Joined hands with JDU to keep ‘fascist’ BJP at bay: RJD chief Lalu Prasad

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May 22, 2014

Soon after extending unconditional support to the ruling Janata Jal United (JDU) in Bihar, Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad’s said that the arch rivals had decided to come together to keep the Bharatiya Janata Party at bay.

“Our support is to new Bihar Chief Minister Jeetan Ram Majhi government even though it is not a minority government. This is to keep fascist forces lead by the BJP out at any cost,” Lalu Prasad said.

Dismissing claims of the act being an act of opportunism, the RJD chief said that it is only their “commitment to keep the BJP out.”

However, he stopped short of commenting on whether the alliance will continue the Bihar Assembly elections too, “Wait and watch,” he said.

In a major development towards the formation of a new alliance in Bihar, RJD on Thursday announced its support to the JDU government of Chief Minister Jeetan Ram Manjhi in Bihar. A trust vote is scheduled for Friday.

With Manjhi, who belongs to Musahar sub-caste, taking over as the Chief Minister, the Lalu Prasad-led party does not want to be seen as opposing a member of one of the most backward community.

In the 243-member Bihar Assembly, JDU has 117 MLAs, BJP has 88 MLA and RJD has 21 MLAs. The effective strength of the Assembly is 237 after the resignation of two BJP MLAs and three JDU MLAs, and one vacancy.

Speculation has been rife about a grand secular alliance in Bihar between the Congress, the RJD and the JDU following the massive BJP win in the Lok Sabha elections. The BJP won 31 out of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar with RJD getting four, Congress two, JDU two and NCP one.

There have also been reports of dissent within the JDU with many party MLAS veering towards the BJP.

This ‘magic’ Banyan tree helps bachelors get married within 3 months!

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Afternoon Voice

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May 22, 2014

Not a single couple got married in a village in Bhojpur district in the past two years, locals claim, putting the blame on absence of ‘Vat vriksha’ (Banyan tree) in the region.

“Now that the only banyan tree that was planted years ago has grown full-size, people come here and express their wish to get married and suddenly weddings are being fixed and couples are tying the knot,” they say.
Hindus consider Banyan trees, also popularly known as ‘marriage’ trees, as pure and sacred. They believe that it helps in fixing marriages, especially that of Mangliks.

A similar tree is also there in Jamalpur’s kali mountain which very close to Kali mandir in Munger district.
It is said that whoever ties a brick to this tree gets married within two three months. However, while tying it the person is not supposed to look behind. After he/she gets married, the couple have to visit this place again to remove the bricks to mark fulfillment of their wishes.

‘114-year-old’ class X student furious with blunder on her online marksheet

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Afternoon Voice

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May 22, 2014

In a shocking lapse on the part of Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education officials, a student’s age on her class X marksheet on the website was mentioned as 114 years.
The girl student hails from Damoh district in Madhya Pradesh. She logged onto the state board’s website the day results were announced and found that her date of birth was mentioned as 31 July, 1900 instead of 31 July, 2000.
Even her father’s name was wrong, she claimed. “His name was written as Bajendra Kumar when his original name is Bajendra Singh Thakur,” she said.
After spotting the mistakes, she approached the authorities with her complaint. She also raised doubts on the results saying “if they could make such mistakes, it is highly likely that the results they released could also be incorrect and should be verified again.”

Hailed by Modi himself, this ‘crorepati’ farmer pulled 5,000 others out of poverty

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Afternoon Voice

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May 22, 2014

A farmer-turned-agricultural scientist in Daulatpur village of Barabanki has been able to pull over 5,000 farmers out of poverty by teaching them his own hi-tech methods of farming.
8th pass Ram Saran Verma started experimenting in 1990, and had Jagjivan Ram National Award to his credit by 2007. Narendra Modi himself applauded Saran’s efforts in contribution to the economy and serving other farmers.
Soon, farmers from across the country started approaching him to learn his techniques. He would visit their farms and guide them on which methods to use. 125 villages in his district became self-sustainable as farmers adopted Saran’s hi-tech methods of farming.
In no time, Saran became the hi-tech farming guru for locals and agri scientist-cum-consultant for farmers across the nation.
Today, he is carrying out farming on a 70-acre land and has a turnover of crores. He has also been successful in devising a way of producing good quality tomatoes, which are better than those available in the main hub Nashik.
The tomatoes he cultivates are being sold in Bihar, Bengal, Assam, Maharashtra and are also being exported to foreign countries.

Social networking sites have killed blogging

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Afternoon Voice

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May 22, 2014

How important do blogs mean to you? Other than social networking sites there are blogs which have made a huge impact on the society but I am sure many of us are not interested in reading it. Of course it is a boring stuff and not easily available like social networking sites are. As soon as we wake up early in the morning we check for new message and notifications or for any new post which has been uploaded on social media.

Many writers have bragged about social networking sites. All of us are aware about the pros and cons of social networking sites but I don’t want to mention about it as it’s boring. At the same time, even I am addicted to these sites. On a serious note, I would like to say that these sites have eliminated many intelligent bloggers and blog.

Once upon a time, people were curious to know what the blogger might post on blogs. Open dairy is one of the blog which went viral amongst people. Subsequently, many versions of the open dairy were created like teen open diary, quit smoking open dairy and so on. Unfortunately, open diary was shut down within two weeks as many niche writers couldn’t continue writing and it was hacked twice. Thousands of email ids and passwords were compromised as the first blogging community was shut down.

In the year 2002, many blogs focused on comments made by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott. Senator Lott, at a party honouring U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond, praised Senator Thurmond by suggesting that the United States would have been better off had Thurmond been elected as president. Lott’s critics saw these comments as a tacit approval of racial segregation, a policy advocated by Thurmond’s 1948 presidential campaign. This view was reinforced by documents and recorded interviews dug up by bloggers.

Today we see Michelle Obama operating Facebook pages and posting her personal message on any social events to birthday parties. I am sure that people would be more interested with her updates on Facebook and twitter instead of her blogs. Several Indian politicians had chosen twitter and facebook over personal blogging. Amitabh Bachchan is an avid blogger who had opted for blogging over social media sites. Other than him there are many personalities but number of people choosing blogs over social networking sites has drastically reduced. Only a person like Amitabh Bachchan can maintain a blog and generate enormous traffic but many other intelligent bloggers have stopped blogging.

Blogs contained strong content and information where bloggers can post social or personal information. After the advent of social networking sites like twitter and facebook communication has become easier as a user has to post merely 3 to 4 lines which are considered as sufficient. One can post whatever crap he feels like irrespective of whether he possess control or command over language. He will definitely get one like for the post.

Kiran Bedi: A capable chief ministerial candidate

By

Mahendra Singh

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May 22, 2014

Delhi is the place where our Parliament and ministries are located. India’s President too resides there. Most of the embassies are present in Chanakyapuri. Therefore, it is an important place and law and order must be maintained. Roads must be clean, traffic must flow in an organized manner and the police must intensify patrolling on a regular basis to deter the criminals. Delhi must remain drug free, i.e. narcotic drug peddling should be curbed by taking strict action. For achieving this task we must appoint a capable leader like Kiran Bedi who has thorough knowledge about Delhi.

She must be inducted into the BJP and Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Najeeb Jung must dissolve the assembly and conduct fresh elections. In this matter, Mr Jung can seek guidance from the President of the country. AAP should be dissolved. They would not have been able to secure so many seats last time if the elections were held under leadership of some young Congress leader instead of Shiela Dixit. Vested interests present in the Congress party are able to influence Sonia Gandhi as she has failed to develop her own perception.

Congress must not repeat such mistakes in the future. The BJP must field good candidates so that they win election with comfortable majority which will pave way for the ouster of mischief makers. Delhi residents must demonstrate better wisdom this time like the manner in which they have done in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. Order, decency and responsibility must be achieved.

I need to point out a very important aspect. New ministers will be sworn in but their PA’s will be old and drawn from the relevant service. It is important to check the character and antecedents of these PA’s before hiring them.

A cross check must be conducted on the activities of these PA’s. A thorough door to door check should be carried out in Delhi to oust persons staying illegally who may also be involved in anti-social activities. Ms Bedi will be able to supervise this amicably on account of her service experience. Several criminal and corrupt activities are planned in five star hotels based in Delhi at night and co-operation of the management must be sought in this matter.
Earlier Kiran Bedi was reluctant to take up the Chief Minister’s post but senior BJP leaders should persuade her by saying that it is not for her personal benefit but for serving India.

AAP accuses Right wing for EVM tampering

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Afternoon Voice

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May 22, 2014

After NDA registered a massive victory in the LokSabha electionserious allegations have been levelled against the right wing for tampering the electronic voting machines. Social activist and Aam Aadmi candidate Medha Patkar has alleged that an address tag of a control unit at a polling station was found on the streets at Shivaji Nagar which indicates that polls may have been rigged.

The serial number on the two address tags of a control unit is a vital information for the continuation of vote-counting process. The address tag belonged to polling station Number 29 of the Mankhurd assembly segment from Mumbai’s North-East Parliamentary seat.

Medha Patkar had contested from North east constituency and she was defeated by BJP leader Kirit Somaiya. She secured third rankby securing 76,451 votes in her constituency.Patkar held the EVM tampering incident responsible for her defeat in the general election.

Medha Patkar spoke to AV and said, “In the CWC meeting Mohan Prakash too discussed about EVM tampering, where he accused right wing for rigging the machine. right wing volunteers remained active on the field during the commencement of election.”

AAP alleges that there are many factors which indicate foul play during the outcome of LokSabha result.

Patkar further added, “Why did the machines arrive late at around 3.30 pm? Contents in the form were printed inappropriately which increases the possibilities of manipulation.”

A complaint has been filed with the returning officer regarding the tampering of electronic voting machines. Patkar nonetheless is not pleased with the action taken by the Election commission with reference to her complaint.

AnaghaKolhe, Advocate of MedhaPatkar said, “Form 17C which is an important document for votes account too was inaccurate.There is a huge variation between the actual form and the one used.Why the concerned authorities failed to detecterrors visible in the form? Despite filing a complaint with the returning officer, no positive action has been taken yet.”

Even the Congress too made allegations against the BJP for tampering the electronic voting machines.
North Mumbai candidate Sanjay Nirupam who was defeated bymore than 4 lakhs votes by two time MLA GopalShetty said,“Congress candidates have been defeated in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh with massive leads, which is not possible. The contract of the EVM had been offered to a multi-national company based in Gujarat which in itself raises suspicion. Faulty EVM’s were used.The machines were set in such a manner that only a few hundred votes were counted effectively.”

BJP quashed all allegations of EVM tampering and said that NDA came into power on account ofModi wave. Maharashtra BJP state President, DevendraFadnavisspoke to our newspaper and said, “All allegation’s made against us about EVM tampering is baseless. NarendraModi’s popularity was responsible for his victory.”

A fresh EVM tampering incident is topic of discussion on Social networking website, where it showed a BJP supporter AnkitShrivastav from Varanasi was found rigging EVM machine at his home due to which all votes went in favour of BJP candidates.

Maharashtra MPs with criminal past are all millionaires

By

Afternoon Voice

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May 21, 2014

A majority -31- of the newly-elected 48 Lok Sabha members from Maharashtra have a criminal background and are also multi-millionaires with assets ranging from a minimum of Rs.99 lakh to Rs.66 crore.

The 31 Lok Sabha members who belong to the Shiv Sena, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Swabhimani Paksha – all allies – and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have various types of criminal records.

The number of criminal cases filed against the candidates range from just one to 13, according to their affidavits filed along with their nomination papers with the Election Commission.

Shrirang Barne, the Shiv Sena MP from Maval, did not manage to complete his schooling. But he is the richest among the lot with assets of around Rs.66 crore.

Two of the seniormost BJP leaders – Nitin Gadkari from Nagpur and Gopinath Munde from Beed – have four and three criminal cases registered against them.

Partywise, the Shiv Sena leads the list with 15 of its 18 elected members admitting to having some criminal cases registered against them.

The BJP comes next, with 13 of its 23 members having a criminal past.

Swabhimani Paksha’s Raju Shetty – an ally of the BJP-Shiv Sena – who was elected from Hathkanangle, also figures in the list.

He has been an aggressive farmer activist since several years and this is his second term as a parliamentarian. The first one was as an independent.

From the NCP, two of its new Lok Sabha members have criminal records, according to their affidavits filed with the poll panel.

Among the MPs with a criminal background, the BJP also has the maximum number with a good academic background – eight are graduates and one – Kirit Somaiya from Mumbai North East – has a doctorate, the highest qualification in the state among the current crop of MPs.

Three of the BJP parliamentarians have completed school education (up to Class 10), one has studied till junior college (Class 12), while one – Gopal Shetty, who defeated Sanjay Nirupam of the Congress in Mumbai North – never completed schooling.

Six of the Shiv Sena’s newly elected Lok Sabha members – of the 15 with criminal records – are at least graduates. Three completed junior college (Class 12) and three completed school (Class 10).

The educational background of Shiv Sena MPs Rahul Shewale from Mumbai South-Central and Shivajirao Adhal from Shirur was categorised in the ‘others’ section, implying some kind of vocational or diploma-level education.

Thane’s Shiv Sena MP Rajan Vichare with 13 cases topped the list of candidates with criminal cases against them, followed by Swabhimani Paksha’s Raju Shetti with 12 cases, while Shivajirao Adhal has 10 cases against him.

BJP’s Hansraj Ahir from Chandrapur has 11 criminal cases, while Dilip Gandhi from Ahmednagar, Gopal Shetty from Mumbai North and Kirit Somaiya from Mumbai North-East have 10 cases each pending against them.

Gadkari, a former BJP president, is passionate about exploring alternative energy sources for the country’s progress and is connected with some big infrastructure companies.

His party colleague Munde runs one of the most successful sugar factories in Marathwada, besides being an agricultural landlord.

Youthful BJP MP Sanjay Dhotre from Akola – with three criminal cases and assets worth Rs.4 crore plus – is a cotton farmer and well versed about farmland issues in the entire Vidarbha region. Shiv Sena leader Bhawana Gawli, third-time winner from Yavatmal-Washim Lok Sabha constituency, has four criminal cases against her.

Running several prestigious educational institutions in Vidarbha, Bhawana Gawli, a divorcee, was handpicked by Shiv Sena patriarch late Bal Thackeray to revive the party in eastern Maharashtra.

Ashok Chavan of the Congress – who had to quit as the chief minister following his alleged involvement in the Adarsh Society scam – has no criminal case against him.

Two NCP members – graduate Dhananjay Mahadik from Kolhapur and school-level educated Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil from Madha – have one criminal case each lodged against them.

Chandrakant Khaire – the fourth-term member from Aurangabad with eight cases and assets worth Rs.9 crore – runs a traditional small family business of bamboo articles. He is credited with single handedly building up the Muslim-dominated tourism city into a Shiv Sena bastion in the past over two decades.

Restaurant Uses Drone to Deliver Pizza

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Afternoon Voice

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May 21, 2014

Mumbai, notorious for its traffic snarls, has achieved a first in the country after a city-based pizza outlet used an unmanned drone to execute a delivery by taking the aerial route recently.

“All of us had read about (global e-commerce giant) Amazon’s plans of using drones. We successfully carried out a test-delivery by sending a pizza to a customer located 1.5 km away from our outlet on May 11,” Francesco’s Pizzeria chief executive Mikhel Rajani said.

He stressed that this was only a test-flight but its results confirm that it can be used routinely in a few years.

A four-rotor drone took off with the order from its outlet in central Mumbai’s Lower Parel area and delivered it to a high-rise building in adjacent Worli area, Rajani said, claiming that it is for the first time that the ubiquitous drone has been used for such a purpose in the country.

The eatery, which has been in operations for two years, has made a video of the delivery, he said, adding an auto engineer friend helped with making the flight possible.

Rajani, who comes from a family that is into textiles, said the drone saves time and costs for a company like his, which would otherwise depend on a two-wheeler borne agent to deliver the pizzas.

“What we have done now will be common place in the next four-five years,” he said, adding every such customised drone costs around USD 2,000.

At present, there are certain restrictions on the regulatory front like the drone not allowed to fly above 400 feet altitude and barred from flying over security establishments, he said, adding the American Federal Aviation Authority’s regulations on usage of drones, expected next year, will help.

Apart from that there are technical difficulties like a limited operating radius of 8 km after which the batteries go dry, he said, adding proper infrastructure like having charging stations can help.

Even though the four-rotor version drone had a limited carrying capacity, he said the payload capacity can be increased to up to 8 kg in case of a an eight-rotor drone.

Mukesh Ambani Keeps Salary Capped at Rs. 15 Crore for 6th Year

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Afternoon Voice

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May 21, 2014

Reliance Industries (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani kept his annual salary capped at Rs. 15 crore for the sixth year in a row even as the remuneration of key executives went up.

Mr. Ambani, the richest Indian, has kept salary, perquisites and allowances and commission at Rs. 15 crore since 2008-09, foregoing almost Rs. 24 crore per annum.

“The Chairman and Managing Director’s compensation has been set at Rs. 15 crore as against Rs. 38.86 crore as per shareholders’ approval, reflecting his desire to continue to set a personal example for moderation in managerial compensation levels,” RIL said in its annual report for the financial year ended March 31, 2014.

His remuneration for 2013-14 included Rs. 4.16 crore as salary, perquisites and allowances of Rs. 60 lakh, retirement benefits of Rs. 82 lakh and Rs. 9.42 crore as commission on profit.

In the previous year, while his salary and perquisites and allowances were the same, he got commission of Rs. 9.35 crore and Rs. 89 lakh in retirement benefits.

Mr. Ambani voluntarily capped his compensation at Rs. 15 crore in October 2009 amid a debate over right-sizing of CEO salaries.

While Mr Ambani’s salary remained capped, his key executives including oil and gas head P M S Prasad and refinery chief Pawan Kumar Kapil saw increases in compensation.

Mr Prasad’s annual package went up to Rs. 6.03 crore from Rs. 5.47 crore in 2012-13 after getting a higher performance-linked incentive of Rs. 3.67 crore (Rs. 3.12 crore the previous year).

Mr Kapil earned Rs. 1.05 crore performance-linked incentive to take his total package to Rs. 2.49 crore in 2013-14. In the previous year, he earned Rs. 1.99 crore, including Rs. 65 lakh performance-linked incentive.

The criteria and the entitlement for performance-linked incentives for the two executives are determined by the human resources, nomination and remuneration committee, RIL said.

Mr Ambani’s cousins Nikhil R Meswani and Hital R Meswani saw their compensation rise to Rs. 12.12 crore from Rs. 11.05 crore a year ago. RIL’s non-executive directors also got Rs. 50 lakh each as commission, besides sitting fees ranging from Rs. 1 lakh to 4 lakh.

Apart from Mr. Ambani, the RIL board has the Meswani brothers, Mr Prasad, Mr Kapil and company founder Dhirubhai Ambani’s brother Ramniklal H Ambani. Its independent directors include Dharam Vir Kapur, Dipak C Jain, Mansingh L Bhakta, Yogendra P Trivedi, Mahesh P Modi, Ashok Misra, Raghunath A Mashelkar and Adil Zainulbhai.