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UGC takes clean India campaign to varsities
House committee on external affairs sets ambitious agenda
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Doval, Hagel discuss security cooperation
Advani unhappy with working of Modi, Shah
Whiz kid held for duping job aspirants online
Ajit, Chavan in war of words
2G: CBI chief defends filing counter-affidavits
Kashmir a legal issue: Pakistan Tatkal tickets of 80 trains get costlier bjp-sena break-up:
Chavan, Raj blame Pawar
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UGC takes clean India campaign to varsities
New Delhi, October 2 UGC chairman Ved Prakash in the presence of HRD Minister Smriti Irani, rolled a new scheme — Swachh Bharat and Swasth Bharat - to be implemented in institutions of higher learning. The UGC said: “The objective of the scheme is to propel the Swachh Bharat Mission through four Cs - clean mind, clean body, clean environment and clean society - among the youth.” There was no clarity on the first two Cs - clean mind and clean body - or ways the UGC will adopt to foster these things among the youth. The scheme was launched by Irani at Sardar Patel University, Vallabh Vidyanagarin Gujarat. The programme was attended by a large number of teachers, students, administrative officers, mediapersons and the UGC Chairman. The UGC asked vice-chancellors of all Central, state, deemed and private universities to gear up for cleanliness drives through curricular and co-curricular exercises on their campuses. “These drives could involve tree plantation, effective waste management, achievement of a plastic-free environment, rainwater harvesting and smoke and drugs free campuses,” Ved Prakash
said.
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Armed forces join drive
New Delhi, October 2 Navy Chief Admiral Robin Dhowan participated in the ‘Cleanliness Awareness Walk’, followed by a 'shramdan' in naval areas. He said the Indian Navy 'Environment Conservation Roadmap' has been prepared to be implemented across all operational platforms — ships, submarines and aircrafts — and shore- based establishments. IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha, administered the oath to his force. On September 25, the IAF units all across the country had embarked upon a cleanliness drive in the technical and residential areas.
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New Delhi, October 2 BJP workers too organised various events across the country to spread awareness about the mission. Kerala CM Oommen Chandy set the campaign going by inaugurating the plastic removal drive in Thiruvananthpuram. Tamil Nadu Governor K Rosaiah initiated the cleanliness drive at the Raj Bhawan in Chennai “on the call” of Modi’s mission to make India clean. In Bihar, Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, Union Ministers Ramvilas Paswan, Ravishankar Prasad and Upendra Kushwaha and actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha took up the broom at various places in the state. Mizoram CM Lal Thanhawla and his cabinet colleagues swept main road in the Mahatma Gandhi Square. — PTI
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House committee on external affairs sets ambitious agenda
New Delhi, October 2 After the constitution of new committees of Parliament, the panel on External Affairs headed by former Minister of State Shashi Tharoor decided to examine a series of issues concerning the working of both the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and Overseas Indian Affairs
(OIA) during the current financial year. The panel, which, among other things, takes up discussion on demands for grants for the ministry, identified four areas that it will focus on. These include: recruitment, structure and capacity-building of the IFS Cadre, including need for a separate UPSC examination for cadre, mid-career entry and in-service training and orientation; Role, responsibilities and functioning of Indian missions/posts abroad, including their role in showcasing India for tourism, medical tourism, investment etc; India’s Soft Power diplomacy, including role of Indian Council for Cultural Relations and Indian Diaspora; and Performance of Passport issuance system and implementation of e-Passport Project for Indian citizens. While examining the Demands for Grants 2013-14, the panel had expressed its “anguish” with the ministry for submitting a “vague and incomplete reply” over its concern on staff strength and status of expansion plan. The committee then headed by Ananth Kumar, who is now a Union minister, observed that as against the estimated strength of 7,346 officers in Group A and B of the service, the serving officers’ strength stood at 5,761 with a shortfall of 1,585 personnel. The committee, among other things, was told that plans were drawn to address the issue on two fronts, through expanding IFS and cadre review of the IFS (B) and positions were filled via direct recruitment by
UPSC, departmental promotion and lateral induction through deputation. In the past, Shashi Tharoor had flagged the lean IFS as an issue stating that compared to even countries in
BRICS, India has one of the lowest personnel. The MEA website states that at an average of 8-15 people are recruited each year and approximately a cadre of 600 are taking care of 162 missions. As for the
OIA, the topics that will be under scrutiny include: problems of Indian migrant workers, professionals and students abroad and functioning of Protector General of Emigrants and Protectors of Emigrants Offices.
Panel to focus on 20 subjects
The panel has identified 20 subjects — 15 of the MEA and 5 for the OIA — to be briefed by officials during 2014-15. These include India's claim for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council; impact of activities of neighbouring countries in the Indian Ocean; recent developments in the India-China relations; and the Indo-Pakistan ties under the current political situation in Pakistan
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Doval, Hagel discuss security cooperation
“In their discussion they emphasised US-India common security interests, their commitment to the strategic partnership and future areas of security cooperation,” Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby said after the meeting
yesterday. Hagel and Doval also discussed recent developments in Afghanistan and the need to continue to cooperate on security and development in the region. “Secretary Hagel conveyed that the Prime Minister’s visit had been a great success and has laid the foundation for deepening cooperation between the two countries,” Kirby
said. Doval who had arrived in the US along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week, has extended his stay in the country by two days, to meet top leaders of the Obama administration.
— PTI
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Advani unhappy with working of Modi, Shah
Ahmedabad, October 2 He also showed his displeasure at the break-up of party's 25-year-old alliance with the Shiv Sena during the Maharashtra Assembly elections. "I would have been happy if the alliance continued, but I do not know much why the truce was broken," he said. Advani said only the BJP had the strength to form a government at the Centre but all its alliance partners were having important political footholds in their respective states. "As the big brother in the alliance partnership, it was also the responsibility of the BJP to ensure that understanding with its partners at the state levels were not endangered," he said. Advani was here to participate in the "Swachh Bharat" campaign launched nationally to mark Gandhi Jayanti. Advani wielded broom at the Vastrapur lake in Ahmedabad, which falls in his parliamentary constituency of Gandhinagar. As part of the cleanliness drive, the state government yesterday decided to amend the Gujarat Panchayat Act, 1993, to make it obligatory for all keen to contest the panchayat elections at the village levels to have toilets at their homes.
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Whiz kid held for duping job aspirants online
Lucknow, October 2 Electronic surveillance led to Shivendu’s arrest near a mall on Kanpur road last evening. Two FIRs have been lodged against him in Sisamau police station in Kanpur and another one in Bhopal. SSP STF Amit Pathak said Shivendu was operating a fake Railway Recruitment Board (Bhopal) website through which he was duping gullible job aspirants. Originally a resident of Bihar, he had been operating from Varanasi. “He quit studies after Class X but continued to upgrade his IT knowledge through online studies. His grasp over the subject is phenomenal,” said SSP Pathak. On the website, Madhav had advertised 11,814 job openings for different posts and collected over Rs 13.5 lakh from over 3,500 aspirants who had made payments online. Using his technical expertise, he had made a foolproof plan to mislead the police. On the hosting server, he had put the name of a fake website from Canada. There were no details of the website operator. His debit card details, however, resulted in his arrest. “He had used his debit card to make the payment for the server. We tracked him and pinned him down,” said Pathak. The STF has managed to block money transfer to Shivendu’s account. The money would soon be returned to the aspirants, said Pathak. In his short-lived illustrious career, Shivendu ran a blog technozeast.com on which he posted his IT-related articles. Amazed at the quality of articles, a Texas University professor reportedly bought the blog for Rs 4 lakh.
Fake rail job website
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Ajit, Chavan in war of words
Mumbai, October 2 Today, Ajit Pawar retorted by calling for several decisions taken by Chavan on poll eve to be probed. “If the NCP comes to power, we will investigate all decisions taken by the urban development department in the last two months,” Pawar said. He said the NCP had filed several RTI applications to obtain details of decisions taken by the UDD headed by the former CM. On Wednesday, Pawar told mediapersons calls were made to big builders asking them to shell out money to some middlemen to get their proposals cleared. He alleged the calls originated from Varsha, the official residence of the Chief Minister. On the other hand, Chavan has accused Ajit Pawar and his uncle Sharad Pawar of the NCP of harbouring a lust for power. "Sharad Pawar broke away from the Congress party since he wanted to be the PM. Ajit Pawar pulled down the government because of his "demonic wish" to be CM."
— TNS
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2G: CBI chief defends filing counter-affidavits
New Delhi, October 2 “No time is appropriate to bring the truth before the Supreme Court,” Sinha said in a strong observation made in an internal note on the questions raised by Lalit over the matter being reconsidered by the CBI chief and individual affidavits being filed after a consolidated reply was given earlier. “This case was investigated and charge-sheets were filed before I took over the office,” he added. Sinha said while the trial before the CBI court was under way, the accused in the case had filed writ petitions before the Supreme Court, which issued notice to the CBI for filing a response.
— PTI
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Sidelined BJP veteran LK Advani today expressed displeasure over the style of functioning of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his close aide, Amit Shah, the national president of his party. "Modi may be good, but Atal Bihari Vajpayee by far is the best Prime Minister the country has ever had," Advani commented about his one-time protégé whose policy to keep the leaders above the age of 75 years away, has thrown him into virtual political oblivion.
Washington, October 2