Terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) had planned a Paris-like attack at a gathering in Delhi attended by PM Narendra Modi.
The militants had plans to carry out a mass shooting in a Paris-like manner or 26/11 Mumbai attacks at a gathering attended by PM Modi.
The revelations were made after Intelligence Bureau sleuths in a joint operation with Delhi Police office blew the lid off a Lashkar-e-Toiba plot to target Modi’s gatherings and assassinate some high-profile politicians in Delhi.
Also, the LeT militant was supposed to blow himself up in case he failed to breach PM Modi’s security layer.
According to the LeT’s plan, if the strike at the gathering could not be executed as planned, the terrorists were asked to eliminate a high-value target in Delhi or Jammu and Kashmir which could have ‘political and communal ramifications’, the report added.
The LeT militants used the word VIP quite often, as heard in intercepts and mentioned in an FIR registered by the Delhi Police.
Search operation is on to nab 3-4 LeT militants who have managed to sneak in to Jammu and Kashmir from across the border. These militants were in contact with Lashkar commander Abu Dujana for logistics and ground support to carry out the attack.
Two of the militants have been reportedly arrested in J&K.
Former union minister Jairam Ramesh described as “good step” the Delhi government’s decision to implement ‘odd-even’ restrictions for plying of private vehicles and said he had once suggested a similar move to Sheila Dikshit during her stint as chief minister.
Ramesh, who is in Paris to attend a two-day GLOBE COP21 Legislators Summit in the National Assembly, said vehicles of state and central government ministers should also be part of the ban and no exemption should be given.
He said that if implemented seriously, the decision will have “constructive impact”.
When asked about Union Minister Maneka Gandhi’s remarks that India is one of the main contributors to the global warming and needs to do much more, Ramesh said although he has not read or heard the comments, it is a fact that climate change is a serious issue in India and steps should be taken aggressively to tackle it.
“In May 2010 when I was in Beijing, I saw their government had come out with a policy that one can take out car once in two days. At that time Beijing was one of the most polluted cities. I had told Sheila Dikshit to look into it and see whether one can do so in Delhi. She said she would get it examined as public transport was a problem.
“Taking into account the present situation of pollution in Delhi, the Delhi government’s decision is absolutely correct. But at the same time, we cannot run away from the fact that we have to strengthen our public transport. But in the last five years the way metro has increased and is being used, if this new policy is seriously implemented, it will have a constructive impact,” Ramesh said.
The Delhi government has announced to restrict the number of cars on roads from January 1. Cars with odd and even registration numbers can run on alternate days. It came a day after the Delhi High Court termed the city a “gas chamber”.
A well coordinated effort by various agencies brought some relief for the people of Tamil Nadu on Sunday and showed the much needed sign of normalcy with commercial flight services resumed after five days from Chennai International Airport.
In the morning, Air India, Jet Airways and Indigo have restarted their operations. The national carrier was the first to resume its service. They are running three flights from Chennai to Port Blair, New Delhi and Hyderabad. Jet Airways is operating between Chennai and Bengaluru and Indigo is operating on the Bangalore-Chennai-Mumbai-Delhi sectors.
Normal flight services started gaining momentum with clearances from various agencies including the Union ministries. Some flights are still stranded but from Monday onwards the services will be fully operational.
There are some concerns over flight landings but the officials are trying to get equipments for instrument landing. Currently, it is difficult to land aircraft based on visuals and therefore the authorities are trying to make arrangements for instruments landings especially after sun set.
For the last five days airport officials worked day and night – braving the rough weather – to make the area operational. Air India had stored food for the people on the ground, while few were sent home. Some including officials from Airport, CISF and Air India, stayed back at the airport for three nights for various technical checks on security to smoothen the process of flight landings and take offs.
Train services from Chennai Central have also resumed. Army, Navy and NDRF teams are on a war footing exercise to distribute food, water and medicines etc to the rain affected people.
Thousands took shelter in relief camps but the post flood possibility of epidemic is looming large over the city despite the fact that flood waters receded from many parts of the city. Though the state health department has issued precautionary advisories but many feel that the fear is not yet over.
Already, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare have sent a high level team to Tamil Nadu to assess the situation and to provide help.
Veteran actor Morgan Freeman had a big scare, when a plane carrying him crash-landed in Tunica, Mississippi on Saturday.
The actor was not injured, but the plane was badly damaged as it careened off a runway during an emergency landing, reports said.
“I was on my plane on the way to Texas to shoot a segment for ‘The Story of God’, sometimes things don’t go as planned and a tire blew on takeoff which caused other problems. But thanks to my excellent pilot Jimmy Hobson we landed safely without a scratch. I cannot say the same about my plane,” said Freeman.
No injuries were reported to either the 78-year-old “Million Dollar Baby” actor or his pilot.
The plane was headed to Houston, Texas, from Clarksdale, Mississippi.
Have you ever heard the phrase, “Laughter is the best medicine?” Surprisingly, that’s true, so let me help you discover some of the things that laughter can do for you. Being a habitual early morning walker in the neighbourhood park, I regularly find many people like me standing together in a corner and laughing boisterously without any rhyme or reason. Initially, it came to me as a great shocking surprise, for I found no reason for them to laugh at all.
But as the mystery was unfolded, I was given to understand that all of them were active members of a laughter brigade, who laughed daily as a ritual to provide their lungs with the much-required free flow of oxygen.
Laughing takes off your tension and makes you forget the frets and fumes of daily moments. There is little surprise that owing to its magical effect, even a patient is advised to have a hearty laugh by his/her doctor these days. Laughter is a powerful antidote to stress, pain, and conflict. Nothing works faster or more dependably to bring your mind and body back into balance than a good laugh. Humour lightens your burdens, inspires hopes, connects you to others, and keeps you grounded, focused, and alert. The sound of roaring laughter is far more contagious than any cough, sniffle, or sneeze. When laughter is shared, it binds people together and increases happiness and intimacy. Laughter also triggers healthy physical changes in the body. Humour and laughter strengthens your immune system, boost your energy, diminish pain, and protect you from the damaging effects of stress. Best of all, this priceless medicine is fun, free, and easy to use.
Laughter helps one to forget the worries of the future and pains of the past. When people laugh together, it brings them closer and improves their relationship. It also helps them to enhance their communication. With so much power to heal and renew, the ability to laugh easily and frequently is a tremendous resource for surmounting problems, enhancing your relationships, and supporting both physical and emotional health. Hearty laughter increases your respiratory activity, oxygen exchange, muscular activity, blood pressure and heart rate. Researchers say that laughing one hundred times a day equals 10 minutes of rowing. Laughter is a drug-free tranquilizer that has no unpleasant side effects. It is said that an average child laughs about once every 10 minutes. That’s over 100 times a day.
A cheerful attitude towards life gives one the strength to face adversity boldly and courageously. Everyone likes a cheerful person. He is like the bright sunshine for others. Laughter is music to people’s ears; it fills us with light and drains our hidden pain. The ability to laugh is a durable gift that never loses value. Here’s what British film actress Audrey Hepburn has to say about laughter: “I love people who make me laugh. I honestly think it’s the thing I like most, to laugh. It cures a multitude of ills. It’s probably the most important thing in a person.”
When Sunny Leone made her Bollywood debut, she faced lot of apprehension from the film industry, but the actress says people’s perception towards her have changed over a period of time.
After quitting her career as an adult star, Leone, 34, made her debut in the 2012 erotic thriller Jism 2 and feels people from the industry have become more open and welcoming to her and her husband.
“I’ve met some amazing, really nice people over the last few years, especially this year. I feel this year we have not made any new friends, but have interacted with people a little bit differently. People are reacting to me and my husband differently when we walk in a room,” Leone said.
However, she does not want to blame anyone, but herself for not being a social person. “I don’t know want to say it’s their fault that they’re not being social. I think I like to blame myself. I don’t go to a lot of parties, I don’t go to a lot of social events so it’s hard to meet people.”
After working in five films and making numerous public appearances the Ek Paheeli Leela star still has her fan girl moments when she sees Bollywood stars. “I am really shy, I know it is hard to believe for everybody, but when I am sitting in a room and when I see these people whom I have seen on TV and in movies, most of the time I am like ‘Wow that’s her, that’s him’. I turn into a fan and get too scared to say hello. I am learning to be more social,” she said.
The actress has become popular and tasted success in a really short period, but according to her she never lets the fame get into her head. “I don’t ever tell myself – yes I’ve arrived. I just want my movies to do well, the producers to make money back.
As a business owner myself I know how much it costs to put up a production together,” she said. “For me, I always wish the producer makes money and people like it. I am very happy to know that my movie has done well, all the hard work has paid off,” Sunny added.
Actor-producer Arbaaz Khan, who will be seen, hosting the forthcoming TV show “Power Couple”, late Saturday said, there is no competition between him and his superstar brother Salman Khan, when it comes to hosting shows.
“There is no competition… Where is Salman and where am I… lets be very honest… but there is no competition at all,” Arbaz told after he was asked if there will be any competition between the two celebrity brothers on hosting TV shows.
Arbaaz, who will be seen co-hosting the a show on Sony Entertainment with his actress wife Malaika Arora Khan, said the “Wanted” actor will be very happy for him if he does a good job as a host.
“It’s just that he (Salman) will be very happy if I will do this (hosting) job good and make my own standing…” Arbaaz said.
“Power Couple” will be on air from December 12.
Salman is currently hosting the ninth season of “Bigg Boss”.
Earlier Bhagwat’s comments about reservation had cost the BJP dearly in Bihar assembly election and now he has raised the Ram temple issue.
RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat’s comment about the construction of Ram Temple is only derailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s developmental agenda. After Bhagwat’s remarks questions are being raised about whether he wants BJP to revert back to its Hindutva agenda by sidelining development. Earlier Bhagwat’s comments about reservation had cost the BJP dearly as it had to suffer a major setback in the Bihar assembly election. Even though Modi and other leaders had clarified their stand on reservation but RJP leader Lalu Prasad Yadav gained political mileage by raising this issue during election campaigns.
PMO and senior BJP leaders had already expressed their displeasure about irresponsible comments being made by party leaders. Despite this many of them continue to make controversial statements thereby hurting the PM’s image. If leaders continue to make such statements then it might affect the saffron party’s performance in the upcoming West Bengal, Assam, Kerala and Tamil Nadu assembly election. The party will have to really pull up its socks if its needs to make any impact in these elections. Many leaders have already deviated from the development agenda and are busy issuing controversial statements.
The Shiv Sena had already cautioned the RSS to refrain from politicising the Ram Mandir issue. Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, who was reacting to Mohan Bhagwat’s assertion that the Ram temple would be built at Ayodhya within his lifetime, asked the right wing organisation to announce the date for the same.
“We also want that the Ram temple should be constructed but they should give a definite timeframe for the same,” Raut said.
“The elections in Uttar Pradesh are approaching. If the Ram temple is made a political issue then the people won’t forgive us. The people should not be deceived on this matter,” he added.
On the other hand, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar took a jibe at the BJP by saying that the party is not serious about constructing Ram Temple in Ayodhya. He also said that the party is only using the temple issue for garnering votes from people.
“They will talk of constructing the Ram Temple at the same site, but will not give dates. The BJP has only been trying to keep the issue alive. They don’t have “genuine respect for Ram,”Nitish Kumar said.
“They just want to exploit people’s feelings for Ram. The party has hardly made efforts to sort out the (temple) issue, but uses it for political reasons at intervals”, said the Bihar CM.
The BJP, meanwhile, evaded questions on Bhagwat’s comment. “I do not know,” was the first response of union minister Nirmala Sitharaman when asked to react to his remarks. She, however, added, “It is not a new statement. It has been said several times. BJP definitely believes Ram Temple should be built sometime.”
Chennai always had issues with water, sometimes there are water scarcities whereas sometimes city is flooded with unwanted water and Tsunami. This time it’s gone worst than ever, occasionally nature is too unkind with humanity and environment and this shows the government too is very inefficient in crisis management. Recently, Chennai was dealing with problems like water stagnation and drainage during monsoons. The torrential rains this time magnified the problem manifold.
Like laymen, experts are also blaming the construction boom and unchecked cutting of mangroves. The fact is that only two small rivers are draining the rain water into the sea. The Buckingham canal mostly dumps the city rain water in the Adayar River. The Adayar River passes through the runway of the Chennai Airport causing the flooding at airport. The best way to tackle the periodical flooding and water scarcity is to divert the water from Adayar River west of airport by creating a weir and deepening the river and creating multiple canals like streets. Unless the water level in the rivers is kept low by diverging the rain water will not drain quickly from the city. Buckingham canal is an artificial canal built by British, so that they can ship Andhra’s products through Chennai port to their country. It is a canal which was built to loot Indian wealth. However, it became defunct in their regime only after laying railways track for faster mode of transportation.
Environmentalists said that the floods in Chennai are an impact of climate change and the “unprecedented deluge” that the city has witnessed is a reminder of increasing frequency of such freak weather events across the Indian subcontinent. The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said that Chennai could have fared better if it had protected and preserved its natural water bodies and drainage channels. However, both the said problems are related to excessive construction which leads to poor recharge of groundwater aquifers and blocking of natural drainage systems. While, Chennai has been struggling to meet its water needs and has been even desalinating sea water at a huge expense, it allowed its aquifers to get depleted said the experts. CSE’s research shows that Chennai had more than 600 water bodies in the 1980s, but a master plan published in 2008 said that only a fraction of them are in healthy condition.
According to records of the state’s Water Resources Department, the area of 19 major lakes has shrunk from a total of 1,130 hectares (ha) in the 1980s to around 645 ha in the early 2000s, reducing their storage capacity. The drains that carry surplus water from tanks to other wetlands have also been encroached upon. The analysis also shows that the stormwater drains constructed to drain flood waters are clogged and required immediate desiltation and Chennai has only 855 kms of stormwater drains against 2,847 kms of urban roads.
In November, the city had received 1,218 mm of rain, which was almost three times more than the average the city receives. A 2006 study by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) in Pune had said that extreme precipitation events were increasing in frequency and intensity in India during the period between 1950 to the 2000s. CSE’s climate change experts point out that while detailed attribution studies needed to be done to find out more links between the Chennai catastrophe and climate change, existing scientific studies do establish the possibility of a connection.
Meanwhile, Chennai faced plenty of water crises, Jayalalitha urged Modi to intervene and advise Karnataka to make good the shortfall of about 27.557 TMC ft of water up to August 31, 2015. She also pointed out to her repeated requests for the formation of the Cauvery Management Board and the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee. The sharing of waters of the Cauvery River has been the source of a serious conflict between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The genesis of this conflict rests in two agreements in 1892 and 1924 between the erstwhile Madras Presidency and Princely State of Mysore. The 802 kilometres (498 mi) Cauvery River has 44,000 sq.km basin area in Tamil Nadu and 32,000 sq.km basin area in Karnataka. Decades of negotiations between the parties bore no fruit. The Government of India then constituted a tribunal in 1990 to look into the matter. After hearing arguments of all the parties involved for the next 16 years, the tribunal delivered its final verdict on 5 February 2007. In its verdict, the tribunal allocated 419 billion cubic.ft (12 cubic.km) of water annually to Tamil Nadu and 270 billion cubic.ft (7.6 cubic.km) to Karnataka; 30 billion cu.ft (0.8 cu.km) of Cauvery River water to Kerala and 7 billion cu.ft (0.2 cu.km) to Puducherry. The dispute however, appears not to have concluded, as all three states and Union territory deciding to file review petitions seeking clarifications and possible renegotiation of the order. Soon after the tribunal was set up, Tamil Nadu demanded a mandatory injunction on Karnataka for the immediate release of water and other reliefs. This was dismissed by the tribunal. Tamil Nadu, now went back to the Supreme Court which directed the tribunal to reconsider the state’s plea.
Karnataka was thus forced to accept the interim award and widespread demonstrations and violence broke out in parts of the state and Tamil Nadu following this. Thousands of Tamil families had to flee from Bangalore in fear of being attacked and lynched by pro-Kannada activists with the behest of the state government [citation needed]. The violence and show down, mostly centered in the Tamil populated parts of Bangalore, lasted for nearly a month and most schools and educational institutions in Bangalore remained closed during this period.
Now Chennai is stalled over unbalanced water and floods across the state…
Veteran actor Morgan Freeman had a big scare, when a plane carrying him crash-landed in Tunica, Mississippi on Saturday.
When Sunny Leone made her Bollywood debut, she faced lot of apprehension from the film industry, but the actress says people’s perception towards her have changed over a period of time.
Actor-producer Arbaaz Khan, who will be seen, hosting the forthcoming TV show “Power Couple”, late Saturday said, there is no competition between him and his superstar brother Salman Khan, when it comes to hosting shows.
RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat’s comment about the construction of Ram Temple is only derailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s developmental agenda. After Bhagwat’s remarks questions are being raised about whether he wants BJP to revert back to its Hindutva agenda by sidelining development. Earlier Bhagwat’s comments about reservation had cost the BJP dearly as it had to suffer a major setback in the Bihar assembly election. Even though Modi and other leaders had clarified their stand on reservation but RJP leader Lalu Prasad Yadav gained political mileage by raising this issue during election campaigns.