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Antony red-flags MoD proposal on Rolls Royce
Tension prevails in Meerut after clash; 200 booked
Polls over, focus shifts to search for Seemandhra capital
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Rajnath meets top RSS leaders over post-poll scenario
Retd soldiers irked over Cong’s OROP boasting
Assam Govt for CBI probe into doc’s death
Bodo violence hits children most
Great Himalayan National Park nominated for World Heritage tag
Now, get marriage certificate in 24 hrs
AAP leader says open to Third Front, party denies
CRPF ‘limits’ armoured vehicles’ use
AAP questions EC clean chit to Rahul
Repolling in 11 UP booths
U’khand to seek Haryana, Punjab help for safer Hemkund yatra
Maoists torch bikes, tractor in Odisha village
Two held with 25 kg gold at Mumbai airport
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Antony red-flags MoD proposal on Rolls Royce
After the scam broke out early this year, the Defence Ministry had put on hold all dealings with Rolls Royce pending a CBI probe ordered into the allegations against it. The Defence Ministry wing dealing with the Rolls Royce case is understood to have recommended that the government should continue doing business with the firm but Antony refused to give a go-ahead and asked the officials concerned to take an opinion from the Law Ministry and the Solicitor General before moving any further in the case, government sources said here. Antony had earlier asked the ministry to take an opinion from the Law Ministry about the actions that could be taken against Rolls Royce. The UK-based firm has already told the Defence Ministry that it would return Rs 18 crore paid by it as commission to its agents but the Government is yet to take any decision in this regard. Rolls Royce in a letter written to HAL in December last admitted it had employed a Singapore-based person identified as Ashok Patni and his firm Aashmore Private Limited as "commercial advisor" in India, providing sales and logistical support, local business support and "strategic advice". The commissions paid by the firm are in violation of the procurement rules in India which prohibit hiring of middlemen or commission agents while transacting deals with the Defence Ministry. The Indian Air Force (IAF) was of the view that a delay in signing a maintenance contract with Rolls Royce will impact the defence preparedness of the country. The Indian Air Force has to sign a fresh
contract with it for maintenance and overhaul of six types of aircraft engines in the AJT Hawk, Jaguar, Avro, Kiran MkII and Sea Harrier military aircraft and Sea King helicopters.
— PTI Firm facing CBI probe
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Tension prevails in Meerut after clash; 200 booked
Lucknow, May 11 The historic Naushandi mela has been winded up after the fracas. Security has been tightened in the city following the Saturday clash with eight companies of Rapid Action Force and six companies of Provincial Armed Constabulary deployed, said Meerut SSP Omkar Singh. Seven persons were injured, one of them seriously, in the clash which saw both sides pelting stones and opening fire at each other, he said. The violence erupted in Teer Garan area under Kotwali police station. Mobs looted three shops and set ablaze one shop and motorcycles. They even clashed with the district administration, police and media persons. On closure of Naushandi mela, the Meerut SSP said the decision was taken as a precautionary measure as the mela held at night in the heart of the city saw heavy footfall and there was possibility of further clashes. Traders, who wait the whole year for the mela, have started winding up their stalls. “The business remained poor first due to the Lok Sabha elections and now due to early closure pf the mela following the clashes,” complained a trader. SSP has warned of stern action against those found indulging in rumour-mongering. Cases have been registered against 200 persons, said the SSP, adding that more persons will be booked after identifying them from the video footage of the incident. Security beefed up
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Polls over, focus shifts to search for Seemandhra capital
Hyderabad, May 11 While the state administration is virtually racing against time to complete the bifurcation related works, including distribution of staff, a five-member expert committee, appointed by the Centre to choose the capital for Seemandhra region, is on a field visit inspecting the infrastructure and other facilities in the region and interacting with the local officials. The panel, headed by a retired IAS officer Sivaramakrishnan, has visited the coastal cities of Visakhapatnam and Rajahmundry and is expected to tour other places in the region like Vijayawada, Guntur, Kurnool and Tirupati which are in the race for the location of the new capital. The local political groups and social organisations have been lobbying for their respective cities to be made the new capital of residuary AP spread over 13 districts. The challenge before the committee is to find a suitable place that is easily accessible to people from any part of the region and ideally positioned to provide infrastructure and resources to meet the future demand. Officials said the committee will study the facilities, land and suitability of the places for deciding the capital location and submit its report to the Centre before August 31. The officials are exploring possibility of replicating Gujarat’s “Gandhinagar” model. It would require about Rs 1,000 crore to Rs 2,000 crore to provide infrastructure for the new capital city of residuary AP. Gandhinagar master plan was prepared for the development of a balanced and healthy community, socially as well as economically, as its central theme. Race against time
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Rajnath meets top RSS leaders over post-poll scenario
RSS sources said during the meeting with both Modi and Rajnath, the Sangh top leadership voiced confidence that a BJP-led government will form the next government at the Centre. At the same time, they gave a "word of caution" to the BJP to handle the "upcoming responsibility with care" while extending the Sangh's full support to the party. The RSS leaders are learnt to have also expressed "satisfaction" at the BJP poll campaign. During his meeting with RSS general secretaries Bhayyaji Joshi, the Sangh second-in-command and Suresh Soni, the RSS pointsman for BJP, alongwith other leaders, Rajnath thanked the Sangh for the support they extended to BJP candidates during the nine-phased Lok Sabha polls that comes to an end tomorrow. The top RSS leaders held a closed-door meeting with the BJP president for almost two hours at the RSS office in Jhandewalan in central Delhi which was followed by lunch. Others who were also present at the meeting were RSS joint general secretaries Dattatreya Hosabale and Krishan Gopal. Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat was not present in today's meeting as he left early morning. "It is not like in this two-hour meeting, the strategy to form the next government was discussed. It was a general affectionate meeting. I do not say it was a courtesy meeting, as there is no courtesy meeting in the Sangh. They have been working hard for a lot of days and we are glad," Dattatreya said after the meeting. Asked about the meeting, sources close to the BJP chief said, "RSS workers have worked hard at the ground level to make BJP candidates win in the elections and Rajnathji has come to express his gratitude for this to the Sangh." — PTI Sangh confident of BJP-led govt
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Retd soldiers irked over Cong’s OROP boasting
New Delhi, May 11 Maj-Gen Satbir Singh (retd), chairman of the Indian Ex-servicemen Movement (IESM), today said no order for implementing the OROP formula had been issued so far. “During election rallies, all top leaders of the Congress, including its president (Sonia Gandhi), have been boasting of having granted the OROP, but the soldiers are still waiting for the formal orders to be issued by the government,” he said. He said the Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA), the Principal Controller Defence Accounts (PDCA) and the Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare (DESW) are now carrying out their own interpretation of the OROP definition. “This falls far below the intended pension benefits to defence personnel,” he said. Interpreting the definition of OROP in any other way than as per the Rajya Sabha Petition Committee Report presented in Parliament on December 19, 2011, is a “serious manipulation” by the bureaucracy, the body of retired soldiers maintains. According to the IESM, the RS panel report said, “OROP implies uniform pension be paid to armed forces personnel retiring in the same rank with the same length of service, irrespective of their date of retirement, and any future enhancement in the rates of pension be automatically passed on to the past pensioners. This implies bridging the gap between the rate of pension of the current pensioners and the past pensioners and future enhancements….be automatically passed on to the past pensioners”. The fears of retired servicemen stem from the formation of a working group, comprising representatives of the CGDA, the DESW, the Ministry of Defence (Finance) and the three Services. The panel was formed on April 24 and the CGDA was asked to finalise the draft government letter (DGL). It has to be submitted to the MoD along with estimate of financial implications thereof, within three weeks (before May 14). The DGL was presented by the Services on April 22, but it was rejected. Since the deadline ends just two days before the counting for the General Election (May 16), there are fears that the outgoing government may not be able to implement the formula in case officials came up with some fresh complication.
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Assam Govt for CBI probe into doc’s death
Guwahati, May 11 "We will recommend a CBI inquiry into the killing (of Sarita Tashniwal of Assam Medical College Hospital here)," Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said today after meeting striking junior doctors of the AMCH protesting against the Friday's killing. "Till the CBI starts its probe, the state CID will continue with its investigation," he said adding the case would be tried in a fast-track court and the guilty would be brought to book at the earliest. The minister assured the striking doctors that he would take steps to fulfil their demands by Tuesday. "Give me time till Tuesday and I assure you that you will see action being taken," Sarma told the doctors. The Junior Doctors Association, spearheading the agitation, however, refused to suspend their agitation till concrete actions were taken. The junior doctors are demanding punishment to the accused, security to be stepped up within the campus, proper installation of CCTV cameras for round-the-clock surveillance. A first year obstetrics and gynaecology PG student, Sarita Tasniwal, was found dead on Friday with a surgical knife stabbed inside her neck on the bed of the doctors resting room inside the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Khiru Mech, a ward boy of the ICU, who had allegedly tried to rape her before killing her while she was on night duty, was arrested besides four others. The striking doctors were also demanding resignation of AMCH Principal A K Adhikary, Vice Principal Hemchandra Kalita and Superintendent M Patowary and police re-verification of all ward boys and lower grade staff, a spokesman of the doctors' association said. On AMCH Principal Dr A K Adhikary's continuous absence from the hospital since the incident, the minister said it was a "serious matter and it will be dealt with seriously". Biswa Sarma also reviewed the situation with senior doctors, district administration and police officials. He directed senior doctors and professors, who were attending to patients, to ensure that patients did not suffer.
— PTI
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Bodo violence hits children most
Guwahati, May 11 The commission has asked the Baksa District administration to provide the exact number of such orphans for the purpose. Of the 498 persons, who have taken shelter in a relief camp at Narayanguri in Baksa district following the brutal attack on Khagrabari village by unidentified armed militants on May 2, as many as 200 are children. The commission has also urged Assam Government to ensure that the children affected by the violence continue their studies and provide them free books from the Sarva Siksha Abhijan (SSA). In its report to Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, ASCPCR chairperson Runumi Gogoi, who visited the violence-affected families of a relief camp at Narayanguri under Govardhan Police Station in Baksa District, also recommended that local administration take immediate steps to provide safe drinking water and nutritious food to children, especially those in the age group of 0-6 years. She informed that out of the 200 minors at the camp, 85 are in the age group of 0-6. The relief camp houses 498 people. Meanwhile, of the 45 bodies recovered so far in the latest conflagration in the BTAD, 14 were of children. The missing children are from NK Khagrabari, Narsignbari and Narayanguri villages under Govardhan Police Station in Baksa District. The ASCPCR has asked Baksa Deputy Commissioner (DC) Vindo Sesenk to put the missing cases of children under the Child Tracking System so that they can be tracked effectively by various government agencies. The commission also intimated to the DC about the UNICEF’s keenness to provide psycho-social counselling to all those children affected by violence in Baksa. Gogoi said the state government will set up a permanent rehabilitation commission to look after child victims of riots and insurgency related violence in the state. The commission will facilitate proper shelter, education and permanent settlement of such
violence-hit children.
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Great Himalayan National Park nominated for World Heritage tag
New Delhi, May 11 IUCN will present its recommendations to the World Heritage Committee during its 38th meeting from June 15 to 25 in Doha, Qatar. It will also discuss the necessary action to conserve world's natural wonders in a range of debates and side events. The Great Himalayan National Park Conservation Area, one of the most picturesque areas in the Western Himalayas -- well known for its exquisite floral and faunas biodiversity -- had lost the chance to get the World Heritage Site status last year. The Great Himalayan National Park, located in the Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh and covering an area of 754.4 square kms, is naturally protected by snow covered, steep ridges on its northern, eastern and southern boundaries. It is contiguous with the Rupi Bhaba Wildlife Sanctuary in the south-east, Pin Valley National Park in the north-east and Kanawar Wildlife Sanctuary in the north. These areas form the Great Himalayan National Park Conservation Area. The area was declared as National Park under the Wildlife (Protection Act) 1972 by the Himachal Pradesh Government in 1999. This pristine area of temperate forests and alpine meadows surrounded by high mountains has remained without any human interference since 1999. The Great Himalayan National Park harbours a wide variety of wildlife habitats and high biological diversity within a small area. It harbours the most important gene pool of Western Himalayan flora and fauna. This includes endangered mammalian species such as snow leopard, Asiatic black bear and Himalayan brown bear.
— PTI
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Dera chief is a pop star as well
Sirsa, May 8 He has so far come out with six albums-“Thank U for That”, “Network Tere Love Ka”, “Chashma Yaar Ka”, “Insan”, “Lov Rabb Se” and, the most recent, “Highway Love Charger”. All these albums were released by Universal Music. “But the music he produces and plays is for a social cause,” says Dr Insan. The Dera chief is facing trial in the murders of Sirsa journalist Ram Chander Chhatarpati and a former dera follower Ranjit Singh. He is also a key accused in a sexual exploitation case involving a former sadhvi of his dera. The three cases are in the CBI court at Panchkula. The dera says the cases are part of a conspiracy against the godman. Dr Insan says Gurmit Ram Rahim has designed his own vehicles and a special lift-like contraption that transports him among his devotees. “In a country where communalism and casteism rule the roost, a unifying organisation like ours has to face conspiracies orchestrated by vested interests. It is no secret that Guruji’s message unites people,” says Dr Insan. The musical side of Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh’s personality came to notice when he organised two back-to-back shows in Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and Ramlila Maidan in Delhi last month. Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda, state Congress chief Ashok Tanwar, Haryana Janhit Congress supremo Kuldeep Bishnoi and state BJP president Ram Bilas Sharma, former Lok Sabha Speaker Balram Jakhar, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal from Punjab and Union Minister Rajiv Shukla were among those present during “Rubru Nite” organised by the dera in Delhi on April 13-14. During musical events, the dera chief comes clad in the attires of a rock star and enthrals the audience through his songs which are religious in text, but based on the latest Bollywood numbers. The show man
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Now, get marriage certificate in 24 hrs
New Delhi, May 11 “In compliance with a Supreme Court order in 2006, the Delhi Government had made mandatory the registration of marriage within 60 days of tying the knot. The tatkal service has been introduced to provide the papers on priority basis to those who seek them urgently," the Delhi Government's Revenue Secretary Dharam Pal told PTI. "The service, which became operational on April 22, enables the citizens to register their nuptials and get a certificate issued within 24 hours on payment of Rs 10,000 as fee," he said. While the government charges Rs 100 as application fee for registration under the Hindu Marriage Act, Rs 150 is levied under the Special Marriage Act. Additionally, people pay around Rs 400-500 to acquire certain affidavits that need to be submitted with the applications. “We are also considering authorising the sub-divisional magistrate to register marriages, which is currently done by the Additional Magistrate," Dharam Pal said. A Delhi Government portal, ensuring a transparent and hassle-free registration process for the applicants, is expected to go live next month, he said. The portal will enable the applicants to download forms and will offer a step-by-step guide for the process. The users will also be able to check the status of their application, Pal said. As per Lt Governor Najeeb Jung's order, the Delhi (Compulsory Registration of Marriage) Order, 2014, will be applicable to all marriages solemnised in Delhi irrespective of caste, creed and religion of the brides and grooms. "Any marriage solemnised in Delhi between a man having completed 21 years and a woman of at least 18 years of age on the date of solemnisation of the marriage, with at least one of them being an Indian citizen, will have to be compulsorily registered," the order said. As per the order, the couples will have to apply jointly in the prescribed Form-A to the marriage officer in their areas for registration of their marriage. — PTI The ‘tatkal’ service
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AAP leader says open to Third Front, party denies
Varanasi, May 11 In a statement later in the evening, the AAP it has contested the Lok Sabha elections to "present a model of alternative politics before the people of the country and any speculation about the party supporting any Third or Fourth Front is completely misleading and contrary to the party's stated position". "The AAP cannot and will not be a part of any front which could include parties whose leaders are involved in corruption…The party will prefer to sit in Opposition rather than be a part of extend support to any combination/front which compromises with corruption, since this is against the core values for which this party was formed," the statement said. Earlier Rai, considered close to Kejriwal, said: "Our movement is for common people and support will be definitely issue-based. Final decision on future action will be taken after May 16 when results will be declared," he said.
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CRPF ‘limits’ armoured vehicles’ use
New Delhi, May 11 The force has issued a set of standard operating procedures to its commanders in the Naxal operations grid to "limit" the usage of these mobile armoured bunkers. "We have decided to limit the use of the mine-protected vehicles during routine anti-Naxal operations. These armoured vehicles, which carry troops, will only be used during specific emergencies and combat situations," CRPF chief Dilip Trivedi told PTI. The CRPF Director General said the decision was taken by the force after obtaining information from commanders deployed on the ground and the step was aimed at saving the paramilitary troops from deadly Naxal ambushes. The CRPF, mainstay for anti-Naxal operations in the country with close to 90,000 personnel deployed for the task, has more than 100 such four-wheeled armoured vehicles with its units spread across Left Wing Extremism affected states. These MPVs will be used in rare instances only, like in case of a quick emergency evacuation of troops.
— PTI
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AAP questions EC clean chit to Rahul
Varanasi, May 11 Vishwas, who is contesting the LS elections against Rahul from the constituency, in a Tweet alleged that even though Rahul was found entering the polling booths, no action was taken by the EC. The EC yesterday gave a clean chit to Gandhi on the allegation that he had violated secrecy of voting by entering the enclosure of the EVM in one of the polling booths in Amethi on May 7.
— PTI
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Repolling in 11 UP booths
Lucknow, May 11 The poll panel, however, did not spell out any specific reason for the conduct of repoll. In Muzaffarnagar, repolling will be held at two polling booths each in Budhana and Charthawan assembly areas. In Badaun, repolling will be held at a booth in Sahsawan assembly area and in Firozabad, it will be done at three polling booths each in Jasrana and Sirasganj. — PTI
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U’khand to seek Haryana, Punjab help for safer Hemkund yatra
Dehradun, May 11 The pilgrims would be advised not to use motorcycles without silencers to ensure locals are not inconvenienced. “We are in the process of communicating to the governments of Haryana and Punjab to advise pilgrims to maintain restraint and also encourage them to use buses and small vehicles instead of motorcycles,” said an official. At times, youths from these states are seen triple-riding on motorcycles, which is dangerous. Also, wooden sleepers are placed in trucks to ferry pilgrims in violation of the Motor Vehicle Act.
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Maoists torch bikes, tractor in Odisha village
Koraput, May 11 The armed Maoists reached Tolo Goluru village situated along Odisha-Andhra border under Pottangi police station last night and torched the motorbikes and the tractor. Villagers claimed that the ultras had taken four persons along with them while leaving the village.
— PTI
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Two held with 25 kg gold at Mumbai airport
Mumbai, May 11 This is the highest seizure of smuggled
gold from the airport in a day, claimed Milind Lanjewar, Additional Commissioner, AIU. In the first case, Mohammed Aboobacker arrived from Dubai via Muscat and was intercepted with 13 gold bars of one kg each and two gold bars of 10 'tolas' (100 gms) each, worth Rs 3.39 crore.
— PTI
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New Delhi, May 11
New Delhi, May 11