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Rise & fall of Bansal’s nephew
Army officer graft case: CBI may conduct more raids
Stage set for K’taka polls, voting today
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Multi-member body won’t dilute CAG powers: Rai
Seminar marks birth centenary of Balraj Sahni
Varun Gandhi gets clean
chit in hate speech case
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Rise & fall of Bansal’s nephew
Chandigarh, May 4 Well grounded in the city’s political scene, Singla managed the last two election campaigns of the minister and also looked after the election funds as he was said to be a trusted lieutenant of Bansal. Hailing from Bathinda, Singla shifted to a rented accommodation along with his family in Panchkula in late 80s after suffering business losses in Bathinda. Thereafter, he formed a company with the name of Jagan Tubes Ltd and started operations in Gholumajra village in Dera Bassi in 1991. Later, Singla also became president of the Dera Bassi Industries Association. Slowly but steadily, he also started handling election work of Pawan Kumar Bansal in Chandigarh. In the meantime he had also shifted to a four-kanal house in Sector 28 A, where Bansal also resides. Singla was a smooth player and operated behind the scenes till he came under scrutiny for the first time in 2011 when two labourers were killed after a 20-foot mud wall caved in at the Acropolis site (plot number 68) in Industrial Area Phase I, owned by Singla. In 2007, he had bought an industrial plot from Modern Bread in Industrial Area and thereafter applied for conversion of plot for Acropolis project under the UT’s conversion policy. Recently, the UT Administration had ordered for stopping work at Acropolis mall due to non-payment of conversion charges. Singla is said to have 100 acres of land in Saibpura village in Dera Bassi and 84 acres in Naggla village in Zirakpur. Sources say Singla and others who have bought this land plan to construct a housing project on the land.
Singla - his uncle's follower
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Army officer graft case: CBI may conduct more raids
Jammu, May 4 The CBI had yesterday raided the premises of Maj Gen VK Sharma confiscating some documents. “The Army officer has been questioned but we have not arrested him so far. He had allegedly been taking bribes from contractors supplying rations to Army formations in Northern Command,” said SP (CBI), Jammu, Amandeep Singh. “We have seized some documents from the raids and if required more raids may be conducted again,” he added. The officer had allegedly amassed assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. The Army had approached the CBI to probe the allegations against Major General Sharma. “An Army contractor had levelled serious allegations against the officer and consequently we had instituted a court of inquiry,” an Army source said.
Under scanner
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Stage set for K’taka polls, voting today
Bangalore, May 4 Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi led the Congress charge against the beleaguered BJP in the state which is mired in allegations of corruption while Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi spiced up the counter-attack by the ruling party. Some poll surveys have predicted majority for the Congress or it emerging as the single largest party but falling short of a handful of seats, followed by the BJP and the JDS. It's interesting to see how many seats the KJP would bag and if Yeddyurappa would be "king-maker" in the post-poll scenario. As many as 1.35 lakh police personnel — 60,000 from the state, 20,000 homeguards and rest from central paramilitary and neighbouring states —would be deployed to ensure peaceful and smooth conduct of the elections. Polling would be held from 7 am to 6 pm —timing extended by an hour by an Election Commission order today — in 223 Assembly segments of the total 224. Election in Periyapatna was put off to May 28 following the death of BJP candidate. — PTI
High-pitch campaign
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Multi-member body won’t dilute CAG powers: Rai
Jaipur, May 4 Talking to mediapersons on the sidelines of the inauguration of CAG’s new International Centre for Environment Audit and Sustainable Development (ICED), Rai also ruled out a political career for himself following his forthcoming retirement from the country’s highest audit body. The ICED building, which is the first green government building, was inaugurated by Vice-President Hamid Ansari this morning in the presence of Rajasthan Governor Margaret Alva. State Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot could not attend the function having fallen ill. The ICED has been set up by the Supreme Audit Institution of India, headed by the CAG. Rai said after being taken to task by the Supreme Court, the government was in touch with the CAG over the judicious spending of the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) funds. The authority has over Rs 18,000 crore in its kitty collected from corporate house as compensation
for deforestation. In probably his last interaction with the media before he demits office on May 22, the day he turns 65 years old, Rai, not
willing to talk about his various confrontations with the government especially over 2G spectrum allocation scam and coalgate, asserted that he had given four models for loss calculation in the spectrum scam and that there was a definitive loss to the country.
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Seminar marks birth centenary of Balraj Sahni
New Delhi, May 4 “Sahni has candidly written about Rabindranath Tagore’s advice to him that he should adopt mother tongue Punjabi for his literary expression instead of hankering after English and Hindi. He could not fully appreciate Tagore’s advice at that time,” said Ambassador Bal Anand, Indian Foreign Services (retired). There are 13 books by Sahni published in Punjabi, four in Hindi and essays and columns for daily newspapers of different languages. In 1960, after a visit to Pakistan, he wrote ‘Mera Pakistani Safar’. His book ‘Mera Rusi Safarnama’, which he had written after a tour of the erstwhile Soviet Union in 1969, earned him the ‘Soviet Land Nehru Award’.
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Varun Gandhi gets clean
chit in hate speech case
Lucknow, May 4 A Pilibhit court has exonerated him of charges of inciting mob violence and firing at police for want of evidence. He has already been acquitted in two cases of hate speech earlier this year. The acquittal has come as a big relief for the BJP leader who today led an agitation against the UPA government in Lucknow. In March 2009, the Mayawati government had lodged a series of cases against Gandhi for allegedly making inflammatory speeches against the minority community during several public meetings. — TNS
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Mumbai Paradip Raipur
Hyderabad
Kohima
Rangiya (Assam)
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Pawan Kumar Bansal’s nephew, Vijay Singla (42), who was arrested yesterday under bribery charges, rose from a common man to an influential person calling the shots among officials of the Chandigarh administration and the local police.
Capping an intense campaign that saw sparks fly, Karnataka goes to high-stake Assembly polls tomorrow amid elaborate security arrangements.
