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Adarsh scam: M’rashtra CM under pressure to convene assembly
Diplomat’s Arrest in NY
Narayan Sai undergoes
voice-spectography test
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Cong should name PM candidate: PC
Gen Bikram Singh is CoSC chief
Summer real water test for Kejriwal
Yeddy to return to BJP in New Year’s 1st week
Sai undergoes voice test
Free blanket melee: UP minister slaps youth
Cong defends Virbhadra UP yet to reply on relief camp deaths
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Adarsh scam: M’rashtra CM under pressure to convene assembly
Mumbai, December 30 The Nationalist Congress Party today backed All-India Congress Committee vice-president Rahul Gandhi and sought reconsideration of the government's decision on rejecting report on Adarsh scam. Union Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Milind Deora said that the findings of the commission should be debated in the state legislature. However, according to the legal opinion obtained by the government, the rejection of the report can only be undone by the state legislature, sources said here today. Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan had sought legal opinion in the matter after Gandhi's remarks. Legal experts had told the state government that the move could not simply be reversed in another Cabinet meeting, sources said. Though the Maharashtra assembly is to meet next only for the budget session, the political backlash following rejection of the report would not give the government much leeway, observers said. Deora said: "I will request leaders of all parties, specially the Opposition, not to politicise the issue, as leaders of all parties, including MLAs and MPs, are involved in the scam." Apart from Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and former chief minister Ashok Chavan of the Congress, ministers of the NCP also figure among the beneficiaries who were allotted flats in the Adarsh Society. Ajay Sancheti, an associate of BJP leader Nitin Gadkari, too, owns several flats in different names in the building.
NCP backs Rahul, says reconsider report
New Delhi: The Nationalist Congress Party today backed Rahul Gandhi's pitch for reconsideration of Maharashtra government's decision rejecting a judicial panel's report on Adarsh scam. "We will support any decision to review the state cabinet's decision. The decision to reject the report was apparently taken in a haste....It was not proper to reject the commission's report. There is a need to review it," NCP MP and senior party leader Tariq Anwar said. Congress President Sonia Gandhi had on Saturday indicated that the Maharashtra government would reconsider its decision to reject a judicial commission's report on Adarsh housing scam, a day after Rahul ticked off the state government over the issue. Rahul Gandhi had said, "Personally, I don't agree with that decision. They (Maharashtra) should reconsider that." — PTI
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High-level special group holds first meeting
India prepared for a long-drawn battle with the US Ashok Tuteja Tribune News Service
New Delhi, December 30 According to sources, the meeting, lasting more than two hours, was attended by representatives of the America’s legal, protocol and administration divisions in the MEA. The focus during the meeting was on the letters exchanged between India and the US ever since Devyani was arrested in public and handcuffed by the US authorities in an alleged visa fraud case, ignoring her diplomatic status. The meeting also reviewed the progress made in implementing the reciprocal diplomatic measures initiated by India against the US Embassy and Consulates in the wake of the stand-off between the two countries over the issue. India, it is understood, is revising the ID cards of US officials working in Consulates to reflect the same level of privileges and immunities as being accorded by the US authorities to Indian Consular officials. No ID cards would be issued to spouses and dependents of US Consular officials, as was the case with Indian Consular officials working in the US. Sources said they were still hopeful that the Devyani issue would be resolved once the festive season was over in the US. However, they hastened to add that India was prepared for a long-drawn battle on the issue, should the need arise. “We are only seeking justice for the Indian diplomat…the case against Devyani must be withdrawn unconditionally,’’ they added. Meanwhile, senior US Congressman and Democrat Jim McDermott told The Tribune that he had taken up the case of Devyani with the State Department. The Congressman, who is the former co-Chair of the India Caucus in the US House or Representatives, was of the view that the issue should be sorted out considering the strong relations between the two countries. New Delhi is of the firm that any dispute between Devyani and her maid Sangeeta Richards must be settled in an Indian court as per Indian laws since the domestic employee went to the US on terms and conditions of the Indian Government. It maintains that the US authority to arrest and subsequently mistreat a diplomat is questionable both in terms of jurisdiction and the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (VCCR). There is a feeling in New Delhi that the State Department adopted a deliberately narrow interpretation of the VCCR leaving out other articles of the same convention which are specifically intended to protect diplomats from arrest and mistreatment. Officials are also questioning the motives behind the US jumping to the conclusion that the maid was a victim of the Indian Government- assisted trafficking without even investigating the facts with New Delhi.
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Narayan Sai undergoes
voice-spectography test
Ahmedabad, December 30 Sai, who was arrested near Kurukshetra in Haryana on charge of raping an inmate of the Asaram ashram in Surat, was allegedly hatching a conspiracy to bribe government officials, members of the judiciary and the police to escape punishment in the rape case. It was alleged that some close associates of Sai headed by Uday Sanghani, the Asaram ashram spokesman in Ahmedabad, had in consultation with the accused decided to offer bribes up to Rs 13 crore for the purpose. The police had claimed that the taped conversation in its possession also had voice of Narayan Sai participating in the discussion though he was in the police custody then. The police have already caught a police sub-inspector CM Kumbhani red handed while accepting Rs 1 crore as the first installment of the bribe amount decided for him. The police believed that Kumbhani had arranged mobile phone for Narayan Sai in the custody to talk to his aides to finalise the bribing conspiracy. The police told the court that Sai’s voice test was necessary to ascertain whether he was a part of the conspiracy. The police have already taken the voice samples of Uday Sanghani and others allegedly involved in the conspiracy.
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Cong should name PM candidate: PC
New Delhi, December 30 “In my view, the party (Congress) should project a person as the leader of the party who will become prime minister if the party forms the government. That is my view, but it is for the party to decide,” he said in an interview to a television channel. He said in today's parliamentary as well as state elections, voters tend to ask who the leader was. “That is something that I have observed over the last 15-20 years,” the minister said, adding that in many state elections, there had been direct contest between chief minister candidates of party A or party B. “We have seen this for nearly 30 years or more in Tamil Nadu,” he added. While the BJP had named Narendra Modi as PM candidate in September, there has been criticism that the Congress has been reticent about naming its nominee. On the day the Assembly election results came, Sonia Gandhi said the party would announce its PM candidate at an opportune time. There are speculations that Congress in its AICC meeting on January 17 will declare its vice-president Rahul Gandhi the party's PM candidate. -—PTI
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Gen Bikram Singh is CoSC chief
New Delhi, December 30 He succeeded IAF Chief NAK Browne, who is superannuating on December 31. The IAF Chief has headed the CoSC since September 1, 2012. In the IAF, he will be succeeded by Chief designate Air Marshal Arup Raha. Both, Browne and Raha are fighter pilots. The IAF Chief handed over the baton to Gen Singh in the presence of Navy Chief Admiral DK Joshi at a meeting of the CoSC here. Gen Bikram Singh will head the CoSC till July 31. He is also a frontrunner for being appointed as the Permanent, CoSC — a post that has been recommended by Naresh Chandra Committee for reforms in the higher defence management. — TNS
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Summer real water test for Kejriwal At present, the installed treated water capacity in the city state (where Delhi Jal Board is responsible for production and distribution of water) is 747 million gallons per day (MGD). This comes to about 1,000-litre per household per day considering Delhi has 33.41 lakh households as per the 2011 census. However, by the Delhi Jal Board's own admission, its water resources are around 805 MGD out which only 747 are actually treated. The rest get wasted on various accounts, predominantly leakages, in Delhi's water carrier systems. Officials handling Haryana water resources and the release of water to Delhi every summer admit that during summer Haryana reduces water supply to Delhi. Almost all sources of water with Delhi Jal Board dry up or come under strain, further pronouncing the challenge of 30 to 40 per cent wastage on account of seepages and leakages in the water supply systems of Delhi. The Delhi Government's own estimations of water requirement for the city says there is a requirement of 172-litre water per capita per day for domestic purposes in the city. At present, Kejriwal has promised to offer free 166.25 litre per capita per day water with a minor shortfall already existing. In summer, the availability of 1,000-litre treated water per household per day will further diminish due to strained supply of raw water from water sources. At present, Delhi Jal Board has the availability of around 805 MGD water. Of this, it gets 690 MGD of raw water from Yamuna (310), Ganga (240) and Bhakra Storage (140). The rest comes from tubewells which are drying up and where water quality is deteriorating day by day. Now, Haryana is refusing to share water from Carrier Lined Channel between Munak and Haiderpur with Delhi. Another future challenge for Delhi is the decreasing ground water availability. "Salinity of ground water is increasing in South west and north west Delhi. In Shahadra and Kanjhawala, it is over 1,000 mg per litre. This is a challenge," an official said.
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Yeddy to return to BJP in New Year’s 1st week
Shimoga, December 30 “I will give sweet news in the first week of New Year. I know the party which I built has suffered due to my absence. I will not only rejoin my parental party but also tour the entire state to strengthen the hands of Narendra Modi to make him the PM,” Yeddyurappa said. The talk about Yeddyurappa’s return had gained more currency in recent weeks with state leaders making intensified efforts to bring him back and the former BJP strongman also giving enough indications about it. Yeddyurappa's statement to mediapersons at his home constituency of Shikaripura in Shimoga district comes a day after he told a Karnataka Janatha Paksha party workers’ meet that “this may become the final KJP meet”. He said he had spoken to BJP president Rajnath Singh and even the state leaders had been talking about the necessity of his return. “I grew up in the RSS parivar. I could become the CM only because of the support of the party,” he said. — PTI
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Ahmedabad, December 30 Sai, who was arrested near Kurukshetra on charge of raping an ashram inmate, was allegedly hatching a conspiracy to bribe government officials, members of the judiciary and the police to escape punishment in the rape case. It was alleged that close associates of Sai headed by Uday Sanghani, the Asaram ashram spokesman in Ahmedabad, had in consultation with the accused decided to offer bribes up to Rs 13 crore for the purpose. — OC
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Free blanket melee: UP minister slaps youth
Varanasi, December 30 Patel was caught on camera slapping a youth when attempts were being made to restore order during a blanket distribution programme at his Raja Talab residence yesterday. The minister, however, denied that any such incident took place. Patel claimed the youth was his 24-year-old nephew Rajit Patel whom he “patted” while asking him to bring more blankets for distribution among the people who were present there. Sources said Patel had organised the programme for distributing 10,000 blankets drawing huge crowds at his residence. SP (Traffic) OP Pandey along with officers from three police stations were present at the scene and mild force was used to manage the crowd. The minister told the PTI that no such programme was organised “but somehow a wrong message was sent and unprecedented crowd reached which also became unmanageable”. “It is nothing but a conspiracy by my political opponents who managed a section of media to malign my image,” he added. — PTI
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Cong defends Virbhadra New Delhi/Dharamsala, December 30 Responding to questions about Congress’ stand on BJP’s allegation that Virbhadra Singh was paid crores by a power firm that he favoured in his capacity as the CM, Congress’ national spokesperson Sandeep Dikshit said, “Let the BJP go to the court if they have such a strong body of evidence against the Himachal Chief Minister. This is not the first time the BJP has pressed charges against Virbhadra Singh. This is
the third time. Let them come up with proof and relevant agencies look into the same.” Dikshit said in the five-year rule of the BJP government in Himachal Pradesh, several inquiries were ordered against Virbhadra Singh, but nothing came out of them. In the past also, the
Congress has thrown its weight behind Virbhadra Singh. He faced accusations by Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley on two earlier occasions. Jaitley once alleged that Virbhadra Singh had, as steel minister, accepted bribe in return for a favour he granted to a firm. In another accusation that came just before the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections last year, Jaitley accused him of revising his IT returns to show enhanced income allegedly begotten through ill deals. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had on December 27 chosen Virbhadra Singh among other Congress CMs to share the dais with him at the AICC headquarters when he chaired a meeting on the establishment of lokayuktas in states to root out corruption. Dikshit today said everyone should wait for the PMO to tale cognisance of whatever information Jaitley had presented. “Allegations are allegations. If you go by history, you know what they allege and what they take out in terms of proof. Let us go by that history also,” he said. In Dharamsala, Virbhadra Singh termed the statement of Jaitley
as a political conspiracy adding that there was nothing new in the allegations. “The BJP is specifically targeting me keeping in view the forthcoming parliamentary elections,” Virbhadra Singh said. On another query pertaining to Jaitley’s letter to the PM and another to the CBI Director demanding a probe into the latest allegations, he said ordering of a CBI inquiry was the prerogative of the Prime Minister. “In case the PM wants to order a CBI inquiry against me, I am ready to face it,” he said. He would fight the allegations politically and administratively and “not spare anyone behind this conspiracy”, he added. Jaitley's latest charge
The Himachal Cabinet has already cancelled the project in controversy. Earlier in 2003 also, the Congress government had cancelled the project of the
company.
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UP yet to reply on relief camp deaths New Delhi, December 30 Sources said the ministry had asked the UP Government if deaths had occurred due to lack of adequate facilities at the relief camps. Reports of deaths had emerged in the first week of December. More than 50,000 Muslims are living in these camps in western parts of the state after the September-October riots. Most of them belonged to the poor sections of society. At least 41 children living in these camps had died due to cold. The MHA will send a reminder and may even dispatch a team to assess the situation.
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New Delhi, December 30
New Delhi, December 30