Archives for May 2018

Starting his official engagements in Indonesia on Wednesday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid a wreath at the Kalibata Heroes’ Cemetery here.

“Lest we forget…Paying homage to martyrs of Indonesian independence struggle! PM @narendramodi laying wreath at the Kalibata National Heroes’ Cemetery and signing the Visitor’s Book,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted along with pictures.

Over 7,000 people, who are military casualties and veterans from the Indonesian war of independence are buried at the cemetery.

These include many Japanese veterans of the Imperial Japanese Army who stayed in the then Dutch colony after the World War II of their own will and fought for Indonesia’s independence.

Modi arrived here on Tuesday on the first leg of his five-day three-nation tour of southeast Asia that will also see him visiting Malaysia and Singapore.

Later in the day, Modi and Indonesian President Joko Widodo will hold a bilateral summit following which a number of agreements, including in the areas of defence and trade, are expected to be signed.

The two leaders will then jointly inaugurate a kite festival being organised by Museum Layang-Layang of Jakarta and Kite Museum of Ahmedabad that will be depicting the common themes of the Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, which are strong cultural and civilizational links that India share with Indonesia.

Modi will also attend an Indian community event at the Jakarta Convention Centre here and take part in an India-Indonesia CEOs Forum.

Indonesia is home to around 100,000 people of Indian origin and 7,000 Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) working as professionals across different sectors.

There are signs of tension between the Indian Consulate General in Toronto and the regional police over a hotline set up by the diplomatic mission after the explosion at a restaurant in this heavily Southasian city, according to The Toronto Star.

“As the investigation continued, Peel police issued a rebuke on Sunday, reminding anyone with information about Thursday’s bomb attack on the Bombay Bhel restaurant in the Toronto suburb here, that the police — and not the Indian Consulate of Toronto — are the ones to call,” the newspaper said.

Peel is the region covering Mississauga and other municipalities in the Greater Toronto Area.

The newspaper reported that police said in a written statement sent to it: “Although we appreciate the assistance of any outside agencies and community partners, we would prefer than any information in relation to this incident be provided directly to investigators through a dedicated tip line at 1-800-966-0616.”

India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj announced on Twitter the setting up of the “emergency number” 1-647-668-4108 by the consulate, saying: “Our missions will work round the clock.”

“The first action was to open a helpline for Indian citizens and also the Indian-Canadian community, because it’s a vast Indo-Canadian community in Toronto,” India’s Consul General Dinesh Bhatia was quoted as saying by the Global News.

“People are calling to find out if their relatives are involved because in the middle of the night they couldn’t reach any of the numbers,” he told the national multi-media website.

There was no indication from Swaraj or Bhatia that they were conducting a parallel investigation or soliciting information of an investigative nature but that they were only helping people with information about family and relatives.

Canadian officials have not released the names of the three people who were seriously injured in the blast.

The police reaction may have been sparked by an Ontario Gurudwara Committee statement criticising the consulate.

The Star said the Committee accused “the Indian Consulate of Toronto for overstepping its diplomatic reach by establishing a hotline to gather information on the bombing”.

When told about the Committee’s warning about the hotline, “a Peel police source, speaking on background, reacted sharply,” the Star said.

It reported that the source said, “Anyone contacting the Consulate with information, we would expect to hear about that immediately. We are handling this. Period.”

Later, the police sent the note to the newspaper.

The Committee also condemned what it said was “misinformation” spread by the Indian media.
(10:34)
Mississauga (Canada), May 30 (IANS) There are signs of tension between the Indian Consulate General in Toronto and the regional police over a hotline set up by the diplomatic mission after the explosion at a restaurant in this heavily Southasian city, according to The Toronto Star.

“As the investigation continued, Peel police issued a rebuke on Sunday, reminding anyone with information about Thursday’s bomb attack on the Bombay Bhel restaurant in the Toronto suburb here, that the police — and not the Indian Consulate of Toronto — are the ones to call,” the newspaper said.

Peel is the region covering Mississauga and other municipalities in the Greater Toronto Area.

The newspaper reported that police said in a written statement sent to it: “Although we appreciate the assistance of any outside agencies and community partners, we would prefer than any information in relation to this incident be provided directly to investigators through a dedicated tip line at 1-800-966-0616.”

India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj announced on Twitter the setting up of the “emergency number” 1-647-668-4108 by the consulate, saying: “Our missions will work round the clock.”

“The first action was to open a helpline for Indian citizens and also the Indian-Canadian community, because it’s a vast Indo-Canadian community in Toronto,” India’s Consul General Dinesh Bhatia was quoted as saying by the Global News.

“People are calling to find out if their relatives are involved because in the middle of the night they couldn’t reach any of the numbers,” he told the national multi-media website.

There was no indication from Swaraj or Bhatia that they were conducting a parallel investigation or soliciting information of an investigative nature but that they were only helping people with information about family and relatives.

Canadian officials have not released the names of the three people who were seriously injured in the blast.

The police reaction may have been sparked by an Ontario Gurudwara Committee statement criticising the consulate.

The Star said the Committee accused “the Indian Consulate of Toronto for overstepping its diplomatic reach by establishing a hotline to gather information on the bombing”.

When told about the Committee’s warning about the hotline, “a Peel police source, speaking on background, reacted sharply,” the Star said.

It reported that the source said, “Anyone contacting the Consulate with information, we would expect to hear about that immediately. We are handling this. Period.”

Later, the police sent the note to the newspaper.

The Committee also condemned what it said was “misinformation” spread by the Indian media.

The CBI on Wednesday raided the residence of Delhi Health and Power Minister Satyendra Jain over alleged violation of norms in hiring of a creative team in the Public Works Department (PWD) and registered a case.

The case has been registered against Jain, S.K. Srivastava, the then Engineer-in-Chief in PWD and others, a CBI official told IANS.

Searches are underway at four-to-five locations in Delhi, including residences of PWD officials and others.

In 2017, the Central Bureau of Investigation had initiated a preliminary probe related to the hiring of 24 architects in the PWD’s creative team for various projects, including Mohalla clinics.

“CBI raids my house for hiring creative team by PWD. Professionals were hired for different projects. All were forced to leave by the CBI,” Jain said in a tweet.

Reacting to the raids on Jain’s house, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted: “What does Prime Minister Narendra Modi want?” His deputy Manish Sisodia quoted a report that said the NITI Aayog had favoured the creative team.

“The only job left with the CBI, Delhi Police, Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax department is to stop the works done by the AAP in Delhi.”

“Our crime is that we are working to make the national capital a better place and improve the health and education here. All this is done to harass us,” he added.

“The Aam Aadmi Party is not going to stop with these practice,” he said.

The two day bank strike by over 10 lakh bankers demanding early wage settlement starting Wednesday has evoked good response nationwide, said a top leader of the All India Bank Employees’ Association.

“Around 85,000 bank branches spread across the country, including that of State Bank of India and some private banks will remain closed for two days. The response to the strike is good,” C.H. Venkatachalam, General Secretary, AIBEA told IANS.

Queried about the value and volume of money instruments that would not be cleared by the bank’s clearing houses Venkatachalam said: “On all India basis clearance of 39 lakh instruments with a value of Rs 21,700 crore per day would be impacted.

“The above value and volume were the averages of last 15 days clearance of instruments.”

The May 30-31 strike is spearheaded by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine unions.

The bankers are striking work demanding early revision of the wages. The wage revision has been due since November 1, 2017.

Venkatachalam said the unions had requested the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) to come up with better offer than the mere two per cent hike offer made earlier so that the strike could be averted.

He said the IBA was also asked not to delink the wage negotiations for bank officers in the Scales 4-7. The IBA did not do anything.

He said at the conciliation meeting held on Monday, the Chief Labour Commissioner (CLC) had asked the IBA not to raise new controversies like delinking the wage talks for officers in the 4-7 scale.

“Though the CLC tried its best to sort out the strike issues, there is no positive developments. Hence strike on May 30 and 31 (Wednesday and Thursday) stands,” All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC) General Secretary D.T. Franco had said earlier.

According to Venkatachalam, with regard to the coverage of officers from Scale 4-7, the IBA said it did not get the mandate from six banks as they opted to cover officers up to Scale 3 level.

However, 14 banks have given the mandate for covering the officers up to Scale 7 in wage negotiations as was done in the previous wage settlement negotiations, he said.

With bank branches closed for two days, the ATM machines are being loaded with additional cash to meet any contingency.

“The private banks (like HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank) are working and there is no problem there. In the case of public sector banks the strike call was known well ahead. So, we have collected cash in advance from the banks for loading in the ATMs,” V. Balasubramanian, President, Financial Software and Systems (FSS), told IANS.

The city based FSS manages ATMs for several banks in the country.

“Generally we know the cash dispensation per day per ATM. We load the machines with cash for two days transaction value which is at an average is around Rs 6 lakh. This time we have loaded ATMs with cash of around Rs 15 lakh which would take care of the average cash dispensation for four days,” Balasubramanian said.

According to him, the ATMs are loaded more with Rs 500 notes.

The Bank of Maharashtra MD and CEO Ravindra P Marathe has urged his customers to make the maximum use of digital banking services for their transcations as the strike might disrupt normal banking services at the branches.

An Additional Superintendent of Uttar Pradesh Police’s Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) shot and killed himself inside his office on Tuesday afternoon, police said.

Rajesh Sahini of the Provincial Police Service (PPS) posted at the ATS Headquarters in the posh Gomtinagar area here, shot himself in the head, said an officer.

Additional Director General of Police (ADG) Law and Order, Anand Kumar confirmed the incident to IANS and said the entire department was shocked by his action. “He was one of our finest…its a great loss.”

Kumar, however, said the department was still not sure what exactly triggered such an extreme step. No suicide note has been recovered so far.

Sahini was instrumental in the arrest of a suspected Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) operative of Pakistan’s intelligence agency from Uttarakhand only last week.

He asked his driver to bring his service revolver. Minutes later he shot himself, an officer at the Headquarters said.

The police has seized the revolver used in the suicide and launched a probe.

Sahini was a 1992 batch PPS officer and had been behind many successful operations of the state police.

Born in 1969 in Patna, Sahini had “zero error monitoring and professionalism”, a senior officer said.

Over 10 lakh bankers in the government and private sectors are gearing up for a two-day strike starting on May 30, as the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) did not make any improved offer over the two per cent wage hike made earlier, an All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) leader said.

The strike is spearheaded by the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine unions.

The bankers would strike work demanding early revision of the wages. The wage revision has been due since November 1, 2017.

“It is now too late for us to go back on our strike call. We had requested the IBA to come up with a better offer than the mere two per cent hike offer made earlier.

“We also asked the IBA not to delink the wage negotiations for bank officers in the Scales 4-7. The IBA did not do anything,” AIBEA General Secretary C.H. Venkatachalam told IANS.

He said at the conciliation meeting held on Monday, the Chief Labour Commissioner (CLC) had asked the IBA not to raise new controversies like delinking the wage talks for officers in the 4-7 scale.

“Though the CLC tried its best to sort out the strike issues, there is no positive developments. Hence strike on May 30 and 31 (Wednesday and Thursday) stands,” All India Bank Officers’ Confederation (AIBOC) General Secretary D.T. Franco said.

According to Venkatachalam, with regard to the coverage of officers from Scale 4-7 the IBA said it did not get the mandate from six banks as they opted to cover officers up to Scale 3 level.

However, 14 banks have given the mandate for covering the officers up to Scale 7 in wage negotiations as was done in the previous wage settlement negotiations, he said

The infighting between BS Yeddyurappa,state BJP President and leader of the opposition in the state Assembly with KS Eshwarappa,newly elected Shivamogga city MLA and former leader of the opposition in the legislative council doesn’t looks like going to end in the interest of both and the party.
Thanks to the biennial elections to the state legislative council from the state Assembly early next month the selection of party candidates for the same has given rise to a new row now between the warring leaders.
BJ Puttaswamy,DS Veeraiah,Ranganath Malkapure and MB Bhanuprakash,four BJP members are retiring from the upper house while based on the strength in the Assembly BJP can elect five nominees easily.
According to party insiders N Ravikumar from RSS and ABVP quota,Ashwathnarayangowda,party spokesperson and Tejasvini Gowda from Vokkaliga category,Rudregowda,Shivamogga BJP president and Vijay Sankeshwar,former MP and media baron from Lingayat section,MB Bhanuprakash,sitting MLC and Go Madhusudan,party spokesperson from Brahmin community are said to be strong contenders for the five seats.
It may be recalled here that the rift between BS Yeddyurappa and KS Eshwarappa began with the party choice for the Shivamogga Assembly ticket.If KS Eshwarappa was hell bent upon bagging the party nomination for the same BS Yeddyurappa had taken it as a personal challenge to ensure it to Rudregouda.
Rudregouda was narrowly defeated as KJP candidate in Shvamogga constituency during 2013 polls while KS Eshwarappa as a BJP candidate was reduced to 4th position.
So hook or crook both BS Yeddyurappa and KS Eshwarappa had made it a personal prestige.This issue stretched its ugly tentacles to such an extent that KS Eshwarappa went to the extent of forming Krantiveer Sangolli Rayanna Brigade under the guise of protecting the rights of all backward classes.
He also used the banner as a trump card to beat his own drums as the only savior of downtrodden populace.The platform also soon turned out to be platform for public diatribe against the state party president who was also declared as the party’s chief ministerial candidate by then.
BS Yeddyurappa’s public utterances were no better.He also made use of every available occasion to hit back at his own party’s junior colleague.Even one year before the polls BS Yeddyurappa and KS Eshwarappa started their vocal battle of bashing at each other.
This mutual public bashing didn’t stop in spite of repeated warnings to both from the party higher ups’.KS Eshwarappa also organized a public meeting at Palace grounds as an open violation of the party dictates.He went in open to initiate action against him if at all he had done a crime by remaining loyal to the party ever since he had been a member of it.
The logic was simple:BS Yeddyurappa has ditched the party but has been re accommodated and made the party president and chief ministerial candidate while he has been left in the lurch.
In a way KS Eshwarappa’s frequent outbursts against his own party president and vice versa became a laughing stock in open.Many onlookers wondered whether KS Eshwarappa was leader of the opposition in the legislative council to fight the Siddaramaiah government or a opposition leader to take the party president head on!
Amith Shah,BJP national president had to mediate to put an end to this never ending feud.At last KS Eshwarappa bid adieu to the Krantiveer Sangolli Rayanna Brigade reluctantly.
But that didn’t mean everything went very well later.KS Eshwarappa ensured that the Shivamogga ticket is guaranteed to him while BS Yeddyurappa simultaneously took enough care to see that Rudregouda,his protege was assured of the seat to the upper house.
But now the piquant situation is such if Rudregouda has to be accommodated then MB Bhanuprakash from the same Shivamogga district has to be deprived the opportunity for re election which has become an issue of heart burn for KS Eshwarappa.
MB Bhanuprakash had stood all along with KS Eshwarappa during his struggle with BS Yeddyurapa.So it would be unjustified for him to sacrifice his pal’s political interests.
Nor is BS Yeddyurappa prepared to yield.His argument is:DH Srikantamurthy,Chairman of legislative council is from Shivamogga district while KS Eshwarappa himself has served as leader of the opposition in the legislative council.Now he himself is the leader of opposition and state party president.So entertaining two members from the same district may not look a wise move in the present circumstances when there is a big queue of aspirants.
But KS Eshwarappa doesn’t seem to be inclined to listen.He is reported to stay away from the meeting in the state office this evening to take a call on the party nominees.
Hindusthan Samachar/Manohar Yadavatti

The delay in cabinet expansion of the Congress-JD(S) alliance government in Karnataka is on account of unresolved issues on power sharing arrangement, including appointment of two deputy chief ministers from the Congress quota.

Congress is insisting on its earlier demand for two deputies to CM HD Kumararaswamy, both from the Congress.

Only G Parmeshwar was sworn in as deputy CM last week along with Kumaraswamy as the two partners clarified the expansion would follow after the floor test in the Assembly.

With BJP walking out, the Kumaraswamy government easily won the vote of confidence on the floor of the House. But it has been one week since and a couple of visits to Delhi since taking oath, Kumaraswamy has not been able to get Congress on board on getting his full cabinet sworn.

Kumaraswamy has already said that he was at the ‘mercy’ of the Congress, not the 6.5 crore people of the state indicating difference over portfolio allocation.

Sources also say the Congress is also insisting on allocation of some plum portfolios, especially after having ‘sacrificed’ the CM’s post despite being the senior partner in the alliance.

The party has been asking for at least 22 ministerial berth, including ministries of Finance, PWD and Energy.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi has already briefed senior Congress leaders on the contours of agreement to be thrashed out before the swearing in of the full cabinet.

Rahul had left for the US on Sunday accompanying his mother who has to undergo a medical check-up there.

Among those present during the deliberations on Monday were Ahmed Patel, Ashok Gehlot and K C Venugopal, who is the AICC general secretary in charge of the state. Kumaraswamy was joined by JD(S) leader Danish Ali during the discussions with the Congress leadership.

Later, senior party leader Mallikarjun Kharge, state Congress leader Siddaramaiah, deputy chief minister G Parameshwara and DK Shiva Kumar joined their senior leadership in the “negotiations”.

After the meeting, Kumaraswamy exuded confidence that an amicable power sharing arrangement will be worked out.

“We discussed the portfolios. The discussions remained inconclusive, but ended on a positive note. Very soon we will sort out the issues,”

PTI