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Sidhu hugging Pakistan Army chief was demoralising: Sitharaman

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Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said that Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu hugging Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa during his recent visit to the neighbouring country was “demoralising”.

“Navjot Sidhu has a lot of admirers and followers. He has been a very popular cricketer… He has his fan following. Somebody of that stature, going (to Pakistan) and then there hugging the chief of the Army…an Army about which in India we have very clear feelings,” Sitharaman said.

“It certainly has an impact on the soldiers and all the people in the (Defence) Ministry. The public response has also been similar that it demoralises,” she added.

“If it demoralises people, I wish Siddhu had avoided. I am not talking about him going (to Pakistan) but more about that singular gesture of hugging the Army chief,” Sitharaman said.

Cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu had been invited for the swearing-in ceremony of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, who was also a cricketer.

Sidhu also claimed to have brought up the issue of opening the route to Sikh pilgrimage site Kartarpur Saheb with the Pakistan leadership. However, Sidhu has been facing flak from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) for meddling in a bilateral affair.

Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal said on Tuesday: “Shockingly, Navjot Singh Sidhu gave the impression to everyone that it is he who has got it (Kartarpur Saheb route) opened with the Pakistan government. I wonder why he made an unannounced visit to Sushmaji’s office yesterday (Monday) when he claims he has already got the corridor opened.”

“Rightly, he was reprimanded by the External Affairs Minister for misusing his personal visit clearance and lowering reputation of India as well as causing diplomatic faux pas.

“I ask Rahul Gandhi that a Minister of your party went to an enemy nation, betrayed our people and played with the sentiments of Sikhs. Was this all done with your blessings? Will you take action against him, or are you hand in glove with him?” she added.

BJP Spokesman Sambit Patra, too, slammed Sidhu for running “parallel diplomacy”.

He said that while giving Sidhu clearance to visit Pakistan, Sushma Swaraj had cautioned him to “not be hyper” and guard against saying or doing anything that “may lower India’s reputation”.

Coming to Sidhu’s defence, Congress spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala said the BJP, which Sidhu left two years back, continues to “nurture animosity” against him.

About Sidhu meeting Sushma Swaraj on Monday, Surjewala said that instead of “planting” stories about reprimanding Sidhu, the External Affairs Minister should officially say as to what transpired in the meeting.

“Instead of berating Sidhu, should not the Prime Minister be ensuring that our Sikh brothers and sisters are permitted to have ‘darshan’ of a place which is important for Sikhs (Kartarpur saheb)?

“Sidhu may have an intent but he does not have the authority to open or not open a corridor. The responsibility finally lies at the doorstep of Prime Minister and the MEA,” Surjewala said.

(IANS)

Delhi government nods several people-friendly proposals

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The Delhi government on Thursday cleared a number of proposals, including increasing financial assistance for maintenance of parks, installing CCTVs in government schools and ensuring safety of woman in public spaces.

In one of the decisions, the Cabinet meeting chaired by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, approved the proposal to increase financial assistance from Rs 1 lakh per acre to Rs 2 lakh per acre to parks and gardens registered with the Delhi Parks and Gardens Society, a statement released by Kejriwal’s office said.

The CM’s office said that the objective behind this step is to “enhance green cover of Delhi from 20 per cent to 25 per cent”.

In addition, it said, irrespective of the category of the colony, the Delhi Parks and Gardens Society will contribute 90 per cent of the admissible financial assistance at the rate of Rs 2 lakh per acre while the balance 10 per cent will have to be borne by the concerned RWAs or NGOs.

The Cabinet also passed a provision to provide financial assistance for installation of Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) to overcome the problem of water supply.

“The grant of RWAs and NGOs shall additionally include one-time financial assistance towards the cost of STP at the rate of Rs 2 lakh per acre, while the balance if any will have to be borne by the concerned RWAs or NGOs,” the statement said.

Under another project, the Delhi Government will undertake a survey of infrastructural lacunae in Delhi-NCR with a focus on woman safety.

In the wake of rising incident of child abuse in the schools of Delhi-NCR, the Cabinet also decided to install CCTVs in all the Delhi government-run schools.

The cabinet also approved a proposal of the Department of Education to empower School Management Committees (SMCs) by renaming and restructuring Vidyalaya Kalyan Samitis as SMCs.

It also approved another proposal for revision in the rates of remuneration of miscellaneous category of guest teachers.

“The department of education has proposed that the rate of daily remuneration for Miscellaneous Category guest teachers may be brought at per with Trained Graduate Teachers (with CTET qualification) guest teachers, i.e. enhanced from Rs 1,050 to Rs 1,403 per day, prospectively,” the statement said.

The proposal would be submitted for approval of Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, it added.

The Cabinet further approved a Department of Social Welfare proposal to enhance the financial assistance to leprosy-affected persons from Rs 1,800 per month to Rs 3,000 per month under the Rehabilitation Centre for Leprosy-affected Persons (RCL) scheme.

“The proposal is to enhance the maintenance allowance…for 562 RCL beneficiaries with effect from September 2018,” the Chief Minister’s office said.

(IANS)

Maharashtra seeks Rs 50,000-cr for Mumbai development

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The 15th Finance Commission headed by N. K. Singh held talks with political parties, trade and industry organisations and local bodies in Maharashtra on Tuesday, while the government and political parties sought a special grant of Rs 50,000 crore for Mumbai’s development, an official said here.

On a three-day visit to the state, the commission comprises Ashok Lahiri, Shaktikanta Das, Anoop Singh and Ramesh Chand.

Leaders and delegations of several political parties expressed concern that the state has been deprived of tax devolution on the pretext that the state has the highest GSDP and successive commissions ignored the challenges of regional inequality within Maharashtra.

They demanded that since Maharashtra has maintained the population replacement rate of 1.8, it should be incentivized for the same.

Raising issues concerning Mumbai, which has been the growth magnet for the country, they discussed the resultant immigration which puts enormous stress on resources and infrastructure.

For this, the parties demanded from the Commission a special grant of Rs.50,000 crore for the city’s development as people from all states in the country live here.

They pointed out that while population is a critical indicator for devolution, due weightage should be given to “in-migration”, sought adequate revenue deficit grants and to pay attention to the farm crises and drought afflicting the state.

Various industry and agriculture groups informed the Commission about the shortage of equity and credit faced by them and requested that Goods & Services Tax (GST) on services used by the centre and state may be borne by the respective governments to spare the MSMEs of the burden of frequent taxation.

The industry groups pointed out that the competitiveness of Indian exporters would improve due to the Rupee depreciation within a range of Rs 72-73 per USD.

They added that the domino effects of insolvency and NCLT is faced by MSMEs and sought relaxation in the rules of the Insolvency Act.

Local civic bodies in the urban and rural areas raised issued of need to devolve funds to the Zilla and Taluka Panchayats, besides village Panchayats, to maintain community assets, capacity building, raising internal resources and cluster-based approach for effective delivery of services like sold waste management.

Representatives from the coastal Konkan demanded special grants for dealing with cleanliness and beautification of sea shores, arresting saline water ingression and hill regions like Panchgani sought funds to provide services to the tourist population and performance-based incentives.

(IANS)

CS assault case: BJP demands Kejriwal’s resignation

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The BJP on Tuesday demanded Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s resignation soon after a court here issued summons to him, his deputy Manish Sisodia and 11 other AAP legislators as accused in an alleged assault on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash.

“This has happened for the first time when a Chief Minister would be present in the court as an accused. Thus, on moral grounds we demand his resignation,” Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Delhi unit spokesperson Harish Khurana told IANS.

He said: “We have seen former Chief Minister Madan Lal Khurana, who resigned on moral grounds after his name figured in a list of politicians allegedly involved in a hawala scandal in 1995.”

Attacking Kejriwal and his party leaders, Khurana said: “They had claimed that they have come to change the politics. But what they are doing?”

The BJP leader’s remarks came after a court here accepted the Delhi Police charge-sheet and asked all the 13 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders to appear before the court on October 25.

The Delhi Police in August charge-sheeted Kejriwal, Sisodia, Amanatullah Khan, Prakash Jarwal, Nitin Tyagi, Rituraj Govind, Sanjeev Jha, Ajay Dutt, Rajesh Rishi, Rajesh Gupta, Madan Lal, Parveen Kumar and Dinesh Mohania over the alleged assault of the Chief Secretary.

They have been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for voluntarily causing hurt and obstructing a public servant to deter him/ her from doing duty, wrongful confinement and assault.

They have also been accused of insult with intent to provoke breach of peace, criminal intimidation, criminal conspiracy, punishment of abetment and unlawful assembly, among others.

On the other hand, the AAP has called the case a “midnight conspiracy to defame the Delhi Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister and 11 MLAs in a false and laughable case”.

Chief Secretary Prakash had in February alleged that he was beaten up by AAP MLAs in the presence of Kejriwal at the Chief Minister’s residence on the night of February 19 where he had been called for a late-night meeting.

The case was filed the next morning and Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal were arrested and sent to judicial custody. Later, they were released on bail.

(IANS)

Kerala Police questions bishop accused of raping nun

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The Kerala Police on Wednesday started questioning Bishop Franco Mulakkal accused of raping a nun, as a top police officer said there is no restriction on his arrest.

Ahead of the questioning, top police officers — Inspector General Vijay Sakhre, Kottayam Superintendent Harishankar and his deputy K. Subhash held a meeting at the IG office in Kochi.

“We are under no pressure. We have conducted a detailed probe which was spread across five different states. There has been no directive that the bishop should not be arrested,” said Harishankar.

The bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese in Jalandhar, accompanied by his counsel and a few priests, arrived in a car earlier to the Crime Branch office near here.

The police ensured that the media could not get close to him or even take his picture.

According to the police, Tripunithura located on the outskirts of Kochi, was chosen as the venue to avoid the protests underway in Kochi over the last 12 days.

The bishop on Tuesday got a relief from the Kerala High Court which agreed to hear his anticipatory bail plea on September 25.

The court also asked the state government to file an affidavit.

A Kerala nun has accused Mulakkal of repeatedly sexually abusing her between 2014 and 2016.

An FIR was registered against the bishop and a 114-page detailed statement was taken from the nun and other inmates of the convent.

Mulakkal was questioned by the police team led by Subhash in August at his Jalandhar office.

(IANS)

Home interior startup Livspace raises Rs 500 crore in funding

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Home interior and renovation platform Livspace on Wednesday announced it has secured $70 million (nearly Rs 500 crore) in Series C funding led by TPG Growth and Goldman Sachs.

Launched in 2015, Bengaluru-based Livspace has emerged as one of the top players in the fragmented home interiors and renovation market which is expected to exceed $23 billion by 2022.

“In an industry that has traditionally struggled with scale, we have created a first-of-its-kind, design-to-installation technology platform and a marketplace model that is highly scalable. The model can inherently deliver strong unit economics,” said Livspace’s Co-founder and CEO Anuj Srivastava.

The funding is the largest Series C round raised by a vertical e-commerce company in India in the B2C segment, the company said in a statement.

“We are thrilled to have TPG Growth and Goldman Sachs with us in our journey. Their understanding of global markets and deep expertise in accelerating growth-stage companies will help us build the next edition of Livspace,” Srivastava added.

Livspace currently has presence in seven metro areas — Bengaluru, Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Noida and Thane.

The company will utilise the funds to expand its operations to six more metro areas by 2019.

In August, Livspace launched operations in Hyderabad and is on track to hit over $125-135 million in annualised gross revenue by March 2019.

Before the Series C round of funding, Livspace had raised a total of $33.6 million from Jungle Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Helion Ventures, and UC-RNT.

“To design the next one million homes — and deliver a predictable experience for this highly complex solution — technological and operational innovation will form the backbone of the company,” said Ramakant Sharma, Co-founder and COO, Livspace.

According to Niladri Mukhopadhyay, a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs, this investment is in line with “our focus on backing excellent management teams that uniquely address the needs and aspirations of India’s growing middle class”.

Livspace has a network of four design centres and 15 experience apartments in the country.

(IANS)

HC rejects plea seeking formula of petrol pricing

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New Delhi The Delhi High Court on Wednesday dismissed an application seeking direction to the Centre to disclose the formula on the basis of which daily prices of petroleum and diesel are fixed.

A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V. Kameswar Rao refused to interfere with the government policy on fixing petrol prices.

The court was hearing an application, filed by Delhi-based designer Pooja Mahajan. Her advocate A. Maitri sought direction to call the records from the government, including oil companies to disclose the formula and furnish details on the basis of which the daily fuel prices are fixed.

The petitioner said that people were suffering irreparably because these prices were being enhanced on presumption.

Maitri said that the oil manufacturing companies were selling their old stock of petrol and diesel at enhanced prices while admittedly the said stock was purchased at a cheaper rate.

As per official claims, petrol and diesel prices are fixed on account of increase in international prices. Admittedly, international price of crude oil is fixed on barrel basis, the plea said.

The application was filed on the pending public interest litigation by the petitioner in which she has sought direction to the central government to fix a “fair price” of petrol and diesel as it is a policy matter which involved larger economic issues.

The court has asked the government to consider an earlier representation pending before it on price rise of petrol and diesel.

Mahajan had filed a similar plea in July but the high court had then directed the Centre to treat the PIL as a representation.

The petitioner has sought a directive to the Centre to fix a “fair price” of petrol and diesel in line with the Essential Commodities Act.

(IANS)

Bangalare Buzz

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Friends Of Tribals Society “Ekal Sur Ekal Taal”

The Friends of Tribals Society (FTS) Bengaluru Chapter in association with Ekal Abhiyan has organized a musical cultural program Ekal Sur Ekal Taal to support goal of reaching further out to tribal & remote rural children.

This program will be performed by Ekal karyakartas who have been trained for 18 months and then last year they performed in 52 marvelous programs viewed by more than 22,000 people in 30 states of USA by travelling average 316 kilometer daily during their short 3 months visit to USA. Now they are continuing to present their shows in many cities of India & Bengaluru had organized the program on Sat 15th Sept, 2018 at Jnana Jyoti Auditorium, Central College Campus, Palace Road, 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm.

Presently at all India level They are running more than 75,000 Ekal Vidyalaya, serving over 20 lakhs children. In Karnataka, alone they have around 1470 schools with over 38,000 children in the districts of Mysore, Chamrajnagar, Hassan, Chikmagalur, Gulbarga, Bidar, Bagalkot, Gangavathi & Khanapur.

Speaking on the occasion Ramesh Agarwala (President, FTS Bangalore) averred, “We have been successful in devising an effective concept of One Teacher School (Ots) Or Ekal Vidyalaya. The children of a village who do not go to any school or even those who go to other schools, are given support education for 3 hours every day. We motivate the children to go to the schools and have succeeded in substantial reduction of the dropout rate in formal schooling”.

The 1st Ekal on Wheels Van for Karnataka and 19th overall in the country will be launched by senior executives of Yahoo Employee Foundation of India. This Van will operate in South Karnataka villages. It is an initiative that gives a big boost to Digital India program.

The goals & Objectives of the Project are:-

Mass Scale Digital Awareness & Literacy to the remotest places: Every child must get basic knowledge of computers. They further literate their elders. No villager should be unknown to computers.

Demystify Computers: The program will demystify computers to the children & youth who have remained untouched & unreached.

Financial Literacy: The program includes modules to teach varied applications related to financial literacy (netbanking, e-wallets et al).

Certification & employment opportunities: Certification program will make trainees eligible for varied employment opportunities.

Creating Micro – entrepreneurs: Their experience shows that many of the trainees start their own business after completing the training.

Friends of Tribals Society (FTS) an organization established in the year 1989 at Kolkata, by a group of social service workers, with a motive to help the people living in distant rural & tribal areas & to provide schooling for the underprivileged particularly in the field of education, health care, development, empowerment & culture. Friends of Tribals Society (FTS) is one of the biggest non -government voluntary social service organization of India working in tribal & rural areas. The motto of FTS is to not only improve socio economic condition of tribal society but also to free them from the clutches of deprivation that have for so long hindered the progress of the entire community.

EKAL’s mission is to eradicate illiteracy from rural areas, particularly amongst tribals, so that the people here can get access to basic education. Ekal’s mission is to uplift tribal villages by providing and creating awareness of Panchamukhi Shiksha (5 Dimensional Education) which consists Primary Education, Healthcare Education, Village Development Education, Empowerment Education & Value Education.

They work & run the schools completely on funds received as donation. The donated amount is utilized for payment of honorarium to Teachers, Full Time Workers & for purchasing teaching/study material. The donors are eligible for tax exemption under 80G of IT Act 1961 & FCRA.

With the support of volunteers & very low administration cost, they have been able to run this massive programme with an annual budget of only Rs 20,000/- per school.

Karnataka’s richest MLA’s their annual income is Rs 111.4 lakh

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Karnataka 203 MLAs, have the highest average annual income of Rs 111.4 lakh, followed by Maharashtra’s 256 MLAs (Rs 43.4 lakh), according to an analysis of the affidavits of 3,145 legislators.

The findings were released on Monday by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), an NGO that works for electoral and political reforms.

The affidavits of 941 MLAs did not declare their income, said the report, adding that the analysis primarily focused on the annual (self) income of the sitting MLAs only.

It said the average annual income of the 3,145 sitting MLAs is Rs 24.59 lakh.

At least 711 MLAs in the southern region have the highest average annual income of Rs 51.99 lakh, while 614 MLAs in the eastern region have the lowest Rs 8.53 lakh.

A total of 63 MLAs of Chhattisgarh Assembly have the lowest average annual income of Rs 5.4 lakh followed by Jharkhand’s 72 MLAs with Rs 7.4 lakh.

Out of 3,145 MLAs analysed, 55 (2 per cent) have not given their profession in their affidavit, 771 (25 per cent) declared business as their profession and 758 (24 per cent) said they are agriculturist or farmer.

The analysis said a number of 397 (13 per cent) MLAs, who have declared their profession as agriculture and business, have the highest average annual income of Rs 57.81 lakh.

“MLAs under real estate business and acting or filmmaking profession category comprise only 1 per cent of the total MLAs analysed,” revealed the analysis, adding “nevertheless, they are among the top four highest paid profession categories with an average annual income of Rs 39.69 lakh and Rs 28.48 lakh, respectively”.

“Housewife, teacher, pensioner and lawyer are among the least paid profession categories,” it said.

A number of 1,052 (33 per cent) MLAs, declaring their educational qualification to be between 5th to 12th pass, have an average annual income of Rs 31.03 lakh. “At least 1,997 (63 per cent) MLAs, graduate or above, have an average annual income of Rs 20.87 lakh.

A number of 139 8th pass MLAs have average annual self-income worth Rs 89.88 lakh, while those who have declared themselves to be illiterate have an average annual self-income of Rs 9.31 lakh.

A total of 1,402 MLAs, aged 25-50 years, have an average annual income of Rs 18.25 lakh and 1,727, aged 51-80 years, have Rs 29.32 lakh.

At least 11 MLAs, aged 81-90 years, have an average annual income of Rs 87.71 lakh whereas two MLAs, declaring their age above 90 years, have Rs 60.91 lakh.

Only 258 (8 per cent) MLAs are women, said the analysis. “On an average a male MLA’s annual self-income is Rs 25.85 lakh whereas for a female MLA, it is Rs 10.53 lakh.”

(PTI)

Ananth Kumar to be shifted to US for treatment

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Union Minister and Bengaluru South MP, HN Ananth Kumar, who is said to be in a critical condition, is likely to be shifted to the US for further treatment.
For the last two weeks, Kumar, a 5-term MP has been at his relatives’ home in London undergoing treatment. A section of media has reported that the Parliamentary Affairs Minister is diagnosed with advanced stage of pancreatic cancer.
His office in Bengaluru, however, denied any such report and said that he is doing good and will be returning to the country in the next fortnight.

For the last three months there were talks in political and bureaucratic circles that Kumar is unwell. A few senior politicians that media spoke to had confirmed that he was not well, but they too were unsure whether he has cancer or not. “They are keeping it a secret,” one of the top BJP leaders in Bengaluru said.
Kumar has been out of action for the last few weeks and not attending to office or signing files. In fact, sources said that he had to defer his treatment due to Karnataka Assembly polls.

PTI

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