10% Quota Bill for poor in general category challenged in Supreme Court

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January 10, 2019

A plea challenging the bill to provide 10 per cent reservation to general category poor in jobs and education was on Thursday filed in the Supreme Court.

The petition, filed by Youth For Equality organisation and Kaushal Kant Mishra, sought the quashing of the bill saying that the economic criterion cannot be the sole basis for reservation.

The plea said the bill violates basic feature of the Constitution as reservation on economic grounds cannot be limited to the general categories and the 50 per cent ceiling limit cannot be breached.

The Rajya Sabha passed it with 165 voting in its favour and 7 against on Wednesday, a day after the Lok Sabha had approved The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty Fourth Amendment) Bill, 2019.

The Bill was approved after the House rejected five amendments moved by Opposition members.

The quota will be over and above the existing 50 per cent reservation to SCs, STs and Other Backward Classes (OBCs).

NCW issues notice to Rahul, Anand Sharma calls it politically motivated

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January 10, 2019

Congress leader Anand Sharma on Thursday called the report notice issued by the National Commission for Women (NCW) to Congress President Rahul Gandhi a ‘politically motivated move’ and accused that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has himself “dragged the Indian political discourse to a gutter level”.

While addressing the media in New Delhi, Sharma expressed, “It (NCW notice) is politically motivated. There should have been a number of notices sent for the Prime Minister and (BJP president) Amit Shah. Does Shushma Swaraj have the guts to criticise the Prime Minister for lowering the dignity of his own office repeatedly? It is the Prime Minister who has lowered the political discourse to a gutter level.”

“It is not true that Rahul Gandhi ji has downgraded the standard of political debates, the reality is that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was using Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley as a shield. If he really has the courage and stands for the truth, he should have come to the Parliament himself,” added Sharma.

While saying that the Prime Minister was himself responsible for lowering the standard of political debate in the country, the former Union Minister of Commerce said, “Ever since he was the Gujarat Chief Minister and even today, the kind of language he has used, he has had no regard for his position, neither has he any decency. During the rallies for the recently concluded elections, what kind of words did he use against Sonia Gandhi ji”.

Congress spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi also echoed similar comments, saying that the BJP was responsible for lowering the standards of political debates.

“If there is a political party that has lowered the standards of the political discourse, it is the BJP, and it started with Narendra Modi ji. He has used words like ‘the Congress widow’, the ‘Rs 50 crore girlfriend’, ‘Itlaian cow’, etc, I think Sushma Swaraj ji should criticise him (PM Modi) for using words like these,” Chaturvedi said.

She further led a scathing attack on NCW chairperson Rekha Sharma. “I want to ask one thing from the NCW chairperson, the responsibility she has been given is not a political responsibility, it is a responsibility towards the women of the country, so why was she quiet when female journalists were being called prostitutes? Why was she quiet when cases like Kathua and Unnao were coming? This notice shows that she is fulfilling her political responsibility rather than fulfilling constitutional responsibility,” Chaturvedi added.

Earlier today, the NCW issued a notice against Rahul Gandhi for allegedly making sexist remarks against Sitharaman in Parliament. The Gandhi scion had ridiculed the Prime Minister, saying that he could not “even come to Parliament for a minute to respond to questions posed on the Rafale deal and asked a lady (Nirmala Sitharaman) to save him.

PM likely to lay foundation of projects worth Rs 80k cr in UP on Jan 20

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January 10, 2019

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to lay the foundation of industrial projects in Uttar Pradesh totalling up to Rs 80,000 crore at a groundbreaking ceremony here on January 20.

These projects, mostly related to IT and electronics sector, are part of the Rs 4.68 lakh crore worth Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) signed by the Yogi Adityanath government with public and private sector companies during the UP Investors’ Summit held here in February last year.

“We are planning to lay the foundation stones of projects worth nearly Rs 1 lakh crore this month. We are confident that projects worth Rs 75,000 crore to Rs 80,000 crore would be launched at the groundbreaking ceremony,” UP Industrial Development Minister Satish Mahana told PTI.

The state government is, however, awaiting official confirmation from the PMO about the prime minister’s visit next Sunday, an official said.

The first groundbreaking ceremony, held in July last year, was attended by the prime minister who laid the foundation stones of 80 projects worth Rs 60,000 crore.

The Adityanath government is also pushing its other mega infrastructure projects, including the Bundelkhand Defence Corridor, Bundelkhand Expressway and Jewar International Airport.

While, the defence corridor is expected to attract an investment of almost Rs 50,000 crore, the 289-km Bundelkhand Expressway is estimated to garner investments worth Rs 10,000 crore.

Lord Crocodile dies, planning to build a temple: Villagers

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January 10, 2019

Villager in Chattisgarh gathered together to say a final and emotional goodbye to crocodile, whom they used to worship as their protector, after the animal died. The 130 years old crocodile was next to God for the residents of Bawa Mohtara village in Bemetara district, whom they had fondly named as “Gangaram”.

Knowing about the death of the crocodile in the pond, the grief stricken villagers didn’t cook for the day and took out a proper funeral procession of the dead crocodile. They also decided to set up a memorial on the banks of the pond where it was buried, the village head: Mohan Sahu told PTI, adding that they were also planning to construct a temple in the memory of the crocodile.

The 3.4 metre long crocodile was found dead on Tuesday in the village pond, located around 80 km from here, following which locals informed the forest department and the carcass was taken out of water. Around 500 villagers took out its funeral procession and performed the last rites. They touched the carcass to seek its blessings, he said. He further added that the villagers had so much affection for the reptile that many of them did not even cook food the day it died.

The villagers, including children, used to bathe everyday in the pond but the reptile never harmed them even when they swam close to it. In the past, the crocodile had crawled over to some nearby villagesa couple of times and we had to bring it back to the pond,” the sarpanch said.

Praising the villagers’ affection for the crocodile, Bemetara’s sub-divisional officerof forest R K Sinha said they have set a good example of “human-animal coexistence”, when people generally maintain a distance from carnivores.

The villagers used to worship it as a deity and the protector of the village. He also claimed that Gangaramlived in the village’s main pond for over 100 years as even his late grandfather had seen it there since his childhood. After getting information about its death, the forest personnel went there and a post-mortem was conducted by veterinarians. The animal, estimated to be around 130 years old and weighing about 250 kg, died of natural causes. After the autopsy, the carcass was handed over to the villagers as they wanted to perform it final rites.

Fodder scam: Jharkhand HC rejects Lalu Prasad Yadav’s bail plea

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January 10, 2019

The bail petition of RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav in three cases of the multi-crore fodder scam got rejected by the Jharkhand High Court on Thursday.

Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh turned down the bail plea of Yadav, CBI lawyer Rajeev Sinha said.

The same court had on January 4 reserved its order on the RJD supremo’s bail plea after hearing arguments of his counsel Kapil Sibal and that of the CBI.

Yadav is currently lodged in a paying ward of the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Ranchi.

The fodder scam is related to fraudulent withdrawal of government funds from the treasuries of various districts of undivided Bihar in the 1990s when RJD was in power and Yadav the chief minister.

Yadav was lodged in Ranchi jail in December 2017 in these cases.

HJS calls for day long protests for Ram Mandir in Mumbai today

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January 10, 2019

The Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) and various other Hindu outfits have announced a day long protests, Maha Aarti , rallies and processions with Ram slogans today across Mumbai.

The protests are held for a demand to build lord Ram Mandir at Ayodhya . The Hindu Janajagran Samiti has released a press note which states that Ayodhya is the birthplace of Prabhu Rama & though the case hearing is pending in Supreme court , Allahabad High court verdict confirms Ayodhya as Rama’s birthplace and existence of Ram Mandir built at the site .’ Considering the religious sentiments of the Hindus, the Parliament should bring an ordinance to build Ram Temple without any further delay. Also permanent permission should be given to Hindus to worship lord Rama at the site’ , read the release.

The day long programme includes Naam Dindi (Rally) starting from Nallasopara (W) at 5.30 pm, A protest near Sanpada railway station at 6 pm, another protest at Santa Cruz (West) at 6.pm. and Procession with Rama slogans at Malad (West).

Two arrested for killing woman and daughter in Uttar Pradesh

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January 10, 2019

Two persons, including a panchayat member, were arrested Thursday for allegedly killing a 50 year old woman and her daughter in Shamli district of Uttar Pradesh, police said.

Sudhir Choudhry, a district panchayat member, along with his friend Sunil, had killed the two at their home in Bidoli village in the district on January 3, Superintendent of Police Ajay Kumar Panday said.

The SP said that Choudhry had illicit relations with the woman and some altercation between them led him to take this extreme step.

Mumbai BEST strike continues, BMC and state Govt to be blamed: Activists

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January 10, 2019

Almost 32,000 BEST employees have been on an indefinite strike since Tuesday over various demands which include higher salaries and merger of the budget of the loss-making undertaking with that of the BMC. The strike has inconvenienced lakhs of commuters. Amid the ongoing strike by the employees of the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST), activists and experts on Thursday blamed the Mumbai civic body for not taking timely steps to address the “crisis” in the transport body whereas the transport experts also called for fresh investment and up gradation of infrastructure to improve the transport services of the BEST.

Transport activist and former journalist Vidyadhar Date has written a letter to Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta mentioning how the civic body could have avoided the situation and saved the commuters from hardships. He urged Mehta to immediately concede to the “just” demands of the striking workers of the BEST.

Date, who has written to Mehta on behalf of Aamchi Mumbai Aamchi BEST (AMAB), a forum of citizens for public transport, said that the main demand of the employees-merger of the BEST budget with that of the BMC was in the interest of the majority of commuters. Like healthcare, education, water supply, waste disposal and sewerage, public transport must be run not to make profit, but as an essential service. This (merger of budget) is necessary for the economic and physical health of the city.

He also said that the AMAB has come up with a “workable, inexpensive and efficient” approach for the revival of the BEST’s bus services, suggesting how the transport body can increase bus ridership, improve the service quality and reliability as well as improve its coverage and access. The impression gained by the discerning public is clear that the BMC and the government do not want to hear or consider any sensible means to address the problems of the city’s affordable public transport service.

They continue to remain dogmatic, autocratic and tight-fisted pushing through their privatisation plans and refusing to subsidise and finance its operations. At the same time, the BMC is cutting down routes, increasing bus fares, and denying workers their dues, he said and further alleged that the civic body had done “absolutely nothing” to address why the BEST was reeling under crisis. He also mentioned that over the past five years, nearly 18 per cent of the BEST routes were discontinued; the size of its fleet was reduced by 21 per cent and 7,200 staff positions were scrapped causing non-availability of employees to operate the buses.

Another transport analyst Hussain Indorewala said that the BMC and the BEST need to invest money to address the core infrastructural issues. BEST management has been on investment strike since many years. We need to stop this first. This is the reason why the BEST services have not improved. So, fresh investment is the need of the hour to address the core issues. He further added that, besides this, the BEST also needs the same attention that was given to construct the Bandra-Worli Sea Link or the Eastern Freeway. Only car-centric projects should not be our priority.

Jitendra Gupta, another expert on transport issues and a member of Citizens’ Transport Committee, a city-based forum, questioned the government’s ability and intention to end the strike. However, this strike has proven that the government agencies be it BEST, BMC or state government are least bothered to address the issues. BEST is financially bleeding because of poor management of the undertaking since so long and its strike was bound to happen.

BCCI announces fixtures for home series against Australia

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January 10, 2019

India are slated to play home series against Australia from February 24 to March 13.

“The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Cricket Australia announce the schedule for the upcoming home series against Australia set to be played from February 24 to March 13, 2019. The series will comprise two T20Is that will start at 1 PM (IST) and five ODIs, which will start from 7 PM (IST),” a BCCI statement said on Thursday.

The two-match T20Is will be played on February 24 in Bengaluru and February 27 in Visakhapatnam, followed by five-match ODIs on March 2 in Hyderabad, March 5 in Nagpur, March 8 in Ranchi, March 10 in Mohali and March 13 in Delhi.

India are preparing to take on Australia in their away series. The first ODI will be played on January 12 at Sydney, followed by second ODI on January 15 at Adelaide and third ODI on January 18 at Melbourne.

India are slated to play home series against Australia from February 24 to March 13.

“The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Cricket Australia announce the schedule for the upcoming home series against Australia set to be played from February 24 to March 13, 2019. The series will comprise two T20Is that will start at 1 PM (IST) and five ODIs, which will start from 7 PM (IST),” a BCCI statement said on Thursday.

The two-match T20Is will be played on February 24 in Bengaluru and February 27 in Visakhapatnam, followed by five-match ODIs on March 2 in Hyderabad, March 5 in Nagpur, March 8 in Ranchi, March 10 in Mohali and March 13 in Delhi.

India are preparing to take on Australia in their away series. The first ODI will be played on January 12 at Sydney, followed by second ODI on January 15 at Adelaide and third ODI on January 18 at Melbourne.

Delhi-Bhagalpur Express attacked

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January 10, 2019

Delhi-Bhagalpur Express was attacked by armed robbers in a Naxal affected area in the Malda division of West Bengal. Valuables worth around Rs 3 lakh were looted. The robbers used the alarm chain to stop the train near Dhanauri station in between Kiul and Jamalpur section and looted the passengers on last Wednesday night, the railway said on Thursday.

A case was registered in this regard when ten passengers lodged their complaints with the Government Railway Police in Jamalpur. The value of looted valuables is approximate of Rs 3 lakh. The criminals had country-made pistols, however, no firing incident was reported, the railway said.

The railways further added that no passenger reported any major injury or stabbing. The incident occurred in a Naxal-affected area and the RPF is coordinating with local police and the GRP in this regard. RPF is increasing vigil in inter-zonal areas where these incidents have happened. Special squad formed to catch the gang may include plain cover policemen as well.