Mumbai municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal on Thursday reviewed the preparation for the ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ campaign and asked civic officials to speed up the distribution of flags.
Ten lakh national flags have been received and their distribution is underway through ward offices, while another 25 lakh flags were expected to be received in the next three days, said a release issued by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.
Chahal appealed to city residents to hoist the tricolour at home by following the flag code. Once the campaign is over, the flag should be stored properly as a souvenir, he said, as per the release.
The Enforcement Directorate on Friday summoned the wife of Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, Varsha Raut, for investigations in connection with the Patra Chawl case. The ED has called Varsha Raut to appear before it on Saturday
ED officials raided the Shiv Sena leader’s home on Sunday and after detaining and questioning him for several hours, arrested him in the early hours on Monday and produced him before a special sessions court which directed to send him to the ED’s custody till Thursday.
Raut is a close aide of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
Prior to his arrest, Sanjay Raut’s brother had said, “Sanjay Raut has been arrested. BJP is afraid of him and got him arrested. They have not given us any documents (regarding his arrest). He has been framed.”
Meanwhile, another FIR was registered against Sanjay Raut in Mumbai for allegedly threatening Swapna Patkar, the wife of Sujit Patkar who is believed to be a close aide of the Shiv Sena MP.
The case was registered at the Vakola police station under sections 504,506 and 509 of the Indian Penal Code. An audio clip had gone viral in which Raut was allegedly heard threatening Swapna Patkar.
Notably, Swapna Patkar is also a witness in the Patra Chawl land case in connection to which the ED detained Raut after conducting a raid at his residence.
According to sources, ED officials seized Rs 11.50 lakhs unaccounted cash from his residence during the raids.
Soon after the ED officials detained him in connection with the Patra Chawl land scam case, the Shiv Sena leader said that he “won’t be cowed down”. Speaking to media persons, Raut said, “False charges and documents are being framed against people. All of this is being done to weaken Shiv Sena and Maharashtra. Sanjay Raut won’t be cowed down. I will not leave the party.”
On June 28 this year, Sanjay Raut was summoned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the prevention of the money laundering case pertaining to the Rs 1,034 crore Patra Chawl land scam.
Raut is being probed in connection with the re-development of Mumbai’s Patra Chawl. In April this year, the ED had attached immovable properties worth Rs 11.15 crore, including a flat at Dadar, held by Sanjay Raut’s wife Varsha and eight land parcels at Kihim near Alibag, jointly held by the latter with Swapna Patkar.
The monetary policy committee of the Reserve Bank of India has raised the repo rate by 50 basis points to 5.40 per cent in order to contain the persistently high inflation.
Raising interest typically suppress demand in the economy, thereby helping inflation to decline.
The three-day monetary policy committee meeting commenced on Wednesday.
Today’s hike takes the repo rate above pre-pandemic levels of 5.15 per cent.
In line with the global trend of monetary policy tightening to cool off inflation, the RBI has so far hiked the key repo rates — the rate at which the central bank of a country lends money to commercial banks — by 140 basis points.
A possible attack may occur on 15th of August Independence Day so security has been tightened at Delhi on the occasion. Intelligence Bureau has alerted Delhi Police of the terror activities ahead of Independence Day.
More than 1000 CCTV footages will be aligned at Red Fort in Delhi on the occasion of Independence Day apart from that no flying drones will allowed on this occasion to maintain the security. Delhi may expect a terror attack.
A possible threat may occur during the celebration of the Independence Day. Red Fort has already started its preparation for the celebration of the Independence Day.Delhi police will be installing more 1000 motion detection live stream to each and every footages and maintain security.
Delhi Police to install over 1,000 motion detection live stream CCTVs for Independence Day security
Apart from that each every area will be checked for the security purpose ahead of the Independence Day and more than 5000 pesonnel will be deployed and approximately 300 CCTV footages will be installed in the Northern District to maintain Security.
Door-to-door checking, verification of tenants is going on for 2 months. On behalf of the North dist, 70-75 company force incl 5,000 personnel will be deployed. Close to 310 CCTVs have been installed: DCP North Delhi Sagar Singh Kalsi on security arrangements for Independence Day pic.twitter.com/0uLq2R7j6F
Amid the row over the Enforcement Directorate (ED) probing the alleged role of top Congress leaders in a money laundering case linked to the National Herald newspaper, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday said the Gandhi family’s track record is corrupt and three of its members are out on bail.
Addressing a press conference here, BJP national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia raised five legal points regarding the National Herald case.
“Both Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are out on bail on charges of corruption and even after being accused, they are in public life. If someone is accused, then the law of our country says that he or she will also be interrogated like the common people. The way Rahul Gandhi and Congress are behaving is not good. The way the investigating agency is being intimidated is also not fair. Why should ED go to Sonai Gandhi’s residence to talk to her? PM Modi has ended the VVIP culture. They should remember, that they got bail in the lower court in which they are considered accused.”
“Is it not true that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi hold 38 per cent shareholding each in Young Indian? It means both of them to hold 76 per cent stake in Young India and the law says that if you are controlling more than 50 per cent stake then whatever decision is taken is done by the majority shareholder. Now, when the controlling stake belongs to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, then the blame should not be put on such a person who is not in this world today. So who did the money laundering and the scam?” stated the BJP spokesperson.
Bhatia said a company called Dotex gave a loan of Rs 1 crore to Young India that did not have Rs 1 as an asset and its value was zero. He alleged that assets worth Rs 2,000 crore of AJL were transferred to Young Indian.
“Rahul Gandhi did not spend a single penny from his pocket but became the owner of assets worth Rs 2,000 crore. If Rahul Gandhi has the courage, then he should answer. Why did the Gandhi family loot the country? The Gandhi family’s track record is corrupt. Three members of the family Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Robert Vadra are out on bail,” Bhatia said.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday termed the sealing of the Young Indian office at the Herald House building in the national capital as an “intimidation attempt” by the ruling BJP and asserted that he is “not scared” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s suppressive government. Speaking to the reporters here, the Wayanad MP said, “You are talking about National Herald, it is an intimidation attempt.
They think they will be able to silence us with a little pressure. We will not be intimidated. We are not scared of Narendra Modi. They can do whatever they want.” On Wednesday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) sealed the Young Indian office at the Herald House building in the national capital.
The central agency sealed the Young Indian office at the Herald House building in Delhi as no one was available in the office during the search and thus they were not able to complete the search.
The order put outside the Young Indian office read that the “premises not be opened without prior permission” from the agency.
ED took action a day after it carried out raids at 12 locations in the national capital and at other places in connection with the National Herald case in which top Congress leaders are accused of violating norms.
“Delhi Police blocking the road to AICC Headquarters has become a norm rather than an exception! Why have they just done so is mysterious,” senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said.
The National Herald case pertained to the alleged financial irregularities under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and was registered about nine months ago after a trial court took cognisance of an Income Tax department probe carried out on the basis of a private criminal complaint filed by former BJP MP Subramanian Swamy in 2013.
The petitioner had approached the court alleging that the assets of Associated Journals Limited (AJL), which published the National Herald newspaper, were fraudulently acquired and transferred to Young Indian Pvt Limited (YIL), in which Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi owned 38 per cent shares each.
Swamy had alleged that the Gandhis cheated and misappropriated funds, with YIL paying only Rs 50 lakh to obtain the right to recover Rs 90.25 crore that AJL owed to Congress.
The raids were conducted days after the investigative agency questioned Congress interim-president Sonia Gandhi for nearly three hours on July 27. It was the third round of questioning of the senior leader in the case.
Following the summoning of Sonia Gandhi by the ED, Congress workers and leaders staged protests in various parts of the country alleging misuse of probe agencies by the government.
Sonia Gandhi was questioned by ED on July 26 also. She had reached the ED office accompanied by her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Officials said on that day, the party president’s response was sought to around 30 questions regarding her involvement with the National Herald newspaper and Young Indian Pvt Ltd.
During her questioning, the Lok Sabha MP from Rae Bareli was asked about the functioning and running of the newspaper, and the role of its various office bearers. Prior to that, she was also questioned by ED on July 21.
Further, in June this year, the ED questioned Rahul Gandhi for five days. Rahul Gandhi was questioned by the ED for over 27 hours for three straight days from June 13 to June 15 and was again summoned on June 20. On June 20, he was questioned for around 14 hours.
The Congress leader was deposed before the ED investigators in the case for the first time on June 13. He initially sought an exemption from appearance on June 16, following which he was called on June 17.
But the senior Congress leader wrote to the ED to postpone his questioning citing the illness of his mother Sonia Gandhi. The ED then allowed him to join the probe on June 20 at his request.
The Maharashtra Congress has organized a protest march outside the Raj Bhavan here on Friday against the Union government over rising inflation, imposition of Goods and Services Tax on essential items, unemployment and the contentious Agnipath military recruitment scheme.
Addressing a press conference on Thursday, Maharashtra Congress chief Nana Patole said inflation was skyrocketing due to the arbitrary policies of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, which was piling on the misery for people by imposing GST on essential items.
The march will begin from Hanging Garden and culminate at Raj Bhavan at 11 am, after which leaders will hold a ‘jail bharo andolan’ (court arrest), and similar programmes will be held in all districts with the participation of MLAs, MPs etc, he said.
“Fuel prices were spiraling and now GST has been imposed on items like milk, curd, paneer, wheat flour, oil, ghee. People are distressed due to the wrong policies of the Centre. The Modi government has imposed GST even on school supplies and hospital treatment,” he said.
“Unemployment has reached a 45-year high. The Centre itself informed Lok Sabha recently that only 7 lakh persons were given jobs against 22 crore applications. The Agnipath scheme is also being opposed by the youth,” he added.
Attacking the Maharashtra government, Patole said farmers from Vidarbha and Marathwada have suffered heavy losses due to floods and compensation should be paid to them immediately.
He also slammed Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari for some of his recent statements, including about the contribution of Gujaratis and Rajasthanis in making Mumbai the country’s financial capital.
He has tarnished the post of governor and his statements reflect the teachings of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Patole alleged.
DRDO Successfully Test Fires Laser-Guided ATGMs | ANI
Indigenously developed Laser-Guided Anti-Tank Guided Missiles (ATGM) were successfully test-fired from Main Battle Tank (MBT) Arjun by DRDO and the Indian Army at KK Ranges with the support of Armoured Corps Centre & School (ACC&S) Ahmednagar today.
The missiles hit with precision and successfully defeated the targets at two different ranges. Telemetry systems recorded the satisfactory flight performance of the missiles, 2022, said a press release.
The all-indigenous Laser Guided ATGM employs a tandem High Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT) warhead to defeat Explosive Reactive Armour (ERA) protected armoured vehicles. The ATGM has been developed with multi-platform launch capability and is currently undergoing technical evaluation trials from 120 mm rifled gun of MBT Arjun, as per the statement.
With today’s trials, the consistency of ATGM’s capability to engage targets from minimum to maximum range has been established successfully.
Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Chairman DRDO G Satheesh Reddy congratulated the teams associated with the test firing of Laser Guided ATGMs.
Pope Francis has appointed a nurse from the Vatican’s health services to be his “personal medical assistant”, the Vatican said on Thursday, in an indication that the pontiff accepts that he will need more care as he ages.
Speaking to reporters on the plane returning from a trip to Canada on Saturday, the 85-year-old pope said his advancing age and his difficulty walking have ushered in a new, slower phase of his papacy.
In a statement on Thursday, the Vatican identified the assistant as Massimiliano Strappetti, coordinator of nurses and the health facilities of the Vatican, a sovereign state surrounded by Rome.
The position of “personal medical assistant” did not exist previously in this papacy, although Pope John Paul II, who died in 2005, had several medical caregivers in the final years of his life.
Francis already has a personal doctor, a geriatrics specialist at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, where Francis underwent intestinal surgery a year ago.
That was the first time the pope had been hospitalized since his election in 2013.
Last year, Francis joked in an interview that it was Strapetti who “saved my life” by convincing him that he could no longer put off surgery.
Francis had been suffering from a severe narrowing of the colon caused by difficulities, or the formation of small, bulging sacs on the intestinal wall. In recent months Francis has had to use a wheelchair or a cane or a walker because of knee pain caused by a small fracture and an inflamed ligament. “I don’t think I can continue doing trips with the same rhythm as before,” he said in his comments to reporters on his way home from Canada.
I think that at my age and with this limitation I have to preserve (my strength) a bit to be able to serve the Church, or decide to step aside,” Francis said.
Francis said he preferred not to have an operation on his knee because he did not want a repeat of long-term negative side effects from anesthesia he suffered after last year’s intestinal surgery.
“But I will try to continue to travel to be close to people because it is a way of serving,” he said.
In an interview with agencies last month, Francis repeated his often-stated position that he might resign someday if failing health made it impossible for him to run the Church – something that had been almost unthinkable before Benedict XVI resigned in 2013.
All is not well in Eknath Shinde camp as each rebel wants some or the other position in the cabinet. Shinde cannot afford to disappoint any of the rebels at this juncture. He got a plum post so BJP veterans want crucial profiles for their kitty. Meanwhile, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis reached Delhi to take the approval of seniors on cabinet listing.
He will seek approval from the BJP leadership about the final allotments in the state cabinet, which need urgent decisions with the assembly session due to begin later this month. Cabinet expansion has been pending since June 30, when Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Mr Fadnavis took the oath. If BJP’s central leaders agree on the list, then the Cabinet expansion might happen on 5th August.
Shinde did not go to Delhi, and they deliberately avoided him in Devendra’s meeting with his party chiefs. To hide the embarrassment, they spread the news that Shinde is unwell and skipping the trip. Shinde and Fadnavis had visited Delhi last on July 27, with a draft of the cabinet list. But no decision was taken, with too many aspirants for the maximum 43 seats in the cabinet, including the Chief Minister. Shiv Sena leaders who supported Shinde during his two-week rebellion and helped topple the Uddhav Thackeray government, expect to be rewarded.
So does the BJP for its behind-the-screen role. As the Chief Minister, Shinde has his eyes on the plum portfolios. Fadnavis — a former Chief Minister who has been persuaded to take up the role of Shinde’s deputy by the BJP’s chief strategist Amit Shah and party Chief JP Nadda — is not willing to back down in this area. The BJP and the Sena faction led by Shinde are not ready to conclude about the power-sharing in the cabinet.
Finally, 15 ministers can take oath including 8 BJP MLAs and 7 Eknath Shinde group legislators. In 2 or 3 rounds, the Cabinet expansion may happen. From BJP Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Girish Mahajan, Amrish Patel (MLC), Ravindra Chavhan, Ashok Uike, Chandrashekhar Bawankule (can get cabinet berth in the second phase of expansion). Ashish Shellar , Pravin Darekar, Ganesh Naik , Sambhaji Nilangekar , Prashant Thakur, Chandrakant Patil , Sanjay Kute, Subhash Deshmukh, Shivendra Raje Bhonsle. Kishore Jorgewar.
From Eknath Shinde’s group, Gulabrao Patil, Uday Samant , Dada Bhuse , Sandipan Bhumre, Deepak Kesarkar, Sanjay Rathod, Tanaji Sawant, Sambhuraje Desai , Abdul Sattar, Ashish Jaiswal. There are others who are expecting to get something, but their fate is not decided yet. There are chances that the cabinet expansion may create unrest in the Shinde camp. The state legislature’s monsoon session is scheduled to start on July 18.
After a lot of criticism by opponents, Shinde listed major decisions taken by his government and mentioned reducing fuel prices, granting approval for constructing a Metro car shed at Aarey Colony in Mumbai and proposed diversion of rainwater to drought-prone areas of Marathwada in central Maharashtra. Responding to the controversy over the shifting of the proposed MIDC (Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation) area from Saswad in Pune to Koregaon town in the adjoining Satara district, Shinde said any decision on the issue will be taken only after considering technical aspects and the availability of land. All eyes are on cabinet expansion and the aftermath of it.
Potential ministers from new Maharashtra cabinet 11
The new government was formed on June 30 and since then, CM Shinde and deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis have been the only two members in the cabinet.
Maharashtra has been functioning without a Cabinet since June when the rebellion by Shinde and 40 MLAs of Shiv Sena led to the collapse of the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in the state.
The probable ministers from the BJP camp:
Chandrakant Patil
Sudhir Mungantiwar
Girish Mahajan
Praveen Darekar
Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil
Ganesh Naik
Ravindra Chavan
Possible ministers from the Shinde camp
Dada Bhuse
Uday Samant
Gulabrao Patil
Shambhu Raje Desai
Sandipan Bhumre
Sanjay Shirsath
Abdul Sattar
Also, an independent candidate, Bacchu Kadu, could be inducted.
