in Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday night, a charge the authorities denied.
The family of Hoshiyar Singh, who was in his early 30s, said he had gone to the compartment reserved for women to meet his ailing wife but got into a confrontation when two Government Railway Police (GRP) constables asked him to pay a fine of R200 for entering the reserved coach.
“He begged them to be with me for some time as I was unwell. But they kept demanding money. When my husband refused, they assaulted him and threw him out of the train,” wife Jyoti alleged.
Singh, who won a fencing bronze medal in the 2005 under-17 national championships in Kerala, was returning with his wife, mother and child from Mathura to their hometown, Kasganj.
The GRP has registered a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against two constables, a guard of the Mathura-Kasganj passenger train and a few officials of Sikandra Rao station where the incident happened.
Superintendent of police (railways) GN Khanna dismissed the allegations, though the case was based on the family’s complaint.
“Our investigation tells a different story. Singh got down at the station to refill his bottle at one of the station water taps. But before he could board the train, it started pulling out around 7.30pm. He ran but couldn’t catch the door handle and slipped through the gap between the platform and the tracks. He was physically challenged in one hand,” he said.
When two GRP constables on three coaches ahead of Singh’s saw the man fall through the gap, they pulled the chain and stopped the train, the officer said.
“They along with station staff pulled out the mutilated body of Singh. In the meantime, as soon as the train stopped, his family members and some other people had begun shouting that the constables had thrown the man out.”
Singh’s death adds to a growing list of sportspersons losing life and limbs because of crimes on trains, which speaks volumes about the railways’ poor passenger safety record.
In 2011, national-level volleyball player Arunima Sinha was pushed from a running train by thieves in Uttar Pradesh when she resisted them. One of her legs had to be amputated below the knee but the determined athlete went on to become the first female amputee to climb Mount Everest.
IC-814 hijacking: Honestly speaking,'Advani not in favour of releasing terrorists', says Farooq Abdullah
New Delhi:MMNN:22 July 2015
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah has said he didn't feel that Lal Krishna Advani was in favour of releasing the terrorists during the IC-814 aircraft hijack in 1999,
adding it seemed that the then deputy prime minister was being pushed into it.
"Let me be very honest, from Advani ji's voice, I felt he wasn't in favour of this.
I felt that he was pushed into it," Abdullah said while speaking at a book release function.
Abdullah also said that the release had shown India as a 'weak nation'.
Air India flight IC-814, which was enroute from Kathmandu to New Delhi,
was hijacked by the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen terrorist group in 1999 and taken to Kandahar in Afghanistan via New Delhi and Amritsar.
The crisis lasted for a week and ended after India agreed to release three militants - Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar,
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and Maulana Masood Azhar.
Outfit asks Centre not to accept UDF govt proposal on Western Ghats
KOCHI:MMNN:22 July 2015
A Hindu outfit in Kerala today asked the Centre not to accept the Congress-led UDF government's proposal on conservation of Western Ghats, arguing that implementation of the "much-watered down" version of Kasturirangan report would destroy the ecology of the hills.
Noting that state has lost over 40,000 hectares of forest land in less than 30 years, Hindu Aikyavedi general secretary Kummanam Rajasekharan flayed the state government's decision to treat some forest areas in Western Ghats as non-forest category.
"Centre should not accept the state's proposal. How can we agree with the state's decision to differentiate forest land in Western Ghats as agriculture areas, plantations and inhabited lands? It will strengthen the hands of the people who have encroached 40,000 hectares of forest land in less than 30 year period," Rajasekharan told.
Rajasekharan, who led a successful protest against the move to set up a private airport in an ecologically fragile area at Aranmula in Pathanamthitta, said he would urge the Environment Ministry not to accept the state's Ghats proposal.
His statement comes a day after Chief Minister Oommen Chandy directed Collectors to submit a comprehensive report, identifying ecologically fragile lands in 119 villages by July 25 to prepare the state's view on the Kasturirangan report on Western Ghats.
Several Congress leaders, including former Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh and senior MLA V D Satheesan, have come out openly against the state government's stand that only forest land now protected by the Forest Department would be recommended for demarcation as Ecologically Sensitive Areas.
Expressing concern over government's stand to treat some areas in Western Ghats as non-forest category, Satheesan has said it would weaken the cases filed in various courts to reclaim forest land in illegal possession of private parties.
Opposing the state's controversial decision to treat cardamom plantations in the forests in the state as revenue land, Ramesh has said, "Cardamom plantations in ecologically sensitive areas must be treated as forest areas".
Congress leaders had questioned the silence of Sangh Parivar on the Environment Ministry's reported move to further dilute the Kasturirangan panel report on Western Ghats.
They had said that Ecologically Sensitive Areas in Ghats which will be protected is much lesser than the area identified in UPA rule and that RSS, which had "instigated the people to agitate" against the then government's decision to dilute the Madhav Gadgil panel report are "keeping mum" even after NDA government government decided to "water it down further".
BJP's plan for Parliament's monsoon session: Big on political firepower, low on legislation
MMNN:20 July 2015
Having weathered the opposition's protests over its leaders' alleged involvement in various scandals by simply holding firm, the BJP-led NDA government has decided to follow the same strategy in Parliament as well, which could well mean that the upcoming monsoon session willl be a damp squib.
The Prime Minister held an all party meet on Monday to discuss ways to ensure a smooth session of Parliament but has already acknowledged that there will be 'muqabla' (contest) in the upcoming session.
Battle lines were unequivocally drawn when BJP chief Amit Shah on Sunday held strategy meetings with various party colleagues, including union ministers Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Smriti Irani, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Piyush Goyal as well as party spokespersons. Rajasthan Chief Minister, Vasundhara Raje, was also present, and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan also finally got an audience with the BJP chief.
The one clear decision coming out of that party huddle: no BJP leader will be resigning any time soon. Since offense is the best method of defence, Shah and his colleagues focused on honing their plan to counter the Congress party attacks that will commence on Tuesday when the session starts.
The Telegraph reports that the BJP chief has told the different leaders embroiled in scandals to fend for themselves. So even if the Congress and Opposition parties seek his response, the Prime Minister won't be making any statement on the controversy surrounding Swaraj, Raje and former IPL chief Lalit Modi, or on the Vyapam scam. Human resources development minister Smriti Irani too will also have to fend for herself if her qualifications become an issue on the floor of the House.
Raje and Chouhan, however, have also been told that the more 'articulate' of the party's MPs like Akbar, Goyal and others will defend their reputations in Parliament.
Their plan: to fight fire with fire. So if the Congress rakes up Swaraj and Raje, the BJP intends to counter with the former IPL chairman's tweets regarding Sonia Gandhi's sister and Priyanka Gandhi, reports the Indian Express. On the Vyapam scam, the party intends to defend itself by saying that a CBI probe had already been initiated in the matter.
The BJP also intends to launch its own counter-attack on the Congress by raking up allegations of disproportionate assets case against Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh.
The monsoon session was seen as being a crucial one for the BJP since it intended to pass legislation like the Goods and Services Tax and the contentious Land Acquisition Bill. The Congress, which has the majority in the Rajya Sabha, had promised to disrupt proceedings in both houses unless the government complied with its demands seeking the resignation of Raje and Swaraj.
But as Firstpost's R Jagannathan pointed out earlier, the two legislations are already on a weak footing and there is little chance that the BJP government would be able to push through either of them.
"The right strategy for the Modi government on GST is to slow things down and come up with a better bill when the time is ripe. Better still, it should ask the Congress to help completely rework the bill along with the regional parties and recommend appropriate changes for passing," he had pointed out.
The Modi government's confrontational attitude on the Land Bill -- and opposition from within the saffron party -- will also mean that the legislation won't clear the Rajya Sabha, where it lacks the numbers, he had noted.
And then there's the fact that not all parties are supporting Congress' plan of disruption, notes the Telegraph report. It may be wiser then for the BJP not give parties a reason to rally behind the Congress on legislation like the Land Acquisition Bill and instead leave that battle for another session of Parliament. Despite the PM's call to action at the all-party meet, the signs of a rollback on the Land Acquisition Bill are already evident.
Four senior government officials failed to appear before a joint parliamentary committee examining the proposed changes to the law, and their report will now be delayed. The government is also instead looking for alternatives like re-promulgating the ordinance after the monsoon session and getting states to pass their own individual land acquisition bills.
The government may instead focus on legislation like the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amendment Bill to enhance the punishment of teenagers who are arrested for heinous crimes, reports the Hindustan Times. The bill while contentious, doesn't really invite the same level of opposition, as the GST or the Land Acquisition Bill and could give the party something to show at the end of the upcoming session.
Suspended UP IPS officer gets Khemka, Chaturvedi backing
Lucknow:MMNN:20 July 2015
Suspended Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Amitabh Thakur, who is locked in a tussle with Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, on Sunday got moral support from noted Haryana bureaucrats Ashok Khemka and Sanjiv Chaturvedi.
Khemka, a 1991-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the Haryana cadre, shot into limelight when he cancelled the mutation of Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra’s illegal land deal in Gurgaon. Similarly, Sanjiv Chaturvedi, a 2002-batch Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer of the Haryana cadre, locked horns with the Haryana government for “deliberately” denying him the right to promotion. He too exposed several corruption cases in his department.
“Khemka and Chaturvedi called up Amitabh on Sunday, saying that they extend their moral support in his fight for justice. The officers said they are sure Amitabh will emerge victorious in this case,” said Nutan Thakur, Amitabh’s social activist wife. Amitabh said these words from the “finest officers had boosted his morale in his fight for justice”.
Amitabh had stirred a political storm by releasing the text and audio of his alleged conversation with Mulayam, in which the latter had allegedly threatened him over phone. Thakur said Mulayam threatened him after his wife Nutan filed a complaint before the Uttar Pradesh Lokayukta against state mines minister Gayatri Prajapati.
He was suspended on July 13 by the state government, hours after he approached the Union home ministry in New Delhi, seeking a CBI probe into the rape charges slapped against him soon after he lodged a complaint against the SP chief for allegedly threatening him on July 11.
Lessons for Public Life in Jammu and Kashmir Leader Girdhari Lal Dogra, Says PM Narendra Modi at His Centenary Celebrations
JAMMU:MMNN:17 July 2015
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley are in Jammu, where they are taking part in the centenary celebrations of Jammu and Kashmir leader Girdhari Lal Dogra.
Here are the highlights of what the PM said:
Unfortunate in politics that after death, few political leaders stay alive.
They are forgotten.
But some legends are such that the kind of life they lead and what they do, they become immortal - Girdhari Lal ji is among them.
Not a single person of his family is seen in his photographs.
That's a big thing that in such a long political life, and having been in power, with close ties with PMs, he had not a single family member in his photographs.
Family can be seen only in one picture - his funeral.
It is a message for today's politics.
He followed principals of public life.
Dogra was a good judge of persons.
He appointed Ghulam Nabi as youth Congress leader.
The example is the sons-in-law he has chosen (referring to Arun Jaitley).
In this case, son-in-law not known because of the father-in-law or vice versa.
These days we know what kind of things are said about damaads (sons-in-law).
Say No to Food Subsidy Appeals a BJD MP to His Fellowmen
MMNN:17 July 2015
BJD leader and Lok Sabha MP from Kendrapara in Odisha, Baijayant Panda, demanded removal of food subsidy extended to the Parliamentarians in the Parliament canteen to raise public trust and confidence in lawmakers.
"I am of this opinion as well and believe that the removal of food subsidy for MPs will be a right step towards greater public trust and confidence in our role as law makers," he said in a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.
Milk Samples in India Fail to Conform to Standards
In this regard, he also drew attention to the recent media coverage on the issue where citizens have remarked on the "oddity" of this privilege. Panda's demand came in the backdrop of a growing outrage over the privileges extended to the MPs. An RTI reply last month revealed that Parliament canteens serving to Members of Parliament got a total subsidy of Rs 60.7 crore during the last five years with items like 'puri sabji' being sold at 88 per cent subsidised rates.
Stating that the recent efforts by the government to encourage the voluntary giving up of subsidised cooking gas by those citizens who can afford it was laudable. Panda said MPs too should give up food subsidy extended to them following the same logic.
"It makes the saved funds available to help those citizens who need it the most," he said.
Soon, Government to Push For Less Salty Food
The RTI reply showed that the canteens received a subsidy of Rs 10.4 crore, Rs 11.7 crore, Rs 11.9 crore, Rs 12.5 crore and Rs 14 crore during the years 2009-10, 2010-11, 2012-13,
2013-14 respectively which totals to around Rs 60.7 crore. It also said that the canteens in Parliament serve 76 mouth watering dishes ranging from simple boiled egg to
various mutton and chicken dishes which have been subsidised from over 150 per cent to about 63 per cent.
The only item which was sold for a marginal profit was roti for which raw items cost 77 paisa and are sold at Re one, while khomani ka meetha being served at marketprice of Rs 15 for three pieces.
SUV flies, crashes into auto after daylight gang shooting in Gurgaon
Gurgaon:MMNN:15 July 2015
Chaos prevailed on MG Road in Gurgaon on Tuesday after an alleged gangster's four-wheeler toppled and hit an auto-rickshaw after being was shot at amid heavy traffic early in the day.
Three men travelling in another car shot the SUV carrying Rakesh Kumar of Hayatpur village in an apparent case of gang rivalry. The driver of the Huyndai SUV jumped a divider to escape the gunshots and crashed into the auto rickshaw on the other side of the road near the Central Mall.
"This seems to be a case of gang war. We are still inspecting the matter," a policeman who inspected to the crime scene said.
While the driver was said to be in a stable condition after being admitted to a hospital with bullet injuries, the driver of the auto-rickshaw was severely injured. Kumar managed to escape the attack and hid in a nearby building before being rescued.
"There was firing and suddenly we saw a Hyundai Santa Fe flying over the divider and crashing into an auto. The driver was immediately taken to a hospital by people on the road," an eyewitness said.
There was a massive traffic jam on the MG Road after the shooting and the subsequent car crash around 9am.
Kumar was travelling to the Gurgaon district court for a hearing when he was attacked by the three men travelling in a hatchback. His SUV landed on the auto-rickshaw after hitting two other public transport vehicles and causing another four-wheeler to overturn.
J-K: Militants kill retired police officer in Kulgam
Srinagar:MMNN:15 July 2015
A retired police officer was shot dead by separatist guerillas in Jammu and Kashmir's Kulgam district, police said on Wednesday.
"Motorcycle borne militants fired several shots at Bashir Ahmad Dar, retired deputy superintendent of police," a police officer told IANS.
At the time of the incident on late Tuesday, Dar was coming out of a mosque where he had gone to offer 'Taravi' or late night Ramzan prayers in Ashmujee village.
He was shifted to a Srinagar hospital where he died.
Searches were mounted in the village after the attack, but nobody has been arrested or identified so far as the assailants reportedly fled from the place.
Nithari killings: SC to hear plea against commutation of Surender Koli's death sentence
NEW DELHI:MMNN:13 July 2015
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear UP government's plea against commutation of death sentence of Surender Koli, convicted in 2006 Nithari serial killings case and issued a notice to the convict.
Earlier in January this year, the death sentence of Surender Koli was commuted to life imprisonment by the Allahabad high court on the ground of "inordinate delay" in deciding his mercy petition.
The Allahabad HC order came on a Public Interest Litigation filed by NGO People's Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) which contended that the period elapsed in disposal of Koli's mercy petition was "3 years and 3 months" and, as such, execution of death sentence would be in violation of the Right to Life granted in Article 21 of the Constitution.
Koli, along with his employer Moninder Singh Pandher, was arrested on December 29, 2006, after the police recovered skeletons and other belongings of missing girls from the drain outside Pnadher's house in Noida on the outskirts of the national capital.
Koli had allegedly killed several girls, chopping their bodies to pieces before throwing them in the backyard and in the drain.
Following is the chronology of events in the gruesome Nithari serial killing of children.
Dec 29, 2006: Nithari killings came to light with the discovery of eight skeletal remains of children from the drain of a house in Nithari, Noida. Two suspects- owner of the house Moninder Singh Pandher and his domestic help Surinder Koli arrested.
Dec 30: More skeletons tumble out of the drainage
Dec 31: Two beat constables suspended as political pressure starts building up.
Jan 05, 2007: The accused taken to Gandhinagar for extensive narco-analysis test by Uttar Pradesh police
Jan 10: CBI takes over investigations in the case.
Jan 11: First CBI team visits Nithari to initiate probe in the case. 30 more bones found near the house
Jan 12: Moninder Singh Pandher and Surinder Koli quizzed by CBI
Jan 20: UP government files report to National Human Rights Commission
Feb 8: Special CBI court sends Moninder Singh Pandher and Surinder Koli to 14 days of CBI custody
Feb 12: National Human Rights Commission forms a committee to study the matter.
Mar 22: CBI files first chargesheet in the case in the Ghaziabad court. Slaps lesser charges on Moninder Singh Pandher. Surinder Koli, charged of committing all the murders besides rape and kidnap
May 1: Parents of three victims of the Nithari serial killings move court against the CBI for letting off main accused Pandher in connection with kidnapping and murder
May 11: Ghaziabad court asks CBI to probe Pandher's role in the killings
Sep 6: Body of Jatin Sarkar, father of one of the victims in the Nithari serial killings recovered from a river in West Bengal's Murshidabad district
Nov 01: The Supreme Court issues a notice to the CBI on the allegation by a relative of a victim that the investigating agency was trying to shield Pandher
Dec 13: Special CBI Court in Ghaziabad frames charges against Moninder Singh Pandher for the rape and murder of two teenagers
Feb 12, 2009: Special Judge of CBI pronounces Pandher and Koli guilty of rape and murder.
Alleging Threats by Mulayam Singh, IPS Officer Knocks on Centre's Door
LUCKNOW:MMNN:13 July 2015
Mulayam Singh Yadav is not the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, a senior police officer, Amitabh Thakur, has pointed out, as he heads to Delhi to seek the Centre's intervention after taking on the ruling Samajwadi Party in the state.
Since Saturday, Mr Thakur has made public allegations of threat and intimidation against Mr Yadav, 75, Samajwadi Party chief, whose son Akhilesh Yadav is the chief minister of UP.
Hours after he filed a complaint against Mulayam Singh, a rape case was registered against Mr Thakur by the Lucknow police. Mr Thakur alleges political vendetta. "Me and my wife are going to Delhi to present our case before the Home Ministry. We will ask the Centre for security and for a CBI investigation," the Indian Police Service or IPS officer said today.
He took umbrage at the Samajwadi Party dismissing his complaint against Mr Yadav by saying, "If a UP official commits a mistake then Mulayam can scold him."
"Mulayam Singh did not scold me over some government work, and even if he did scold me for my work he has no right to do so; he is not the CM," Mr Thakur said today.
On Saturday, Mr Thakur, who is UP's Inspector General, Civil Defence, alleged that Mulayam Singh had threatened him in a phone call and submitted to the police what he said was an audio tape of the conversation.
That night, the Lucknow police registered a first information report or FIR on a complaint made about six months ago by a Ghaziabad-based woman, who has alleged that Mr Thakur had raped her at his Lucknow home on December 31, when she met him for a job.
Mr Thakur has alleged that he is being targeted because his wife, RTI activist Nutan Thakur, has filed a police case against UP's mines minister Gayatri Prajapati over allegedly illegal properties.
"It is regrettable that people of no stature have the temerity to level such allegations... Instead of concentrating on their jobs, some officers are pursuing politics" the Samajwadi Party said in a statement.
Shivraj Singh Chouhan's mishandling of the Vyapam Scam has posed the first serious challenge to his chair
MMNN:10 July 2015
Around 10 a.m. on July 7, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his tour of the five Central Asian republics, the phone rang at No. 6, Shamla Hills in Bhopal, the official residence of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. The caller was BJP President Amit Shah. The two leaders had a brief conversation, after which Chouhan called a hurried press conference and announced that he would write to the Madhya Pradesh High Court recommending a CBI probe into the Vyapam recruitment scam .
As decisions by chief ministers go, this one, on the face of it, was as innocuous or earth shattering as any other administrative move. But for 56-year-old Chouhan, months away from becoming only the second chief minister of Madhya Pradesh to complete a decade in office, it was not. In the political manoeuvres of those few hours and with that one announcement, the BJP's humble poster boy of development had ended up undercutting the edifice of probity and performance he had built for himself.
To be sure, Chouhan had not admitted to any wrongdoing or implicated himself in the recruitment scandal that has acquired sinister overtones like no other in recent years. Also to be sure, there is no evidence to nail him on the run and rejoice at the destruction of yet another rare political halo. Not yet at least. But by giving in to the relentless pressure of a losing perception battle and giving up control of the investigation, Chouhan has opened himself and his legacy to an external agency known to blow with the wind.
However, if Chouhan looks back at the years and the timeline of the scandal, he'd probably end up blaming himself for the mess at his door. And also wonder if this is the beginning of the end. Investigations by india today show that Chouhan may have slipped up more than once in the years the scandal hit the headlines and especially between 2008 and 2013 when he also held the portfolio that oversaw Vyapam -short for the Vyavsayik Pariksha Mandal or the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board.
As the 'body count' in the scam increases, Chouhan has been claiming the high moral ground by repeating that he is the original 'whistleblower' in the case as it was he who in 2013 ordered a Special Task Force (STF) of the state police to probe the allegations of irregularities and fraud. But critics of the CM counter that claim. Paras Saklecha, a former independent MLA from Ratlam and author of a book on the scandal, says he had in the state Assembly asked questions about irregularities in Vyapam as early as July 2009 and assembly records would confirm this. Anand Rai, a government doctor and a whistleblower in the case, points out that he had filed a complaint with the Indore Police crime branch on July 6, 2009, after suspecting irregularities in medical admissions through Vyapam.
It was not as if the government did not react to those complaints. Based on the grievances, the state appointed a police investigation team on December 17, 2009 to probe cases of forged medical admissions. And Chouhan himself admitted as much in the Assembly on March 31, 2011, saying the Vyapam scam was being probed. He repeated himself in July and November of that year. On the second occasion he said 114 suspicious students had been identified and FIRs registered against them.
But it was apparently too little and too innocuous to stem the rot. And the numbers bear it out-the scam grew in size even as the investigation was in progress. According to Vyapam's own numbers, if 42 medical seats allotted in 2008 have been cancelled on grounds of illegalities, the number grew to 85 seats in 2009, 90 in 2010, 98 in 2011, 286 in 2012 and 439 in 2013. "It seems the government was not probing but helping the kingpins of Vyapam," says Dr Rai.
Chouhan is also accused of helping his own. Niece Ritu Chouhan became a deputy collector through the MP Public Service Commission (MPPSC) exam of 2008. The opposition Congress smelt a rat and raised a stink. "I raised the issue in 2011 itself. But instead of ordering a probe, Chouhan sent a message through someone asking me not to drag family issues into a political tussle," says Congress spokesman K.K. Mishra. While Chouhan claims that the MPPSC is an autonomous body that works independently, Mishra has alleged that rules were changed to help Ritu. He alleges that the government refused to part with the answer sheet and merit list of the examination despite repeated RTI queries.
While earlier the answer sheets had to be preserved for 10 years, the rules were changed six times from 2011 to 2013. Now, they have to be preserved for only three months from the time results are declared.
PM Modi Agrees to Visit Pakistan Next Year for SAARC Summit
MMNN:10 July 2015
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has accepted Nawaz Sharif's invitation to attend the SAARC summit in Pakistan next year, India's foreign secretary said today after the two leaders held formal bilateral talks for about an hour on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Russia.
Here are 10 developments in the story:
Issues ranging from terrorism to trade have reportedly been discussed in the meeting, which was extended beyond the scheduled time.
"Neighbourhood engagement," tweeted Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Vikas Swaroop as he posted pictures of the handshake between the two leaders.
PM Modi and Nawaz Sharif had met informally at a dinner hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin last night.
Sources have indicated to that the discussions are not necessarily a prelude to a resumption of the dialogue process between the two countries; a decision will depend on the talks.
PM Modi reportedly raised with Mr Sharif India's concerns on terror and the release of 26/11 plotter Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi from jail in Pakistan.
Just a day ahead of the talks, Pakistani forces violated ceasefire again at the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir in which a BSF jawan was killed.
India called off a dialogue between foreign secretaries in August, incensed that Pakistan's envoy in New Delhi had engaged with Kashmiri separatists in the run-up to those talks.
Vyapam scam: Despite a possible CBI probe, CM Chouhan is not in the clear yet
MMNN:8 July 2015
Why are we getting shocked by deaths in the Vyapam scam? It is just a symbol of the Indian justice system where people often die during investigations into controversial cases.
A few years ago, the death count in the Uttar Pradesh NRHM scandal had given rise to allegations of foul play and criminal conspiracies. Till February 2012, six persons related to the multi-crore rural health mission scam of the UP government had been killed.
Before that, the main accused in the Ajmer Dargah blasts, Sunil Joshi, was found dead under mysterious circumstances near Godhra.
The most recent incident of witnesses disappearing in the middle of a trial involves Asaram Sirumalani (also known as 'Bapu') and his son. While a probe is still on into allegations of sexual assault against Asaram and his son, at least two key witnesses have been allegedly killed and several other have been assaulted.
So, the trail of deaths in the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board, Vyapam, scam is not a new phenomena. In the absence of a witness protection programme, because of the slow pace of investigation and the involvement of powerful politicians, deaths of people related to an investigations isn't uncommon.
Once the initial noise dies, the drama begins to fade and the media loses interest, most of these cases are forgotten and the truth is never discovered.
Just as we do not know the culprits behind the murder of people linked to the NRHM scam and the Ajmer blast, it is possible that we may never get to the real cause of the suspicious deaths of nearly two dozen people--witnesses, accused and journalists--in the Vyapam scam.
Will the CBI be able to get to the truth? The agency has already started complaining about the lack of staff and infrastructure to deal with such a huge scam. Moreover, the Vyapam scam is almost two years old now (it broke in 2013). The agency will have a tough job piecing together evidence that has already been handled first by the Madhya Pradesh crime branch and later by the special task force and the special investigation team.
The CBI will face a tough challenge. Whatever be the outcome.
But, it would be difficult for MP Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to get rid of accusations of foul play and cover-up in the scam. His role and responsibility are clearly outlined.
Contrary to the BJP's claim that the current scam in admissions and recruitment dates back to the pre-BJP era, the fact is that Vyapam is a brainchild of the Chouhan government.
Though the PEB came into existence in 1970, it was back then responsible for conducting the entrance exams for medical colleges. In the 80s, the PEB was assigned the responsibility of organising the pre-engineering tests too.
But Vyapam's clout grew under Chouhan's BJP government when he reconstituted Vyapam and gave it powers to not only conduct entrance exams for medical and dental colleges but also for recruitment tests for most of the non-gazetted posts. Between 2007 and 2013, nearly 80 lakh students and job applicants appeared for exams conducted by Vyapam.
Though the Vyapam was under the ministry of technical education, whose former head Lakshmikant Shukla is in jail as one of the main accused, Chouhan himself was in charge of medical education between 2008 and 2012.
In 2009, when charges of bungling in the pre-medical tests first surfaced in the Assembly by independent MLA Paras Saklecha, Chouhan agreed to set up a committee to look into the scam. For a long time the committee did nothing.
It submitted its first report in 2011, saying that 114 students had entered medical colleges through fraud and they be thrown out. But the government sat on the report. It acted on this report only after the Vyapam scam broke in 2013.
KM Mani gets clean chit from vigilance bureau in bar bribery case
Thiruvananthapuram:MMNN:8 July 2015
The Kerala vigilance and anti-corruption bureau (VACB) on Wednesday gave a clean chit to Finance Minister KM Mani in its report to a special court on the bar bribery scandal.
The VACB had registered a case against Mani after a quick verification report on the allegation that Mani had taken a bribe of Rs 1 crore to renew a bar licence.
On Tuesday, the investigating officer had submitted the report seeking the court’s permission to close the case.
The vigilance said there was not enough evidence to chargesheet Mani.
The bar owners had gone to Mani’s residence with the money but there is no evidence to prove that he had taken the bribe.
The bar hotel owners had mobilized funds, but some of the owners had given statements that the money was collected for fighting the ban in court.
The vigilance department said the documents pertaining to the issue were examined, but there is little to prove that Mani had tried to protect the interest of bar owners.
Unmarried woman can be child's guardian without father's consent: SC
New Delhi:MMNN:6 July 2015
Father's consent is not required in giving guardianship of a child to an unmarried mother, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday.
The apex court bench headed by justice Vikramajit Sen said this while recalling the earlier order of a guardianship court and asking it to re-examine the plea by the unwed mother seeking guardianship of the child without issuing notice to the father.
The court said that the lower courts, including high court, lost sight of the issue that was before them to be examined and decided the matter without taking into account the welfare of the child.
The court order came on a petition by a woman who is a gazetted officer in the government.
She had challenged the procedural necessity of disclosing the identity of the father and issuing notice to him on a plea seeking sole guardianship of the child by the unwed mother.
The mother had contended that the man stayed with her barely for two months and did not even know the existence of the child.
Now, trainee sub-inspector recruited through Vyapam found dead
Bhopal:MMNN:6 July 2015
A trainee sub-inspector, who was recruited through the tainted Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board (MPPEB), was found dead in mysterious circumstances in a police academy in Sagar district early on Monday.
The body of Anamika Kushwaha, aged about 25, was found at the Jawahar Lal Nehru Police Training Academy at a time when suspicions have deepened about the systematic elimination of people linked to the Vyapam scam.
Sagar district’s superintendent of police Sachin Atulkar said, prima facie, it appeared to be a case of suicide.
"We haven't recovered any suicide note so far. But the statements of her colleagues suggest she committed suicide. A case has been registered and investigation is on," he said.
Atulkar contended Kushwaha had nothing to do with the Vyapam scam, so named because of the Hindi acronym for the MPPEB.
According to police sources, Kushwaha went missing from her hostel room late on Sunday night and her body was found floating in a pond located within the academy.
Her body was spotted by a security personnel of the academy, who subsequently informed police.
Kushwaha was a resident of Ambah town of Morena district and was recruited as a sub-inspector in February 2015 through a test conducted by the MPPEB.
More than 2,000 people have been arrested in connection with the scam since it came to light in 2013.
Many politicians, bureaucrats and middlemen are said to be involved in the scam which, according to police, involved scamsters employing imposters to write tests conducted by the MPPEB for admission to professional courses and recruitment in government jobs.
The scamsters also supplied forged answer sheets by bribing officials between 2012 and 2013.
Mullaperiyar dam row: SC seeks reponse from Kerala govt for CISF deployment
New Delhi:MMNN:3 July 2015
Tamil Nadu, in its one of the applications, has sought a direction from the court that Kerala be restrained from conducting the environment impact assessment for its new proposed dam at the site.
The counsel for the Tamil Nadu government told the bench, also comprising Justices Amitava Roy and Arun Mishra, that as per the previous judgement in the case, any new dam can only be constructed at the site with consent of both of the states.
The Tamil Nadu government had on February 20 moved the apex court seeking deployment of CISF for protection of Mullaperiyar dam in Kerala. The security of the dam is presently with the Kerala government.
The Kerala government had also moved an application seeking clarification of the May 5, 2014 judgement by which the apex court had allowed the raising the water storage level of the dam to 142 feet. However, the application was withdrawn by the state later saying it would go before three-member Mullaperiyar committee.
The bench had accepted this request for withdrawal of the application in which Kerala had contended that the water storage should not be increased to 142 feet until all the 13 spillover gates of the dam are operational. It had said that only 12 were functional at the time of the judgement.
The Supreme Court on December 3 had dismissed the Kerala government’s plea to review its May 7, 2014 verdict holding as safe the 120-year-old Mullaperiyar dam and allowing Tamil Nadu to raise water level to 142 feet and ultimately to 152 feet after completion of strengthening measures on the dam. Mullaperiyar dam is a masonry dam and was constructed pursuant to the Periyar Lake Lease Agreement of October 29, 1886 across Periyar river.
The construction continued for about eight years and was completed in 1895. The dam is situated in Thekkady district in Kerala and is owned and operated by the Tamil Nadu government. The length of the main dam is 1200 feet and top of the dam is 155 feet.
Dayanidhi Maran hopeful of ‘something good’ from CBI investigation
MMNN:3 July 2015
“I was given opportunity to give some evidences which I have collected through RTI from BSNL and MTNL that which clearly says that there was only one PRI connection and not 300 connections as claimed earlier.
I am sure something good comes out,” Maran told the media here. “For the last two days, I have fully cooperated with the agency.
I have assured them that in future also, I will cooperate.
And come any time to answer their questions,” he added.
Military hotline between India, China to be set up soon
Beijing:MMNN:1 July 2015
Yang Yujun, spokesman for the ministry of defence, told visiting Indian journalists on Tuesday that direct telephonic links between the general headquarters of the two countries is expected to be set up in the near future.
He said such a mechanism was necessary to "increase mutual trust, avoid misjudgements and prevent crisis" from developing.
Yang, who has the Indian equivalent title of brigadier-general said talks in this regards were in an advanced stage. Later, other officials said that once the main hotline was established, more such direct links between senior military officers in the field would be set up.
The spokesman also said that consultancy mechanism between China and India on the border issue and consultations at various levels was "functioning".
He was asked about a sentence in the white paper on China's Military Strategy which was released on May 26 this year, which stated that "certain disputes over land territory are still smouldering".
The spokesman said that this was in the context of some disputes which were "leftover from colonialism" and referred to north-east Asia and the Asia-Pacific region, thus steering it away from China-India border question.
Later, Xu Quyu, deputy chief of the institute for strategy at the National Defense University explained that something was lost in translation. In Chinese, the exact words used were "still there" and the word "smouldering."
Officials also informally explained that the incursions seen on the India-China border often happened from both the sides and was the result of a lack of a clear demarcation.
Landslides kill at least 21 people and wash away houses in India's Darjeeling region, police say
MMNN:1 July 2015
"Rescuers have so far dug out 13 bodies in Mirik, five bodies in Kalimpong and three bodies in Darjeeling town," Darjeeling district police superintendent Amit P Javalgi said.
"At least 15 people are missing in Kalimpong," he said.
Mr Javalgi described mud and water barrelling down hills in the worst-hit tourist town of Mirik along with Kalimpong hill station further north. "We have reports of over 100 houses getting washed away in these two towns and many people were evacuated from the sites," he said.
He said border guards were being deployed to help with the rescue effort which was being hampered by ongoing rains in the district. "Rescuers are digging through mud and rubble as the landslides buried scores of houses in Mirik and Kalimpong," he said.
West Bengal police inspector-general Anuj Sharma said from Kolkata that he feared "many people" were caught in the landslides which, along with heavy rains, have also cut roads and telephone links.
Photos showed small bridges washed away or destroyed, leaving residents stranded. Darjeeling district, a tourist attraction known for its lush green tea plantations, is some 600 kilometres north of Kolkata.
Floods and landslides hit South Asia every year during the monsoon season.