The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Gujarat government has announced to write off electricity bills of connection holders in rural areas to the tune of Rs 650 crore.
Gujarat Energy Minister Saurabh Patel informed that 6.22 lakh people would benefit from the move.
“We are announcing a one-time settlement scheme. Today, electricity connection of around 6.22 lakh consumers has been cut; they can deposit Rs 500 under a one-time settlement scheme and get back their connection. In urban areas both BPL and non-BPL families will be able to avail this benefit, industries will not be given this benefit. The government will have to bear a burden of Rs 625 crore,” the minister said.
The announcement came a day after the Congress party has announced loan waivers for farmers in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh within hours of forming the government. This move by the Congress government in both states has put the BJP governments at the Centre and states under pressure ahead of the Lok Sabha elections next year.
During 2014, addressing a rally at Hardoi while taking a line different from his development-oriented speeches, Narendra Modi said that he would flush out all the MPs with criminal antecedents from the Parliament and in the process, he won’t even spare those from either BJP or the NDA. Those days, his attack was on Congress and the NCP candidates. Modiji used to call NCP a “National Corrupt Party”. Later on, for his party’s survival, the tainted Ministers with money and muscle power were not only given place in BJP but they were rewarded with prominent portfolios in the state politics.
BJP Corporator Pancham Kalani became the youngest Mayor of Ulhasnagar with the support of her husband Omie Kalani, who runs his own party called Team Omi Kalani (TOK). The 29-year-old Pancham is the third member of the powerful Pappu Kalani family to occupy the post. In the past, Pappu, who is Pancham’s father-in-law, and Jyoti, Pancham’s mother-in-law, has held the post.
Pancham’s husband, Omie, played a key role in getting her elected unopposed. During the 2014 elections, Congress and NCP shrunk in the state, those days many NCP leaders chose to switch their loyalties to BJP, but the old Kalanis remained in NCP while Omie Kalani formed his own party but stood with BJP and in return, BJP gave membership to his wife.
Modi might claim anything but no wonder that it has evidently been a case of the pot calling the kettle black as Congress, NCP, and BJP parties have fielded candidates with criminal records. Modi earlier said that he would form the panel to shortlist the MPs with criminal records on the basis of affidavits they have submitted before the Election Commission. After checking the genuineness of the cases, the government will knock the doors of the Supreme Court and urge the court to proceed with cases against these MPs following which they would be put behind the bars. He boasted that he has decided to cleanse the politics of the country after May 16, 2014. Modi said that the democracy of the country would not progress if the politics of the country were not made crime-free. Taking a dig at the opposition, Modi said that those who have been indulging in the politics of crime, will not be able to cleanse the system.
A dreaded criminal and NCP leader Pappu Kalani were in jail for his criminal activities, his wife had many cases, his son Omie Kalani’s nomination was cancelled by the Election Commission because Omie has three sons and one from his first wife. Candidates with more than two kids are not allowed to contest. The Commission rejected Omie’s reply saying that his first child was from his former wife. Omie’s second wife Pancham Kalani, a first-time contestant, got a green signal from the Election Commission because she had two children.
Omie Kalani is the son of the former MLA and gangster Pappu Kalani, arrived at an election rally brandishing a sword, evoking memories of his father, who is a gangster-turned-politician from Ulhasnagar who was booked under TADA charges in early 1990 and is currently on bail. Pappu Kalani had 34 criminal cases against him and also had links with the underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in the past. Omie Kalani seems to be following his father’s footsteps. Kalani had recently declared that his candidates, under the banner of Team Omie Kalani, would alone hold 30 seats. While his mother Jyoti is a sitting MLA on NCP’s ticket from Ulhasnagar, there was talk that Kalani was going to enter in an alliance with the BJP.
BJP Minister of State Ravindra Chavan confirmed that Team Omie Kalani would be supported by BJP.
Pappu Kalani’s formal name is Suresh Budharmal Kalani and Pappu may be a nickname, though he prefers it as a part of the formal name, writing Suresh (Pappu) Budharmal Kalani in his election papers. He is currently on bail in 19 cases including eight of murder and was most recently elected as the MLA for Ulhasnagar from the Republican Party of India (Athavale) in the Maharashtra state assembly elections, 2004. Pappu Kalani served a life sentence on December 3, 2013, in a 23-year-old murder case of Ghanashyam Bhatija. Ghanashyam Bhatija was murdered on February 27, 1990, near the Pinto Resorts in Ulhasnagar of Thane district. His brother Inder Bhatija, who had seen the murder, was also shot dead on April 27, 1999, despite having police protection. Born into a wealthy family, Pappu Kalani’s uncle Dunichand Kalani was the president of the local unit of Indian National Congress. The family ran a liquor business and owned a number of distilleries and hotels. In the 1970s, Ulhasnagar was a booming lawless town settled by entrepreneurial refugees who had emigrated from Sindh, Pakistan, after the Partition of India in 1947. Sharp business practices combined with illegal construction and unauthorised industrial units made for an atmosphere where “protection” emerged as a profitable business. A number of gangs were soon working under the patronage of political parties. Pappu Kalani’s uncle Keemat Kalani, also affiliated with the Congress party, ran the gang headed by Chiman Tejwani while the opposing parties, under politician Gop Behrani, employed the gang of Govind Vachani and Gopal Rajwani. It is reported that both gangs were connected to the Dawood Ibrahim gang. Use was also made of the media and hush money was regularly paid to journalists.
In 1983, Gopal Rajwani was for a while aligned with Pappu Kalani and they executed the brutal knife murder of the Editor A V Narayan of Blitz magazine. Rajwani was arrested for this, but he was eventually acquitted due to the lack of witnesses and shoddy prosecution. Nothing came out of this dastardly murder, however, as the Indian press never stood up against this criminal. In 1986, Pappu Kalani was elected the president of the Ulhasnagar Municipal Council (UMC), and the same year, he was chosen by the Indian National Congress party as its candidate for the state legislature from Ulhasnagar, and easily won the seat. Meanwhile, Gopal Rajwani and Pappu had fallen out over the division of extortion money. In April 1985, Rajwani was arrested in an extortion case, apparently at Kalani’s bidding. As Rajwani was being escorted to the police station in a rickshaw, Kalani arranged for his men to attack him with bombs and guns. Rajwani survived the attack and eventually relocated to Dubai, with the help of Haji Mastan, a notorious smuggler and senior don of that time. In April 1989, Pappu’s uncle Dudhichand Kalani was murdered, allegedly by the Govind Vachani/Gopal Rajwani gang, at the instance of Gop Behrani. This led to reprisal killings – as many as 22 murders in five months. It was during this period that Pappu Kalani emerged as the leader of his own organised crime gang. And now his next generation is carrying the legacy, which is happily supporting BJP — some being part of the party and some being independent.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his 2014 electoral campaign raised his voice for clean governance in the nation and criminal-free party. On the other hand, the recent aggressive campaign has created a speculation that Omie Kalani would be the prime campaigner of BJP in 2019. His political failures forced him to start his own party Team Omie Kalani (TOK) which is merely a campaigner group. If previous records are referred, the junior Kalani is seen randomly campaigning for NCP, Republican Party of India (RPI), sometimes Shiv Sena, and finally haltered at BJP because of his wife, Pancham Kalani’s position as Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation Mayor (BJP).
During Modi’s daylong visit to Maharashtra on Tuesday, December 18, the posters spoke louder about his inclination towards the saffron party. The Ulhasnagar politics, and power corridors speculating that he would be the poster boy of Ulhasnagar for 2019. However, putting a full stop to all the speculation, BJP’s Saina NC said, “Ours is the only party which has never encouraged any criminals and will never do so and one to be rest assured by not getting carried away by the rumours.”
Countering Saina NC, NCP leader Vidya Chavan said, “Amit Shah himself is a big gunda in the BJP. This party might be boasting about clean politics but they will never do so. There are 22-24 Ministers in Maharashtra with charges of corruption and Devendra Fadnavis is giving them all clean chits. They are taking in gundas, we are seeing this for the last four years.”
In the same series of war of words, BJP MLA Atul Save told AV, “Modi Ji may not be even aware who is who; such people try to impose themselves on BJP whereas BJP is of very firm opinion that they won’t entertain such people. As far as posters are concerned, anyone can get it printed and if the said person is in politics, he knows how to make it to his advantage.”
“I once again want to maintain that when PM comes for an event, people go in groups, click photos and boasts about their support or having proximity but it is just an illusion created by the people,” he added.
Save further said, “Devendra Fadnavis is a no-nonsense CM of Maharashtra and by all means, he believes in clean politics and he already made sure that the tainted people will not be given any place here. As long as support is concerned, that depends on the supporter but not on the party.”
Omie Kalani was not available for the quote but when our Editor-in-Chief spoke to NCP President and MLA of Ulhasnagar Jyoti Kalani, the mother of Omie Kalani and wife of Pappu Kalani asserted, “My daughter-in-law Pancham Kalani is with BJP and she is the Mayor of Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation. My son is a strong supporter of BJP. However, he is a member of his own political party Team Omie Kalani (TOK) but his party workers and he himself are supporting the saffron party and they will continue supporting it.”
However, earlier Omie passed statement to the media that with the blessing of his father he has switched his support to the BJP. He also said, “We had a lengthy conversation and my father told me we had been Sharad Pawar loyalists for many years. I feel that times have changed and the BJP has emerged as the party of the masses. Ulhasnagar is a Sindhi-dominated area and voters have to choose between Pappu Kalani and the BJP. We want to end this dilemma and convey the message that Kalanis are with the BJP,” Kalani stated.
Omie Kalani is reported to be an accused having several extortion cases and non-cognisable offences registered against him. A recent case of kidnapping and extortion of a Kalyan-based garment businessman Anil Kanjani (37) have been registered in the Kolsewadi police which came as a major embarrassment. The complainant has alleged in his complaint that he was kidnapped, threatened, and was abused to pay Rs 50 lakh to an Ahmedabad based businessman, Nilesh. Later, Kalani along with Suresh Lalwani and 12 other TOK (Team Omie Kalani) members took him to a hotel in Ulhasnagar where Kanjani was confined to a room and beaten up. Apart from that, they brandished knives and revolvers asking him to pay up Nilesh within two to three days.
During 2017 Municipal Corporation election, two BJP local leaders, who have filed two attempts to murder cases against Omie Kalani, later withdrew their complaints. Both the leaders submitted their affidavit in the Kalyan session court stating that the cases registered by them against Omie are politically motivated ones. However, it seems to be a sudden shift of occasion when the TOK party President actively supports BJP on the social media while on the other hand, denies joining the party.
Congress Rajya Sabha MP Husain Dalwai commented, “How can a person with criminal records allowed to meet Prime Minister? I don’t think he will be allowed to do so and if he is allowed to do so, it means that the police and the Home Department are not following the protocol. I don’t think he will ever be allowed to meet PM.”
According to the media reports, earlier, Kalani and his 15 associates were booked in an attempt to murder case in 2011. Omie and his supporters allegedly beat up BJP Corporator Mahesh Sukhramani’s nephew Sunil with iron rods and sticks. Kalani is a family that dominates the politics of Ulhasnagar, which is also known as mini-Sindh. However, the family is also popular for having a vast criminal background. Jyoti Kalani, the mother of Omie Kalani and wife of Pappu Kalani, was arrested by the state crime investigation department in 2004 on various charges including forgery, non-payment of revenue and illegal liquor manufacturing. Jyoti had been the Mayor of Ulhasnagar after Pappu’s arrest under TADA in early 1990s.
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In a Mumbai suburb, an entire neighbourhood was glued to the TV sets on Tuesday to catch a glimpse of Hamid Nihar Ansari, who they saw last six years ago.
As soon as the 33-year-old, released from a Pakistani jail to be repatriated to India, crossed the Wagah-Attari border and kissed the Indian soil, his neighbours in Versova celebrated by hugging each other and distributing sweets.
Ansari then hugged his parents who were present at the border to receive him, six years after he was detained by Pakistani intelligence agencies for entering the country illegally reportedly to meet a girl he had befriended online.
Ansari was detained in 2012 after he entered the country from Afghanistan and subsequently sentenced to three years’ imprisonment by a military court in 2015 for possessing a fake Pakistani identity card.
The Mumbai resident was lodged in the Peshawar Central Jail after being sentenced by the military court on December 15, 2015. His three-year jail term ended on December 15, 2018 but he was not able to leave for India as his legal documents were not ready.
“It was an emotional scene as we saw Hamid cross the border at around 5.30 pm and kneel down to kiss the Indian soil,” said senior journalist and social activist Jatin Desai, who accompanied the youth’s family from Mumbai to Wagah.
Desai, who is general secretary of the Pakistan-India Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy, sat in the visitor’s enclosure with Hamid Ansari’s father Nihal and mother Fouzia at the Wagah border after reaching the border in the morning.
“We expect to return with Hamid to Mumbai tomorrow,” he said.
Nihal Ansari, former bank officer, expressed happiness over his son’s release and thanked the governments in India and Pakistan.
Sayyad Abid Hussain, a Bhopal resident who started a Twitter campaign in 2016 to bring back Hamid also thanked the two governments and Pakistan PM Imran Khan.
“This is the victory of humanity and the struggle by Hamid’s mother Fauzia, a former teacher,” Hussain said.
He recalled that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had retweeted Fauzia Ansari’s tweet seeking release of her son.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) issued a notice to the Maharashtra government and the Union Labour Ministry on Tuesday over a fire incident at a Mumbai hospital in which six people were killed.
The commission has also asked for a detailed report within four weeks, including action taken against the guilty, if any, an official statement said.
The NHRC took suo motu cognisance in the incident over media reports that a massive fire engulfed the Employees State Insurance Corporation Hospital in the Andheri (East) area of Mumbai on Monday, killing six people and injuring 141 others.
In its statement, the NHRC said it had observed that the possibility of negligence by the hospital administration could not be ruled out in the incident.
Hence, a notice was issued to the chief secretary of the government of Maharashtra, calling for a detailed report, including the outcome of the probe reportedly mentioned by the city mayor, it said.
The commission would like to know if the building has a valid ‘No Objection Certificate’ from the Fire Department and whether a fire audit was conducted, the statement said.
A report from the Maharashtra DGP is also expected to intimate about the registration of an FIR, if any, and status thereof.
The Employees State Insurance Corporation Hospital comes under the jurisdiction of the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment.
Hence, the commission has also issued a notice to the secretary of the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment, calling for a detailed report within four weeks, including action taken against the guilty, if any, and steps taken/proposed to be taken to ensure that such incidents do not recur in the future, it said.
Raigad district administration on Tuesday demolished four illegal structures near Alibaug for violation of the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms.
The CRZ notification of the Environment Protection Act prohibits constructions within 500 metres of the high tide line.
“We demolished four such structures Tuesday. We had issued notices to owners of 58 properties for disregarding the CRZ norms. We have now started the demolition drive,” district collector Dr Vijay Suryawanshi said.
The demolition drive would continue for the next few days, he said.
Besides these 58 properties, over 150 bungalows have been red-flagged over alleged CRZ violations. Their owners include corporate honchos.
Twitter has warned of “unusual activity” from state-sponsored actors based in China and Saudi Arabia after it found a bug that could have revealed the country code of users’ phone numbers or if their account was locked.
The revelation led to Twitter stock dropping nearly 7 per cent on Monday.
In a statement, Twitter said it discovered the bug on November 15 and fixed it a day later.
“During our investigation, we noticed some unusual activity involving the affected customer support form API. Specifically, we observed a large number of inquiries coming from individual IP addresses located in China and Saudi Arabia,” said the micro-blogging platform, used by over 336 million users, on one of its support forms.
“While we cannot confirm intent or attribution for certain, it is possible that some of these IP addresses may have ties to state-sponsored actors,” Twitter warned.
The bug, said the company, could be used to discover the country code of people’s phone numbers if they had one associated with their Twitter account, as well as whether or not their account had been locked by Twitter.
Twitter locks an account if it appears to be compromised or in violation of its rules or Terms of Service.
“Importantly, this issue did not expose full phone numbers or any other personal data.
“We have directly informed the people we identified as being affected. We are providing this broader notice as it is possible that other account holders we cannot identify were potentially impacted,” Twitter said, adding it is “sorry this happened”.
A Twitter spokesperson told TechCrunch: “For our part, we are committed to understanding how bad-faith actors use our services. We will continue to proactively combat nefarious attempts to undermine the integrity of Twitter.”
Facebook-owned WhatsApp has rolled out “Picture in Picture (PiP) mode” for Android users that will allow them to view videos within a chat window, without opening third party pages or apps.
The update is available now at Google Play with the latest WhatsApp’s version 2.18.380.
The feature was earlier available for Android beta users running Android operating system (OS version 4.4 and above) only.
Earlier in October, WABetaInfo, a fan website that tracks WhatsApp, reported that the PiP feature is being introduced for all Android beta users that would allow users to play videos hosted on platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Streamable right within WhatsApp.
The PiP feature was rolled out in January for the iOS users.
The Facebook-owned company has over 200 million monthly active users in India and is one of the most popular mobile apps worldwide.
Late Monday night, Siddhesh Shete, who manages the crematorium near the venue of near Mumbai got a call from a man saying a member of his family was dead.
The caller wanted to know if the crematorium was available for performing the last rites of the deceased on Tuesday.
“We had to turn him back as we have orders from police to keep the crematorium closed on Tuesday in view of Modi’s event, just over 200 metres away,” Shete told agencies.
A police official said they have directed the crematorium management to keep the facility closed for the day Tuesday owing to Modi’s public rally nearby.
A board has also been placed outside the Lalchowki crematorium stating no last rites would be performed there till the rally gets over.
It asks people to perform the last rites at Bailbajar crematorium, around one and a half km from the Phadke Maidan, the venue of Modi’s public event, where the prime minister is to attend the ground breaking ceremony of the Kalyan-Bhiwandi metro line.
The security measures taken in view of the event have also led to cancellation of three weddings in the nearby Wadva Hall, a civic official said.
“I have asked police to deploy their own people at the gate of crematorium to inform people of using another facility and not this one,” Shete said.
It was at the same Phadke Maidan that Modi in 2014 addressed a state Assembly poll campaign meeting.
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday directed the Maharashtra government to take urgent steps to check pollution in Godavari river allegedly caused by the Kumbh Mela held in Nashik in 2015 and other religious events.
A bench of justices AS Oka and AK Menon also directed the government to take appropriate measures to curb pollution in other rivers and water bodies across the state.
The bench also directed the state to let a monitoring committee, formed by the court, to continue as a permanent body and to provide adequate funds for its functioning.
The committee is also supposed to implement the recommendations of the National Environmental Engineering Institute (NERI) in controlling river pollution.
The high court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by social activists alleging that pollution in the Godavari river was caused mainly during the ‘shahi snan’ (royal bath) in the Nashik Kumbh Mela held in 2015, and seeking a direction to clean the river.
The Godavari river originates from Trimbakeshwar in Nashik district in north Maharashtra.
‘Kumbh mela’ is the biggest Hindu religious congregation which is held once in 12 years. According to beliefs, taking a dip in the sacred river is considered auspicious during the Kumbh period.
‘Shahi Snan’ is one of the main highlights of the Mela where heads of various ‘akharas’ (Hindu ascetic denominations) bathe in the river.
Traditionally, four fairs are widely recognised as the Kumbh Melas: the Prayag Kumbh Mela, Haridwar Kumbh Mela, the Nashik-Trimbakeshwar Simhastha, and Ujjain Simhastha.
The bench on Tuesday also directed that there be a grievance redressal mechanism to enable citizens to make complaints related to pollution of water bodies.
In 2014, the HC had directed that a panel comprising the Nashik Divisional Commissioner, the Nashik Municipal Corporation, and representatives of the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) be constituted to study the effects of water pollution and suggest ways of controlling river pollution.
