The state of Andhra Pradesh may soon come under the President’s rule with Governor ESL Narasimhan recommending imposition of central rule after the resignation of Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy over the issue of state’s bifurcation.

According to reports, the imposition of President rule will ensure smooth bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh in two states.

It is also likely that the Assembly elections may be postponed and held in two separate states, sources claim.

With both the houses of Parliament clearing the Telangana Bill, it would now go before the President who would issue a final notification on the matter.

While the central government would have a lot to do on the issue, there is one matter however which would be decided by the Supreme Court – whether the two states would have two high courts.

The notification on Telangana to be issued by the President is likely to come out on February 21 or 22.

However, it is immediately not clear whether Narasimhan has recommended for dissolution of the State Assembly or to keep the House under suspended animation.

A decision on imposition of central rule in Andhra Pradesh is expected to be taken in the next meeting of the Union Cabinet, which will recommend to the President.

With Parliament approving the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill 2014, paving way for the creation of Telganana as the 29th state, the political turmoil over its future is certainly over but the political parties are now fighting to take credit for clearing all hurdles from its path to statehood.

Reacting to the passage of the Telangana Bill in the Rajya Sabha, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Arun Jaitley said that it was a historic day, and that he was happy that his party’s efforts to deal with the issue had paid off.

“This is a historic day and I am happy that the BJP’s efforts have paid off. We could have opposed the Bill, but we didn’t. We have played an important role in passing this legislation,” Jaitley told reporters late on Thursday.

In its reaction to the development, Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said that the bill had been passed with the support of majority of the people in the Rajya Sabha including the BJP.

“Two days back bill was passed in Lok Sabha and the Opposition had also supported it. When the bill went to the Rajya Sabha, it was passed because of the support of the BJP and the other parties,” Shinde said.

Shinde, however, stressed, “Sonia Gandhi and the party decided to give justice to the people of Seemandhra and everyone supported the passage of Telangana.”

Maya Kodnani, a former minister in the Narendra Modi cabinet who was convicted for her involvement in one of the worst cases of communal rioting in Gujarat in 2002, is being given electric shock therapy at a government run hospital after being diagnosed with an acute depressive disorder.

The 60-year-old former child and welfare minister was in August 2012 sentenced to 28 years in prison for leading a mob which killed 97 people in Ahmedabad’s Naroda Patiya.

Doctors at the civil hospital in Ahmedabad said electroconvulsive therapy or ECT is considered the last line of treatment in cases of depression. Doctors attending on Ms Kodnani said she has displayed suicidal tendencies and has not responded to aggressive medication.
They said she is being administered the shock treatment under anaesthesia. The ECT is standard psychiatric treatment in which seizures are electrically induced in patients.

Ms Kodnani has been in hospital since last one week. She was granted three months’ bail in November on medical grounds. The Gujarat High Court recently rejected her plea for a 180-day or six-month extension of bail, but the Supreme Court granted her interim relief by giving her a week’s bail that ends on Monday next.

The former minister was once known to be close to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who is the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate for the general elections, due by May. A legislator when she was arrested, she is the highest ranking person convicted in the 2002 Gujarat riots.

Chief Ministers on protest is becoming a 2014 trend. After Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Kumar Reddy, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has now called a bandh in his state to protest against the Centre.

Mr. Kumar is miffed that while the Centre was quick in announcing special status for Seemandhra – the region of Andhra Pradesh that will form the residuary state once Telangana is carved out – it has not accepted Bihar’s longstanding demand for a similar grant.

Appealing to all political parties to strike work on March 1 in a state-wide protest against the UPA government’s “betrayal,” Mr. Kumar said, “We don’t mind Seemandhra getting special status, but Bihar has been waiting for special status for long.”

Soon after he ended his alliance with the BJP last year, Mr. Kumar was seen as cosying up to the Congress with an eye on a possible partnership for the general elections due by May.

But the Congress, which rules at the Centre, is more inclined to partner with his arch rival Lalu Prasad Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal.

Mr. Kumar is the third chief minister to publicly protest this year. In January, Arvind Kejriwal, then Chief Minister of Delhi, led a dharna in the heart of the capital against the Delhi police and the Centre.

Earlier this month, Andhra Pradesh chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy sat on a ‘dharna’ at Jantar Mantar in protest against the move to bifurcate his state to create the Telangana state.

Saradha Group chairman Sudipto Sen was sentenced to three years’ rigorous imprisonment by a Bidhannagar court on Friday in a provident fund default case, making it Sen’s first conviction in a slew of cases involving a multi-crore chit fund scam.

A Bidhannagar sub-divisional court magistrate convicted and sentenced Sen to three years’ rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10,000.

Sen, whose Saradha Group ran the ponzi schemes under different names, would have to undergo another six months’ imprisonment if the fine is not paid, the court directed.

He was convicted under section 406 (criminal breach of trust) for default in depositing provident fund of employees, to which Sen confessed before the court.

He was also sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for ‘conspiracy’ under section 120B of IPC in connection with the PF default.

Both the terms would continue concurrently and the number of days he has already undergone imprisonment since his arrest in April, 2013 would be deducted from his imprisonment term.

Several hundred cases are still pending against Sen, accused of duping lakhs of depositors in West Bengal and other states.

This one is straight out of a Bollywood potboiler. An American, who fell for an auto driver here and married him, was viciously stabbed to death by her husband. The man then blew himself up.

American social worker Erin White alias Kiran Sharma in September last year married Bunty Sharma alias Ashok, an auto driver. They had met when Erin, 35, visited Agra alongwith a group of Americans.

She was stabbed Thursday evening in the auto which her husband Bunty drove. Her body was thrown out of the auto and found around 8 p.m., police said.

Bunty returned home in Sanjay Nagar after the murder. He shut himself up in his room, opened a gas cylinder valve and blew himself up.

Senior police officials alongwith the dog squad visited the two spots.

The Union Home Ministry and the American embassy in New Delhi have been informed.

Shalabh Mathur, a senior police official, told media persons that the incident took place due to personal problems between the two, following which Bunty killed her and then committed suicide.

Erin and Bunty married on the rooftop of a hotel in Tajganj, against the backdrop of the Taj Mahal.

Police said the couple were having marital problems for the past few months and had visited a family counsellor to resolve their differences.

Bunty accused Erin of lying that she was not married while Erin charged Bunty with cruelty, greed, infidelity and also concealing the fact that he was already married once.

The Karnataka State Human Rights Commission on Friday took a suo motu cognizance after a Facebook campaign launched by tourists from 26 countries complained of police atrocities on Valentine’s Day.

The complaint, signed by around 82 people, spoke of brazen assault on nearly 200 tourists by “drunk policemen” at a beach in the coastal town of Gokarna. The assault lasted nearly 30 minutes, the complaint said and added that many were injured.

The complaint is accompanied by photos of some of the injured.

The police, however, has defended itself, saying it was a raid against drug trafficking.

“After the Nigerian nationals incident in Goa, we have been doing these raids against drugs. We have arrested one person and recovered 20 grams of drugs,” Pratap Reddy, Inspector General of Police, Western Range said.

The police, however, has also ordered an inquiry into the allegations by the tourists. The Karnataka Home department has said it will take action after the police report is out.

Gokarna is situated 50 kilometres south of Goa in the Uttara Kannada district. It is a popular tourist destination.

A woman in Bihar gave birth in the examination hall where she was appearing for her class 12 exams, an official said.

The incident took place at a college in the state’s Saran district where Manisha Devi, in her early 20s and married, was taking an exam on Thursday when she started feeling uncomfortable followed by labour pain, said SK Singh, a college official.

“Before the ambulance could arrive in the college, she had given birth to a healthy child,” Singh said.

Later, she was admitted to a hospital.
The delivery was normal and both mother and child are safe, healthy and recovering fast, doctors attending to the woman said.

The class 12 examinations began last week at 882 centres amid tight security with non-teaching college employees in the state on an indefinite strike.

This year 981,778 students, including a record 410,662 girls, across Bihar appeared for the exams, board officials said.