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Modi begins 3-day fast today
Advani backs US report on Modi as PM choice |
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Kakodkar heads panel on railway safety
India offers $2 m for BRICS science fund
Janardhan Reddy’s kin quizzed in illegal mining case
Disgraced undertrial MPs dropped from new parliamentary panels
Kanimozhi moves court again for bail
Delhi HC Blast
Azhar’s son Ayaz succumbs to injuries
Mamata moots law to keep school kids away from politics
2 accused have ‘confessed’ in Dey case
SC notice to Centre on farm policy
Mock anti-hijack drill at Mumbai airport
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Modi begins 3-day fast today
Badal, leader of key BJP ally Shiromani Akali Dal, will be personally present on the first day of the fast, while the AIADMK supremo is sending two emissaries M Thambidurai and V Maitreyan. The BJP leadership, including LK Advani, will be in strength at the fast venue at the state-of-the-art convention centre of Gujarat University here, as hectic last-minute preparations were underway today. However, it is not clear whether the other NDA constituents, especially the JD(U), would be following Badal’s example. After the Supreme Court verdict in a Gujarat riots case on Monday that gave him some relief, Modi announced a fast for three days calling it a 'Sadbhavna Mission' for peace, unity and harmony in the state. State BJP spokesperson Vijay Rupani told reporters that Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and Rajnath Singh will be also present. BJP President Nitin Gadkari will not be present as he is recuperating after undergoing a gastric by-pass surgery. Ravi Shankar Prasad, Shahnawaz Hussain, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Hema Malini and Smriti Irani will be among other party leaders who will attend the fast. "Besides, NDA allies like Akali Dal's Punjab's Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal and Shiv Sena leaders will also come," he said, adding, "Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaji has supported Modi's fast and will be sending two emissaries M Thambidurai and V
Maitreyan."
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Advani backs US report on Modi as PM choice
New Delhi, September 16 “Now, us lawmakers and the State Department are being primed for the return of the BJP to power in New Delhi, with Modi at the helm as Prime Minister, following what US analysts say is a ‘precipitous’ decline in the Congress party's fortunes due to a string of corruption scandals,” Advani wrote on his blog today. He was quoting from the recent report of the US Congressional Research Service, an independent research wing of the US Congress. Though Advani did not state categorically whether Modi will be BJP’s PM candidate in the General Election slated for 2014, he agreed with the claims of the report which praises Modi’s performance as Gujarat Chief Minister. “Although still in some disorder in 2011, there are signs that the BJP has made changes necessary to be a formidable challenger in scheduled 2014 polls. These include a more effective branding of the party as one focused on development and good governance rather than emotive, Hindutva-related issues,” Advani said, quoting the report.
— PTI
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Kakodkar heads panel on railway safety
New Delhi, September 16 The high-level committee will be headed by former Atomic Energy Commission chief Anil Kakodkar and will include Delhi Metroman E Sreedharan. The other members of the high-level panel are Dr N Vedachalam of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram, Sanjay Dhande, Director of IIT-Kanpur, and GP Srivastava of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. The panel will submit its initial report in three months and focus on safety audit and human resource development besides technical aspects of safety. This is not the first time that a railway safety review committee has been formed. Ever since 1962, when the first (Kunzru) railway safety review committee was formed, a number of such committees have been formed. But ironically, the recommendations of the none of the committees have been implemented in totality by the Railways. According to Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi, “The panel will provide independent expert input on improving the safety of running trains.” Based on the accidents and their consequences witnessed in the recent past, the committee will examine aspects connected with signalling systems, rolling stock (of all types), fixed structures (tracks, bridges and over-head equipment), human resource development with emphasis on training, education and research, need for a third-party audit, organisational and structural changes in RDSO and in any other department, improvements in procedural system, improvement in procedures and systems and any other item or modification. Railway officials claimed that the safety record of Indian Railways has shown considerable improvement progressively, with the number of train accidents decreasing from over 2,000 in 1960-61 to 473 in 2000-01 and further to 141 in 2010-11, with a corresponding reduction in the accidents per million train km.
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India offers $2 m for BRICS science fund
New Delhi, September 16 In his keynote address at the meeting, Kumar, a Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab, stressed on the need to collectively harness scientific and technological knowledge to address challenges of this century. These include tackling hunger, malnutrition, pandemics and climate change besides provision of energy and food security. Talking about the potential areas for STI collaboration among BRICS countries, he opined that the BRICS countries were large in size and their energy requirements were likely to scale new proportions with the growth of economies. New sources
of clean energy could form an important programme for co-investment.
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Janardhan Reddy’s kin quizzed in illegal mining case
Hyderabad, September 16 After being summoned, Karunakara, a former director of OMC and brother of mining baron Gali Janardhan Reddy, this morning appeared before the Central agency at its office here. The agency continued interrogation of Janardhan Reddy and his brother-in-law BV Srinivas Reddy, managing director of OMC - both under arrest - for the fourth consecutive day in presence of their counsels, officials said. The CBI had yesterday also questioned Gali Somsekhar Reddy, MLA from Karnataka and another brother of Janardhan Reddy, in the same case. Meanwhile, the Special CBI Court today directed that Janardhana and Srinivas Reddy be given minimum facilities at the place where they are lodged after their day-long interrogation. The counsel of both Reddys had yesterday filed a petition in the court alleging that their clients were being questioned by the CBI in late night hours and sought minimum facilities for them after completion of their questioning. The CBI officials also continued the examination of former Director of Mines and Geology (Andhra Pradesh) VD Rajagopal in connection with the mining case. The court had earlier dismissed the bail pleas of Janardhan and Srinivas Reddy, and ordered that they be handed over to the investigating agency for their custodial investigation till September 19. The Reddy duo was arrested on September 5 by a CBI team from Bellary in Karnataka after searches were conducted at their premises in connection with the alleged illegal mining activities. The CBI had registered a case against OMC on December 7, 2009 at the request of the Andhra Pradesh government in the wake of allegations of illegal mining and irregularities in allotment of mining leases to the company in Obulapuram and Malpanagudi villages
in Anantapur district of the state. — PTI
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Disgraced undertrial MPs dropped from new parliamentary panels
New Delhi, September 16 MPs and former ministers, including A Raja, Suresh Kalmadi and Madhu Koda, all members of the Lower House and presently in jails, have been at a loss after their parties decided to abandon them and not nominate them to any of the new committees. While the Lok Sabha has 16 department-related standing committees, the Rajya Sabha has eight. The most conspicuous by his absence from the committees will be former Telecom Minister Andimuthu Raja of the DMK, lodged in Tihar Jail for his role in the multi-crore 2G Spectrum scam. Although Raja, being minister, was not represented in any committee hitherto, he could have been nominated to a new one by his party, which chose against doing so. In the Rajya Sabha though, the DMK has re-nominated Kanimozhi, daughter of DMK supremo M Karunanidhi, to the committee on Human Resource Development. Suresh Kalmadi, the once-powerful Pune MP of the Congress and former chairman of the Organizing Committee of Commonwealth Games, has lost out in the committee reconstitution process and is absent from the newly notified list. In Tihar jail for his involvement in the CWG scam, Kalmadi was, until yesterday, a member of committees on Ethics and Human Resource Development. The third scam-tainted Lok Saba MP who has faced the axe in the reconstitution is Madhu Koda, former Jharkhand Chief Minister and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha member from Singhbum. In jail since November 2009 in a graft case, Koda was, until tonight, a member of the parliamentary committee on Chemicals and Fertilizers. Even Kameshwar Baitha, a JMM member from Jharkhand, who is facing a murder charge, has lost a slot in the railway committee and been shifted to the one on social justice.
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Kanimozhi moves court again for bail
New Delhi, September 16 Lodged in the Tihar Jail since May 20 following rejection of her bail plea by Special judge OP Saini, Kanimozhi approached the court for bail a day after the court failed to adhere to its self-imposed deadline of September 15 to frame charges in the case. The court listed her bail plea for hearing on October 1. While refusing bail to various 2G scam accused, the Supreme Court had earlier asked them to move the trial court for bail after framing of charges in the case. While pleading innocence, 43-year-old Kanimozhi also prayed for bail on account of her being a woman MP and the mother of a school-going child. She moved the court for bail along with Kalaignar TV MD Sharad Kumar.
— PTI
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Delhi HC Blast Kishtwar, September 16 The accused was produced before Principal District and Sessions Judge Kishtwar today who remanded him in custody for questioning him at length for helping in sending an email barely two hours after the September seven blast. He is being interrogated by a joint team of interrogators of J&K Police and the NIA. Dev is accused of handing over draft mail three days before the blast to two high school children, Shariq Ahmed and Abid Hussain. The two children have been earlier arrested for sending the mail.
— PTI
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Azhar’s son Ayaz succumbs to injuries
Hyderabad, September 16 The 19-year-old budding cricketer was critically injured when his sports bike skidded and crashed near a tollgate on the Outer Ring Road (ORR) on the city’s outskirts on September 11. Ayaz was riding his Suzuki 1000 CC bike at a speed of 200 kilometre per hour, and the mishap occurred on a highway where two-wheelers and three-wheelers are banned. According to the doctors at Apollo Hospital, where he was treated, the neurological tests confirmed the youngster’s brain had become dysfunctional after he suffered cardiac arrest soon after the crash.
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Mamata moots law to keep school kids away from politics
Kolkata, September 16 The CM, at an all-party meet today, also sought opinions of all political parties on how to stop frequent processions, meetings and rallies in the city which cause difficulty to the public and disrupt day-to-day activities. She wants that these meetings should be held only at certain specified places, if possible, on Saturday, Sunday and other holidays. Mamata is against indiscriminate erection of hoardings by political parties and business houses. The government has already decided that school students would be debarred from attending any political meetings during school hours. The proposed law to ban students’ participation in political meetings suggests a provision for deterrent punishment to school authorities, teachers and party leaders found forcing students to attend processions and meetings during school hours.
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2 accused have ‘confessed’ in Dey case
Mumbai, September 16 A Crime Branch official said police had recorded statements of Paulson Joseph, who had provided global SIM cards to the accused involved in the murder, and Deepak Sisodia, who had allegedly given the .32 mm US-made revolver to alleged Chhota Rajan aide Satish Kalya. And Anil Waghmode, an accused in the case, whose car was used by co-accused to flee, has filed an application before the special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) Court, seeking the car back. Dey, 56, was shot dead by four motorcycle-borne assailants in suburban Powai on June 11. Police have arrested Rohee Thangappan Joseph alias Satish Kalya, Abhijeet Shinde, Arun Dake, Sachin Gaikwad, Anil Waghmode, Nilesh Shendge, Mangesh Agawane, Vinod Asrani, Paulson Joseph and Deepak Sisodia.
— PTI
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SC notice to Centre on farm policy
New Delhi, September 16 A Bench comprising Justices RV Raveendran and AK Patnaik passed the order on the petition, filed by the Consortium of Indian Farmers Association contending that the government had failed to implement the 2007 policy, based on the report of the Central Farmers Commission headed by MS Swaminathan. Despite accepting the recommendations after placing it in Parliament, the government did not act, it said. Quoting the policy, the PIL said farming would become profitable only by substantially improving productivity, land and water support services and putting in place an appropriate price policy and risk-management measures.Marginal and small farmers, who constituted about 84 per cent of the 166 million people involved in the sector, did not have any bargaining power to get remunerative prices for their produce as they were already in debt and the entire crop was coming to the market at the same time, the PIL said. Citing a report by Dr Ranjit Singh Ghuman, an economist in Punjabi University, the petition said Punjab farmers had suffered a loss of Rs 62,000 crore in wheat and paddy crops alone.
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Mock anti-hijack drill at Mumbai airport
Mumbai, September 16 "As part of a security initiative, MIAL conducted a 'mock anti-hijack exercise' today at CSIA. The exercise was held between 1354 hrs and 1522 hrs on taxiway E-9, next to the secondary runway of CSIA," according to a statement by Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL). The exercise was supervised by the Additional Chief Secretary (Home), government of Maharashtra. A bus posed as an aircraft, with Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and MIAL staff enacting the role of passengers. Its crew and passengers were taken as 'hostage'. The exercise to assess the preparedness of security teams at the airport, one of the busiest in the country, in dealing with such crisis situations ended successfully, it said.
— PTI
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Kolkata, September 16
Ahmedabad, September 16
The once-powerful but now jailed members of the Lok Sabha have found no place in the newly reconstituted department-related parliamentary standing committees which were notified by the Lok Sabha Secretariat today.