Newly appointed Minister of State for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy Piyush Goyal today said he will study the best practices of the Gujarat Model so as to turnaround the energy sector.
“I do plan to visit Gujarat along with my team to a take first-hand experience of the Gujarat turnaround story and meet their ministers. They have been extremely successful in the renewable energy sector also,” Goyal said after assuming charge of his office.
He added that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was able to turn around the energy sector in Gujarat during his tenure as the Chief Minister of the State from all perspectives – consumers, producers as well as in terms of transparency.
Goyal, 49, took charge as the Minister of State (independent charge) of the three ministries – Power, Coal and New and Renewable Energy – at the Shram Shakti Bhawan headquarters of the Ministry of Power.
He thanked Modi for reposing confidence in his abilities to deliver.
“Must thank Mr Modi that he thought me fit to be able to handle such a critical portfolio as expanded with the other energy ministries, the responsibility on us gets bigger and we hope we don’t let the nation down,” he said.
Merger of the three key ministries is expected to help in removing the hurdles in these areas.
“There are a lot of challenges, synergies between various ministries. This has been recognised by this government, in transport, this ministry and several others. It reflects on his (Modi) mind that he wants to debottleneck these sectors,” he added.
Goyal has previously been on the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance and the Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Defence during his stint as Rajya Sabha MP from Maharashtra.
He is son of senior BJP leader Vedprakash Goyal, who was the shipping minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and National Treasurer of the BJP for over two decades.
Associated with the BJP since 1984, Goyal has held several positions in the party such as Member, National Executive, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha. He has also served as the party’s secretary in Mumbai and National Campaign Incharge for the Lok Sabha elections, 1991.
Goyal is an alumnus of Don Bosco High School, Mumbai and is a law graduate from the Government Law College, Mumbai and a graduate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, New Delhi.
A jilted lover allegedly killed a 21-year-old girl and later committed suicide in Subash Tekdi locality at Ulhasnagar town, police said.
The victim Pooja Bhalerao was set to get married on June 1 and her parents were out shopping when the accused 23-year-old Aakash Sonawane came to her house around 9 PM and stabbed her to death at her house in Amrapali Nagar.
At the time of the incident her brother was at home in the next room but came to know about the killing after some time when he found both of them lying dead in a pool of blood.
According to Vitthalwadi police in Ulhasnagar, Akash was in love with Pooja and wanted to marry her, but she did not reciprocate his feelings. They suspect that when Akash learnt that Pooja’s parents had fixed her marriage, he visited her house and stabbed her to death before killing himself with the same knife.
Both were the residents of the same locality.
The Reserve Bank on Monday cautioned the public not to fall prey to spurious offers made by a fake website in its name offering savings accounts.
“It has come to the notice of the RBI today that a fake website has been created at https://www.rbi-inonline.org/savings.html by some unknown persons offering various banking facilities and asking members of public to apply online for opening ‘RBI Savings Account’.
“The RBI has cautioned members of public not to fall prey to spurious offers made by the fake website,” RBI said in a release.
RBI furthers cautioned public that applying online on that website could result in compromising their own crucial personal information that may be misused to cause financial and other loss to them.
The banking regulator clarified that it does not offer commercial bank services such as savings bank account, current bank account or credit cards.
“As such, the question of the Reserve Bank offering online banking services, as is indicated on the fake site, does not arise.”
It said there has been instances of fictitious offers of huge money sent in the name of RBI or its governor and other senior officials and guides the public what to do upon receiving such e-mails.
RBI asked public to visit the official website of RBI at rbi.org.in and see press releases issued earlier in this regard.
A 23-year-old police constable attached to Thane Police Commissionerate allegedly shot himself dead in the premises of the Police Commissioner’s office in the wee hours of today.
Constable Dileep Venkat Shinganwad pulled out his service revolver and killed himself around 2 AM, police said.
The exact cause of the constable taking the extreme step is not known and no suicide note has been recovered, police said.
A case of accidental death has been registered and the body has been sent to Thane civil hospital for postmortem. Further probe is underway.
The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) had to shell out Rs 79.63 lakhs to rope in senior advocates to fight the Campa Cola illegal construction case in various courts, a RTI query revealed here.
This information was given in response to a query filed by Mumbai based RTI activist Anil Galgali with the Building Proposal Department of the MCGM on November 18, 2013 seeking the total amount spent by civic body to represent the case.
The Public Information Officer of MCGM, P V Naik in a reply said the Corporation has paid a total amount of Rs 79,63,000 so far to four lawyers, who were engaged by MCGM for fighting the Worli Campa Cola compound case, where residents of unauthorised flats are facing the demolition sword.
He further said that this information has been obtained from the records maintained by the Accounts Department of the legal department of MCGM.
Naik said that MCGM had hired Counsel Joquim Rais in Bombay Civil court, Counsel S U Kamdar in the High Court, Counsel Gulam Vanwati and Counsel Pallav Sisodia to represent the MCGM in the Supreme Court, in the Campa Cola case.
According to the information given by the Legal department of the MCGM, it paid Rs 1,50,000 to Counsel Joquim Rais to fight the case in the Bombay Civil Court. Counsel S U Kamdar was paid Rs 1,35,000 to represent the MCGM’s case in the High Court.
In the Supreme Court, Counsel Gulam Vanwati, also an Ex-Attorney General of India was paid Rs 57,75,000 to appear for the MCGM while Counsel Pallav Sisodia was paid Rs 19,03,000 by the MCGM to appear in the apex court.
Galgali had also sought to know the total number of MCGM officers and other staffers suspended by the civic body in the case.
However, M G Borikar, Assistant Engineer in the Building Proposal department of MCGM claimed in response to the query that this information was not available in their office record.
Galgali told PTI that it is unfortunate that the MCGM has not maintained any records of officials suspended in the illegal construction of the buildings.
“Campa-Cola residents have fought hard to save their homes from so many years. It is very unfortunate that the BMC has maintained no records on their own officials. This itself proves that the BMC is trying to save its corrupt officials from the law,” Galgali said.
The MCGM had yesterday sent a notice to the residents of the controversial housing society in South Mumbai, and had asked them to vacate the premises by June 1, 2014.
In November last year, Supreme Court took suo motu cognizance of media reports on demolition of the building and stayed the action and ordered the MCGM to delay it till May 31, 2014.
Over 100 families have been residing in the complex for the past 25 years. About 102 flats in the high rise were declared illegal as they were built without permission of the MCGM.
Rubbishing allegations of Maharashtra Industries Minister Narayan Rane that it conspired to defeat Congress in the state, the NCP said Rane had not come to terms with his son’s defeat in Lok Sabha polls.
“It looks like Rane has not digested his son’s defeat in the Lok Sabha elections,” Malik alleged, while addressing a press conference.
Rane’s son Nilesh failed to retain his Sindhudurg-Ratnagiri Lok Sabha seat this time. NCP MLA from Sawantwadi Deepak Kesarkar had openly campaigned against him.
When asked about the demand for leadership change in the Congress, Malik said such talk at this juncture was not good.
“Introspection is on in both parties into reasons for the massive defeat in the Lok Sabha polls and strategy is being planned to win back people’s confidence for the Assembly elections,” he said.
On senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari taking charge of the Union Transport Ministry, Malik said he should take steps to scrap the toll system on highways and expressways.
“Since Sena-BJP in Maharashtra has promised to make the state toll free if it comes to power in the state, Gadkari should take the lead and implement it nationwide,” he said.
Malik said the NCP had congratulated the new government at the Centre and that the party will play the role of a responsible opposition.
Referring to the presence of all SAARC leaders at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony yesterday, he expressed hope that India-Pakistan ties would improve.
He also said the Election Commission of India had not allowed registration of a new party called Rashtrawadi Congress Party, following NCP’s objection.
“Nationalist Congress Party when translated is Rashtrawadi Congress Party and EC ruled that no new political party can have a translated name of any existing political outfit,” he explained.
A local court on Tuesday adjourned the hearing on the bail applications of MCX promoter Jignesh Shah and his aide till next month in connection with the alleged Rs 5,600 crore NSEL payment scam.
Shah and former managing director and chief executive of the commodity exchange Shreekant Javalgekar were arrested in the alleged fraud case on May 7. The sessions court is now likely to hear their bail applications on June 2.
Shah came under the scanner of the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) and other agencies last year when NSEL faced a payment crisis and nearly 18,000 investors allegedly lost millions of rupees.
Besides being the founder chairman and group chief executive of Financial Technologies Group, Shah is also the founder of MCX, the world’s eighth largest commodity futures exchange. A first-generation entrepreneur, he founded FTIL Group in 1999.
A consumer forum here has ordered two builders to pay Rs 1.25 lakh compensation to a complainant for selling a room in a chawl made on forest land.
In their recent order, Thane District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum president Umesh Jhavalikar and member N D Kadam asked builders Naresh Pandurang More and Santosh Yadu Bhilare of ‘Shree Samarth Krupa Builders’ to pay Rs 1.25 lakh and also return Rs 2.50 lakh taken from the complainant for selling the room in the chawl built by them at Achole village of Virar in 2010.
According to the complainant, Vency John Fernandes, she had bought the room in the chawl for Rs 2.50 lakh from the builders, but it was razed by the forest department later in the same year, for encroachment.
After she complained to the builders in this regard, they gave her a cheque of Rs 1 lakh which was dishonoured by the bank, she told the forum.
Holding the builders responsible for financial loss and mental harassment caused to Fernandes, the forum asked them to pay her compensation and the property purchase amount.
All this has begun with the arrest of writer and historian Amaresh Misra. He was arrested by Uttar Pradesh Police for his alleged provocative posts against BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi on micro blogging site Twitter. He was taken to Lucknow where a case under section 153A of the Indian Penal Code and 66A of IT Act was registered against him. His Twitter account has been suspended. Misra, who had more than 4800 followers on twitter, is said to be very close to Congress. However, in past 10 years, he joined several parties including Assam United Democratic Front and Rashtriya Ulema Council. Misra hails from Allahabad. He got higher education from Allahabad University. He has written several books including ‘War of Civilisations: India AD 1857’. A highly educated person but eccentric, he posts whatsoever comes to his mind to irritate Modi’s supporters. There was always a tussle between him and Modi brigade tweepals over his posts. His tweets were retweeted several times by his followers. Finally, all things are settled as all his accounts are blocked and he was jailed for few days.
After he comes out from the jail, his war of words continued on Facebook but the aggression is missing somewhere.
There was one more arrest in Panaji. An anti-Modi comment on Facebook led to the arrest of a 31-year-old shipbuilding professional. Spreading rumours is a crime in any case. What is said however disagreeable, should be allowed unless it is defamatory and can arouse fear and hatred. Freedom of Speech does not mean you can shout in a crowded hall and defame somebody. It can lead to your arrest. I support Mr. Modi, but I will defend the right of anyone to say what they have to say. Freedom of Speech should never be threatened, even if the speech is untactful. Indians need to be more tolerant and decent. I know many Islamic countries do not have any tolerance, but Hindu religion and India was founded on very different principles. India is a civil society in every sense of the word. However, there are people who think they are more civil than others. One is reminded of a line in George Orwell’s novel “All are equal but some are more equal than others”. Everybody has respect and it should be shown due consideration. Even Modi himself used many objectionable adjectives for other leaders; entire election was based on negativity and gossip mongering. Why at the end only common man has to suffer? Accused Devu Chodankar’s anticipatory bail was rejected by the district and sessions court in North Goa, clearing the ground for his arrest.
In another incident, two summons have already been issued to Devu by the cyber cell. In the run up to the Lok Sabha 2014 poll campaign, Mumbai-based Devu in a post on Goa+, a popular FB group with nearly half a lakh members, had cautioned against Modi coming to power, claiming that a holocaust would follow and also that Christians in Goa would lose their identity. Subsequently, in Goa Speaks, another Facebook group well known for discussions on Goa-related issues, Devu had apologised for his choice of words but not the sum of his argument.
It is his First Information Report (FIR) against the shipbuilder, which has now resulted in the police action. Kane, who regularly defends the BJP and Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on the social media, in his complaint said Chodandkar had threatened Facebook users against voting for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Lok Sabha polls. Opposition parties had protested the FIR calling it an attempt by the BJP to muzzle criticism. The FIR was under sections 153(A), 295(A) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 125 of the People’s Representation Act and 66-A of the Information Technology Act. Some of the sections are non-bailable in nature. Civil society activists have jumped into the fray claiming that such heightened police interest in a Facebook post is draconian.
Another five students were detained by the Bangalore Police for allegedly circulating anti-Narendra Modi messages on smartphone messenger WhatsApp. While four of them were released, the fifth accused in the case, Sayed Waqar, who is an MBA student in Bhatkal, Karnataka, was handed over to the Belgaum Police. An FIR has been registered against Waqar by the Khanapur police in Belgaum district. The arrest, which took place in Bangalore, “was based on a complaint lodged in Belgaum district by RTI activist Jayant Mukund Tinaikar,” who said he received an offensive message against the PM. Tinaikar got an image of Modi along with other BJP leaders offending message contain, “The morphed picture showed the final rites of Modi being performed, attended by L K Advani, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Baba Ramdev, Maneka Gandhi and Varun Gandhi. It had a caption: Na Jeet Paye Jhooton Ka Sardar — Ab Ki Baar Antim Sanskar (A false leader will never win, this time it’s final rites).” Waqar’s arrest comes under Section 505 of the IPC for issuing statements amounting to public mischief with intent to cause fear or alarm and Section 66 of the IT Act for sending offensive messages through communication service. In Waqar’s case his message while it is extremely distasteful, arresting him and raising questions of a possible terror threat without any concrete proof is not only excessive but will also likely not stand in a court of law.
Where Section 66-A is concerned, it reads, “Any person who sends, by means of a computer resource or a communication device, (a) any information that is grossly offensive or has menacing character; (b) any information which he knows to be false, but for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred, or ill will, persistently by making use of such computer resource or a communication device, (c) any electronic mail or electronic mail message for the purpose of causing annoyance or inconvenience or to deceive or to mislead the addressee or recipient about the origin of such messages.” Given that even words such as “annoyance, inconvenience” are used in this section, there’s no doubt that the former UPA government, which in fact hurriedly added this section to the amended version of the IT Act in 2008, has ensured that the law can be interpreted and enforced in the harshest of ways. The BJP might say that these two cases were registered even before the new government is sworn in, for the cases raise questions about whether the Modi ‘Sarkaar’ will enforce greater alarmism and censorship in the name of increased regulation.
The footsteps of fascism can be heard – this time in the hallowed hallways of the national capital’s courts. A woman who filed an FIR against a man physically threatening her for her anti-Modi Facebook posts, found to her dismay that the Metropolitan Magistrate in the Tis Hazari courts let off the man accused of threatening her safety, while ordering an FIR against her instead! The media’s coverage of this outrageous incident has been, till now, biased and factually misleading.
Looking at these arrests should we say, Freedom of Speech will become history in India?
Narendra Modi, who took over as Prime Minister on Monday, and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif, decided that their foreign secretaries will be in touch and discuss a way forward on talks that have been suspended since January, 2013.
“We agreed that the two Foreign Secretaries would be meeting soon, to review and carry forward our bilateral agenda, in the spirit of our meeting today,” Mr. Sharif said at the airport before leaving for Pakistan.
Taking a more circumspect tone, India said the foreign secretaries “may meet or be in touch” through their offices.
The two leaders met for 50 minutes at Delhi’s Hyderabad House, a day after Mr. Sharif attended Mr. Modi’s grand swearing-in ceremony along with other South Asian leaders.
The discussions turned out to be more substantive than an ice-breaker with Mr. Modi raising his concern on cross-border terror and the slow pace of the 26/11 trial.
“We want friendly relations with Pakistan. However, for such relations to proceed, terror and violence must end,” Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh said.
She added that Mr. Modi had accepted Mr. Sharif’s invitation but “nothing was fixed.”
The attack on the Indian consulate at Herat in Afghanistan on Friday was also discussed. Afghan president Hamid Karzai has blamed Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba for the attack linked by some to the Modi government’s takeover.
During his national election campaign, Mr. Modi had repeatedly targeted the Congress-led government for its “weak” policy on terror and for engaging with Pakistan despite relentless attacks from across the border.
After his victory, Mr. Modi surprised many by inviting Mr. Sharif for his inauguration. The Pakistan premier accepted it apparently against the advice of hardliners in his country.
Mr. Sharif’s daughter tweeted about today’s meeting, “Indian PM Modi refers to PM Sharif as ‘MAN OF PEACE’…. Hope negativity fails and peace wins (sic).”
Earlier, the Pakistani leader visited the Red Fort, Chandni Chowk and Jama Masjid in the old quarters of Delhi.
India and Pakistan have fought three wars since Independence in 1947. Hostilities escalated last year after the killing of Indian soldiers by Pakistani troops and a series of ceasefire violations at the border.
Newly appointed Minister of State for Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy Piyush Goyal today said he will study the best practices of the Gujarat Model so as to turnaround the energy sector. 
Narendra Modi, who took over as Prime Minister on Monday, and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif, decided that their foreign secretaries will be in touch and discuss a way forward on talks that have been suspended since January, 2013.