Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday said that sensationalism of news is an insult to journalism and suggested that media men should refrain from it.
In his address at the Ramnath Goenka excellence in journalism awards ceremony, Singh said any criticism of an individual or government should be taken in a sporting way.
“I think media acts as mirror to the government. But that mirror should not be painted with any colour as it can pose a question mark on its credibility,” he said.
Lauding the role of late Ramnath Goenka, founder of Indian Express newspaper, for his courageous journalism especially during the Emergency, Singh said “I believe that sensationalism of news is an insult to journalism. And I can say that Ramnath Goenka never allowed it while he was around.”
He also advocated better relations between the media and the government.
“It’s okay if there is no friendship between the media and the government, but there should be no discord between them,” the home minister said.
He also asked journalists to be cautious on fake news or sponsored news as it may hit their credibility.
“Newspapers or media groups may have their ideology but it should not be reflected in a news item,” he said.
On the growing landscape of social media, Singh said the conventional media will not lose its importance no matter how the new media grows.
However, he cautioned that this credibility can be maintained as long as the conventional media continues to report facts.
CBI Joint Director V Murugesan who was leading the investigations into serious corruption allegations against the agency’s Special Director, Rakesh Asthana, has been shifted to probe coal scam cases, an internal order said on Friday.
The order accessed by PTI shows that Murugesan, who was deputed by Director (in-charge) M Nageswara Rao to lead the investigation against Asthana, was transferred as part of efforts to give an “impetus to expeditious completion of coal scam cases”.
The order also says that Murugesan was “bogged down” by additional charge of Joint Director AC(HQ)-I zone which being a “heavy zone” takes away much of his “time and attention”.
Murugesan’s charge has now been given to Joint Director G K Goswami, who in addition to his responsibility of the Lucknow zone will also look after AC (HQ)-I zone, where a case against Asthana is registered.
The order also states that another Joint Director Vineet Vinayak looking after anti-corruption wing, Delhi Zone, has been transferred. His charge has now been given to additional director Praveen Sinha.
The CBI had registered an FIR against Asthana on October 15, 2018 alleging serious corruption charges against him on the basis of a complaint from a businessman Sathish Babu Sana.
The businessman, who was being questioned by Asthana’s special investigation team probing the Moin Qureshi case had alleged that a Dubai-based middleman had offered to use his purported links with the Special Director to manage relief for him in return for a bribe of Rs 2 crore.
Recently, the new investigation team had called Sana to again verify contents of his complaint in order find loopholes, if any, but sources claimed that he did not budge from his allegations.
Asthana was sent on leave along with CBI Director Alok Verma by the government after the agency arrested a deputy SP of the Special Director’s team in the case for being active participant in the conspiracy.
The charge of the CBI was given to Joint Director M Nageswara Rao who transferred all the officers probing allegations against Asthana and constituted a new team to be headed by Joint Director V Murugesan.
The serious corruption allegations may dampen chances of Asthana to become next CBI Director for which the selection and short listing has already been initiated by the government but the decision will be taken by a committee comprising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and leader of largest opposition party Mallikarjuna Kharge.
The new director is likely to be appointed by January 31 which is the retirement date of incumbent Alok Verma.
Asthana has moved the Delhi High Court seeking directions to quash charges against him while Verma had challenged divestment of his powers in the Supreme Court.
Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (DMIDC) on Friday said that Aurangabad Industrial Township Limited (AITL) or Auric City, one of the greenfield smart industrial node along the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor, has attracted nearly Rs 3,600 crore worth of investments till December last year.
Auric City has allotted 50 plots comprising 507,164 sq mt entailing a proposed investment of Rs 3,600 crore and 2,000 direct employment opportunities.
Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (DMIDC) has proposed development of eight nodes including Shendra-Bidkin Industrial and Dighi Port Industrial area in Maharashtra, Dadri-Noida-Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, Manesar-Bawal in Haryana, Khushkhera-Bhiwadi-Neemrana and Jodhpur-Pali-Marwar in Rajasthan, Pithampur-Dhar-Mhow in Madhya Pradesh, Ahmedabad-Dholera Special Investment Region in Gujarat.
Integrated Industrial Township Greater Noida (IITGNL) in Uttar Pradesh, which ranks second in attracting investments, has alloted three plots comprising 554,406 sq mt entailing a proposed investment of Rs 3,404 crore and 6,600 direct employment opportunities.
Dholera, on the other hand, has alloted three plots attracting Rs 935 crore investments followed by the VUL in Madhya Pradesh which has attracted Rs 350 crore of investments and alloted two plots so far.
A six-year-old Sambar deer and a civet cat have been rescued from deep wells in separate incidents in Maharashtra, a wildlife NGO said on Friday.
The deer, nearly six-year-old was recently rescued from a 25-ft-deep well by the staff of the Maharashtra Forest Department and five-member Wildlife SOS team at Vanewadi, located near Junnar area in the state, the NGO said.
The terrified animal was first “mildly tranquillised” and then safely extricated from the well with the help of a harness, the NGO said in a statement.
The rescue operation took almost two hours. The adult antelope was deemed medically fit to be released back into the natural habitat.
Ajay Deshmukh, Senior Veterinary Officer at the Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Centre said, “The six-year-old Sambar deer was a male and was distressed in its struggle to stay afloat. Thankfully, the deer displayed no external injuries.”
In another incident, an Indian civet cat was rescued from a 20-ft-deep well in Khamgaon village, in Junnar.
Locals intimated the team at the Manikdoh Leopard Rescue Centre, which resorted to its immediate aid. The civet was extricated from the well with the help of a transport cage, and was released back into the wild once deemed fit, it said.
Kartick Satyanarayan, CEO and co-founder of Wildlife SOS claimed, “In the last decade around 1,500 animals, including leopards, jackals, jungle cats, Sambars and hyenas, have reportedly died after falling into open wells and uncovered water tanks, making it a growing threat to wildlife in Maharashtra.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Friday that the state was leading in the country in terms of job creation, as shown by the data released by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).
Maharashtra accounted for the highest number of EPFO accounts opened in the country last year, he said.
He was addressing ‘Youth Empowerment Summit’ organised by the Fortune Foundation here.
“As per the statistics released by the EPFO on January 2, about 80 lakh new EPFO accounts were opened in the last year, and Maharashtra had the largest share, with 25 percent of these accounts being opened in the state,” he said.
This shows a huge number of jobs were created in the state last year, he claimed.
The Chief Minister admitted that unemployment is a major issue as the country has a huge young population, but “a lot of job opportunities are being generated in our economy.”
China was the fastest-growing economy earlier but in last three years India has left it behind, Fadnavis said.
“However, we see a relative gap between jobs created and those seeking jobs. On one side we see many job-seekers and on the other side we see job opportunities but we do not see anyone to connect these two requirements,” the Chief Minister said.
Marathi Vangmay Mandal of Smt. CHM College Ulhasnagar shall celebrate coming academic year by spreading awareness of the RTI Act and its provisions.
Informative lecture of RTI activist Anil Galagali and Nitin Deshpande was organised to celebrate “Marathi Bhasha Sanvardan fortnight”. Galgali and Deshpande expressed at length their views along with the success stories of RTI.
They expressed that this act shall be useful to strengthen the democracy of this country. On the occasion, 53rd Annual issue of ‘Patheya’ magazine prepared by students of MVM was published at the hands of Galgali and Deshpande. Nitin Deshpande expressed his views on the importance of the RTI Act and participation of youth for strengthening this Act.
Students representatives Tanvi Sonawane and Advait Gondole initiated the discussion and put forward several questions to the RTI activists and activists responded on the same.
Activist appreciated efforts taken by Prof. Nitin Arekar Head, Dept. of Marathi and his team for conducting such programme of awareness to college students. Prof. Nitin Arekar declared that MVM shall take up activity of spreading RTI awareness among the students in coming academic year. Akshay Jamdade put forward the vision of organising this programme. Vice Principals, Teachers and several students attended this programme.
Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan came back from the brink for the second match in a row to reach the final of the Tata Open Maharashtra, taming Simon Bolelli and Ivan Dodig in a thriller on Friday.
The top seeded Indians, playing first time on Tour as a team, knocked out the Italian-Croatian combine 6-3 3-6 15-13 in one hour and 33 minutes after saving two match points in the Super Tie Break.
They had saved six match points on Thursday against Leander Paes and Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela before winning.
It was tough test for the new Indian team as it was up against players, who have a Grand Slam crown each to their credit, and the home team played better than its previous clash.
Bolelli, a top-50 singles player in 2009, had won the 2015 Australian Open doubles with fellow Italian Fabio Fognini while Dodig also won his first and only men’s doubles Grand Slam crown in the same year at French Open with Marcelo Melo.
Bopanna as usual was solid with his returns while left-hander Sharan put up a better show than on Thursday.
It will be the first final on the ATP World Tour for both the players. Bopanna last played a final when he won the Vienna event in October 2017 with Pablo Cuevas and Sharan won the Antwerp title with Scott Lipksy in the same month.
“We played a better match today, happy to ride the wave. It was completely different from yesterday, these guys were returning stronger,” said Bopanna.
“To have an Indian team back on tour is good and we are improving. But it will take some time to set patterns. We have not played much together and need some off-court practice together,” he added.
Sharan, who struggled with his serve, said he it’s a work in progress but he still has “spots” where he can get points.
“I am not putting much spin to the ball. Conditions were different from yesterday and I was not finding my rhythm. Tomorrow, the key will be to play freely and fight for every point,” the Delhi lad said.
In a fast-paced match, the top seeds from India broke Dodig in the eighth game to nose ahead. Bopanna created the opportunity with a service return winner and then Sharan was locked an interesting volley-rally battle which ended with Bolleli chipping one over the baseline.
Serving for the set, Bopanna began with consecutive double faults and was down by a deciding point but the big-serving Indian ensured that advantage was not lost.
In the second set, the Croatian-Italian combine broke Sharan in the fourth game. After serving a double fault, Sharan gave a free point to opponents when one of his returns hit Bopanna.
On the next point, Dodig found a volley winner to earn two break chances.
With both Indians standing in the middle of the court, Bolleli hit a deep looping return. Sharan ran hard to cover the ground and managed to connect his forehand but it went long, giving the unseeded team a 3-1 lead.
A solid hold from Dodig pushed them ahead 4-1.
Bopanna struggled to pick a half volley at 30-30 in the next game to be down by a break point but he saved that and also the deciding point with a strong serve.
Sharan served to stay alive in the set and the error-littered game put them down by two set points but still, they managed to save the game.
The Indians had a chance to get the break in the next game but Sharan could put the return inside the lines when Bolelli served on the deciding point.
The Indians went down by a match point at 8-9 but Bopanna hit a backhand winner to save that.
Up 13-12, Bopanna hit one long to squander a fourth match point. Bolelli hit long to give the Indians their fifth match point and it was converted when Dodig hit a return out.
They will now fight it out for the title with the British pairing of Luke Bambridge and Jonny O Mara.
In a fiery “point-by-point” rebuttal to Congress’s charges on the Rafale deal, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday accused it of spreading “falsehood” on the issue and said while the Bofors scam brought the party down, Rafale will help Prime Minister Narendra Modi retain power.
Wrapping up a rancorous debate in Lok Sabha, Sitharaman, in her over two-hour speech, also accused the Congress of stalling the contract during its rule because it “didn’t get the money”, asserting that there was a difference between a defence deal and dealing in defence.
“Bofors was a scam, Rafale is not. Bofors brought you (Congress) down. Rafale will bring Modi back to (power) to have a new and transforming India and remove corruption which is stinking around the Congress,” Sitharaman, the first full-time woman defence minister of India, said.
Forcefully rejecting charges of corruption in the Rs 58,000 crore deal for procurement of 36 Rafale jets from France, she also said, “Defence Ministry has been functioning without dalals (middlemen) during five years of (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi. Rafale is a decision in national interest.”
The Congress has been targeting Modi on the deal alleging that price of each aircraft was sharply hiked from around Rs 526 crore, negotiated under deal during UPA, to Rs 1,600 crore and that the contract will help Anil Ambani get Rs 30,000 crore benefit through offset contract.
Sitharaman also slammed Congress President Rahul Gandhi for accusing Modi of “lying” on the deal and alleged that the procurement procedure for 126 Rafale negotiated under the UPA government did not fructify as “it didn’t suit” Congress and it “didn’t get the money”.
“The Congress is spreading falsehood on Rafale,” she said and even referred to the Supreme Court’s ruling last month giving a clean chit to the government on the decision-making process of the deal.
After Sitharaman’s address, Gandhi said she gave a long speech but did not answer any of his questions on the deal and “ran away”. He said if the Congress comes to power in 2019, a criminal investigation will be launched into the deal and those found guilty will be punished.
In her speech, the defence minister said, “The Congress did not intend buying the jets. For every ‘AA’ there is a ‘Q’ and ‘RV’,” apparently referring to Robert Vadra and also Ottavio Quattrocchi, the alleged middleman in the Bofors scam. Gandhi has been referring to Anil Ambani as ‘AA’.
Taking a jibe at the Gandhi family, she also said, “I do not have the benefit of the ‘khandan tag'” while invoking her humble middle class background as well as of Modi’s poor economic past.
“Nobody has a right to call me or the prime minister a thief and a liar,” said a visibly angry Sitharaman.
She also accused the Congress of shedding “crocodile tears” on HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited) not getting the offset contract from Dassault Aviation, the maker of Rafale jets.
Countering the Congress’s charge, she said that it was the Indian Air Force which suggested that the government buy two squadrons or 36 Rafale jets in fly-away condition instead of 18, as was planned to be purchased under the Congress-led UPA government.
She accused the Congress of compromising with national security in the interest of the party’s “treasury” while deciding on buying 126 fighter jets.
Under the deal finalised by the NDA government, the delivery of first Rafale will happen in 2019, while the last of 36 jets will be delivered in 2022, the minister informed the house.
On pricing difference, Sitharaman said there was no formal price noting by the Congress of Rs 526 crore as the deal price. But the price negotiated by the NDA government is nine per cent lower than what was negotiated by the UPA.
“Comparing the cost of Rs 526 crore with Rs 1,600 crore, is like comparing apples to oranges. The cost quoted in 2007 will it remain the same in 2016, because there is escalation cost and there is exchange rate variation,” she said.
Referring to negotiations of the Rafale deal during the rule of the Congress-led UPA, the minister said, “You stopped the deal, forgetting Air Force was suffering.
“You didn’t conclude the deal, because it didn’t suit you. The deal didn’t get you money,” she alleged.
“They did not intend to buy the aircraft till something else was done. There is something different between defence deal and deal in defence,” she said, asserting that the Narendra Modi-led government gave priority to national security.
“You are misleading the country by saying the NDA government reduced 126 Rafale jets to 36. The Congress was supposed to buy 18 in fly-away condition, the NDA raised that to 36,” she said.
Talking about ADAG group, which got the offset contract for the fighter jet deals, the minister said the company obtained 53 waivers and concessions during the Congress-led UPA regime.
While countering Gandhi’s claim that a French leader had told him that there was no secrecy clause in the deal, Sitharaman asked the Congress chief to authenticate his claim on the floor of the house.
Alertness on part of the security staff at the Armoured Corps Centre and School at Ahmednagar in Maharashtra resulted in the apprehending of a man who was impersonating a soldier, the Army said on Friday.
The man was identified as Pradeep Sitaram Shinde, a resident of Diksal village in Ahmednagar district, a Defence spokesperson said. He was held Thursday, the official added.
“At the time of incident, the security staff saw Shinde dressed in combat dress moving suspiciously near the Centre and School. On being challenged, he produced a soldier’s identity card, which was found to be forged,” the official said in a statement here.
On further inquiry, Shinde claimed he was helped by two other accomplices for recruitment in the Army. The other two individuals have also been apprehended by the police and investigations are in progress, the official said.
A murder convict who had jumped parole over five years ago while serving a life sentence, on Thursday was traced to neighbouring Gujarat and apprehended by Thane police’s Crime Branch, a senior official said.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Deepak Deoraj said Vishwanath Jagannath Yadav alias Mota Kaka (40) was arrested for the October 2, 2008 murder of a person identified as Baban Ranganath Shinde.
Following his conviction on April 26, 2012, Yadav, a resident of Kalwa here, was lodged in Kolhapur Central Jail, he said.
“Yadav came out on parole and then did not present himself before jail authorities on April 9, 2013 at the end of his parole period. He was untraceable since then,” Deoraj told reporters here.
On November 26, 2013 a case was registered in Rabale police station in Navi Mumbai in connection with his jumping parole.
“Acting on a tip-off, a Crime Branch team led by inspector Nitin Thackeray nabbed him from Alang village in Gujarat’s Bhavnagar district on Thursday. He was working with a shipping firm there,” the DCP said.
He said that investigations had revealed that Yadav was accused of another murder earlier in which he was acquitted.
He will be sent back to Kolhapur Central Jail soon, the official said.
