India captain Mithali Raj on Friday became the first female cricketer to play 200 ODIs, adding another achievement to her illustrious career.
The 36-year-old is also the highest run-getter in ODIs with 6622 runs at an average of 51.33, including seven hundred.
Mithali could not make a big impact in her 200th game, scoring nine off 28 balls as India were bowled out for 149 in the third and final ODI against New Zealand.
She had hit an unbeaten 63 in the second ODI, helping India take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series.
Mithali made her ODI debut way back in 1999 and has featured in 200 games out of the 263 ODIs India have played.
Since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power, there are many who feel that terms like Intellectuals, Rationalists, Liberals have turned into Anti-Nationals, Traitors, Separatists, and most recently popularised ‘Urban Naxals’ in the Indian political discourse. A part of Indian youth observes that these words have rather become accusation which is thrown around freely without any context by the Right Wing to pull down the dissent and to the counter-arguments. In the similar context, ‘Tukde Tukde Gang’ is often seen with a hashtag on social media. In a conversation with AV, Tirtha Roy Biswas, Research scholar, IIT Kharagpur asserted, “The essence of democracy is the right to dissent. Since the current government came to power, the BJP-RSS fusion has tried to brand any form of dissent or protest or any attempt to question the government as anti-national, as was the case with JNU. On the other hand, the government itself has pushed its communal agenda of Hindutva by repeatedly raising issues of Ram Mandir and promoting mob lynching of innocent Muslims in the name of ‘cow protection’. In my opinion, this BJP government is a threat to the secular democracy of our country and is the actual “Tukde Tukde gang”.
JNU has been maligned over the past few years with their student leaders being labelled as ‘anti-Indian’ and ‘Tukde-Tukde Gang’: a charge they vehemently deny. However, Kanhaiya Kumar said that if the news of the chargesheet against him is true then he congratulates the police and Modi government for taking the action after three years of their entrance into the power. Kanhaiya also remarked that the ruling party now wants to play all the cards — be it the Citizenship Amendment Bill, the 10 per cent reservations for the poor in General category, cow protection or this national, anti-national issue, all these cards are being played so that PM Modi can have topics for his speeches. Talking about how the present government is active in resisting anti force against the interest of the nation, BJP’s Mumbai spokesperson and IT Cell member Suresh Nakhua said, “This whole ‘Tukde Tukde’ campaign is initiated and promoted by Rahul Gandhi and Congress. The B team of Congress i.e. AAP and its CM Kejriwal has not yet sanctioned any permission for chargesheet and purposely delaying it. Caste game is only played by Congress; it is their well-planned strategy to divide people for their benefit. Congress is well aware that if all castes come together, their number of seats will go down from 44 to 4. The B team of Congress also includes RJD, Samajwadi, and Leftistist parties.”
He further added, “After the Tukde Tukde incident, seven convicts ran away to Kashmir and are underground. Delhi Police summoned them several times but the process got delayed as they didn’t respond to it. Thorough investigation on the JNU issue has been done by the police and the law is going to take its own course. The Tukde Tukde slogan video tapes are genuine and this is a Congress and leftists sponsored propaganda. These student leaders also chanted slogans like ‘Ghar Ghar se Burhaan niklega’ and we retaliate them saying “Har Burhaan ko thoka jayega. Ghar me Ghus ke thoka jayega.”
Five months after the JNU clamour, it came to the mainstream media that the Dalits in Gujarat’s Una were flogged for just doing their occupation of skinning dead cows. However, later, a local media reported that the act was done to drive them out so that their land could be grabbed. Dalits in Gujarat protested against the act for weeks and eventually, the protest threw a national face for the Dalits movement in the form of Jignesh Mevani.
In 2014, the then Congress-NCP government issued an ordinance for 16 per cent reservation to the Marathas, a politically influential community that makes up 30 per cent of the state’s population, and 5 per cent reservations to the Muslims. The government did not pass the law as it was objected by the law and the political experts believe that this was done to appease the Muslims and Maratha community which is the majority in the state before general polls. ,However, BJP won the throne in 2014 and the Maharashtra legislature unanimously in December 2018 approved a bill to offer 16 per cent reservation in government jobs and university seats to Marathas; breaching of Supreme Court-mandated cap of 50 per cent pushed legal challenges towards the bill soon after.
In another instance, in August 2018, the Pune police raided homes of 10 human rights activists across the country and arrested Sudha Bharadwaj, Arun Ferreira, Vernon Gonsalves, Gautam Navlakha and Varavara Rao and they were investigated in connection with a public meeting held a day before caste-related violence erupted at Bhima-Koregaon last year. As several commentators, as well as the Delhi High Court, have observed, there seemed little evidence to justify the arrests. Yet, the Pune police have defended their action by labelling the activists as “urban Naxals”, supporters of Naxalites waging war against the state in the jungles of some states.
AISF Mumbai Youth Secretary Aamir Karim said, “There’s no doubt that this government has divided the nation in ‘Tukde Tukde’. This ruling government is not the party we voted for, but this government is actually run by the ideologies of Sangh Parivar. However, Tukde Tukde gang is not just restricted to students but also professors are a part of the same. Being a Muslim, I have to face many circumstances and nowadays I am scared of being targetted at any point of time. Earlier, everyone used to go to the temples and mosques, but now even before entering a temple, a person is asked about his/her religion; this is how our nation is divided now.”
India isn’t a country where the idea of one-size-fits-all can work. Any attempt to impose one kind of culture, in this context Hindi-Hinduism, will be met with resistance. Rationalists believe that the right wing’s concept of the ‘ideal Indian’ is a skewed one while they also feel if this chauvinistic mindset is not countered, we may very well be bracing ourselves for the dissolution of the Indian union. Student Union leader Gajanan Kale regretted and put his heart out saying, “BJP, Sangha Parivar, and PM Modi have brutally divided the society — students, farmers, women, castes, and religions — none is spared. Then JNU student leaders like Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid were labelled as anti-national; similarly, there should also be cases filed against our Prime Minister for his fake promises and jumlas.”
When Afternoon Voice spoke to the youth of the city, their voices came out highlighting that the tukde tukde gang is not a threat to the Indian democracy and for them, the controversial JNU leaders are trying to reaffirm democratic principles among general masses. They have also not hesitated to put a question of the present government on their intention to keep the nation united.
Media Student Ashm Piyush expressed, “The Right-wing in India has suddenly become the flag-bearer of nationalism which is drenched in a superiority complex and divisive rhetoric. In order for someone to be a nationalist in their eyes, the person has to be a Hindu, preferably an upper caste and North Indian who speaks Hindi and supports its imposition on the rest of the country. Anybody that doesn’t fit this mould is viewed as Anti-national and other similar sort of things.”
However, a Journalist from Mumbai on the condition of anonymity believes that, “Rather blaming either of the sides on the ‘Tukde Tukde’ issue, I believe neither of the parties — JNU student leaders or the BJP government — is concerned for the interest of the nation. I don’t think anyone had the intention to support the division of the country; all are acting for their own political advantage.”
The question remained unanswered for the people of India to observe and decide who actually is dividing the nation on the name of religions, regions, casts, and categories? Whom should we label as the real ‘Tukde Tukde gang’.
Since JNU students Kanhaiya Kumar and his batchmates were caught up in the controversy, this term “Tukde Tukde Gang” was coined for them and in addition to that, whosoever supported them or whosoever follows leftist ideology or support minority voices, are termed as “Tukde Gang”. People are made to believe that these are the people who are hell-bent on slicing India in parts. Prominent TV anchor Arnab Goswami was obvious on reminding viewers of the golden moment of his journalism career, when he had taken on the likes of Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid three years ago. In his excitement, he even got the date wrong. He said that it was January 2016. In fact, it was February 2016 (To be precise February 9, 2016, the third anniversary of the hanging of Afzal Guru). There are those who feel that Afzal Guru had been unfairly charged and not given a last chance to save his life. Those who feel this way may be a handful of leftists in Delhi, and this position by no means endorses the Parliament attack of 2001 in which Afzal Guru was convicted for abetting. Neither does it amount to supporting Kashmiri separatism or Pakistani terrorist groups. On February 9, 2016, some JNU students (former members of the Democratic Students Union or DSU) had organised a protest against the hanging of Afzal Guru. This protest was an annual affair, and the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the RSS, was prepared to counter it. Since Afzal Guru was a Kashmiri, radical Kashmiri youth had reached the event, just like they land up at any Kashmir-related event in Delhi. Most of them were students, but they were not affiliated with JNU. The Kashmiris and the ABVP activists provoked each other. The Kashmiris shouted pro-Azadi slogans, and the ABVP activists shouted slogans about Kashmir being an integral part of India. Amongst the slogans, the Kashmiri students shouted, was perhaps one about India breaking into pieces — Bharat ke tukde. Eyewitnesses said that the three organisers of the event — Khalid, Banojyotsna Lahiri, and Aswathi — had tried to make the Kashmiri students stop with these slogans.
“The “JNU nationalism row”, as it came to be known, was an out-and-out fake news operation with the joint collaboration of ABVP, news channels like Zee News and the Delhi Police, which picked up people on the basis of doctored videos.”
The Delhi Police and some news TV cameras were present in advance, as the ABVP had decided to make an issue out of it. It wasn’t eyewitness accounts but videos that became proof of what had happened. The videos, that later turned out to be doctored, showed Khalid and JNU Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar and others chant anti-India slogans demanding Azadi for Kashmir and promising to break India into pieces. Khalid and Kumar were arrested, but curiously, the Delhi Police, ABVP and news channels including Times Now, then led by Goswami, never asked about those Kashmiri students. The Kashmiri students were asked to lie low, because arresting them could have raised tensions in Kashmir. This would have adversely affected the BJP-PDP alliance in Jammu and Kashmir. The “JNU nationalism row”, as it came to be known, was an out-and-out fake news operation with the joint collaboration of ABVP, news channels like Zee News and the Delhi Police, which picked up people on the basis of doctored videos. The incident helped paint JNU in particular and left-liberals in general as anti-national. In the history of fake news in India, ‘Tukde Tukde Gang’ is eventually a fake news.
Soon after the arrest, Kanhaiya Kumar returned to JNU from jail to a hero’s welcome. The police found no evidence against him. But two years later, Arnab Goswami has revived the fake controversy with ‘Tukde Tukde Gang’. That is the power of catchwords and hashtags. JNU was used as a center for communal violence. After Modi came to power, the BJP and its supporters somewhat attacked left ideology going to any length. Narendra Modi whips up a feeling of devotion and hope in his support base. He has followers in all shades; they are not a uniform bunch. Most of them are courteous and civil both online and offline. The problem is with his vocal fanboys, these people have a simple motto that is Modi ji ney kiya hai to sahi hi hogi (If Modi did it then it must be right thing) and if you disagree with that you are deshdrohi (traitor) and go to Pakistan or you too belong to “Tukde Tukde Gang”.
Modi is a nuanced leader who appeals to emotion using both substance and rhetoric. He knows how to trigger emotions in his supporters and people associate with him. He is considered as a messiah who will undo all the historic ills that have plagued the nation. He has followers who believe that they have been wronged and Modi is the messiah who will bring good days back. There is another sect, the same so-called Tukde Tukde gang, who expose every claim made by Modi, they not only criticise the ruling government but are always in a scuffle with Modi supporters. Social media is a toxic cesspool. You can get away with almost everything, even death threats and rape threats without any consequences. The Internet provides you with a mask and power that has no parallel in history. It gives you a platform to portray your hopes and fears in the worst possible way. If Modi has a percentage of devotional angry followers and who are aggressive to opposing views, the Internet just provides safe space for them to vent out their anger. At the same time, there are leftist brigades who are all set to counter them with a befitting reply. Five months after the JNU fracas, Dalits in Gujarat’s Una were flogged for doing their caste occupation of skinning dead cows. In reality, it was to drive them out and grab the village land. Dalits in Gujarat protested against this for weeks. The protest threw up a new national face for the Dalit movement, Jignesh Mevani. In JNU nationalism row, Media somehow made Jignesh Mevani a kingpin of the ‘Tukde Tukde Gang’. In our polarised times, #TukdeTukdeGang is at war with BJP supporters and its pro Media. Nation has another kind of Tukda gang those are manufacturing hatred based on religion, language, ideology, food habits, clothing, name, place, and animal for their divisive political agenda. In politics, publicity attraction and shamelessness are crucial skill sets. You need publicity attraction to win elections and contest them. Elections are a popularity contest between the candidates and especially when your party is involved in a riot and you’re told to lead it.
“Social media is a toxic cesspool. You can get away with almost everything, even death threats and rape threats without any consequences. The Internet provides you with a mask and power that has no parallel in history.”
Conclusion – the “Tukde Tukde Gang” has not proven to be a real threat to the Indian democracy, in turn it is helping to confirm the democratic principals among general masses. Because it reminds us, what is the purpose of Indian Democracy, which is not only the development of mainland India but also the progress and development of the underdeveloped parts of India, by highlighting their grievances and false promises, they are just standing by their point of views, being the citizen of India, they too have every right to voice and make the government accountable. By countering them the ‘Divide’ gang is also playing its crucial role, the question here is whom to be blamed?
(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)
Calling the matter a sensitive nature, a Delhi Court on Thursday directed CBI to expedite investigation into a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case in which Congress leader Jagdish Tytler has been given clean chit for his alleged role.
CBI informed Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Amit Arora that lie detector test of controversial businessman Abhishek Verma, who volunteered to support the case by deposing as a witness, was conducted last December but that report could not be finalised due to non-availability of scientists.
The court asked the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) to expedite the process of finalising the report and granted it two weeks time and listed the matter for hearing on March 8.
Filing a regular status report, in a sealed cover, on further investigation in the case the CBI also informed the court that they had received some queries from the Canadian government to which they have replied and are not waiting for the response.
The court had earlier asked the CBI to write to the Canadian high commission in New Delhi for information regarding the case as one of the key witnesses has been residing in Canada.
Senior advocate HS Phoolka, who has been representing the riots victim, has claimed that witnesses were influenced and there was evidence of one of the key witnesses being sent to Canada, allegedly at the behest of Tytler and they would try to bring him back.
He had told the court earlier that Tytler had sent Narinder Singh, son of witness Surinder Singh, to Canada and through him the Congress leader was putting pressure on his father to change the statement and depose in his favour.
In June 2015, Verma had deposed before the CBI that Tytler had told him in 2008 he had met the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after which he got a clean chit by the CBI over his alleged role in the riots case.
In his statement as a witness recorded by the CBI during a probe, Verma, an accused in the naval war room leak and other cases including cheating and forgery, had said Tytler had also told him that a deal was struck and a hefty amount was paid to a riots case witness, who had deposed against him.
The CBI’s move seeking permission to conduct polygraph test on Tytler and Verma had come in view of the court’s December 4, 2015 order in which it was mentioned that the lie-detection test may be conducted, if required.
Tytler had refused to undergo the polygraph test.
The case pertained to the riots at Gurudwara Pulbangash in North Delhi where three people were killed on November 1, 1984, a day after the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards.
The victims had filed a protest petition challenging the CBI’s closure reports in the case.
The court had in December 2015 directed the CBI to further investigate the matter and said it would monitor the probe every two months to ensure that no aspect is left uninvestigated.
The agency had reinvestigated the case of killing of Badal Singh, Thakur Singh and Gurcharan Singh near the Gurudwara after a court in December 2007 refused to accept its closure report. The CBI has filed three closure reports in the case.
Union Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has introduced a culture of honesty in governance and no one who cheats India can hide anywhere in the world and escape.
His statement comes against the backdrop of Dubai-based businessman Rajeev Saxena and corporate aviation lobbyist Deepak Talwar getting deported to India. They have been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate.
In a series of tweets, Jaitley said “The UPA Skeletons are tumbling out by the day. Why did all Defence purchases need middlemen?”.
Saxena is wanted in the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper money laundering case while Talwar is wanted by the ED and the CBI in a case of allegedly misusing over Rs 90 crore taken through foreign funding route.
“No one who cheats INDIA can hide anywhere in the world and escape. INDIA’s Diplomatic strength and more civilised International procedures will get better of him.
“If the Prime Minister is honest, if he imposes a culture of honesty in governance, no person who cheats India will escape,” Jaitley said.
Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot on Thursday said that the Congress government will make all efforts to create jobs in the state.
Speaking at a function in Tonk, Pilot said the government will make the education curriculum job-oriented so that youths get employed after finishing studies.
“Efforts will also be made to start courses which are in demand in the industry,” he said.
Pilot during his visit to Tonk inaugurated the office of the students union in a government PG college.
Niwai MLA Prashant Bairwa, District Collector RC Denwal were also present for the inauguration.
Citing a report that says the country’s unemployment rate was at a 45-year-high in 2017-18, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday said that the jobless youths will oust the Narendra Modi government in the Lok Sabha polls.
The BJP, which presented fake data on providing employment, stands exposed. In the last 25 years, the rate of unemployment was highest in 2017-18, Yadav said in a tweet with the hashtag ‘HowsTheJobs’, a twist on “How’s The Josh”, a popular line from the film “Uri: The Surgical Strike”.
Now these unemployed youths will defeat the BJP in the next polls, added the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister who also shared a media report which published the findings of the National Sample Survey Office’s (NSSO’s) periodic labour force survey (PLFS).
In a statement issued, the SP president further alleged that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was a party of “conspirators” and an “expert” in communalising atmosphere.
“It’s the responsibility of all the SP workers to make the people aware of the BJP’s conspiracies and expose them. BJP has ruined the country,” he said.
“While farmers are suffering GST and demonetisation have adversely affected traders and youths who could not get jobs,” he added.
He asked the party workers to remain active on booths and ensure the BJP’s defeat in the Lok Sabha polls.
The Supreme Court on Thursday directed Sahara group chief Subrata Roy to appear before it on February 28 for failing to deposit Rs 25,700 crore in the SEBI-Sahara case for returning investors’ money, warning that “the law will take its own course” now.
Roy was sent to Tihar Jail by the apex court on March 4, 2014 and came out on parole after spending over two years in prison on May 6, 2016 to perform the last rites of his mother Chhabi Roy. He has been out of prison since then.
The apex court noted that the Sahara group has already deposited around Rs 20,000 crore in the SEBI-Sahara account which includes Rs 15,000 crore and Rs 4,800 crore interest.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi was irked over the fact that Roy, who was directed way back in August 2012 to pay around Rs 25,700 crore, has been unable to pay the amount despite “several opportunities and indulgence”, and said that now the law will “chart its own course”.
The bench, which also comprised Justices A K Sikri and S K Kaul, did not allow the contention of senior lawyer Vikas Singh, appearing for Roy, that it was a case of “double payment” of investors’ money as the dues have already been paid.
The plea of Singh that SEBI be directed to conduct verification of the group’s claims of payments made to investors was rejected by the bench which said that this has been raised several times in the past.
“You are unable to deposit the money. We will ask whosoever is the person has to appear in person,” the bench said and passed the direction that it is declining the plea for giving more opportunities to Roy and other directors for making payment of around Rs 5,000 crore dues.
“We do not see the situation changing. You had sought two years time and now more than two years have passed. You have been given sufficiently long rope,” the bench said.
“The matter has been listed after six months…and what has transpired in six months did not inspire confidence of this court,” the bench said while refusing to grant any more time to the group for arranging the money.
Besides Roy, two other directors — Ravi Shankar Dubey and Ashok Roy Choudhary — will have to appear on the next date of hearing.
At the outset, Singh referred to the sluggish real estate market during the decade as the key reason for not depositing the money and said, “nothing sells”.
He said that it has been the case of the group that it had already paid the money to the investors and has been making double payment into the SEBI-Sahara account.
He said that Rs 50 crore has been paid to digitise the records of the investors and the markets regulator be asked to verify the claim of the group over the payment of dues to investors.
If there were bogus investors then the money would go the Government of India and in any case, it cannot be kept by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), he said.
However, the bench said that this can be ordered only after Sahara group pays the entire amount.
In July last year, the auctioning process of Sahara group’s prized Aamby Valley properties was put off by the Supreme Court after it was informed that the auction notice did not elicit any response from prospective buyers.
Senior advocate Arvind Datar, appearing for SEBI, has said that the total amount was Rs 25,781.23 crore, of which around Rs 15,000 crore principal amount has already been deposited by the group. With interest, the deposited amount would come to around Rs 20,000 crore.
Roy and two other directors were arrested for failure of the group’s two companies — Sahara India Real Estate Corporation (SIRECL) and Sahara Housing Investment Corp Ltd (SHICL) — to comply with the court’s August 31, 2012 order to return Rs 25,000 crore to their investors.
Producer Ekta Kapoor has become a mother to a baby boy via surrogacy.
The baby boy was born on January 27 and has been named Ravie, after her father Jeetendra’s real name.
“By God’s grace, I have seen many successes in my life, but nothing beats the feeling of this beautiful soul being added in my world. I cannot even begin to express how happy my baby’s birth has made me,” she wrote on Instagram.
The producer said that she had been trying for a baby for the past seven years.
“Everything in life doesn’t go the way you want it to but there are always solutions to those hiccups. I found mine and today, I feel immensely blessed to become a parent,” Ekta said.
“It is an emotional moment for me and my family and I can’t wait to begin this new journey of being a mother to my little bundle of joy, Ravie Kapoor,” she added.
Ekta’s brother Tusshar Kapoor had also opted for surrogacy in 2016 for his son Laksshya.
“Ekta is a family-oriented person and has been like a mother to my son Laksshya. This marks the beginning of a new phase in her life, an exciting time of completeness and fulfilment,” Tusshar told agencies.
Filmmaker Karan Johar, who became a parent to a son and daughter via surrogacy in 2017, congratulated Kapoor on the new chapter in her life.
“To my soul connect mate in so many different ways! I love you and and am so so happy for you !! Yash and Roohi send love to their aunt and their new best friend Ravie!!!!,” he wrote on Twitter.
Filmmakers Hansal Mehta and Ashwiny Iyer Tiwary also congratulated the producer on motherhood.
“Many congratulations and lots of love dearest @ektaravikapoor. Welcome to parenthood and joy,” Mehta wrote.
“You are going to be awesome as a parent @ektaravikapoor Loads of love and hugs to you dearest mommy’, welcome to the club,” added Tiwary.
Keen on pushing innovative transport models, Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said that India is ready to embrace the London model to revamp its public transport infrastructure against a backdrop where share of buses has shrunk to 1 per cent of the total vehicles from 15 per cent earlier.
Efforts are on to introduce skybuses on select stretches with the help of an Austrian firm, the road transport minister said.
Besides, the government has taken steps to push projects of water transport, broad gauge metro and electric buses, Gadkari said.
“Once upon a time public transport buses accounted for 15 per cent of the total vehicles. Now it has come to 1 per cent…The success story of London transport should be inspiration and motivation for all state operators in India, which have become economically unviable barring a few,” the Minister said.
He was addressing an event for launch of Reimbursable Advisory Services (RAS) from the World Bank for enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of the public transport sector.
The minister said the London model of transportation system where 17 private operators have joined hands to offer services did not require investment and was a professional one and could offer solutions for frequent traffic jams, pollution and accidents.
He also said that World Bank can come out with a total public transport vision for India and added that public sector Wapcos which has inked a joint venture with Austria’s Doppelmayr has prepared two project reports for skybuses in India.
“One is for Bikaner and another is for Aurangabad. Skybus, cable cars and ropeways will be there… Now technically we are in position to prepare the project report and DPR (detailed project report) and capital cost for it is less than Rs 50 crore with a capacity of more than 70,000 per hour …Public transport is essential,” he said.
Gadkari said that the future belongs to electric and bio-fuel based transport vehicles, which are cost effective, pollution free and cut on import bill on petroleum products.
He said, using ethanol and methanol is also a good option and cited the example of Nagpur, where bio-CNG is being produced from fruit, mutton waste, etc.
For intercity transport, he advocated adopting broad-gauge metro, for which rolling stock is readily available and said such services could easily be introduced on stretches like Delhi-Ludhiana, Delhi-Saharanpur and Delhi-Agra.
He said studies suggest that against the construction cost of Rs 350 crore per kilometre for traditional metro, it comes to only Rs 3 crore for broad-gauge metro.
The minister also said the Maharashtra government has agreed to introduce 2,000 electric buses in the state.
In Nagpur, there are 35 ethanol buses, Gadkari said and added that “import of crude oil is a big economic problem for our country”. He said the plan is to convert all 450 buses on ethanol in Nagpur.
On methanol, he said it is available and Assam Petroleum, Gujarat Fertilizer, RCF and Deepak Fertiliers are manufacturing methanol.
On water transport, the minister said massive efforts were on to develop rivers into waterways and this year Varanasi to Haldia stretch will see transportation of 80 lakh tonnes of cargo on water which will swell to 280 lakh tonnes in next two to three years.
An MoU with Transport for London (TFL) was signed on January 10, 2018, with the aim to bring in the best practices from world.
TFL is an agency that manages the transport system for Greater London and has demonstrated its capability by creating strong and dependable public transport system in the city of London. It has created a unique system of operating buses in PPP model with over 17 operators under a single brand.
Expressing satisfaction over engaging the World Bank for consultancy services for carrying out public transport improvement studies in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra and said this can be replicated in other states for the betterment of public transport.
Through this advisory service, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways will assist the recipient states Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh and their State Transport Undertakings (STUs) in improving their public transport policy.
RAS would also enable the ministry to guide states in public transportation matters and to carry out certain pilot projects in the recipient states which can be replicated in other states for the betterment of public transport system.
World Bank Country Director, Junaid Kamal Ahmad, said India was going to see massive urbanisation in the next 15-20 years and about 300 million people will move to cities and towns in the next 25 years.
Gadkari said that smart mobility will be the only solution as massive urbanisation will put tremendous pressure on public transport and India needed to invest now for future sustainable transportation system.
He said the World Bank is committing partnership with India for developing a transportation that is not restricting to buses and metro alone.
Since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power, there are many who feel that terms like Intellectuals, Rationalists, Liberals have turned into Anti-Nationals, Traitors, Separatists, and most recently popularised ‘Urban Naxals’ in the Indian political discourse. A part of Indian youth observes that these words have rather become accusation which is thrown around freely without any context by the Right Wing to pull down the dissent and to the counter-arguments. In the similar context, ‘Tukde Tukde Gang’ is often seen with a hashtag on social media. In a conversation with AV, Tirtha Roy Biswas, Research scholar, IIT Kharagpur asserted, “The essence of democracy is the right to dissent. Since the current government came to power, the BJP-RSS fusion has tried to brand any form of dissent or protest or any attempt to question the government as anti-national, as was the case with JNU. On the other hand, the government itself has pushed its communal agenda of Hindutva by repeatedly raising issues of Ram Mandir and promoting mob lynching of innocent Muslims in the name of ‘cow protection’. In my opinion, this BJP government is a threat to the secular democracy of our country and is the actual “Tukde Tukde gang”.
Calling the matter a sensitive nature, a Delhi Court on Thursday directed CBI to expedite investigation into a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case in which Congress leader Jagdish Tytler has been given clean chit for his alleged role.
Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot on Thursday said that the Congress government will make all efforts to create jobs in the state.
Citing a report that says the country’s unemployment rate was at a 45-year-high in 2017-18, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday said that the jobless youths will oust the Narendra Modi government in the Lok Sabha polls.
Producer Ekta Kapoor has become a mother to a baby boy via surrogacy.