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Akhilesh defends Saifai jamboree
Study tour: Oppn targets UP Speaker
Decision on LS candidates very soon: Rahul
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Bansal has bigger role to play for Cong in LS polls
Top BJP leaders discuss poll strategy
dirty
ganga
India plans Chandrayaan-II by 2017
gang-rape
case
Cong defers decision on replacing U’khand CM
We are not super cop: Apex court
Person not named in FIR can be tried: SC
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Akhilesh defends Saifai jamboree
Lucknow, January 10 “I am here to answer questions regarding Muzaffarnagar. It is certainly wrong to put such questions before film stars who had been invited to perform at the Mahotsav,” he said. Clarifying on the expenditure for holding the festival at his ancestral village in Etawah, Akhilesh said a sum of Rs 7-8 crore was spent. “A large part of the expenditure was raised by the organisers through donations. A part of the money came from the state government which is earmarked in the state budget and given to all Mahotsavs held in the state. We want to promote tourism and culture of the state but the media reports negatively,” he said. The Chief Minister was reacting to a news report appearing in a section of the media which had reported that a sum of Rs 300 crore had been spent on the Saifai Mahotsav. He said the festival could not have been postponed at the last minute as all arrangements had been made well in advance. “The craftsmen, artisans and vendors who put up stalls at the mahotsav have a full annual calendar. They have to attend many other such events across the country and plan well in advance. Postponing this event would have caused them great inconvenience, hardship and financial loss,” he said. “There were competitive events such as wrestling. The state government honoured sportspersons, but that was not reported by the media. Even film star Salman Khan offered to bear the expenses for the treatment of critically ill children but no one cared to report this,” he said.
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Study tour: Oppn targets UP Speaker
Lucknow, January 10 BJP leader in the Vidhan Sabha Hukum Singh said such all-party tours were usually planned well in advance with the Speaker formally writing to the party leaders to suggest names of MLAs to represent the party. “In this case, the Speaker neither sent any written invitation nor verbally ask for names of party MLAs to be a part of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association trip. My party MLA did not seek permission to be a part of the trip. She only informed me when she boarded the flight in New Delhi,” he alleged. BJP MLA representing the Mugra Badshahpur seat in Jaunpur district Seema Dwivedi is part of the 17 MLA delegations that left on a 20-day tour across five countries to study parliamentary processes. The delegation led by parliamentary affairs minister Mohd Azam Khan, includes eight senior Cabinet ministers of the Akhilesh Yadav government. The other non-SP MLA in the delegation is Rashtriya Lok Dal’s MLA Pooran Prakash who had also not sought permission of legislature party leader Munna Singh Chauhan for the trip.
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Decision on LS candidates very soon: Rahul
New Delhi, January 10 While Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi took the front seat on candidate selection for 543 Lok Sabha seats by chairing a meeting of the heads of party’s Lok Sabha screening committees, his mother and Congress president Sonia Gandhi finalised the schedule of anti-graft legislation passage in the forthcoming Parliament session. Rahul cancelled his Amethi visit to chair the meet today. As for the Bills, they were discussed during the Congress core committee meeting held at PM’s residence in which Law Minister Kapil Sibal and MoS (Personnel) V Narayanasamy were also present. The core group meeting, which is also said to have discussed Jat reservation, was preceded by another between Rahul and the PM. Later in the day after the meeting, Rahul said, “We are following a very systematic process in involving people in the ticket distribution process. The entire system of ticket selection is new and is happening for the first time. We will decide the tickets very soon.” Insiders told TNS today that 206 LS seats where the party has sitting MPs could be finalised initially, expectedly as early as January end. Events of the day indicated that the Congress wanted to put its house in order immediately. On the one hand, it is pushing its anti-corruption agenda past Parliament to counter AAP and on the other, it is sealing the ticket distribution process to ensure candidates have enough time to connect to the voters. Rahul is learnt to have rued delayed ticket distribution at today's meeting. Inquiries on the “newness” of the party’s ticket selection strategy revealed that for the first time the Congress will follow a three-tier process in finalising the best candidates. Central observers appointed by the party for independent assessment of candidates’ strengths have submitted their reports to Rahul Gandhi. These reports will be furnished to screening committees which will tally the central panels of candidates with the ones submitted by state CMs and state party chiefs. Screening committees will then make their recommendations to the Sonia led Central Election Committee which will take the final call. “The central observers’ panels are the most representative of the aspirations of people in each segment. The observers have spoken to block presidents and district presidents for the first time. In that way, the grassroots views have been reflected in the process as indicated by Rahul,” a senior party leader who attended Rahul’s meet told TNS. Screening committees would start meeting after the January 17 AICC Session where Rahul is widely anticipated to be elevated as the party’s prime ministerial candidate.
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Bansal has bigger role to play for Cong in LS polls
New Delhi, January 10 Chosen as one of the 10 screening committee chairmen by the party high command aside seniors such as Sushilkumar Shinde and Ghulam Nabi Azad, Bansal has his task cut out - shortlist the best candidates to be fielded from the 26 LS seats of Gujarat, 25 of Rajasthan and one each of the two UTs. The fact that Bansal has been asked to for Gujarat, BJP PM candidate Narendra Modi’s turf, is being seen in the Congress as a “vindication” of his stand in the cash-for-railway-job scandal, which cost the Chandigarh Lok Sabha MP his job. Under opposition pressure, Bansal had to quit as the railway minister on March 10, 2013, after his nephew Vijay Singla was arrested for allegedly fixing the promotion for a member in the railway board. Bansal spoke to The Tribune today about how he saw his return. “I do take this as an important assignment. I have been asked by the party high command to perform an onerous and sacred task. I am humbled. I have been maintaining that I had nothing to do with the so-called scandal. I was caught in a vortex. But I utilised the time off from party and government work to nurse my constituency. Now that the party has recalled me, I will do my best.” Bansal had in the past been election observer in Gujarat but he understood that the situation now was quite different. In the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had not fared so well in the Gujarat LS polls bagging only 15 seats out of 26.
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AAP eyes one crore new members by January 26
Medha Patkar may join AAP
New anti-graft helpline
New Delhi, January 10 The party today kicked off a special free membership drive — Main Bhi Aam Aadmi — setting up an ambitious target of enrolling at least one crore members by January 26. By 5 pm, around 50,000 people had enrolled themselves with the party. “We are inviting people to participate in the change they want and act as community watchdogs,” said AAP member Dilip Pandey. Earlier, AAP leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal again refused Z-plus security offered by the UP Police. “Any citizen can join by simply giving a missed call on mobile number 07798220033 or send an SMS with their name, STD code and Vidhan Sabha name to enrol as a party member,” said Kejriwal. When asked about the inclination of former IPS officer Kiran bedi and Army chief VK Singh (retd), Kejriwal said, “They are citizens of a free countery and are free to join any party.”
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Top BJP leaders discuss poll strategy
New Delhi, January 10 On a day AAP when launched its membership drive to enroll one crore supporters by January 26, the BJP also announced the launch of “Modi-for-PM” campaign on Sunday-January 12. Modi will also address a “Vijay sankalp rally” at Panaji on that day. The decision to launch the “Modi-for-PM” campaign before Makar Sankranti (January 14) - one of the most auspicious occasions for Hindus - has raised eyebrows. The saffron party generally waits for auspicious time for big-ticket announcements and the onset of “Uttarayana” would have been one such moment but sources say the party decided not waste any more time. Besides, Goa has proved to be a “good venue” for Modi because it is from here that his ascent in the national politics started last year. While announcing the launch of “Modi-for-PM” campaign, senior BJP leader Ananth Kumar refused to comment on AAP or its popularity among the group of voters that the BJP is targeting. However, his observation on the Congress was a telling commentary on the saffron party’s real challenge now. “Today the Congress is not competition for us, they have lost all space. The BJP will strive to fill this space. Our mission is 272+ seats, we are working toward that,” he said, thus indicating that Arvind Kejriwal and not Rahul Gandhi was the one who the BJP considered competition for Modi. Clearly, the party is worried as the leaders, who used to give BJP seven out of seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi, have now reduced the number to “three to four”. In Haryana instead of 10 out of 10 Lok Sabha seats, estimates have fallen to “six to seven”. There are around 260 urban-centric seats in the country which can be impacted by the AAP phenomenon and the party is re-building its strategy accordingly. The RSS has also asked the BJP to conduct its own survey to assess the AAP impact, especially in the urban areas, with a large number of middle and lower middle class voters. High on agenda are tax reform proposals to woo the tax-burdened middle class - salaried and business. Nitin Gadkari-headed committee, which is preparing a vision document for the party on structural reforms in five areas (police, administration, judiciary, taxation and education) is considering an innovative tax reform proposal aimed at reducing corruption and eliminating the cost of compliance for tax payers. The meeting, which was attended by all the top leaders except Modi, Sushma Swaraj, Venkaiah Naidu and Nitin Gadkari, also finalised political and economic resolutions to be presented at the end of the two-day open session of the national council on December 18 and 19.
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dirty
ganga
New Delhi, January 10 A Bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam issued notice to them on the petition filed by a resident of Patiala, Ashok Narain Sharma, who heads Amarnath Sewa Dal, seeking legal action against all those responsible for polluting the holy river. There was need for constituting a special investigation team (SIT) to prosecute the offenders and a designated court in each of the five states - Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal - for speedy disposal of cases, the PIL said. Appearing for the petitioner, senior counsel MN Krishnamani said his client visited various places all along the course of the river and noticed that the release of effluents, domestic and industrial, was going on unabated right from Haridwar till Kolkata. It was crucial to ensure good quality of the Ganga water as the river basin covered 26 per cent of the landmass and supported about 43 per cent of the country’s population also in Madhaya Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi and HP, besides the five states, the petition said. — TNS
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India plans Chandrayaan-II by 2017
New Delhi, January 10 “Chandrayaan-II is a mission where we essentially need to move on the lunar surface to conduct experiments. We will launch Chandrayaan-II with an indigenous rover and lander using GSLV by 2016 or 2017,” Space Secretary K Radhakrishnan told mediapersons here. Chandrayaan-I, launched on October 22, 2008, from Sriharikota, is orbiting at a height of 100 km from the lunar surface for chemical, mineralogical and photo-geologic mapping of the Moon. Referring to Chandrayaan-II, Radhakrishnan said a study was done to check if an indigenous lander and rover could be developed after which ISRO decided to go ahead with the project.
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gang-rape case Tribune News Service
Kolkata, January 10 An order in this regard was issued to Chief Secretary Sanjay Mitra by Justice Dipankar Dutt’s single bench today after hearing a PIL filed in this connection. In the petition, the state legal aids forum demanded a CBI inquiry into the gang rape of the minor and her subsequent killing by the accused, allegedly close to the ruling Trinamool Congress. The girl was gang-raped twice - first while returning from a coaching class and again the next day when she was returning home along with her mother after lodging an FIR at a local thana against the accused. The family later shifted to a rented accommodation in the Dum Dum area near Calcutta airport in the face of constant threats and attacks by the accused in Madhyamgram. But in Dum Dum, the accused had set the victim’s house on fire after which she died of burn injuries on December 31. The victim’s parents, along with CPM MPs from West Bengal, Sitaram Yechuri and Brinda Karat, had met President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Tuesday and demanded a CBI probe into the victim’s death and death sentence for the accused. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee rejected the demand for a CBI probe as she was satisfied with the inquiry conducted by the state police. She told reporters that the police had already arrested all accused and referred the case to a fast-track court so that the accused could be punished after a quick trial. But the Congress, BJP and other left parties feared that the accused would be soon released since the chargesheets were not properly framed as the accused allegedly belonged to the TMC. The Opposition had been demanding a CBI inquiry and had met Governor MK Narayanan at Calcutta Rajbhavan.
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Cong defers decision on replacing U’khand CM
New Delhi, January 10 The session is due to begin in Uttarakhand from January 13. An indication to the deferment of the decision was given today by senior Congress strategists after the Congress Core Group met at the residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
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We are not super cop: Apex court
New Delhi, January 10 “We are not super cops” to ensure implementation of the directive for the removal of black films on vehicles, a Bench remarked while dismissing a petition by Avishek Goenka at whose instance the SC had delivered its verdict in 2012 against the use of tinted glasses. In his petition, Goenka sought the setting up of an authority to monitor implementation of the verdict. The Bench said it could only issue directives for implementation by authorities. Another Bench rejected PIL on the price rise, asking petitioner advocate VPS Langawat not to come to the SC on such matters. — TNS
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Person not named in FIR can be tried: SC
New Delhi, January 10 “As a trial commences after framing of charges, an inquiry can only be understood to be a pre-trial inquiry. Inquiries under sections 200, 201, 202 and 398 of the CrPC are species of the inquiry contemplated by Section 319 of the CrPC,” the Bench ruled. “Materials coming before the court in course of such inquiries can be used for corroboration of the evidence recorded in court after trial commences for the exercise of power under Section 319 of CrPC and to add an accused whose name has been shown in column 2 of chargesheet,” the Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam said. Further, persons not named in the FIR or not chargesheeted or discharged could be summoned if proof indicated that such a person “could be tried with accused facing trial”. — TNS
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Mumbai airport’s new terminal inaugurated
Mumbai, January 10 Spread over four lakh sq metres, the new terminal cost Rs 9,800 cr to build. Work on the project began in 2008 and was due to be completed in 2010. But delays in obtaining several clearances and shifting existing structures within the airport premises caused major delays, according to the operator of the airport. Spread vertically over four storeys, the building is designed to look like a dancing peacock. The highlight of the terminal is the 3 km-long art wall which showcases several works of art procured from different parts of the country. The GVK Group that is managing the airport said more than 7,000 artefacts had been put on display at the art wall. "This terminal is expected to establish new global benchmarks of functional efficiency and operational safety. It will fulfill expectations we have from it and make us feel proud,” said PM.
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Lucknow, January 10
The comeback man