Archives for July 2018

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday directed his Transport Minister Kailash Gehlot to visit the people affected by the flood waters of the Yamuna river and ensure arrangements for the displaced people. The authorities, meanwhile, continued evacuating the affected people to safer places.

“Directed Kailash Gehlotji, Minister-in-charge, to visit the area along with all officers and ensure proper arrangements,” Kejriwal tweeted, attaching a news report about people complaining of “no arrangements from the Delhi government”.

Gehlot responded to Kejriwal’s tweet with: “Will visit this area around 9.30 a.m. along with Divisional Commissioner and other officers to ensure that all arrangements are in place,” Gehlot tweeted.

According to the Delhi government, over 1,000 families had been evacuated till Sunday morning.

The river’s water level rose to 205.66 meters on Monday morning due to water discharge from Haryana’s Hathnikund Barrage amid continuous rain in the catchment areas. It is expected to rise to 206.60 meters on July 31, a flood department official said.

Haryana had released 6,00,000 cusecs of water at 6 p.m. on Saturday.

The water released at Hathnikund barrage, which provides drinking water to New Delhi, normally takes 72 hours to reach the city.

Ousted Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was on Sunday shifted to Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) after his health deteriorated in Adiala jail in Rawalpindi, the media reported.

Doctors conducted a check-up of the former Prime Minister after he complained of chest pain and advised that he be shifted to a coronary care unit (CCU) immediately, Geo News quoted jail sources as saying.

Following this, the jail Superintendent contacted the caretaker government, which decided to shift Sharif to PIMS.

On July 24, a medical board formed to ascertain Sharif’s health said the three-time Prime Minister was in need of constant medical care and attention.

A five-member medical board formed by PIMS had conducted a medical check-up of Nawaz Sharif on Monday, where the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz chief is serving his sentence for corruption.

Nawaz Sharif, who flew from London to Lahore alongside his daughter Maryam Nawaz on July 13, was arrested on arrival at the Allama Iqbal International Airport, flown to Islamabad via a helicopter, and shifted to jail, where he is serving the sentence awarded to him in the Avenfield properties case along with his daughter and son-in-law Mohammad Safdar.

Voters in Zimbabwe are going to the polls on Monday in the country’s first election without long-time leader Robert Mugabe’s name on the ballot.

Both parliamentary and regional body polls are scheduled to take place simultaneously, the BBC reported.

The country’s founding President Mugabe was ousted in a coup in 2017 after almost four decades in power.

The main contenders in the presidential vote are incumbent Emmerson Mnangagwa, of the ruling Zanu-PF party, and opposition leader Nelson Chamisa.

Mnangagwa, 75, has a narrow advantage over his 40-year-old rival, who leads the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

On Monday, Mugabe — who first came to power after independence in 1980 — said he would not vote for his successor.

The country is expecting a high turnout of first-time voters, where the youth vote is expected to be the key. Almost half of those registered are under the age of 35.

There are 5,635,706 voters who have re-registered for the poll as the opposition still harbours doubts about its accuracy.

Hundreds of international observers have been deployed to ensure the vote goes smoothly, but the opposition has repeatedly alleged irregularities in the voter roll, the BBC reported.

It has been 16 years since EU and US observers were allowed to monitor elections that will take at 10,985 polling stations across the nation.

The observers have expressed concern over the security of ballot papers and voter intimidation mainly in the rural areas.

The election follows decades of repressive rule which has brought severe economic challenges to Zimbabwe including issues of investment, education, healthcare and jobs.

The unemployment rate is estimated to be as high as 90 per cent, the BBC said.

President Mnangagwa, who is known as “the crocodile” for his political shrewdness, has promised to deliver jobs.He has survived several assassination attempts blamed on supporters of Mugabe.

Chamisa, who became an MP at the age of 25, could become the country’s youngest president if elected.

Chamisa has promised to rebuild the country’s devastated economy, but been criticised for making extravagant promises — such as the introduction of a high-speed bullet train and bringing the Olympics to Zimbabwe.

Following favourable comments by Mugabe for the qualified pastor at a surprise news conference on Sunday, Mnangagwa said it was clear to all that Chamisa has made a deal with Mugabe.

 Hitting back for the first time at critics who questioned his perceived friendly relations with corporates, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that unlike “some people” he was “not afraid of” publicly standing beside industrialists and business magnates because his intentions were “noble”.

In response, the Congress responded to his remarks saying he should not lend his legitimacy and respectability to “crony capitalists” while Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Adami Party leader Arvind Kejriwal called it “an unsuccessful try” as people were now raising questions.

In his address at a government-industry interface in Lucknow as he inaugurated several development projects for Uttar Pradesh, Modi said industrialists too contribute to nation building and it was not right to label them all as thieves but those who do wrong “will have to leave the country” or live in jail.

“We are not the people who will be afraid of standing beside industrialists. You would be knowing some people (who are such) that you would not find a single photo of them with an industrialist/businessman. But there is not a single businessman in this country who would not have gone to these people’s places and bowed to them in reverence,” he said.

“If your intentions are noble, you won’t be tainted no matter with whom you are standing,” Modi said, adding that Mahatma Gandhi never had any qualms about living in the Birla household.

The opposition has been targeting Modi over his picture at Davos economic forum in January this year with fugitive diamondaire Nirav Modi who is at the centre of multi-thousand crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam besides the Prime Minister’s perceived closeness with another fugitive, Mehul Choksi, whom he once publicly addressed as “Mehul bhai”.

The opposition has also been critical of Modi government’s inaction while persons like Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi, Choksi, Jatin Mehta and Lalit Modi easily flew out of the country after being accused of committing huge financial frauds.

The Congress has of late also targeting Modi for allegedly giving the offset contract in the Rafale jet deal with France to “one of his corporate friends” at the expense of state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.

“Mahatma Gandhi never hesitated standing beside (Ghanshyam Das) Birlaji because his intentions were right. But those who do things behind the curtain and wish not to be seen publicly (with corporates), they are afraid,” Modi said.

“Just as much as the labour of a farmer, an artisan, a banker, a government employee or a labourer goes into the making of the nation, the efforts of industrialists too have a role in nation building. Should we insult them, call them thieves and robbers? Is this the way?

“But yes, whoever (among corporates) does the wrong, he will either have too leave the country or live in jail. This would not happen earlier because a lot happened behind the curtains then.”

Addressing a media conference in Delhi later, Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said “If the Prime Minister feels alright to be photographed with such people, who allegedly ripped off the banking system, and run away to Antigua and London or probably disappear from the earth, then I leave it to the Prime Minister’s wisdom to lend his legitimacy and respectability to such people.”

“The question is not the capitalists or industrialists. The question is what kind of capitalists or industrialists,” he said, while stressing his party was not against industrialists and capitalists, but against “crony capitalists”.

Tewari also hit out at Modi for comparing himself with Mahatma Gandhi.

Kejriwal questioned Modi’s closeness with those who looted the country and all the investigating agencies failed to nab.

“Giving a contract of the Air Force to a 10-day old company and whose owner is a friend of PM. All these are raising questions among the people. Sir, your clarification is unsuccessful try,” he said in a tweet in Hindi.