Archives for January 2023

BELAGAVI: The Karnataka government has decided to pay Rs 59.90 lakh per day fee to the legal team which is representing the state in the boundary dispute case with Maharashtra in the Supreme Court. The legal team comprises senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi, Shyam Diwan, Uday Holla, Maruti Zirli and VN Raghupathy. In connection with the case (O.S.No.4/2004) on boundary row, the state government issued an order, dated January 18, fixing the terms and conditions and professional fees to the legal team to represent the state.

As per the order, Mukul Rohatgi will get Rs 22 lakh per day as the fee for an appearance before the top court and Rs 5.50 lakh per day towards the preparation of the case including conferences and other work. Shyam Diwan will be paid Rs 6 lakh per hearing, Rs 1.50 lakh per day towards the preparation of the case and Rs 10 lakh per day for outstation visits.

The Advocate General of Karnataka will get Rs 3 lakh per day for appearance before SC, Rs 1.25 lakh per day for preparation of the case and Rs 2 lakh per day for outstation visits. Advocate Udaya Holla will get Rs 2 lakh per day for appearance before the apex court, Rs 75,000 per day for preparation of the case, Rs 1.50 lakh for settlement of pending and other matters and Rs 1.50 lakh for outstation visits.

Both states brace for court tussle

Advocat e MB Zirli will get Rs 1 lakh and Rs 60,000 for the conference and other works. He will also get Rs 50,000 for outstation work. Similarly, advocate Raghupathy will get Rs 35,000 per day and Rs 15,000 for conference work and Rs 30,000 for outstation visits. The Maharashtra government had moved the Supreme Court in 2004 demanding the merger of 814 areas of Karnataka including villages, towns and cities into Maharashtra. Then the chief minister of Karnataka S M Krishna formed an advisory committee on the boundary dispute headed by advocate HB Datar.

Later, the state government named other legal experts as chairpersons of the advisory committee to fight the case in the Supreme Court effectively. The Karnataka government has contended in the court that cases on boundary disputes between states do not come under the purview of the courts and that only Parliament has the power to decide on such issues. However, it remains to be seen whether the case will be admitted in the court when it comes up for hearing.

Register pet dogs or pay Rs 5,000 fine: SMC
The Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) has warned people of Srinagar to register their pet dogs with the corporation or face a Rs 5, 000 fine. In a notice, SMC directed all the pet dog owners residing in Srinagar to get their pet dogs registered within 30 days with Srinagar Municipal Corporation. The registration fee is Rs 500 for fresh registration while Rs 300 will be charged for yearly renewal of registration. Only dogs with anti-rabies certificates would be allowed to register as pets by the SMC. They warned that anybody found keeping a pet dog without SMC registration shall be challaned and fined upto Rs 5,000/- and may even lead to impounding of the dog.

Beautification of city for G20 events
In the run-up to host first ever G20 Summit events in Srinagar, the authorities have issued slew of instructions to enhance the roads by developing foot paths, medians, traffic road furnishing, landscape improvement, installation of roadside VMDs, installation of hoardings besides removal of wooden poles, rusted plant guards, hanging cable wires and unnecessary road dividers and debris. The government and commercial buildings along the roads would be painted. Plantation of ornamental green plants on medians and removal of withered trees has also been ordered.

3 siblings qualify J&K civil service exam
Three siblings including two sisters and a brother, belonging to a remote Kahi Trankhal village in mountainous Doda district have qualified the J&K Administrative Service (JKAS) exam. Suhail Ahmad Wani, the youngest of the three siblings, has secured 111th rank while his sisters Huma Anjum Wani and Ifra Anjum Wani secured 117th and 143th rank among the 187 successful candidates in J&K. While Ifra did her masters in Physics, Huma and Suhail have done Post Graduation in Political science. The trio, according to their family, self studied and did not go to any coaching centre. They had no mobile phone, they said.

VISAKHAPATNAM: BJP State president Somu Veerraju has said the party is committed to Amaravati as the only capital of the State. Speaking to mediapersons during a door-to-door campaign for the MLC graduate constituency election in MVP Colony on Sunday, he said the national highway and expressway and flyover projects were sanctioned by the Centre to develop Amaravati as capital.

“Though the Centre has given thousands of crores for the development of Amaravati, the State government is not spending the funds. Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, who came up with the three-capital proposal, is whiling away time without developing capital Amaravati,” he alleged.

Veerraju said Jagan who undertook Praja Sankalpa Yatra, had brought GO No 1 to prevent the opposition parties from undertaking padayatras. “The State has suffered a lot under the rule of regional parties. Hence, the BJP has laid emphasis on development,” he explained.

The BJP executive committee meeting to be held at Bhimavaram will adopt a resolution on pending issues with the Ayush Department. The Centre is giving top priority to the development of the health sector. The BJP will not compromise on its fight for the development of the State, he asserted.BJP Vizag parliamentary district president M Ravindra and official spokesperson Sushasini were present.

ISLAMABAD: A massive power breakdown in Pakistan on Monday affected most of the country’s more than 220 million people, including in the mega cities of Karachi and Lahore.

Pakistan’s electricity distribution system is a complex and delicate web, and a problem in one section of the grid can lead to cascading breakdowns across the country.

The hours-long outage, the second in the past two years, was caused by a fault in the national grid at around 7:30 am (0230GMT).

“According to initial reports, the system frequency dropped at the national grid in the morning which led to a massive breakdown,” the ministry of energy tweeted.

Repair work was underway, with limited power restored in parts of the capital and the northwestern city of Peshawar.

The port city of Karachi, with a population of more than 15 million, and Lahore, with a population of more than 10 million, remained without power.

A similar breakdown in January 2021 had plunged the entire country into darkness after fault occurred in southern Pakistan tripping the transmission system of the country.

Pakistan has long been hit by energy shortages because of a combination of factors including a poor economy, mismanagement and a lack of storage facilities.

Hospitals are mostly backed up with generators while schools use gas to heat their classrooms.

Load shedding this winter has impacted domestic households and industries including textile manufacturing, one of the largest industries in Pakistan, with some plants temporarily closed.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Monday said it will hear on January 25 the petition of journalist Rana Ayyub challenging the summons issued to her by a special PMLA court in Ghaziabad in a money laundering case lodged by the ED.

A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, and Justices V Ramasubramanian and J B Pardiwala, posted the matter after senior advocate Vrinda Karat mentioned it.

Karat told the court that the Bench which was scheduled to hear the matter Monday was not available, and requested the bench to post the matter for hearing later today at 2 pm.

“We will keep this day after tomorrow before an appropriate bench. Today will be difficult,” the bench said.

On January 17, a bench led by CJI Chandrachud had agreed to consider listing the plea of Ayyub for urgent hearing after taking note of the submissions of advocate Vrinda Grover who appeared for her.

Grover had said a summons was issued by the special court in Ghaziabad against Ayyub for January 27 and therefore the matter be listed urgently.

In her writ petition, Ayyub has sought quashing of the proceedings initiated by the Enforcement Directorate in Ghaziabad citing lack of jurisdiction as the alleged offence of money laundering occurred in Mumbai.

On November 29 last year, the special PMLA court in Ghaziabad had taken cognizance of the prosecution complaint filed by the Enforcement Directorate and summoned Ayyub.

The ED chargesheet filed with under section 45 read with section 44 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 for money laundering was filed by Sanjeet Kumar Sahu, Assistant Director of ED, Delhi.

“I have perused the above mentioned prosecution complaint and have also gone through the prosecution papers as well as documents including statements.  From the perusal of the entire record there is sufficient evidence as to a prima facie case for taking cognizance against Ms Rana Ayyub with regard to commission of offence,” the special court judge said.

The special court has said that Ayyub’s crime involves taking money illegally from the general public in the name of charity via ‘Ketto’ (an online crowdfunding platform) in three campaigns without any approval, raising a huge sum in the bank account of her sister and father, and transferring it into her own bank account which was not used for the intended purpose.

On October 12 last year, the ED had filed a charge sheet against Ayyub, accusing her of cheating the public and using Rs 2.69 crore she got in charity for creating personal assets, and also violating the foreign contribution law.

“Rana Ayyub launched three fundraiser charity campaigns on the ‘Ketto platform’ starting from April 2020 and collected funds totalling Rs 2,69,44,680,” the ED had said in a statement.

The campaigns, it had said, were meant to raise funds for slum dwellers and farmers, relief work for Assam, Bihar, and Maharashtra, and help Ayyub and her team help those impacted by COVID-19 in India.

“Ayyub utilised these funds to create a fixed deposit of Rs 50 lakh for herself and also transferred Rs 50 lakh to a new bank account. Investigations found that only about Rs 29 lakh was used for relief work,” the ED had claimed.

“In order to claim more expenses towards relief work, fake bills were submitted by Ayyub and subsequently, bank balances in the accounts of Ayyub amounting to Rs 1,77,27,704 (including FD of Rs 50 Lakh) were attached under the PMLA vide a provisional attachment order dated February 4, 2022,” it had said.

The ED had initiated money laundering investigation on the basis of an FIR registered on September 7, 2021 by the Indirapuram Police Station of Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh under various sections of the IPC, Information Technology Amendment Act 2008, and Black Money Act against Ayyub.

It also alleged that Ayyub received foreign contributions without registration under FCRA.

On August 17 last year, the Delhi High Court had restrained the ED from proceeding further with the provisional attachment of funds in connection with the probe against her.

On April 4 last year, the Delhi High Court had allowed Ayyub to travel abroad and questioned the ED over a Look Out Circular (LOC) issued against her barring her from travelling abroad.

Ayyub was stopped by the ED from taking a flight to London from the Mumbai airport in March under the ‘Look out Circular’ issued against her.

PORT BLAIR: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday virtually unveiled the model of a proposed memorial dedicated to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, to be set up in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and said it will infuse feelings of patriotism among people.

Modi, on the occasion of Netaji’s 126th birth anniversary, also named 21 islands of the Union Territory after Param Vir Chakra awardees. He noted that the islands will be a source of inspiration for generations to come.

The PM also said that attempts were made to downplay Netaji’s contribution to the freedom movement, but the entire country, right from Delhi and Bengal to Andaman and Nicobar Islands, is paying tribute to the great hero today, preserving history and heritage associated with him.

He also pointed out that demands to make Netaji’s files public were made by many for long, and his government has done that.

Netaji will be remembered for his fierce resistance to colonial rule, he stated

“Today, it is a proud moment for me as I address the people of Andamans because this is the land, where Subhas Chandra Bose unfurled the national flag for the first time in 1943,” he said.

Earlier, Union Home Minister Amit Shah lauded the initiative to christen the 21 islands, and said this effort will be a source of encouragement for the country’s armed forces.

He also said that the cellular jail in the Union Territory, where many freedom fighters were incarcerated, is no less than a “pilgrimage site”.

BALANGIR: Alleging misbehaviour, the BJD unit of Balangir protesting the same, burnt effigies of BJP leader KV Singhdeo and Balangir MP Sangeeta Singhdeo here on Sunday.

According to the protestors, on January 18 KV Singhdeo had allegedly reprimanded the block development officer of Belpada citing negligence of duty. Similarly, Balangir MP Sangeeta Singhdeo had also reportedly argued with the district collector and other officers during the Disha meeting held on January 20.

“All development works are going well in Belpada block yet Singhdeo misbehaved with the BDO without any reason. We demand BJP leader KV Singhdeo and MP Sangeeta Singhdeo to apologise for their actions,” said a BJD leader of Belpada block Tina Kumbhar.

In a similar incident on January 12, senior congress MLA Santosh Singh Saluja lashed out at collector Chanchal Rana during a Zilla parishad meeting over the slashing of funds under different programmes in the district.