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JD(S) rules out alliance in Council elections

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Kumaraswamy

Mysuru: JD(S) president H D Kumaraswamy ruled out an alliance with any party whatsoever in the upcoming Council elections.

H D Kumaraswamy at a press meet held in Mysuru said that both the national parties have cheated the state, especially the farmer community. “Following this, we have decided to field our own candidates from all 25 seats. Few party people who should discuss few matters within the party are doing it in public and those work against the party will face action”, he asserted.

With regard to the list of the candidates he informed that it will be finalised within the next two days. He also said that internal conflict in the party will be discussed with party supremo HD Devegowda.

“Both the national parties have attempted to close Lokayukta organisation as they closed KPSC organisation. They have wasted 10 days of winter session for their political gain”, he alleged.

JD(S) supremo H D Devegowda too, turned on his previously made statement and ruled out an alliance with Congress in the upcoming council elections. Earlier on Thursday, he had asserted alliance with the Congress.

(Agencies)

Noted Kannada writers to stay away from Bangalore Lit Fest 2015

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BANGALORE LITERATURE FESTIVAL

Bengaluru: It would seem that writer’s don’t give up on what they believe in. Notwithstanding the PM’s impassioned speech in the parliament yesterday, about the Constitution being the Govt.’s holy book, three noted Kannada writers decided to stay away from the Bangalore Literature Festival (BLF) 2015 scheduled for December 5 and 6 at Bengaluru.

This unexpected action was taken by writers after Bangalore Literature Festival director Vikram Sampat in an article criticised the returning of awards in the wake of ‘growing intolerance’ in the country. Sampat termed the writers as ‘sheep’ in the article.

OL Nagabhushana Swamy, Prof Arif Raza and Dayananda TK, have withdrawn from the event and said Sampat criticism wording is neither intellectual nor academic in spirit” and questioned the political leanings of Sampat.

Sampat said in the article, “It is intriguing that the writer community was largely silent when books were banned, authors attacked, and rationalists killed. Why the selective outrage, as though apocalypse has descended on us as far as freedom of expression is concerned? Intolerance and violence against a contrary opinion is not a sudden phenomenon in India.”

Arif Raja called Sampat’s comments ‘politically motivated and childish’.

Shivaram Karanth had returned his Padma award and Chandrashekar Patil (Champa) had lost his job because he opposed Indira Gandhi, said Arif Raja. Dayanand TK, said in his letter that he had misgivings about some of the sponsors of the festival.

He also said he did not want to be part of a literature fest whose principal organisers ‘don’t understand the sentiment and the feeling of terror’ that forced the country’s intellectuals to speak out.

Famous Malayalam writer K Sachidanandan, said he too refused to be part of BLF this year, coming out in support of Raja and Dayanand.

The process of returning awards started when Hindi writer Uday Prakash returned the Sahitya Akademi award in September 2015 to protest against the Akademi’s “indifference” over the murder of intellectuals such as M M Kalburgi. Nearly three dozen writers have since returned their prizes to the Akademi.

(Agencies)

Woman IPS transferred after spat with Haryana minister

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Sangeet Kalia Anil Vij

Chandigarh: IPS officer Sangeet Kalia, SP of Fatehabad district, was today shunted out, a day after a spat with Haryana Health Minister Anil Vij during a meeting, triggering angry reactions against him from the opposition and on the social media.

The minister had on Thursday stormed out of a meeting of the District Grievances and Public Relations Committee after the police officer refused to follow his order to leave the venue following heated exchanges between them. The video of their spat went viral on social media.

Official sources said government has decided to transfer Kalia from her current post as Fatehabad SP, adding formal orders will be issued soon.

Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar earlier today told reporters in Karnal that he had taken cognizance of the matter and it will be dealt with appropriately.

The spat issue drew sharp reactions from various quarters, with opposition slamming Vij over his comments with a lady officer, while Chairman of National Commission for Scheduled Castes, P L Punia, demanded that the Minister should be sacked.

Former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that the Minister should have maintained decorum while speaking to a lady officer and deprecated his behaviour with her.

Notably, Vij, who is known for his outspoken nature even taking on his own government, said that he had been getting complaints of drug mafia and liquor mafia being active.

“Yesterday, one NGO complained to police, but she (Kalia) shouted back at the NGO telling it why you are complaining to the Minister, that itself shows that she is not cooperating,” he said.

Following it with a tweet, Vij said that he is ready to pay any price and even ready to make sacrifice to ensure justice to people who are oppressed due to indifferent attitude of administration.

“I have spoken to the CM. I want to make one thing very clear that I will continue to fight against those officials who do not work,” he said.

The incident drew sharp reactions on social media, with several coming out in support of Kalia, saying the Minister should have exercised restraint.

In another tweet, the minister said, “I am ready to pay any price and make any sacrifice for getting justice for people who face harassment at the hands of administration”.

Vij was slammed for his tweet by the people on social media.

One tweet said, “Fatehabad SP is an honest officer, who is stopping illegal work that comes to her notice. You (Vij) are being misguided by wrong people. I was not expecting this from a leader like you”.

“Her only fault lies that she cares two hoots for power brokers. She has been working honestly and during her time crime graph has come down,” he said.

Another tweet reminded the Minister that he was occupying a “constitutional post”.

“You should not speak through your tongue (asking SP to get out..),” he tweeted.

The confrontation between Vij and Kalia took place during a meeting of the District Grievances and Public Relations Committee in Fatehabad yesterday, where the minister questioned Kalia regarding a complaint pertaining to an unauthorised sale of liquor in villages.

Deputy Commissioner N K Solanki was also present in the meeting.

Vij asked the SP what the police was doing regarding multiple sale points of liquor opened in villages.

The officer explained the responsibilities of the police in this regard and mentioned that 2,500 cases had been registered in connection with the Excise Act in the past 10 months, which was a record.

The minister was, however, not satisfied with SP’s response.

As the exchange between the duo continued, the minister by now enraged asked the SP to “get out” of the meeting.

The lady officer, however, refused to leave the meeting as she felt she was not in the wrong, and even objected to the minister’s manner.

The minister then left the meeting in a huff. All BJP workers and committee members followed suit.

The officer declined to comment on the incident, saying everything happened before media and that she would not like to add anything further.

Congress leader Manish Tewari said the minister acted in a “crude manner. For the simple reason, you don’t behave with a lady in this manner irrespective of whether she is an officer or not. There is certain decorum which you must observe. If this had happened in some other party

Senior party Digvijay Singh said, “It displays arrogance and ego of the BJP. This will continue till such things are not eliminated.”.

“This is punishment without any inquiry. The Haryana government has initiated action against the SP without going into details and without conducting any inquiry,” another leader Shakeel Ahmed said.

(PTI)

AAP’s Lokpal ‘mahajokepal’, Bhushan tears into Kejriwal

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A file photo of activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan. Photo: PTI

A file photo of activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan. Photo: PTI

New Delhi: Activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan today accused Arvind Kejriwal of playing the “biggest fraud” on people by diluting the provisions of the Jan Lokpal draft of the Anna movement while Shanti Bhushan demanded the Delhi Chief Minister’s resignation.

Bhushan read out certain provisions of the draft Bill, that is yet to be made public by the Delhi government. He claimed that Ministers and officials of the Centre were put under the ambit of the proposed legislation “deliberately” to provoke confrontation.

He said Kejriwal does not like to be questioned like “Modi” so he has chosen not to make the contents of the Bill public.

“No activist or movement in India’s history has played such a big fraud with people. This will only ensure that the Central government does not approve and the Bill never gets passed. Kejriwal never had the intention to form a strong Lokpal body,” the former AAP leader said.

Dissident AAP MLA Pankaj Pushkar, who was also present at the presser at Bhushan’s Noida residence, claimed that he had managed to get hold of its copy in his capacity as a member of the Business Advisory Committee.

Bhushan questioned the appointment and removal processes of the Lokpal laid out in the Bill, which was recently cleared by the AAP Cabinet, saying they would put the Ombudsman at the mercy of the city government.

The Bill purportedly says that a four-member selection committee, comprising the Chief Minister, Speaker, Leader of Opposition and Delhi High Court Chief Justice would appoint the Lokpal, while the removal can be ensured by a motion in the Assembly with two-thirds majority.

“Even the Centre’s Lokpal Act, which has been termed as jokepal by Kejriwal, is stronger than this Bill. This is a ‘mahajokepal’. Kejriwal must resign from office,” senior Bhushan said.

They said by expanding the jurisdiction of the Lokpal, by proposing to bring Centre under its ambit was uncalled for and aimed at stoking another fight. “In all the draft Lokpals that we have prepared till date, state Lokayuktas are not supposed to have any such powers.”

The father-son duo also slammed the alleged provision which stipulates one-year imprisonement for false complaints, which they said will only deter complainants. “So the falsity is to be decided by a sarkari lokpal?” they asked.

“We can now understand why this draft was kept under the wraps. The plan was to pass this maha jokepal Bill and then play victim by claiming that the Centre is obstructing it. Will say nahi karne diya ji,” Bhushan said in a mocking tone.

(Agencies)

GST bill deadlock: Modi invites Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh for tea

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modi_sonia_gandhi_manmohan_singh

New Delhi: Reaching out to main opposition, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh for tea this evening during which issues like GST may come up.

Modi today invited the Congress leaders at his Race Course Road residence at 7 PM, sources said.

This assumes significance as the Government and the Congress are at loggerheads which is stalling the passage of crucial legislations like the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had yesterday said that the Prime Minister is willing to speak to everyone to get the landmark indirect tax law through.

Jaitley, who needs Parliament approval for GST Bill in the winter session to roll out the new indirect tax regime as planned from April 1, said he has spoken to “almost all Congress leaders” on the issue.

“We have absolutely no hesitation even at the level of Prime Minister. We have never had in it in the past, we don’t have it (now). He is willing to speak to everyone,” he had said.

Congress had stalled passage of the GST Constitution Amendment Bill in the last session of Parliament over its demand that a revenue-neutral rate not higher than 18 per cent be mentioned in it. It is also opposed to states being given powers to levy additional 1 per cent tax on supply of goods over and above GST rate.

(PTI)

Five accused in Advocate Naushad Kashimji murder awarded rigorous imprisonment

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Naushad Kashimji

Mangaluru: The court on Friday sentenced three accused to rigorous life imprisonment while two other accused were sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment for the murder of Advocate Naushad Kashimji.

The accused have been identified as Dinesh Shetty, Ritesh, Ganesh, Pratap Shetty and Subrahmanya; they were convicted on Wednesday.

Of the accused the three serving rigorous life imprisonment and will have to pay Rs 20,000 penalty each are Dinesh, Pratap and Ritesh. However, failure to pay the fine would result in five more years of rigorous imprisonment. They were also sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment with Rs 5,000 penalty each under Arms Act sections 3 and 25.

The other two accused were sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs 10,000 each and failure to pay the fine would attract three more years of rigorous imprisonment. The two also get six months of rigorous imprisonment and Rs 5,000 penalty each and non-payment of the fine would result in five more months in prison.

The penalty paid would be given to Naushad Kashimji’s wife and children.

Advocate Naushad spoke on behalf of Rashid Malbari, a close associate of Dawood Ibrahim and was murdered near his house at Falnir on April 9, 2009.

Naushad’s brother Sameer Kashimji, speaking to the media said that he was happy with the judgment. However, he said that the actual accused was roaming free, but this judgment would be a lesson for all involved in the murder.

(Agencies)

Muslims donate money to bail out 15 Hindu convicts languishing in jail

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indian-jails

Bareilly: “Kindness is a mark of faith, and whoever is not kind has no faith,” said Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). As the controversy rages over “intolerance” in the country, here is a group of Muslim men who have quietly done for 15 Hindu men what even their own kin could not.

 

The Muslim men pooled in money to be able to pay a fine of Rs 50,000 to secure the release of the Hindu prisoners languishing for want of money in the district jail. They had been lodged in jail on charges of petty crime like ticketless travel. Unable to cough up the fine to make reparation for their misdeeds, the men were serving an additional sentence. Once the money was paid, the 15 men walked out free birds.

Outside the jail, the Muslims who paid for their release welcomed them into freedom with a warm embrace. As the 15 men stepped out of jail on Wednesday evening, there were smiles and tears all around.

One of the inmates, Nand Kishore, had served out the period of his sentence for ticketless travel, but was not released as he failed to pay a Rs1,000-fine. But as he left the jail premises and strode towards home, Haji Yasin Qureshi and his friends, all Muslims, hugged him and walked along.

Qureshi shrugged off the effusive gratitude that the men showed him and his friends, and said it is just the Almighty who needs to be thanked. He told the 15 men that they should swear never to repeat their mistakes.

The Muslim men had also made arrangements for Nand Kishore’s travel back to his native village. He was given a small sum as “pocket money” too. His eyes moist, Kishore bid the Muslim youth adieu as jail staffers watched, awe-struck.

Among the others to taste freedom were Ajay Kumar, Kishan Sagar, Pappu and Tilak. All of them were warmly embraced as they emerged from the jail, all deeply moved by the gesture of their benefactors who had come to their aid in a time of crisis.

Qureshi, who led the group that collected funds for the release of the men, said, “When we learnt of their plight from jail authorities, we decided that we should do what we could. We are never guided by the feeling that our efforts should be directed only towards members of our own community. We believe that if we help in releasing a man from captivity, Allah will bless us. Moreover, what better occasion than a time when there is all this talk about who should live in this country and who should leave.”

Haji Mohd Anees, a businessman, who too had contributed to the release of the men, said, “Sahib yeh to hamara watan hai aur Hindu hamare bhai hain. Hum yahin paida huwey hai aur yahin khaak mein milengey” (This is our country, Hindus are our brothers. We were born here, we will be buried here and mix with the soil here.)

BR Maurya, superintendent of the Bareilly district jail, said, “The 15 inmates were charged with petty crimes. Some were arrested on apprehension of breach of peace. They were serving out sentences ranging from 6 months to 10 years. The majority of them had served out the full sentence, but could not pay the fine imposed on them by the court.”

(Agencies)

Constitution Day celebrated at Greenwood High International School

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Greenwood High

Bengaluru: In a bid to join the country in national fervour and its tribute, Greenwood High International School celebrated the 125th birth anniversary of Dr. B R Ambedkar, which will be marked as the Constitution Day henceforth. The special school assembly began with Dr. B R Ambedkar’s teachings and the importance of the day by Principal, Aloysius D’Mello. The students enacted a skit depicting some important events of freedom struggle and the formation of the Constituent Assembly. The preamble to the constitution was also read out in the assembly by all students to mark the significant day. A presentation demonstrated the salient features of the constitution and its making. The program concluded with the school song and the National Anthem.

Niru Agarwal, Trustee, Greenwood High International School said, “We planned a special assembly today to mark the birth anniversary of one of the most inspiring social reformer which also coincides with the day when the Indian Constitution was adopted in 1949. He was also the chief architect of the Indian Constitution and we wanted the students to understand the fundamental values of our Constitution. Our constitution is a unique one and we are glad to observe this national day”.

NRI Ravi Pillai spends 55 crore for daughter’s wedding in Kerala

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arathi-adithya-vishnu

Kochi: Kerala’s richest NRI Ravi Pillai is reportedly spending Rs 55 crore for his daughter Arathi Pillai’s high-profile wedding with Kochi-based Adithya Vishnu in Kollam, Kerala today.

Pillai is the chairman of the Bahrain-headquartered RP Group with a net worth of Rs 19, 300 crore.

The wedding set, spread over eight acres, has cost more than Rs 23 crore. It has been designed by art director Sabu Cyril of “Baahubali” fame, reports Manoramaonline.

“The design is unique for this event. But it’s largely modelled on the royal palaces of Rajasthan,” said Sabu Cyril. It took him 75 days to create the wedding set.

Manju Warrier, Sobhana and Stephen Devassy will be performing before 30,000 guests inside a 350,000 sq ft set .

The guest list includes royal families of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and UAE, CEOs of Japan Gas Corporation and Chiyoda Corporation Japan, Samsung Group.

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Union ministers and film stars including Mammootty and Mohanlal will be attending the function.

Talking about the multi-crore ceremony, Ravi Pillai stated that his daughter’s wedding is not an extravaganza. “Besides conducting my daughter’s marriage in a good manner, I am also spending around Rs 10 crore for humanitarian initiatives. As part of it, as many as 2,000 cancer patients in the state will be given Rs 10,000 each as medical aid,” said Pillai.

(Agencies)

PCB gets clearance from PM for Indo-Pak series in Sri Lanka

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indo-pak

Karachi: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has granted permission to the PCB for a bilateral cricket series against arch-rivals India in Sri Lanka.

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and Indian Cricket Board (BCC) had proposed the series and approached their respective governments for clearance.

Official sources in the ministry of inter provincial coordination said that the Prime Minister gave the clearance before leaving for an official tour to Malta.

“The PM has responded to the letter sent to him by the PCB Chairman Shaharyar Khan and he has said that Pakistan should play India in Sri Lanka for a short series given the current security situation,” a source told PTI.

“The PM made the point that while foreign teams are not playing in Pakistan, the security situation for Pakistanis in India is also not clear, so Sri Lanka is a good option,” the source said.

A PM house statement was also quoted in the ‘Express Tribune’ which said, “Given the current security situation, PCB should hold short series with India at a third location.”

It also said the PM House had sent a letter to the PCB granting them permission for the series and directing them to carefully view the security situation as well.

BCCI are yet to hear from the Indian government on the series.

On Tuesday, Sri Lanka emerged as a neutral venue for the planned series which is likely to have three ODIs and two T20s, tentatively scheduled between December 15 and first week of January.

Both countries have not played Test cricket since 2007 but Pakistan toured India in winter of 2012-13 for a short limited-over series.

(PTI)

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