Operation of around 255 flights was affected Wednesday due to a six-hour closure of both the runways at the Mumbai Airport on account of repair and maintenance work, officials said.
The primary runway and the secondary runway at the country’s second busiest airport were shut down from 1100 hours till 1700 hours, they said.
The operations were normalised after 1700 hours, they said.
The Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport handles around 1,000 flights a day on an average.
Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL), the joint venture company that runs the airport, is undertaking maintenance and repair of the runways in two phases.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has 26 per cent stake in MIAL while GVK Group-led consortium holds majority 74 per cent.
The first phase was scheduled for this month and the next one will be carried out between February 7 and March 30 (except on March 21) from 1100 hours to 1700 hours on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
“At least 255 flights were affected at the Mumbai airport due to the six-hour long shut down of both the runways to carry out the repair and maintenance work,” a senior official of AAI said.
The airlines had been intimated in advance about the runway closure period and accordingly they had rescheduled some of the flights, the official said, adding, however, that some impact was bound to be there.
“Most of the airlines accommodated passengers either in their morning or evening flights by combining flights. This negated any major impact on their operations,” an official of the MIAL said.
“At the time of the stakeholders meeting, we had also requested some of the airlines to deploy bigger aircraft well,” the official said.
The two runways on an average handle 40-43 flights per hour during the lean hours (1100 hours-1700 hours), the official said.
The speculations have started doing round the corner that Subodh Jaiswal might take up the seat of the next CBI Special Director just after the Deputy Superintendent of Police Devender Kumar got accused in connection with bribery allegations involving its Special Director and second-in-command Rakesh Asthana.
We learned from our internal BJP sources that apart from an internal tiff between its top two officials – Director Alok Verma and Special Director Rakesh Asthana, with the duo levelling allegations of bribery against each other, there is another dispute that has created a dissect in CBI where one group of the agency is against Subodh Jaiswal of undertaking as the Special Director in Asthana’s place while the others supporting Jaiswal.
Veteran Congress leader Ratnakar Mahajan exclaimed, “An institution like CBI must stay clear of groupism. Political parties and ministers must appoint meritorious persons to take the charge of the prestigious institutions. The rift is prevalent between senior officials of CBI, therefore, the government must have taken a decision to oust them and replace some other official.”
“If the government is planning to appoint some other official in their place then they have accepted the culpability of both Alok Verma and Rakesh Asthana. While appointing a third official internal lobbying is happening, then even if Subodh Jaiswal is appointed as the Special Director of CBI, a lobby will exist to work against him. Therefore, it will affect his work and the government will lose an opportunity to improve the image of CBI. If such things happen then people will lose faith in institutions like CBI and RAW,” he further criticised.
On Monday, DSP Devender Kumar got arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation on the allegations of forgery in recording the statement of businessman Sathish Sana, who had alleged to have paid bribes to get relief in the case. Sana, in his complaint to the CBI, alleged that he had paid Rs 3 crores in bribe to certain private persons who promised him to get relief in the case. Devendra Kumar was produced before Delhi’s Patiala House Court later, on Tuesday, approached the Delhi High Court challenging his arrest.
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday denied to stay the proceedings against CBI Special Director Rakesh Asthana and DSP Devendra Kumar. However, on one hand, the court asked Central Bureau of Investigation to maintain status quo and not take any action against Asthana until the next hearing on Monday, 29 October. On the other hand, Devender Kumar, accused of falsifying witness statement, has been sent to CBI custody for seven days remand by the Delhi HC.
BJP spokesperson Madhu Chavan stated, “The government takes a decision regarding the appointment of CBI Special director. Therefore, as a spokesperson, I won’t make any comment about this.”
Experts believe that the reason for Subodh Jaiswal to takeover as the CBI director might be the further allegations in the hearing. CBI added five more sections under IPC, in the existing FIR against Rakesh Asthana, these are sections: 388 (extortion of money by threat), 384 (extortion), 389 (extortion of money), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document).
BJP MP Gopal Shetty asserted, “The government is capable of taking the right decision in this regard.” When asked about the PMO intervening at the right time to take action against Rahul Asthana he refused to comment about it.
It is the first time in the Indian political history that the nation is witnessing an internal war being escalated in the house of CBI under the Narendra Modi’s regime after receiving accusations of remaining the ruling government’s caged parrot since its formation during Congress’ rule in 1963 and are also attacked for not meeting the high standards of CBI’s actual motto which is integrity and impartiality.
In a unique move, the CBI has reportedly raided its own headquarters as informed by several news agencies. It’s stated that the CBI has booked its own Special Director Rakesh Asthana in a bribery case pertaining to the meat exporter and hawala operator Moin Akhtar Qureshi. He started his business in 1993 after opening a small slaughterhouse at Rampur in Uttar Pradesh. It may be recalled that in 2014, during the election campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had suggested that due to Sonia Gandhi’s protection, Qureshi was not investigated despite being on the radar of the Income Tax Department. There were allegations that Qureshi was close to two former CBI directors — A P Singh and Ranjit Singh. He is supposed to have exchanged messages with Singh and this had come under the scanner of the IT department and the Enforcement Directorate.
Asthana is the main accused in the FIR filed last week and RAW special director Sumant Kumar Goel has also been mentioned in it but not as an accused. The CBI has also arrested its own DSP Devender Kumar, who was the Investigating Officer in Qureshi’s case. He is alleged of forging the statement of Satish Sana who has claimed that he has paid the bribes to settle the case against him. Sana was also an accused in the Moin Qureshi case. Sana has complained that so far he has paid Rs 3 crores to the CBI Special Director as bribe since last year. It’s to be noted that Moin Qureshi was raided by the IT department in 2014 and his Blackberry Messenger communication with the former CBI Director A P Singh led to Singh resigning from his position in UPSC.
This is not the first time that Asthana landed in a controversy. The NGO Common Cause had gone to the court challenging Asthana’s appointment as the Special Director on the grounds that his name had figured in a 2011 diary seized from Sterling Biotech – a company being probed by the CBI for money laundering. Asthana was not named in the FIR but was presumably the subject of an on-going investigation by his own agency. CBI has reportedly executed the action against its own officials and the Special Director on the basis of several money trails, telephonic intercepts, call records, messages, and statements made before a judicial magistrate under section 164. The agency has informed the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) that it is investigating its own Special Director under five different cases of corruption. Against this, Asthana has written to the government that the present CBI Director Alok Verma, who is his boss, is trying to malign his image and stop him from the functioning. But the situation seems to be grim for him as the High Court has denied quashing the FIR against him. The CBI Director has also curtailed his powers.
This long-running feud between Alok Verma and Rakesh Asthana has been marked by allegations and counter-allegations of corruption and interference in high-profile cases. In October last year, Asthana was elevated to the position of No. 2 at the CBI by a selection committee headed by the CVC. CBI Head Verma had opposed Asthana’s elevation on the ground that he was being probed in a corruption case related to Sterling Biotech, a Gujarat-based company. Asthana accused Verma of trying to thwart investigations in important cases, including one concerning the IRCTC scam in which RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and family are the accused. The CVC sought files of various cases from the CBI to probe the allegations. However, the CBI issued an official statement defending Verma and criticising Asthana. The CBI termed Asthana’s complaint to the CVC against Verma as ‘intimidation’ of the officers probing Asthana’s role in at least five cases. Questions were raised on whether Verma could use the CBI to defend himself against personal allegations. Asthana also wrote to the cabinet secretary and the CVC accusing Verma and his right-hand man additional director AK Sharma of trying to save accused persons in several cases. Corruption is not new to CBI. All are power mongers and do not work for the institution. The CBI has been functioning very worst since the days of Late PM Indira Gandhi and that led to it being termed as “Congress Bureau of Investigation”. Since BJP came to power, the same CBI is termed as “Caged Parrot”. The credibility of the CBI is compromised by its own representatives and corrupt authorities.
If the agency would have been really manipulated as blamed by the Opposition, things would have been different and would have been settled differently. The High Court has told the agency to keep the status quo till 29th of this month, which means Asthana will not be arrested for a week now but the investigations are on and it would be definitely interesting to see how it goes further. One thing is for sure that the CBI does not look to be a Caged Parrot these days and has the liberty to investigate any accused or suspect, be it their officer. Corruption is not new to CBI. All are power mongers and do not work for the institution. Apparently, this seems to be cross-firing between Verma and Asthana; once Asthana had made allegations against Verma, the latter had to act and is proceeding systematically by first arresting a Deputy before moving against Asthana.
Meanwhile, the media reports claim that PM Modi has met both Verma and Asthana, though there is no confirmation yet on this. The CBI arrest of DSP Devender Kumar came after the meeting. Asthana moved to the Delhi High Court against lodging of the FIR and sought prevention of any coercive step against him. The court has given an interim relief to Asthana, ruling that he could not be arrested until the case comes up for hearing. There have been unconfirmed reports of Verma planning to suspend Asthana and also the government planning to send Asthana back to Gujarat. Rakesh Asthana comes from Gujarat cadre and he is presumed to be very close to PM Modi, that’s why media addresses him as ‘blue-eyed boy of PM’. No doubt Rakesh Asthana is one of the credible officers and he has handled various cases as he was given the responsibility to investigate the Fodder Scam, a corruption scandal that involved the embezzlement of about Rs 9.4 billion (equivalent to Rs 34 billion or $540 million in 2017) from the government treasury of the eastern Indian state of Bihar. He filed a charge sheet against Lalu Prasad Yadav in 1996. Lalu was arrested for the first time in 1997. Asthana caught DGMS Director General taking bribes in Dhanbad. By that time, this was the first case of its kind in the whole country, when the officers of the Director-General had come under arrest. Asthana had also examined the famous Godhra incident, which was constituted under the guidance of the Supreme Court, which was constituted under the leadership of RK Raghavan. Rakesh Asthana was given the responsibility of investigating the bomb blast on July 26, 2008, in Ahmedabad. He had settled the case within 22 days. Asthana had also examined the case of Asaram Bapu and his son Narayan Sai. The absconding Narayan Sai was caught on the Haryana-Delhi border.
Let’s see what is written ahead in the fate of CBI.
(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)
Around 180 talukas in the state are facing a drought-like situation, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Tuesday.
These talukas were identified on the basis of norms laid down by the Centre, he said, adding the situation has arisen as the state received only 77 per cent of its average rainfall this year.
The opposition Congress slammed the BJP-led government over the issue, saying it should straightway declare drought in the state and stop using terminologies like “scarcity-like” or a “drought-like” to describe the situation.
“A situation of drought has developed in Maharashtra. The state has received only 77 per cent of its average annual rainfall. I have declared 180 talukas to be facing a drought-like situation as per the norms of the Centre and immediate measures are being taken in view of the situation,” Fadnavis said after a weekly state cabinet meeting.
The state has more than 350 talukas spread across 36 districts.
He said relief measures being undertaken by the state government include concession in land revenue, educational fees, continued power supply for agriculture pumps and deploying tankers for supplying drinking water in the talukas (an administrative unit in a district) facing water scarcity.
Fadnavis said a central government team will soon visit the state and declare financial assistance to deal with the situation.
Asked about the Opposition’s criticism over a Water Resources Department report, which stated that the groundwater level in 14,000 villages across 252 talukas has gone down by at least a metre, he said the state has received insufficient rainfall in the last three years.
He rejected the Congress criticism of the government’s flagship water conservation scheme, ‘Jalyukt Shivar’, and noted farmers have worked hard to make it a success.
The Congress has alleged the scheme is beset with corruption and despite its implementation, groundwater levels have dropped alarmingly in the state.
“The Congress is insulting farmers and villagers who toiled hard to make Jalyukt Shivar scheme a success and made their villages drought-free.
“This scheme means there should be water (for conservation) even if there is less rain. It does not mean there will be water if there are no rains,” he said.
The chief minister said last year, the state received 80 per cent of its average rainfall, but still the farm productivity increased.
“There was less water for three continuous years, so we are using that water in the ground for farming. Therefore, agricultural produce increased by 27 per cent.
“Since there have been insufficient rains, we have used the water (conserved) through Jalyukt Shivar (for farm purposes) and hence storage is bound to go down,” he said.
The micro-irrigation scheme involves deepening and widening of streams, construction of cement and earthen stop dams and digging of farm ponds.
The chief minister said no one should politicise the issue.
“Maharashtra has seen many droughts but it is the first time when a drought is being declared in October. The Centre has adopted scientific norms for declaration of drought.
“These talukas were selected after strictly following the norms laid down by the Centre and various mitigation measures will be implemented in these talukas from today,” Fadnavis said.
Maharashtra Congress president Ashok Chavan on Tuesday asked the Fadnavis government to declare drought in the state and immediately provide financial assistance to tackle the situation.
“The state government should straightway announce ‘drought’ and stop the word play wherein it is using terms like ‘scarcity-like’ or ‘drought-like’,” the former chief minister said.
He said the situation in the state is grim. Farmers have lost their kharif (summer) crops, while sowing for rabi (winter) season is severely affected.
“Irrespective of this, ministers are busy in jugglery of words such as ‘scarcity-like’ and ‘drought-like’ situation,” Chavan said.
He demanded urgent setting up of cattle sheds and deployment of water tankers in the affected areas.
Chavan alleged that ‘Jalyukt Shivar’ is the “biggest scam” in the state.
“Groundwater level across the state is depleted significantly despite thousands of crores are being spent on this scheme which is the biggest scam of this government,” Chavan alleged.
The Congress leader said farmers are angry with the BJP government.
Waiting in long queues to buy tickets at railway stations will now be a thing of the past as the railways’ UTS mobile app for buying unreserved tickets online will be available nationwide from November 1, a senior official said on Tuesday.
While the scheme was started four years ago, it failed to catch on among passengers except in Mumbai, where it was first launched because a large number of people travel in locals. After Mumbai, it was started in Delhi-Palwal and Chennai city.
As of now railway has already implemented the scheme in 15 of its zones with the Northereast Frontier Railway and West Central Railway being the remaining two zones.
The scheme is also open for those who want to buy tickets for travelling long distance.
“We have been trying to engage people to encourage them to use the UTS mobile application more and more. The numbers are growing and we are hopeful that once passengers understand the benefits of this app, they will buy their tickets online.
“With certain zones not being a part of the app, a lot of passengers were unable to use it. Any station intersecting these zones was left out of the app. From November 1, it will be available across India,” a senior railways official said.
In the last four years, there were around 45 lakh registered users of this app with around 87,000 tickets being bought per day on it on average, he said.
A passenger needs to be around 25-30 metres away from the station to avail the application and is allowed to book only four tickets at a time through it.
On the app, a registered user can not only buy tickets, but also platform tickets and monthly passes.
The railways earns around Rs 45 lakh per day through the online sale of such unreserved tickets, the official said.
A farmer and his wife allegedly committed suicide after killing their two-year-old daughter in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra, police said on Tuesday.
The incident, which took place in Chas village in Akole tehsil, came to light on Monday evening, an official said adding that the motive behind their extreme step was not yet clear.
Farmer Pandurang Shelke (31), his wife Sonali (26) and daughter Shivanya were found hanging at their residence. The couple might have killed their daughter first by strangulating her with a rope before hanging themselves, the official said.
The incident had taken place over 30 hours before it came to light. The bodies had started decomposing by the time they were found, he said.
Shelke’s house is located in his farm, at least three kms away from Chas village, he said.
Nobody else was at home at the time of incident and the door of the house was locked from inside, the official said.
“A person, who had come to meet Shelke, found the window of their house open. When he peeped through it, he found all three of them hanging,” he said.
“Shelke had borrowed money from a credit society. But, it would be too premature to conclude that he committed suicide over loan repayment,” the official added. Investigation into the case is on.
A “Mushaira” based on the theme of Mahatma Gandhi’s teachings will be held in Mumbai on Friday as part of a series of such Urdu poetry symposiums being organised by the Ministry of Minority Affairs to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation.
Maharashtra Governor C Vidyasagar Rao will inaugurate the “Mushaira” in the presence of Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, a statement issued by the ministry said.
The first Urdu poetry symposium in the series was organised in New Delhi on October 6.
Besides spreading the message and principles of Mahatma Gandhi, these programmes would also strengthen the bonds of social harmony and brotherhood, Naqvi was quoted as saying in the statement.
The “Mushaira” will be held at the Rangsharda Auditorium in Bandra West from 4 pm onwards on October 26.
Famous Urdu poets such as Wasim Barelvi, Manzar Bhopali, Mansoor Usmani, Popular Merathi, among others, will take part in the event.
Writer-musician Yogesh will preside over the “Mushaira” and actor-director-producer Annu Kapoor will speak on the purpose of the event.
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday said if the central government was “effective”, there would not have been bribery charges at the highest level in the CBI, and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to act over the matter.
He also attacked the BJP-led Centre over the Rafale jet deal and demanded a probe into it by a joint parliamentary committee.
Pawar was replying to queries during an interaction at the “Mumbai Manthan” conclave organised by television news channel Aaj Tak.
The feud between Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Director Alok Verma and his deputy Rakesh Asthana turned murkier with the arrest of a deputy superintendent of police in the Special Investigation Team headed by Asthana over bribery charges.
Asked about the Modi government’s performance, Pawar said people’s expectations from the present dispensation were not fulfilled.
“What was promised in 2014 is not seen on the ground after four years. (Former prime minister) Manmohan Singh tried his best to give a good government, intentions were best. That is not the situation today.
“If the present government was effective, there would not have been bribery charges at the highest level in the CBI. Still the prime minister is silent. He should act,” the former Union minister said.
Pawar said Modi was a strong leader for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but not the country.
“His ministerial team does not have the capacity to deliver. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) is the most powerful. All decisions are taken there and the files are sent to the ministers to sign. The present government does only ‘man ki baat’ and does not listen to ‘jan ki baat’ (people’s voice),” he added.
Firing a fresh salvo over the Rafale fighter jet deal, Pawar said the Centre should clarify why the price of one aircraft increased from Rs 570 crore to Rs 1,600 crore.
“There is room for suspicion. So there should be a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe. If the BJP stalled Parliament for three weeks for a JPC probe in (the) Bofors (case), why should the BJP, now in power, oppose a JPC?,” he asked.
Asked if he felt there was corruption in the Rafale deal as alleged by Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Pawar said he had no information about it.
“I only know the aircraft is good. Rahul Gandhi may have more information than me about corruption,” he said.
Led by the Congress, the opposition parties have been attacking the Modi government, alleging that it is procuring 36 Rafale jets from France at an exorbitantly high cost.
The government has denied the allegations of irregularities in the Rafale deal and industrialist Anil Ambani has also dismissed the Congress’s charge that he got undue benefits under it.
In a terrible day for India at the HCL Asian B1 Junior Tennis Championship, all six girls in action, including national U-16 runner-up Vipasha Mehra, were knocked out of the tournament in Pune.
Third seed Mananchaya Sawangkaew from Thailand served out Vipasha 6-2 6-4 while Japanese Saki Imamura impressed with her court coverage in a 6-4 6-3 defeat of India No 3 Salsa Aher.
Eighth-seeded Mai Napatt Nirundorn from Thailand ended the aspirations of wildcard Sharannya Gaware 6-1 6-0. The left-handed Gaware who just returned from the WTA Future stars looked out of sort after her long journey from Singapore and went down without a fight.
Fifth-seeded Mana Kawamura of Japan played perfect tennis to put out former national champion Shivani Amineni 6-3 6-3 while fourth-seeded Indonesian Priska Madelyn Nugroho saw off the challenge of Archita Mahalwal 7-6(2) 6-0.
Second seed Japanese Himari Sato ended qualifier Prerna Vichare’s run with a 6-2 6-4 win.
Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo, who is fighting the rape allegations levied upon him by American woman Kathryn Mayorga, has said that in the end truth will prevail in the case.
Calling himself “an example”, the 33-year-old stated that he is blessed with a perfect club and a perfect family and the rest does not matter.
“We did the statement two weeks ago. Of course, I’m not going to lie in this situation. My lawyers are confident and I am too. The truth always comes in the first position,” Marca.com quoted Ronaldo, as saying.
“I know I am an example, 100 percent, on the pitch and off the pitch. I always smile, I’m blessed, I play at a fantastic club, I have a fantastic family, I’m healthy, I have everything. The rest does not affect me,’ he added.
Reflecting on the individual awards, the Portuguese clarified that he does not get too affected by the same, adding that awards “don’t mean anything.”
“This is not the most important thing. I’m not too upset about individual awards. My last two months in Juventus were amazing and everything has gone well. The adaptation has gone well,” he said.
“The awards don’t mean everything, it’s not a problem,” he added.
Ronaldo had refuted all the allegations levied against him by Mayorga saying the latter is “seeking to promote” herself via the controversy.
