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statehood issue
Bank accounts of several Mumbai policemen hacked
No MNREGA funds if you don’t deliver, Ramesh tells K’taka
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Antony seeks AG’s opinion on issue of rank pay fixation
New Delhi, June 14 Faced with differing interpretations of a Supreme Court order on correct fixation of “rank pay” of armed forces officers, Defence Minister AK Antony today decided to seek opinion of the Attorney General (AG).
Four test HIV+ after receiving blood at Assam hospital
India most populous country by 2028: UN
HC tells CBI to focus on encounter angle in Ishrat case
Women Maoist cadre among Bihar train attackers
Naval officers approach HC to quash proceedings
WW II explosives found in Mumbai
Harbour, defused
Unable to afford treatment, parents kill baby girl
Padma Shri awardee defies cancer, works for destitute
Army officer held for sexual misconduct
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statehood issue Hyderabad, June 14 The rally over the statehood issue passed off peacefully without any major untoward incidents. Fearing law and order trouble, the Andhra Pradesh Police had denied permission to the Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC) for the "Chalo Assembly" rally. Despite this, the group went ahead with the march to highlight the statehood demand. The police, which suspected that Maoists might infiltrate into the rally, had turned the city into a fortress. Nearly 10,000 policemen and 20 companies of central paramilitary forces (around 2,000 personnel) were deployed. The roads leading to the Assembly building were closed for traffic and prohibitory orders issued to ensure that the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly, which is in session, had no disruption in view of the rally. The police took into preventive custody about 1,400 Telangana supporters- 900 under Hyderabad police commissionerate and 476 in Cyberabad police
commissionerate. Scores of statehood activists were also detained in other Telangana districts and all of them were let off later, the police said. Several MLAs and other leaders of the TRS, the BJP and the JAC were taken into preventive custody during the day. With elaborate security arrangements in place, the Assembly had a smooth session, though it was adjourned for the day without transacting any real business as MLAs of the TRS, the BJP and the CPI stalled the proceedings over the statehood issue. High drama was witnessed on the Assembly premises with two TRS MLAs climbing the party's legislature party office building and threatening to jump off. They were brought down by security personnel after about an hour. About 20 MLAs of the TRS, the BJP and the CPI, who were sitting at the Assembly gates after it was adjourned, were detained. Osmania University, the hotbed of statehood agitation by students, continued to witness clashes with security personnel for the third consecutive day. The protesters hurled stones, prompting police to fire tear gas shells, the police said.
— PTI the turmoil
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Bank accounts of several Mumbai policemen hacked
Mumbai, June 14 "Around Rs 13 lakh were withdrawn from 29 accounts of Axis Bank. The money was withdrawn in euros at ATMs in Greece and the rupee equivalent of the money was deducted from the accounts," Deputy Commissioner of Police Satyanarayan Chaudhary said today. As per the FIR filed by Axis Bank, 29 bank accounts were hacked in this manner. The matter came to light after several policemen received SMS on their mobile phones about cash being withdrawn in euros and rushed to check their bank statements. "Complaints were filed with Axis Bank about these transactions that took place in April and May," DCP Chaudhary said. He added that the bank carried out investigations following complaints from customers, which revealed the loss. After the bank's officials filed an FIR with the police, Maharashtra's Director General of Police Sanjeev Dayal had a meeting with senior officers and later assured members of the police force that their money would be recovered. Only last March, the Reserve Bank of India had asked banks to adopt stricter security measures to check frauds. Banks were specifically instructed not to issue cards with global access unless demanded by the customer. The banks were also asked to put in place threshold limits for international usage depending on the risk profile of the customer. A limit of US$ 500 was fixed for most customers. The RBI also asked banks to ensure that all debit and credit cards with magnetic strips that were used at least once abroad be replaced with chip-based cards. The deadline for such replacement has been fixed for June 30. According to analysts, the chip-based cards are more safer because the data they contain is encrypted and cannot be cloned easily. scamsters strike
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No MNREGA funds if you don’t deliver, Ramesh tells K’taka
“If this government does not change the way the MNREGA and Indira Awas Yojana have been implemented, I will not hesitate to do the same thing I had done to the previous (BJP) Government. There is no politics in it,” he told reporters. Ramesh’s reply came when he was asked whether grants would be provided to Karnataka for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and Indira Awas Yojana as the state was now under the Congress rule. The Centre had withheld its instalment of grants to the rural job scheme during the previous BJP regime. In April last year, Ramesh had shot off a letter to the then Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda that the release of the next instalment of the central share for MGNREGA scheme to the state depends crucially on how it was able to spend the funds already available with it. Ramesh lamented that Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has made critical observations in implementation of MNREGA scheme in Karnataka. Siddaramaiah had taken note of the observations and an independent social audit directorate will be set up. “I am hopeful that by this year, we will begin to see MGNREGA scheme being implemented in Karnataka in a different way,” he added. However, he said the Centre has been constantly reviewing the works undertaken MNREGA scheme and providing necessary help after getting reasonable requests from various states. Ramesh said he cannot take action but only suggest and it was left to the state government to check instances of bogus job cards and misuse of funds under MNREGA. “The action has to be taken by the state government. I can only write to the Chief Minister, persuade him and talk to him,” he said. Ramesh also lamented the poor implementation of Indira Awas Yojana in Karnataka. He noted that grants were not released to 13 districts because of their failure to close the accounts of the previous year. “The process of rectification is on and I hope in next couple of days things will be sorted out,” he added. On upgrading 2,245 km of rural roads in Karnataka, he said his ministry would clear the proposals to be sent by the state government by August end and work will commence soon after the monsoon season.
— PTI Grants withheld
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Antony seeks AG’s opinion on issue of rank pay fixation
New Delhi, June 14 The “rank pay” issue is popularly known as the Major AK Dhanapalan case. The Supreme Court, in a verdict last September, ordered fixation of “rank pay” since January 1, 1986, for the Fourth Pay Commission. Antony, at a high-level meeting today, made it clear that the apex court verdict had to be implemented. The forces and the MoD are in disagreement over interpretation of the SC order. The MoD interpretation is that the order may be implemented for personnel impacted by the Fourth Pay Commission “as on January 1, 1986”. The interpretation of the forces is that it means “with effect from January 1, 1986”. This would mean that the anomaly in the subsequent pay commissions (the fifth and the sixth) should also be corrected. Rank pay, when calculated with the basic, will enhance pension of thousands of retired officers. Going by the MoD interpretation, officers affected by the Fourth Pay Commission would benefit, while there would be no hike for those covered under the later pay commissions. Antony said the Services would give their interpretation and submit to the Attorney General directly while the MoD would take up the matter with the Ministry of Finance that fixed the pays and salaries of all government employees. According to official sources, Antony wants the matter to be sorted out soon. The MoD will also give its interpretation to the AG. The Supreme Court had directed the government to re-fix the pay scale of Army officers affected by the Fourth Pay Commission and this would entail an additional burden of Rs 1,600 crore on the exchequer. The orders benefited officers in the rank of Captain to Brigadier in the Army and equivalent ranks in the Air Force and the Navy, between January 1, 1986, and January 1, 2006. The apex court also directed the Centre to pay 6 per cent interest from January 1, 2006, to all officers, whether or not they have filed any petition before any of the high courts or the Benches of Armed Forces Tribunal, within 12 weeks from today. Major AK Dhanapalan was the first officer to challenge the fixation before the Kerala High Court which, in October 1998, directed the government to re-fix the pay without deducting the rank pay. the lacuna
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Khurshid compares China with an ATM machine
London, June 14 Speaking at the first-ever India Day at Oxford University, Khurshid in reference to the theme of the event, 'India – A political economy for the 21st Century' described India as a "softly-softly" nation. "Sometimes it is said that maybe India is not assertive enough. But a softly-softly approach leads to the desired change, without upheavals. We do not assert ourselves by intruding, dictating or imposing. It is an approach that has worked for us in the region (South Asia) and globally," said the minister. "To some extent India's engagement with the world is also dictated by its culture. An important part of our foreign policy is that development partnerships come first. China is much more business-like; an ATM cash-in and leave. India has a longer haul approach," he added. India and China, the world's two most populous and fastest developing countries, are competing with each other in their search for resources and new markets. Khurshid also said the Indian economy is doing a lot better than the rest of the world and expressed confidence that the growth rate would return to 7 or 8 per cent in a few years. “We are quite confident of getting back to 7 or 8 per cent growth in a few years,” Khurshid said addressing an audience of academics, students and UK-based Indian entrepreneurs for the first-ever India Day at Oxford University. “It is important to bear in mind that we are still doing a lot better than the rest of the world and one of the main reasons we hit this low range of 5 per cent after almost eight or nine years of 8 per cent is because of Europe, which slowed down so much that we couldn't really export and therefore we had to rely entirely on our own domestic consumption,” he said at the event. “We had to control runaway inflation and have been forced to cut back with interest rates, etc, causing major slack as far as the manufacturing sector is concerned. But we expect this is something we will tide over in the next year or maybe two years and then it will be back to business as usual.
— PTI
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Heat abates in North as monsoon advances
New Delhi, June 14 The National Capital received 11.6 mm rain till this evening. The maximum temperature was recorded a notch below normal at 38.6 degrees, whereas the humidity was as high as 91 per cent. The MeT department has predicted a partly cloudy sky for tomorrow, with possibility of light rains and thundershowers in some areas. Rajasthan also received rains as the monsoon, after entering five days ahead of its schedule, advanced in the south-eastern parts of the state. Pilani, Jaipur, Jodhpur and Churu recorded 14, 9.4, 2 and 0.3 mm rainfall respectively, whereas Sawai Madhopur received 40 mm of rains during past 24 hours. Many other places including Pilani, Rawatbhata, Banswara, Dabok, Barmer, Jodhpur, Bikaner and Churu also received light to moderate rainfall, the MeT department said. Mercury settled below normal by several notches in Punjab and Haryana also following heavy rains that lashed the region yesterday. While Union Territory of Chandigarh registered a maximum of 35.8 degrees Celsius, three notches below normal, temperature in Haryana's Hisar district fell by as many as six degrees to settle at 35 degrees Celsius. Temperatures came down markedly in Punjab, where Ludhiana and Patiala recorded maximums of 35 and 35.9 degrees Celsius. Amritsar, that had been sizzling under intense heat, recorded 35.8 degrees, four notches below normal. The MeT, in its forecast, says heavy rains may occur at isolated places in the region. Rains also lashed middle and lower hills in Himachal Pradesh, where Nagrota Suryan in Kangra district was the wettest with 90 mm of rainfall. Renuka, Nahan and Rajgarh in Sirmaur district received 86, 81 and 78 mm of rains, followed by Dharmpur (74 mm), Jubbarhatti (73 mm), Kasauli (72 mm), Kahu (68 mm), Bislaspur (56 mm), Solan (52 mm), Jhandutta (46 mm), Berthin (45 mm), Shimla and Mashobra (41 mm) and Dharmshala (38 mm). The mercury, however, refused to come down despite the rains and it went up by four to eight notches in most places. Temperatures remained subdued across various divisions of Uttar Pradesh also, where light to moderate rains occurred at isolated places during past 24 hours. Day temperatures came down in Meerut, Varanasi, Moradabad, Jhansi and Bareilly divisions and the highest maximum temperature was recorded in Allahabad at 40.3 degrees Celsius, the MeT department said.
— PTI
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Four test HIV+ after receiving blood at Assam hospital
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has ordered a high-level inquiry into these cases. He has instructed an additional chief secretary of the state to submit the inquiry report within a month. The glaring lapse came to light when one of the persons after testing HIV + filed an RTI application to know details about his diagnosis while he was undergoing treatment at the hospital a few months ago. When all donors who had given blood to him were tasted, one of them tested HIV +. Later, it was found that the same person had also given blood to three other patients in the hospital, including a woman, who also later tested HIV +. It is not so far clear how the HIV-positive blood was administered to these patients without testing it at the blood bank laboratory in the hospital. Deputy Commissioner of Darrang district S Ali, who has ordered a magisterial probe into the case, said, “We are yet to ascertain exactly how many persons have contracted the AIDS virus after undergoing blood transfusion at Mangaldoi Civil Hospital. Since a number of persons have been administered blood at the hospital, the number of persons contracting AIDS virus may go up.”
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India most populous country by 2028: UN
New Delhi, June 14 “The current world population of 7.2 billion is projected to increase by almost one billion within the next 12 years, reaching 8.1 billion in 2025 and 9.6 billion in 2050,” said a statement from the UN office in Delhi. Much of the overall increase between now and 2050 is projected to take place in high-fertility countries, mainly in Africa, as well as countries with large populations such as India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines and the US. India’s population will continue to grow for several decades to around 1.6 billion and then decline slowly to 1.5 billion in 2100. The population of China, on the other hand, is expected to start decreasing after 2030, possibly reaching 1.1 billion in 2100. “Although population growth has slowed for the world as a whole, this report reminds us that some developing countries, especially in Africa, are still growing rapidly,” said Wu Hongbo, the UN Under Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs. The report projects longer lives around the world as life expectancy is projected to increase in developed and developing countries in future years. “The 20th century witnessed the most rapid decline of mortality in human history. For the world as a whole, life expectancy at birth rose from 47 years in 1950-55 to 69 years in 2005-10,” it said. The report’s figures are based on a comprehensive review of available demographic data from around the world, including the 2010 round of population
censuses. — IANS
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HC tells CBI to focus on encounter angle in Ishrat case
"Prime facie, we find that instead of investigating the genuineness of the encounter, the CBI has focused more on the genuineness of the inputs provided by the IB," a division bench of Justices Jayant Patel and Abhilasha observed. "It seems that in past one month you were more interested in figuring out whether the killed persons were terrorists or not but the court is not concerned whether they were terrorists or normal human beings. In any case they should not have been liquidated," the court observed. "You have been assigned responsibility to ascertain whether they were killed in a genuine encounter or a fake one and whether they were in prior custody of Gujarat police or not," the court said. The Court asked the CBI to explain why it failed to file the chargesheet within 90 days of the arrest of accused, to which CBI responded that it is very large case of conspiracy and investigation has led us from one point to another which has caused the delay. The delay in filing the chargesheet has resulted in five accused police officers including IPS G L Singhal securing bail. The CBI told the court that it will file the charge sheet in the case by first week of July, but that could not satisfy the court which said that they have doubts that the probe agency would file the chargesheet even by the second week of July. — PTI CBI plan New Delhi: After a high-level meeting held in the Union Ministry of Home Affairs on Thursday, the CBI has decided to concentrate on its own inputs gathered during the investigation of alleged fake encounter of Ishrat Jahan case in Gujarat, sources said. — TNS
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Women Maoist cadre among Bihar train attackers
Patna/Jamui, June 14 “There were some women cadre also in the Maoist contingent that attacked the train yesterday,” said Additional Director General of Police (ADG), Law and Order S K Bhardwaj. Chief Public Relation Officer (CPRO) of East Central Railway Amitabh Prabhakar said as per information provided by the police, women Maoists were part of the attackers. Jamui police said a group of women, comprising around 15-20 cadre, were part of the attackers on the Dhanbad-Patna Inter-City Express that was raided by the Maoists between Jamui and Bhalui station. Meanwhile, a report from Lakhisarai district said five injured admitted to Sadar Hospital were out of danger. Prabhakar said train services were normal in the section that falls under Danapur Division of the ECR. Police said extra security arrangements have been made in the area.
— PTI
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Naval officers approach HC to quash proceedings
Kochi, June 14 In the petition, the officers also sought records leading up to the police FIR and to quash it and further proceedings against them. The complainant has refused to come before the Board of Inquiry despite Magistrate's notice, it was pointed out. The petitioners also pointed that there were inconsistencies in the locations and time of incidents mentioned by her. Filing of complaint by the woman against senior officers who are innocent is utterly malafide and intended to bring a bad name to the entire navy, it was submitted. The HC had criticised police last week for 'protecting' the higher officials in the Navy in the case while dismissing the anticipatory bail application filed by Lt Ravi Kiran, whose wife had filed the complaint.
— PTI
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WW II explosives found in Mumbai Harbour, defused Mumbai, June 14 The recoveries were made during operations by two dredgers to widen and deepen the main shipping channel which can improve capability and facilitate movement of higher tonnage and deeper draught vessels for the Mumbai Harbour. The Mumbai Harbour's 34-km navigation channel serves the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), the Bombay Port Trust and also the Indian Navy. The capital project, taken up since April this year, has been severely hampered by the recovery of the UXOs (unexploded ordnance) from the channel. As a result, nearly 80 per cent of the channel deepening-widening work has been left pending. According to port officials, so far, recoveries include 83 bomb shells, several missiles, grenades and bullets. — IANS
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Unable to afford treatment, parents kill baby girl Agartala, June 14 The police arrested Laba Debnath, 53, the father of the ill-fated child, who confessed that he and his wife killed their baby girl Lina and later dumped her in a ditch near their Teliamura home in west Tripura, 55 km northeast of the state capital. A police official, quoting the girl's father, said: "The baby had tetanus and also suffered a haemorrhage. Doctors had prescribed medicines that cost Rs 1,500 each day; one injection was priced at Rs 900 per dose." "Laba Debnath (the girl's father) told us that the cost of his baby's treatment was way beyond his means as the sole breadwinner and daily-wage earner having to fend for his five-member family," the official said. The family had sought the help of the village panchayat and the local administration, but to no avail. — IANS
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Padma Shri awardee defies cancer, works for destitute
Itanagar, June 14 Yanga was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2007 and doctors gave her just six months, but not only did she live beyond the deadline, she continued to work for the Oju Welfare Association, set up by herself, which hosts 338 orphans and destitute. She was honoured with the award in 2012. — PTI
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Army officer held for sexual misconduct
Sasaram (Bihar), June 14 The woman lodged a complaint against Capt Basant Chaudhary of Rajputana Rifles travelling in AC-I coach of Ganga-Satluj Express train accusing him of sexually harassing her between Mughalsarai and Durgawati station last night, GRP Inspector BK Singh said. — PTI
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Mincing no words, Union Rural Development Minister Minister Jairam Ramesh today told the Congress Government in Karnataka that grants for various Central schemes would be withheld as done during the previous BJP regime if it does not deliver in implementing them.
Bangalore, June 14
Guwahati, June 14
Ahmedabad, June 14