Archives for 2023

NEW DELHI:  As part of the ongoing exercise to strengthen the party ahead of the 2024 general elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party late on Saturday night inducted 10 senior leaders, including eight former presidents of the party’s state units, to the powerful national executive committee (NEC).

The eight former state chiefs include Bandi Sanjay Kumar (Telangana), Somu Veerraju (Andhra Pradesh), Deepak Prakash (Jharkhand), Satish Punia (Rajasthan), Sanjay Jaiswal (Bihar), Ashwani Sharma (Punjab), Suresh Kashyap (Himachal) and Vishnudeo Sai (Chhattisgarh).

Chhattisgarh BJP leader Dharamlal Kaushik and Rajasthan leader Kirodi Lal Meena are the other members of the NEC, a party statement said. The NEC in the BJP acts as the apex decision and policy-making body with a galaxy of experienced leaders as members including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and national president J P Nadda. It has five presidents, five general secretaries, one general secretary (organisation) besides members.

At a meeting of BJP’s regional state presidents in Hyderabad chaired by the party’s national president J P Nadda, a majority of the attendees were of the opinion that PM Narendra Modi should contest the Lok Sabha election from Ramanathapuram in Tamil Nadu. Around 34 delegates attended the meeting including BJP state presidents from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka 

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will hear on July 14, Former Delhi Minister Manish Sisodia’s plea seeking bail in the multi-crore scam of Delhi Liquor policy. 

Sisodia who has been in custody in the multi-crore scam of the now scrapped Delhi Liquor policy has approached Supreme Court against Delhi HCs orders of refusing to grant him bail in the cases registered by the CBI and ED. 

His plea was mentioned by Senior Advocate AM Singhvi before the bench of CJI DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha. Urging the court to consider his plea, Singhvi said, “His wife is not well. If it can be on July 14.” 

Sisodia was arrested on February 26 by CBI hours nearly eight hours after questioning pursuant to an FIR registered against him on August 17, 2022 under section 120B of IPC read with Section 477 IPC and section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. Apart from the CBI case, he was also taken into custody by the ED on March 9 in a money laundering case. 

Seeking bail, he in his plea before the SC has said that charges in the chargesheet that has already been filed by the CBI are punishable with imprisonment of less than seven years. It has also been contended that the probe conducted so far has not traced any proceeds of crime to him and he thus deserves to be granted bail in the absence of evidence. 

The plea challenges Delhi HCs July 3 and May 30 order passed by Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma of rejecting him bail in the cases registered against him by ED and CBI respectively. 

While denying him bail in the CBI case, Justice Sharma had termed while terming allegations of misconduct against him “serious” had said that the excise policy was formed at the instance of the “South Group” with malafide intention to give undue advantage to them. HC in its order had said, “The gravity and the allegations do not entitle the accused to be admitted to bail. This court, as has discussed above, is clear of the fact that the excise policy has not been examined in the present proceedings nor the powers of the government regarding the framing of the economic policies. 

However, since there are serious allegations of misconduct against the petitioner, the petitioner being an influential person and having held the position of Deputy Chief Minister having 18 portfolios and the witnesses are mostly public servants, there is a possibility of the witnesses being influenced cannot be ruled out.” Additionally, Justice Sharma while denying him bail in the ED case had said that Sisodia didn’t meet the twin conditions for the grant of bail under PMLA as well as the triple test for the grant of bail. 

Justice Sharma also underlined that the special judge’s order was well reasoned and relieved on the basis of material on record and didn’t suffer from any illegality or infirmity. 

CHANDIGARH: Rains battered parts of Punjab and Haryana for the third consecutive day on Monday with authorities working round the clock to reach out to people in the worst-hit places in hours of crisis.

According to the meteorological department, it has been raining in many parts of Punjab and Haryana since morning.

In view of the prevailing situation caused due to incessant rains, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar cancelled all his pre-scheduled programmes for the day and summoned an emergency meeting of senior officials of various departments, including Home, Disaster Management and Urban Local Bodies, officials said.

Khattar will also be holding a meeting with deputy commissioners later in the day through video-conferencing, they said.

Authorities have already ordered the closure of schools in some affected areas in Punjab and Haryana.

As torrential rains battered several parts of Punjab, Army assistance was sought by the Patiala district administration after water overflowed from the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal in Rajpura town following a breach.

The Army has been put on alert in some other parts of Punjab, officials said.

In Rajpura, water entered a private hospital and the patients were shifted to two other hospitals, they said. In some places in Punjab, there were breaches in distributaries and minor canals.

Fields were inundated at many places in Punjab and parts of Haryana causing crop damage. Tracts of land near Sutlej and Ghaggar river were inundated.

In some places in Punjab, water gushed into houses and in a few places, people were evacuated to safer places.

The heavy monsoon downpour continued to lead to traffic snarls on key road stretches in the two states, the officials said.

Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav had earlier said extensive arrangements have been made to deal with any kind of exigency arising out of potential floods.

Several teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have also been deployed in the flood-ravaged districts, including Mohali, Rupnagar and Fatehgarh Sahib.

Schools have also been ordered to remain shut on Monday in some worst-affected districts of Punjab and Haryana, including Rupnagar, Mohali, Patiala, Ambala and Panchkula.

In the wake of a flood-like situation due to incessant rains in several parts of the state, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had on Sunday directed all the cabinet ministers, MLAs and officials to stay alert and reach out to people in need.

Flood control rooms have been set up in all the districts of Punjab to help the people in hours of crisis.

Helpline numbers have been publicised and officials have been appointed round the clock in these control rooms to serve the people, an official statement said.

Owing to the heavy rains, the water level of the Yamuna river at Hathini Kund Barrage is constantly increasing, due to which people of low-lying areas adjacent to Yamuna have been asked to stay away from the riverbank, the officials said.

On Monday at 8 am, 2.79 lakh cusecs of water were discharged from the barrage, they said.

In Punjab’s Rupnagar, Siswan Nadi breached near Kamalpur, the officials said.

Rains lashed Chandigarh, Panchkula, Yamunanagar, Ambala, Karnal, Kurukshetra, among other places in Haryana while Fatehgarh Sahib, Mohali, Rupnagar and Patiala in Punjab also received showers.

Due to incessant rains in the catchment areas of the Sukhna Lake here, two of the floodgates were opened on Sunday, the officials said.

Pune: In a distressing incident targeting Christians, the principal of a school in Pune was subjected to a physical assault allegedly by members of the Bajrang Dal after students recited a Christian prayer during the assembly on Tuesday.

Disturbing videos of the incident surfaced online, displaying members of the Hindutva group chasing Alexander Coates Reid, the principal of DY Patil High School, while chanting slogans like “Har Har Mahadev.”

An official of the school, speaking to Scroll, disclosed that approximately 100 men forcefully entered the school premises and physically harassed the principal. They tore his clothes and leveled false allegations against him. The official further stated that teachers and all students are standing in support of the principal during this distressing episode.

According to an official from the Talegaon Police, no case has been filed thus far in connection with the incident.

This incident has raised concerns over the escalating attacks and blatant discrimination faced by Christians in recent years, highlighting the pressing need to address and curb such incidents of violence and intolerance.