Archives for February 2018

Bengaluru: Yet another incident of friction between the Union government and the Congress-led Karnataka government, CM Siddaramaiah took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi after Prime Minister’s criticism against Congress led government by Siddaramaiah accusing it to be a ’10 percent commission government, Chief Minister verbally attacked the Prime Minister on Tuesday asking him to perform what he talks.

He also added that he was happy about the speech on corruption by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and invited him to “walk the talk”. With this, Siddaramaiah listed down four major controversies for the Prime Minister to start off with his action. These issues include investigation into Judge Loya’s death, probe on ascend of Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah, appointment of Lok Pal and the appointment of untainted person as BJP’s CM candidate in Karnataka.

Siddaramaih also pointed out that people were expecting the prime minister to speak on the Mahadayi dispute but there was no mention of the water sharing dispute in his speech.

“Modi should realise he is also the Prime Minister of the country. Instead, he made irresponsible allegations saying we were running a 10 per cent commission government. I want him to produce documents for this. He should instead ask his Chief Minister candidate BS Yedyurappa who was in jail for corruption charges about his tenure as former Chief Minister” he said.

(Agencies)

New Delhi: A fact finding team that visited Uttar Pradesh’s violence-hit Kasganj on February 2, in its report, released on Monday, raised serious questions over the state police’s integrity and its role. The activists also expressed concern at the silence of political parties at the incident.

The members of the team also categorically dismissed claims that the incident was a spontaneous act of communal violence and asserted that it was a “pre-meditated, well-planned and engineered act of violence and spreading communal hatred”, and feared that many more such incidents might be seen in near future.

The team, led by retired IPS officer S.R. Darapuri and consisting senior journalists Amit Sengupta, Hasanul Banna and Aleemullah Khan, activists Rakhi Sehgal, Banojyotsna Lahiri, Khalid Saifi, Mohit Pandey and others visited the Uttar Pradesh town where communal violence had erupted on January 26, and spoke with locals of both communities apart from local administration and police.

They underlined that amid the “biased” administration and “rabid” attempts by the Hindu right wing elements to drive a wedge between Hindus and Muslims, the silver lining is that people from both communities are still feeling for each other and mourning each others’ losses.

However, the Hindu neighbours are not willing to come out and identify the culprits, probably for fear of their own safety, the report pointed out.

The losses of property have been suffered only by the Muslims whose 27 shops were looted and set on fire by the mobs and the police avoided lodging their FIRs, the report said.

On the death of Chandan Gupta, the only person killed in the violence, the report underlined that police statements in media “are at odds with pictures of the deceased about the entry of the bullet”.

“The wound is on the upper arm, not in the collar bone. The angle and location of the bullet wound are different,” it said, adding that there is no certainty on at which place Gupta was shot and died or who shot him.

On the role of police, the report said: “The first FIR that was filed after the violence was FIR no59/2018. This was filed by SHO Ripudaman Singh. The FIR names four Muslims — Nasiruddin, Akram, A. Khan and Taufiq. But not a single Hindu was named in the FIR, although the report mentions both communities were involved in the clash.”

“No temples were attacked but two mosques were attacked. The police, report however, omits this fact of attack on a religious place which is a very serious crime,” it added.

The team also found that among those arrested or detained by police, Muslims are more than double in number that of Hindus despite the fact that no Hindu property was damaged or a temple desecrated whereas two mosques were completely burnt.

“No leader of any political party has reached out to the Muslim community, or the Hindu shopkeepers and locals, or tried to visit them and express solidarity even though messages were sent to them. There was no peace initiative by the political class…perhaps for fear of being labelled as minority appeasers,” the activists said.

(IANS)

New Delhi: The opposition on Tuesday boycotted the Rajya Sabha in the post lunch session, complaining that their voice was being muzzled outside as well as inside Parliament.

As soon as the House met at 2 p.m., Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad raised the issue of the House being adjourned without conducting the Zero Hour and the Question Hour for the past few days.

He asserted that Parliament works according to “rules, regulations, procedures and conventions” and not “according to one’s whims”.

Azad was joined by other opposition leaders, including Samajwadi Party’s Naresh Agarwal, Trinamool Congress’ Derek O’Brien and Communist Party of India-Marxist’s Tapan Sen in the protest.

Deputy Chairman P.J. Kurien said that the Chairman’s decisions could not be questioned in the House and the aggrieved members may meet the Chairman in his chamber.

At this, an enraged Azad announced that the opposition was boycotting the House for the day and the entire opposition then walked out of the House. Kurien adjourned the House till 3 p.m.

In the morning, Derek O’Brien had given a notice under Rule 267 to discuss the alleged overreach of West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi in trying to bypass the state government in administrative matters.

Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu rejected the notice and when O’Brien persisted with the matter during the Zero Hour, Naidu adjourned the House till 2 p.m., skipping even the Question Hour that is held from 12 noon to 1 p.m.

The TMC leader had tweeted: “Murder of democracy. Opposition being muzzled in Rajya Sabha #Parliament. We are not even being allowed to raise issues in Zero Hour. We will not put up with this.”

Outside the House, opposition leaders told media that an attempt was being made to stifle the opposition’s voice for the “last one week or so” and called it an attack on their democratic rights.

Speaking to the media, Azad said: “In the Zero Hour, important issues are raised. But what is happening for the last one week that when a member gives notice for speaking in Zero Hour, without hearing him/her, the House is adjourned till 2 p.m. That means the House is not being run according to rules and procedures of Parliament.

“So if we are not allowed to speak as per the rules and procedures of the House, naturally we will have to boycott and we will have to air our views in public through the media.”

Asked if he is attacking the Vice President of India, Azad said that he is not attacking one person in particular but “any person presiding over the House, who fails to conduct the House according to rules and procedures”.

(IANS)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday came down heavily on the Centre for filing an 845-page affidavit containing incomplete information about solid waste management across the country and said the apex court is not a “garbage collector”.

The top court declined to take the affidavit on record and said the government cannot dump “junk” before it.

“What are you trying to do? Are you trying to impress us? We are not impressed. You are trying to dump everything on us. We are not going to accept it,” a bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said.

“Don’t do this. Whatever junk you have, you dump it before us. We are not garbage collectors. Be absolutely clear about this,” the bench said.

The bench directed the Centre to file a chart within three weeks indicating whether the states and union territories have constituted state-level advisory boards in accordance with the provisions of Solid Waste Management Rules 2016.

It also directed the government to state in its chart the date the advisory boards were constituted in the states and UTs, names of members of the boards and also details of any meetings conducted by them.

At the outset, the counsel appearing for the Centre said they would file an 845-page affidavit in the matter during the course of the day.

However, when the bench posed certain queries, the counsel was unable to answer them properly.

The counsel informed the court that they have received information from 22 states about constitution of state-level advisory boards and have compiled data received from the respective states.

“There is no point in filing affidavits if they contain nothing. We are not taking this affidavit on record … You have not seen it and you want us to see this affidavit,” the bench observed.

The court had on December 12 last year asked the Centre to follow up on the matter of solid waste management with all states and UTs and furnish details before it.

The court had earlier expressed grave concern over the deaths due to vector-borne diseases like dengue and chikungunya and said lack of waste management was the cause of several lives being lost across the country.

It referred to the Solid Waste Management Rules 2016 and said the duties of various ministries, like the Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Ministry of Urban Development, were specified in it.

In 2015, the apex court had on its own taken cognizance of death of a seven-year-old boy due to dengue. He had been allegedly denied treatment by five private hospitals and his distraught parents subsequently committed suicide.

(PTI)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Monday sought a response from BCCI on controversial cricketer S Sreesanth’s plea challenging the life ban imposed on him by the apex cricket body.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud asked the Board of Control for Cricket in India and two office bearers of its Committee of Administrators (CoA) to file their responses within four weeks.

The court, however, refused to grant any interim relief sought by senior advocate Salman Khurshid, representing the cricketer, that he may be allowed to play.

Sreesanth, who had been absolved in the IPL spot-fixing case, was successful when he filed a plea before the single judge bench of the Kerala High Court challenging the life ban imposed on him by BCCI.

However, the division bench of the high court had set aside the single judge bench and upheld the ban.

The cricketer has now challenged the high court verdict in the apex court.

(PTI)