Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar

Patna : The NDA government in Bihar has cancelled 350 contracts worth Rs 826 crore, which were awarded during the previous RJD-led ‘Mahagathbandhan’ dispensation in the state for supplying drinking water in rural areas, a minister said on Tuesday.

The decision to cancel the contracts was taken after an inquiry by the Public Health Engineering Department revealed that there were “irregularities in the process of selecting contractors”, he said.

“During the previous RJD-led grand alliance regime in the state, many contracts were awarded by the department. An inquiry by the department revealed that due process was not followed in awarding 350 contracts worth Rs 826 crore. These were related to the rural water supply, including the installation of hand pumps and mini water supply systems,” PHED Minister Niraj Kumar Singh told PTI.

The department has handed over the preliminary inquiry report to the competent authority in the state government for a thorough probe, he said.

“I recently called a meeting of senior officials of the department after getting the report, and later the cancellation order was issued,” he said, adding that strict action would be taken against those who would be found guilty.

RJD leader Lalit Yadav was the PHED minister during the previous grand alliance government in the state.

Altogether 1,160 contracts worth Rs 4,600 crore of the PHE department were awarded by the previous government in 17 months, Singh said.

“We have so far cancelled 350 contracts, the remaining are being examined,” he said.

The minister, however, refused to give details of the alleged irregularities detected by the department.

“It is not appropriate time to divulge the details as the matter is being investigated by a competent authority,” he said.

According to documents available by PTI, Banka district tops the list where a maximum of 106 contracts related to rural water supply systems have been cancelled, followed by Jamui (73), Lakhisarai (20), Aurangabad (18) and Ara (11).

Commenting on the Bihar government’s decision to cancel the contracts of the PHE department, RJD’s state unit spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwary, said, “Chief Minister and JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar and BJP leaders are scared of our leader Tejashwi Yadav. The previous ‘Mahagathbandhan’ government in the state had executed several people-friendly projects and taken major decisions like employment to 7-8 lakh youths and providing social security to the economically and socially weaker sections of the society.”

The NDA partners are also “scared” of the impact of the welfare initiatives taken by the previous government, which benefitted lakhs of people in the state, he claimed.

“RJD is not scared of any probe…let them (the NDA government) do whatever they want to,” he added.

The PHE department is responsible for ensuring the installation of hand pumps and mini water supply systems in small habitats and wards.

It may be recalled that Nitish Kumar had snapped ties with the RJD and returned to the NDA in January this year.

Soon after the formation of the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government in the state, an order was issued to review all the decisions taken by the departments headed by former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav and then two ministers of RJD — Lalit Yadav and Ramanand Yadav.

In a letter issued by the Cabinet Secretariat in February this year, officials of the health, road construction, urban development and rural works departments had been asked to review the decisions taken during the previous grand alliance government in the state.

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday stayed the trial court order granting bail to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the money laundering case stemming from the alleged excise scam.

A vacation bench of Justice Sudhir Kumar Jain said the trial court failed to appreciate the material placed before it by the Enforcement Directorate and did not apply its mind while deciding the AAP leader’s bail plea.

The judge also said the trial court ought to have given adequate opportunity to the agency to argue its case.

“The operation of the impugned order is stayed,” the bench said.

The trial court had granted bail to Kejriwal on June 20 and ordered his release on a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh.

ED moved the high court the next day and contended that the trial court’s order was “perverse”, “one-sided” and “wrong-sided” and that the findings were based on irrelevant facts.

The excise policy was scrapped in 2022 after the Delhi lieutenant governor ordered a CBI probe into alleged irregularities and corruption involving its formulation and execution.

According to the CBI and the ED, irregularities were committed while modifying the excise policy and undue favours extended to the licence holders.

New Delhi: AIMIM Chief Asaduddin Owaisi has been sworn in as the Member of Parliament from Hyderabad.

Asaduddin Owaisi had retained the Hyderabad constituency with a margin of over 3.38 Lakh Votes. He had defeated his nearest rival Kompella Madhavi Latha of BJP by 3,38,087 votes to record his fifth consecutive victory.

As Owaisi’s name was called for taking the oath, some MPs from the ruling dispensation raised slogans of Jai Shree Ram and Bharat Mata ki Jai

After his oath, Owaisi raised slogans of “Jai Bhim, Jai Palestine, Jai Mim, Jai Telangana, and Allahu Akbar.” The slogan of Jai Palestine did not go well with some MPs of the Lok Sabha who objected to it after which the speaker said that it would not go on record.

New Delhi: DMK leader Kanimozhi Karunanidhi has been sworn in as the Member of Parliament from Thoothukudi constituency in Tamil Nadu.

Kanimozhi Karunanidhi had contested from Tamil Nadu’s Thoothukudi constituency and had won with over 3,00,00 lakh votes, defeating opponents S.D.R Vijayaseelan of NDA and All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s (AIADMK) Sivasami Velumani.

In 2019 also Kanimozhi had contested from this seat against BJP’s Tamilisai Soundararajan and won the Lok Sabha election by a margin of 3.47 lakh votes. She had served as a Rajya Sabha member for two terms from 2007.

She is the sister of current Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin and daughter of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi

Nasheman news

Humane Touch Trust in Association with Khadim Memon Trust Organised Mass Marriage Ceremony of 12 Couples. the Nikha was solomninised by Moulana Dr Mohammed Maqsood Imran Rashadi khateeb-o-Imam Jamia Masjid Bangalore.The mass marriage Nikah was held in Masjid -e- noor and the function was held in Muslim Orphange on 23 rd june .

The Economic Offences Unit (EOU) of the Bihar Police has arrested 18 people in connection with the case so far, they said.

CBI officers are likely to collect evidence related to the case from the EOU, which had been investigating the matter until the Centre ordered a probe by the federal agency, they added.

The CBI had on Sunday filed an FIR in connection with alleged irregularities in medical entrance exam NEET-UG, which was held on May 5, on a reference from the Education Ministry, amid countrywide protests and litigations by students for a probe into the allegations of paper leak

“The CBI team is expected to visit the EOU office around 11.30 am and collect all evidence, including the pieces of the burnt question paper  that was recovered from a house in Patna, mobile phones of those arrested, SIM cards, laptops, post-dated cheques and reference questions papers provided by the National Testing Agency (NTA),” an EOU officer said.

“All those arrested are in judicial custody in Patna, and the CBI team may take them to Delhi for detailed interrogation by obtaining transit remand from a court here,” he said.

The CBI may file multiple FIRs in connection with the matter to probe the destruction of evidence, and also register disproportionate assets (DA) cases against some of those accused who are public servants, he said.

“A DA case may be registered against arrested accused Sikander Prasad Yadvendu, a junior engineer in Danapur Town Council, as he reportedly acquired huge assets that are disproportionate to his known source of income,” the officer said.

Yadvendu, originally from Samastipur, has been identified as the prime suspect in the case, he said.

“He has a history of involvement in criminal activities. Before becoming a junior engineer in 2012, he worked as a contractor in Ranchi. He was previously implicated in an LED scam worth Rs 3 crore. He has served a jail sentence for his role in that case,” the officer said.

Moscow (AP): More than 15 police officers and several civilians, including an Orthodox priest, were killed by armed militants in Russia’s southern republic of Dagestan on Sunday, its governor Sergei Melikov said in a video statement early Monday.

The gunmen opened fire on two Orthodox churches, a synagogue and a police post in two cities, according to the authorities.

Russia’s National Anti-Terrorist Committee described the attacks in the predominantly Muslim region with a history of armed insurgency as terrorist acts.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were declared days of mourning in the region.

Dagestan’s Interior Ministry said a group of armed men shot at a synagogue and a church in the city of Derbent, located on the Caspian Sea. Both the church and the synagogue caught fire, according to state media. Almost simultaneously, reports appeared about an attack on a church and a traffic police post in the Dagestan capital, Makhachkala.

Authorities announced a counter-terrorist operation in the region. The Anti-Terrorist Committee said five gunmen were “eliminated.” The governor said six “bandits” had been “liquidated.” The conflicting numbers couldn’t be immediately reconciled and it wasn’t clear how many militants were involved in the attacks.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks. The authorities launched a criminal investigation on the charge of a terrorist act.

Russian state news agency Tass cited law enforcement sources as saying that a Dagestani official was detained over his sons’ involvement in the attacks.

Melikov said in the video statement that the situation in the region was under control of the law enforcement and local authorities, and vowed that the investigation of the attacks will continue until “all the sleeping cells” of the militants are uncovered.

He claimed, without providing evidence, that the attacks might have been prepared from abroad, and referenced what the Kremlin calls “the special military operation” in Ukraine in an apparent attempt to link the attacks to it.

In March, gunmen opened fire on a crowd at a concert hall in suburban Moscow, killing 145 people. An affiliate of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, but Russian officials also sought to link Ukraine to the attack without providing any evidence. Kyiv has vehemently denied any involvement.

Houston: In a tragic incident, a 32-year-old Indian man was fatally shot during a robbery at a convenience store in the US state of Texas.

Dasari Gopikrishna, who hailed from Bapatla district in Andhra Pradesh, came to the US only eight months ago.

The incident occurred at a gas station convenience store in Pleasant Grove, Dallas on June 21.

Consul General D C Manjunath, who was in Dallas for a Yoga Day event on Sunday, confirmed to PTI that the incident was unrelated to a shooting in Arkansas as previously reported by various sources.

Expressing condolences to Gopikrishna’s family, Manjunath said, “We are deeply saddened to learn about the tragic demise of Indian national Gopi Krishna Dasari in a robbery shooting incident at Pleasant Grove, Dallas, TX, and are in touch with local family members.”

The Consulate, along with support from Indian associations, is providing all possible assistance to facilitate the repatriation of Gopikrishna’s body to India following local formalities, including autopsy and death certificates.

Gopikrishna sustained critical injuries during the robbery and was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he tragically succumbed to his injuries on Sunday morning while undergoing treatment.

The incident has deeply affected the Indian community in Dallas and surrounding areas. Gopikrishna is survived by his wife and son.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday took oath as member of the 18th Lok Sabha.

Modi returned to power for a third consecutive term earlier this month. Modi and his Council of Ministers took oath on June 9.

This is the third term of Modi as a member of the Lok Sabha. He retained the Varanasi seat, which he has been winning since 2014. As Leader of the House, he was the first one to take oath.

Earlier in the day, B Mahtab took oath as member of the new House as well as that of pro-tem speaker at Rashtrapati Bhavan.