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Shinde’s Hindu terror remarks based on facts: Khurshid
New Delhi, January 22 The war of words between the Congress and the BJP over the charge by Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde blaming the BJP and RSS for running terror camps continued on a day when the Home Ministry officially backed the statement and said it has evidence in this regard.
Owaisi arrest: AP areas remain shut on Day 2
ULFA hawks attack police station, one injured
SC verdict in Dabwali fire tragedy today
Kanpur blackbuck deaths: Akhilesh seeks explanation
Vaghela appointed Gujarat CLP leader
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I-T dept raids firms linked to Gadkari
Mumbai, January 22 Twenty officials from various offices of the department in Mumbai, Delhi and Nagpur began carrying out search operations to retrieve documents from the premises of eight companies associated with Gadkari’s controversial Purti group. Briefing reporters here, I-T officials said the eight companies whose premises that were searched today were among several which had invested funds in the Purti group which carried out investments in a number of businesses. “The searches were carried out after requests from the Nagpur office of the I-T Department,” said an official. According to reports, these companies which had invested in the power business of the Purti group had security guards and drivers as directors. The authorities are probing the sources of funds of these entities which invested in Gadkari’s companies. The raids coming on the eve of Gadkari’s possible re-election as the BJP president for a second term has come as an embarrassment to the party. “The Income Tax Department’s action smacks of the ruling UPA’s nefarious designs to create confusion in the BJP ranks. The BJP president had himself said he was ready for any probe into the allegations of wrongdoing by him and his family in the related matters and has been fully cooperating with the departments concerned since he has nothing to hide. His track record in public life is unblemished,” said a statement issued by the party. Gadkari went on to say that he will resign from public office if found guilty by any court of law. However, with still no clarity that Gadkari will be elected as the president of the BJP tomorrow, the party hurriedly issued a revised statement deleting the first sentence of the above paragraph. Officially, those wishing to contest the election to the post of the BJP president must file their nominations tomorrow. Noted lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani said on Monday that he was open to contesting the elections for the post. Embarrassment for BJP
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Rahul has a daunting task ahead New Delhi, January 22 Expectations are running high as the rank and file wants Rahul to go in for a drastic surgery in the party, adopt a more aggressive style of functioning and, most importantly, show sustained interest in his new job instead of his present "hit-rand-run" approach. "Having raised the expectations of party cadres with his speech, they want Rahul Gandhi to follow it up with action," remarked a Congress minister. As a first step, young Congress leaders underlined, they expect an overhauling of the party organisation from the grassroots to the national level where loyal workers are rewarded and youth gets its due while doing away with the current nomination culture. "No more patch-up job... people want a surgical intervention," said a member of Rahul Gandhi's youth brigade. Congress insiders said like Rajiv Gandhi's famous speech when he spoke out against the power brokers in the party, Rahul's speech was also received well by the party cadres because they touched on issues which they wanted to hear. But this adulation could prove to be short-lived if Rahul, like his father, opts for status quo. The long overdue reshuffle in the party organisation will be Rahul Gandhi's first test. It will have to be seen if the wide-ranging changes which Rahul spoke about in Jaipur are actually implemented. While younger leaders are expecting greater representation in the new team, the new Congress vice-president faces the onerous task of dealing with the party old guard who are wary of being marginalised as Team Rahul begins to evolve. With more than 70 per cent of the country's population below the age of 35, Rahul Gandhi will have to shed his aloofness and reach out to young India which has been alienated from the Congress on the twin issues of corruption and poor governance. There is no denying that Rahul has a daunting task ahead. The Congress faces its worst credibility crisis today while the urban middle class and the youth are disenchanted it. The party has no presence in large swathes of the country like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu and has been out of power for a decade in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha.
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Shinde’s Hindu terror remarks based on facts: Khurshid
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid backed Shinde by saying that the Home Minister’s statement was based “entirely on facts” made available by investigative agencies. He, however, said terror has no religion and colour. “Any form of violence by extremists of any kind, irrespective of religion is not good for India,” Khurshid said, adding that the country should not be distracted by a phrase here and there. “Terror does not have a religion. It should not have a colour. Those are the facts available to the Home Ministry,” he said. He said remarkable achievement of India's diplomatic efforts is undermined by these comments and said the party takes serious objection to repeated statements of senior ministers, including Khurshid. “If he is supporting the line of Shinde, then they are seeking to give legitimacy and deep sense of justification to what the terrorists and their patrons are stating in Pakistan,” Prasad argued. Yesterday, the BJP demanded dismissal of the Home Minister, apology from the Prime Minister and the Congress president and announced the party will hold an all-India protest against the remarks on January 24. Separately, Union Home Secretary RK Singh said that at least 10 persons who are allegedly involved in terror attacks, including the Samjhauta Express, Mecca Masjid and Ajmer Dargah blasts had links with the RSS or its affiliated organisation.
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Owaisi arrest: AP areas remain shut on Day 2
Hyderabad, January 22 Owaisi, whose party has seven MLAs in the state Assembly, was sent to jail yesterday after he surrendered in connection with a non-bailable warrant pending against him for allegedly abusing an officer and obstructing the road-widening works in Medak district, adjoining the state capital. A local court in Sangareddy town rejected the MP’s bail plea today. He is presently lodged in a jail in Sangareddy after the court remanded him to judicial custody till February 2. Though the MIM has not officially called for a shutdown call, shops and other business establishments, besides educational institutions, remained closed in the Old City and in Karimnagar and Medak districts in Telangana besides Anantapur district in the Rayalaseema region. The state-owned Road Transport Corporation (RTC) suspended a majority of its bus services while auto-rickshaws went off the roads. The usually busy markets around the historic Charminar, which attract hundreds of tourists every day, wore a deserted look. The police said that some unidentified persons attacked a RTC bus in Bahadurpura in Old City last night and set it on fire. Following this, the police clamped prohibitory orders in the old Hyderabad, Sangareddy and other towns. Anticipating trouble in the wake of the MIM leader’s arrest, a huge amount of police and paramilitary forces were deployed in the communally sensitive areas of not only Hyderabad but also in other Telangana districts to prevent any untoward incident. The case against the MP relates to an incident which took place in March 2005 when the district officials, led by the then Collector Anil Kumar Singhal were removing the encroachments that included a place of worship at Muttangi in Medak district. MIM leaders, including Asaduddin, his brother Akbaruddin, Afsar Khan, Pasha Qadri and Mozam Khan, allegedly obstructed the works and manhandled the official.
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RTE deadline nears, but three of ten village schools have no usable toilets
New Delhi, January 22 Released by the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT), the eighth All India Education Survey covering close to 13 lakh schools across the country has revealed that schools in rural areas are still deprived of basic facilities such as drinking water, usable urinal and playgrounds. As per the flash statistics and provisional data of NCERT, even today, one-fifth of the total primary schools in rural areas do not have drinking water, three out of 10 schools are without usable urinal facilities and about half the schools do not have playgrounds. The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 which came into force in 2010 has mandated that every elementary school in the country must have nine stated infrastructure indicators and must provide for adequate teachers. Among the nine infrastructure norms are - usable toilets, fencing, playgrounds, drinking water facilities, library, one classroom per teacher; school building etc. On pupil teacher ratio, the NCERT survey has brought some good news showing that from the last survey conducted five years ago, PTR in primary schools has declined from 42:1 to 32:1 at the national level. “But 40 per cent primary schools still have two teachers in each school,” the survey adds. It also presents a rosy picture on enrolment but is silent on the learning outcomes which a survey by Pratham recently showed to be in a dismal state. NCERT provisional data on school education shows there was 26.77 per cent increase in total number of schools in India during 2002 and 2009. Maximum growth rate was witnessed in upper primary schools (49.15 per cent) followed by higher secondary schools (46.80 per cent), secondary by 28.95 and primary by 16.68 per cent. There were 228,994,454 students enrolled in different recognised schools of the country. Growth rate of enrolment was 13.67 per cent from Class I-XII; for girls it was better at 19.12 per cent. However, the percentage of girl’s enrolment to the total enrolment decreases as it they go higher in school. The percentage is the best at primary stage — 48.13 per cent but declines to 42.56 at higher secondary stage. NCERT FINDINGS
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‘Has FDI borne fruit or is it a political gimmick?’
New Delhi, January 22 A Bench comprising Justices RM Lodha and SJ Mokhopadhaya also asked the government as to whether the FDI policy, approved recently by Parliament, was a “political gimmick or has borne some fruits” in the form of inflow of foreign capital. The Bench made the remarks while hearing a PIL that has expressed apprehension over the livelihood of millions of traders running small neighbourhood shops, known as ‘kirana’ stores. Attorney-General GE Vahanvati contended that Parliament had gone into all these aspects before approving it through voting. Further, the judiciary had no role in policy matters which were the prerogative of the government, he argued. Unconvinced, the apex court said “policies are not so sacrosanct” as to be outside the purview of the judiciary altogether. Even policies had to be within the parameters of the Constitution which under Article 19(1)(g) protected people’s fundamental right to carry on with their respective profession or trade, the Bench pointed out. “This is precisely the reason why Parliament debated the issue and sought to ensure and assure that small traders would not be affected,” the AG said. He also contended that the main purpose of allowing FDI in retail was not to throw open the doors to foreign companies but to get remunerative prices to farmers for their produce as well as benefit the consumers. The SC wanted to know what regulatory mechanism had been put in place to prevent multi-national retail chains from resorting to unfair trade practices by artificially lowering the prices initially in order to render small traders uncompetitive, go out of business as a result and ultimately close down their shops. After ensuring their monopoly, the retail chains would raise the prices and make huge profits at the cost of the consumers, the Bench explained. The AG said the Competition Commission would deal with such problems. The Bench, however, said small traders were not in a position to approach such forums. The AG sought time for the government to file its response to the points raised in the PIL, filed by advocate ML Sharma, upon which the Bench granted three weeks. It asked the petitioner to submit his views in two weeks thereafter. The case would be taken up again after five weeks. The Bench clarified that it would assess the FDI policy only to see as to whether it was within the Constitutional framework. The AG contended that the states were at liberty to accept or reject the new policy and refuse to allow foreign retail chains to do business. But the petitioner argued that once the retail chains got approval from the Reserve Bank of India, there was no way the states could prevent their entry. The Bench asked the government to file a comprehensive response. On the court’s query on FDI flow into the country, the AG said it was likely to take some more time to bear fruits. Nevertheless, he would find out if some FDI had already come in.
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ULFA hawks attack police station, one injured
Guwahati, January 22 The police said suspected ULFA militants took advantage of darkness and sprayed bullets at the police station for around 20 minutes leaving a commando injured. The militants lobbed a powerful grenade at the police station. But it missed the target and fell at a stranded truck causing a huge fire. Three vehicles parked inside the police station campus were damaged due to the attack. Later top ranked police officials were rushed to the spot to launch a combing operation. Security forces have cordoned off the entire area and have launched a combing operation to nab the ULFA men involved in the attack. Meanwhile, the banned ULFA in a statement today claimed responsibility for the attack and said it was in retaliation to killing of an innocent Assamese youth, Lalit Moran, by the Army in coordination with the Assam Police in a ‘fake encounter’ at Kakojan in Tinsukia district of Assam on the night of January 21. The ULFA faction warned that more such attacks would be launched on the Assam Police if it did not stop coordinating with the Army in killing ‘innocent Assamese youth’.
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SC verdict in Dabwali fire tragedy today
New Delhi, January 22 A Bench comprising Justices BS Chauhan and V Gopalagowda had reserved the verdict on January 8 at the conclusion of arguments in the case. As many as 456 persons, including more than 250 women and 130 students, were killed in the fire at the Rajiv Marriage Place, a banquet hall where the school was holding its annual function. On November 9, 2009, the HC had ordered a total compensation of Rs 55 crore to be shared between DAV (Rs 33 crore) and Haryana government (Rs 22) crore in the ratio of 55 per cent and 45 per cent, respectively. The DAV contended in the SC that the school did not have any objection on the total compensation amount awarded to the victims. It was only questioning the very high liability slapped on it, ignoring the findings of the CBI and the Sirsa Divisional Commissioner which were in DAV’s favour.
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Kanpur blackbuck deaths: Akhilesh seeks explanation
Lucknow, January 22 A pack of stray dogs allegedly mauled 31 blackbucks — five male and 26 females — inside the Kanpur zoo on January 20 by entering their enclosure through a collapsed boundary wall which was under repair. Zoo Director K Pravir Rao and five others had been suspended with immediate effect by the CM after the incident came to light. Blackbucks are classified as "near threatened" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Partly eaten bodies of the blackbuck were found inside their enclosure in the zoo. The post-mortem report suggests that some of them may have died of shock.
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Vaghela appointed Gujarat CLP leader
New Delhi/Gandhinagar, January 22 The appointment was made by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi who was authorised by a meeting of the Gujarat Congress Legislature Party in Gandhinagar earlier in the day to select the leader. The announcement was made by Congress General Secretary Janardhan Dwivedi in Delhi. The CLP meeting was held in the presence of central party observers-- Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and party's state in-charge Mohan Prakash. Dikshit met all the 59 MLAs separately and elicited their views on who should be the CLP leader of the state, sources in Congress said, adding, some MPs had also come to put forward their point along with some other state party leaders. — PTI
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Energised by Rahul Gandhi's first speech at the Jaipur AICC session after his formal appointment as Congress vice-president, party cadres now want him to deliver on his promise to decentralise and democratise the
organisation.
New Delhi, January 22
oining issue with Khurshid, the BJP sought to know if the External Affairs Minister supports the Pakistan terror groups which have lapped up the Home Minister’s statement. “Does Salman Khurshid support these groups and is he strengthening these groups? The BJP is deeply pained by his statement and it’s deeply regrettable,” BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.