Archives for May 2022

NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal met Lt Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena on Friday and said they both decided to work together for the development of the national capital and the betterment of people here.

Anil Baijal resigned as Delhi L-G on May 18 citing “personal reasons”.

“I extend my best wishes to him for a fruitful tenure. We discussed many issues and decided to work together for the development of Delhi. We will together do everything for the betterment of the people of Delhi and will take everybody along,” Kejriwal told reporters after the meeting.

In a tweet, Kejriwal said: “It was a pleasure to meet you sir. I look forward to working wid u for the welfare of Delhi.”

Asked about the sweet-sour relations with Baijal, the chief minister said, “We had good relations with him.”

Baijal’s over five-year tenure was marked by frequent run-ins with the AAP dispensation over administrative jurisdiction and governance-related issues, including one in which Kejriwal and his ministers staged a dharna at the LG office in 2018.

Saxena also tweeted about his meeting with Kejriwal and said they both discussed various issues pertaining to the development of the national capital.

“Hon’ble Chief Minister Shri @ArvindKejriwal ji called on today. We discussed various issues pertaining to the development of Delhi and the welfare of its people,” he tweeted.

After assuming charge on Thursday, Saxena also met Union Home Minister Amit Shah to seek his insights on various aspects related to Delhi.

“Called on Hon’ble HM Shri @AmitShah ji after assuming charge as the Lt Governor of Delhi. Sought his guidance and valuable insights on administration and good governance for making the National Capital safe, clean, livable and truly the ‘City of Joy’,” he tweeted on Friday.

Saxena took oath as the 22nd Lt Governor of Delhi at a ceremony here on Thursday and said he would work as the city’s “local guardian” and will be seen more on the roads and less at Raj Niwas.

Saxena (64), was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Acting Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court Vipin Sanghi at Raj Niwas.

“I want to tell each citizen of Delhi that I will work in the capacity of a local guardian rather than as LG. You will see me less in Raj Niwas and more on the roads,” Saxena had told mediapersons on Thursday.

Citing water, air and noise pollution as “inherent” problems of Delhi, the new LG had said it would be solved by working together with the Government of India, the Delhi government and local people.

Saxena also said it was his dream that Delhi becomes the “city of joy” as well as the “city of flowers”, saying we will all work together in this direction.

KOLKATA: The West Bengal government has asked hospitals in the state to set up separate facilities to accommodate patients coming from abroad with symptoms of monkeypox, officials said on Friday.

In an advisory, the Health Department asked hospitals to keep isolation beds ready and directed them to collect samples from suspected patients and send those to the Pune-based National Institute of Virology

“Although monkeypox has not been reported in India, but with new cases being detected from various countries, chances of this disease occurring in India cannot be ruled out,” the advisory said.

The note was sent to all district administrations, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and the superintendents of all medical colleges.

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) director-general Samiran Panda said, “At the moment, there is no evidence of monkeypox virus in the body of anyone in India, but we must maintain caution. Anyone coming from a foreign country or from abroad should be kept in isolation as soon as symptoms like fever and headache are seen.”

NEW DELHI: The CBI questioned Lok Sabha MP Karti Chidambaram for the third consecutive day on Saturday in connection with its probe into the alleged Rs 50-lakh bribery for issuance of 263 project visas to Chinese workers involved in the construction of the Talwandi Sabo power project in 2011, officials said.

He arrived at the CBI headquarters early in the morning to face the investigation team. The questioning is likely to continue throughout the day with a lunch break, they said. The CBI is questioning Karti Chidambaram since Thursday in the 11-year old case which the Congress leader has termed as “most bogus” and a result of “political vendetta”.

The case is of 2011 when his father P Chidambaram was the Union Home Minister. The CBI had registered an FIR on May 14 against Karti and others over allegations of a Rs 50-lakh bribe being paid to him and his close associate S Bhaskararaman by a top executive of Vedanta group company Talwandi Sabo Power Ltd (TSPL) for re-issuance of Project Visa for 263 Chinese workers, the CBI FIR said.

TSPL was setting up a power plant in Punjab. Projects visas were a special type of visas introduced in 2010 for the power and steel sector, detailed guidelines for which were issued during P Chidambaram’s tenure as Union home minister. However, there was no provision for re-issue of project visas, the FIR has alleged. The agency has already arrested Bhaskararaman in connection with the case.

RANCHI: Jharkhand High Court Tuesday said it will hear the PIL seeking probe against Chief Minister Hemant Soren for alleged irregularities in the grant of mining lease and transaction of some shell companies purportedly operated by his associates on the point of its maintainability following the Supreme Court’s direction.

The Apex Court heard the matter earlier in the day and directed Jharkhand HC to decide on the maintainability of the petition first.

The HC adjourned the matter and said it will hear it again on June 1.

Kapil Sibal, the counsel for the state government, had earlier informed the HC that the government has challenged the PIL in Supreme Court.

A vacation bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Bela M Trivedi of the Supreme Court noted that the high court had in its order of May 13 said it would first decide the maintainability of the PIL and then go into the merit of the allegations levelled in the petition.

“We are of the considered view that the high court would first deal with the preliminary objections on the maintainability of the writ petition and based on the outcome it would then proceed further in accordance with law”, the bench said.

The top court also made it clear that it has not made any observation with regard to the merit of the case and has not dealt with the allegations made in the petition The Jharkhand government has moved the top court against the orders of the high court.

The public interest litigation had stated that Hemant Soren had a mining license issued in his favour while holding the office of the chief minister of the state.

It also said that Pooja Singhal, the mining department secretary who is in enforcement directorate remand had floated shell companies to launder money.

The HC had earlier ordered Soren to file an affidavit to explain his stand in the matter.

The affidavit filed by the government was signed by Ranchi deputy commissioner Chhavi Ranjan.

Ranjan apparently is an accused in a corruption case prosecuted by the Anti Corruption Bureau.

The HC was opposed to an accused filing an affidavit as it is contrary to the rules and had ordered Ranjan to file an affidavit to explain and inform the status of the case against him pending before a vigilance court.

Ranjan is accused of felling five teak wood trees in the official bunglow while he was posted as the deputy commissioner of Koderma.

In the hearing at the apex court advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Jharkhand government, said that the PIL petitioner has suppressed material facts that he has filed several PILs against Soren.

He referred to the rules of Jharkhand HC on PILs of 2010 and said that Sharma’s petition should not have been entertained by the High Court as there was no full disclosure of previous litigations.

Instead the HC has ordered to implead the registrar of companies, ministry of corporate affairs, as respondents.

Sibal said that on May 17 the Enforcement Directorate had filed an affidavit in a sealed cover in the PIL.

“The question is can some extraneous material be brought in a sealed cover of some other case not related to the PIL be brought before the court. Can the High Court look into it,” he said.

The bench said that the HC, even if it holds that the petitioner is not bonafide, can take suo motu cognizance of the matter.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for ED and Ministry of Corporate Affairs, said that there are some observations made but an affidavit has been filed by the ED as during a raid in connection with some other FIRs registered in 2012 it had come in possession of some material, which is the subject matter of the PIL.

He said that notices were issued to the ED and CBI and therefore they were before the HC and referred to recoveries made in raids against Singhal, who was the state mining secretary at the time.

“The raids were conducted by the ED in connection with 15 FIRs lodged in 2012 in connection with diversions of funds in the MGNREGA scheme in Khunti district, whose deputy commissioner was Singhal at the time.

“During these raids, we found some material which was in connection with the grant of mining leases and transfer of funds to shell companies mentioned in the PIL”, Mehta said.

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Tuesday announced a new political affairs group and a Task Force to get the party battle-ready for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, but the list neither had new faces nor younger leaders barring one name — political strategist Sunil Kanugolu.

In its first meeting on Tuesday, the task force agreed to meet at regular intervals to discuss strategy on key issues. Each member of shall be assigned specific tasks related to organisation, communications and media outreach, finance and election management.   

Interestingly, both the key groups have old hands like Mallikarjun Kharge, Ambika Soni, Jairam Ramesh, Ajay Maken, Mukul Wasnik, P Chidambaram, Digvijay Singh and KC Venugopal. These leaders are already part of several existing committees for planning and strategy.

But it turned out to be a disappointment for some leaders, who had expected that the party would go with the Chintan Shivir agreement to have half of its leaders in organisations under the age of 50. Kanugolu (below 40 years) is the lone young leader in the two groups.

However, a third group for planning ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ have some young leaders like Sachin pilot, Jothi Mani and Ravneet Singh Bittu among others. The task force has been mandated to look at the various elections in the run up to the 2024 Parliamentary elections and various grassroot programs as also how to reach to the last person in the line, as also to common people, both in cities as also in the villages.

BENGALURU: A Sessions Court in Bengaluru has rejected the bail plea of Rahmatullah from Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli, who is in judicial custody for having allegedly threatened the life of Karnataka High Court judges who pronounced the verdict on wearing hijab in classrooms recently.

A City Civil and Sessions Court rejected Rahmatullah’s plea on Saturday.

Mohammed Usmani, a member of Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath (TNTJ), is another person arrested on similar charges.

Both are in judicial custody.

A bench comprising Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi, Justice Krishna Dixit and Justice Khazi M Jaibunnisa upheld the ban on hijab in Karnataka’s educational institutions recently.

Videos of Rahmatullah and Usmani, both from Tamil Nadu, went viral where they are allegedly heard making the threat.

Judge V Prakash rejected the bail plea after public prosecutor B S Patil convinced the court that the charges against the accused were serious in nature and his custody was necessary.

HUBBALLI: In a head-on collision between a private bus and a loaded truck, eight people were killed and 26 people suffered injuries on NH-48 near Hubballi on Monday midnight. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has mourned by tweeting and announcing ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh to the deceased family each.

Six people were killed on the spot and two more died at KIMS hospital in Hubballi. Saddened by the accident, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted “Pained by the loss of lives due to a mishap in Hubballi. My thoughts are with the bereaved families. May the injured recover soon.”

He also announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each from the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF) to the next of kin of those who lost their lives and the injured would be given Rs 50,000.

According to the police, the deceased persons have been identified as Nagaraj B (65) of Bengaluru, Babusa Chougule (59) of Kolhapur, Atul Khan (50) of Nagamangala, Mohammed Dayal Baig (16) of Mysuru, Akshay Chakati (30) of Ahmednagar, Aqeef Ayub (24), Mohammed Aksan Khadirkhan (24) and Mastan (40) of Biswan in Uttar Pradesh.

Soon after the incident, Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) staff rushed to the spot along with the ambulances. All injured were shifted to KIMS hospital for treatment. One of the injured persons continues to remain is in trauma and others suffered spinal cord, head, leg, and cervical injury injuries.

KIMS director Dr Ramalingappa Antartani said, “About 15 patients who suffered spinal cord, leg and other injuries have now been shifted to various hospitals in Kolhapur and Pune. This has been done against our medical advisory as some of the injured were not in a condition to move. However, other patients are being treated here at KIMS.”

After the accident the traffic on the bypass road was affected for more than one hour and the police cleared mangled remains using heavy machinery. Top cops including Addl DGP (Road Safety) R Hitendra, Hubballi-Dharwad police commissioner Labhu Ram and others visited the accident site.

On May 21, nine people had died in an accident near Bada village of Dharwad taluk. The speeding Tempo-Trax turned turtle after hitting a tree. Seven were killed on the spot and two had died in KIMS hospital. Several people were injured and they are still taking treatment in Hubballi and Dharwad hospitals. 

The social activists have once again demanded early widening of Hubballi-Dharwad bypass road which is the only stretch on the entire NH-48 that has only two lanes. The two-lane stretch has been causing accidents every passing year.

BENGALURU: In what is so far the biggest investment for Karnataka at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, a renewable energy company has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to invest Rs 50,000 crore in the state in the next seven years. The company inked the MoU with the State government officials in the presence of Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai in Davos on Tuesday.

In the first phase, Rs 11,900 crore would be invested in the ongoing projects in the state and they would be operationalised in the next two years. In the second phase, the company plans to invest Rs 37,500 crore to set up renewable energy and green hydrogen units over the next five years. The company already runs wind, solar and hydro power projects in nine states, including Karnataka.

Bommai also met Chairman and CEO of Bharti Enterprises, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman of Adani Group, Gautam Adani, CEO of Johnson Controls, Geo-rge Oliver and several other industrialists and discussed investment opportunities in the state.

Mittal expressed keen interest to set up a Mega Data Centre in the state. Bommai assured all support from the State government to make it a reality, the CMO statement added.

Plans are afoot to highlight the benefits of welfare schemes launched for these segments of OBCs by the union as well as BJP states in order to engage them in party affairs at the local level. 

NEW DELHI: Buoyed by the recent growth in votes from the backward castes of Muslims in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP is said to have chalked out a pan-India strategy to woo the “prominent, influential and young new faces” from these sections in every state in the run up to the next general elections. 

Plans are afoot to highlight the benefits of welfare schemes launched for these segments of OBCs by the union as well as BJP states in order to engage them in the party affairs at the local level. The BJP’s think tank believes that the schemes like the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna, the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojna, free ration, the Ujjawala Yojna and others have hugely benefited the backward castes of Muslim.

A party insider said that the Uttar Pradesh poll results made the party confident that the voters from backward castes of the Muslim community had reposed trust in the leadership of PM Narendra Modi and the welfare schemes started by the BJP governments.

“We will now bring prominent and influential people and young faces of backward Muslim to the forefront in the party assigning them responsibility at local level and in governance also,” said a senior BJP leader.

Citing some recent moves in promoting Muslim leaders within the party in states like Uttar Pradesh and others, the BJP source said that Danish Azad Ansari, who belongs to backward caste of Muslim was made a minister in the Yogi Adityanath government as part of the party’s new strategy.  

Fact-finding report

The saffron party believes that it has got more than 5.5% of votes from backward Muslims in the UP Assembly elections.

COLOMBO: The Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) has thwarted an illegal migration attempt by making an arrest of 67 individuals during a special operation conducted in the Sallisampaltivu and Trincomalee sea on Monday night.

During the raid, two three-wheelers, a cab, and a van were seized, which were used for the purpose of a migration attempt. In the special search operation, the Sri Lankan Navy spotted a suspicious local multiday fishing trawler.

While intercepting the fish vessel, the navy managed to apprehend another 55 individuals, belonging to the age range of 3-53 years of age who were believed to be on an illegal migration attempt to a foreign country via the Trincomalee sea, reported Colombo Page.

Meanwhile, arrangements are being made to hand over the arrested individuals to the Nilaveli and Uppuweli Police for further legal proceedings. The Sri Lankan Navy has urged the public to refrain from risking their lives by embarking on perilous sea voyages.