Archives for 2021

Ballia (UP): Uttar Pradesh Minister Anand Swarup Shukla has alleged that Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav enjoys the patronage of Pakistan spy agency ISI and said he may even go for religious conversion to appease Muslims.

He may also be getting economic support from the neighbouring country’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the minister alleged while talking to reporters at his residence on Tuesday.

“Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has become a challenge for the Islamic world. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav is getting all support from them. Akhilesh is getting ‘sanrakshan aur sujhav’ (patronage and advice) from the ISI. It is possible that he might also be getting economic support from it,” Shukla, who a BJP leader, said.

Shukla’s remarks come after Yadav in a speech in Hardoi on Sunday spoke of Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru and Pakistan founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah in the same breath as leaders who fought for India’s independence.

“To appease Muslims, Yadav had performed ‘namaz’ and observed ‘roza’ (fast). He can also go for ‘matantaran’ (religious conversion) and ‘khatna’ to get their votes,” he said, adding that the former chief minister was doing so at the behest of Pakistan.

In his speech, Yadav praised India’s ‘Iron Man’ Vallabhbhai Patel on his 146th birth anniversary but raised eyebrows when he appeared to equate the four leaders, including Jinnah.

“On the directions of the ISI, Yadav is glorifying Jinnah. He is issuing such statements that Pakistan and the Taliban want,” Shukla, who is the minister of state for parliamentary affairs, alleged.

He claimed that Yadav’s comparison of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel with Jinnah was condemnable and that he should regret it.

During the public meeting in Hardoi, the SP leader had said, “Sardar Patel, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and (Muhammad Ali) Jinnah studied in the same institute and became barristers. They helped (India) get freedom and never backed away from any struggle.”

Yadav had also referred to the ban imposed on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh by Patel, the then home minister, following the assassination of Gandhi in 1948.

BENGALURU: There is good news on the GST front for the state this Diwali season as a GST loan of Rs 1,602.61 crore was released as GST compensation on Wednesday.  The Centre released Rs 60,000 crore to 31 states, including Karnataka, and Union territories.

The GST Council has released a loan of Rs 1.59 lakh crore to states to deal with the shortfall in GST collection during the current financial year and this is in proportion to the overall loss of revenues and a previously agreed upon formula.

The loan amount will be adjusted with the compensation later, said an official source in the government requesting anonymity.  Karnataka’s GST collection of Rs 8,259 crore in October is an 18 per cent jump over the same period last year, indicating an economic recovery.

The source said that if the supply of semiconductors had not been disrupted, the sale of cars and SUVs would have been higher, leading to an increased collection of GST. Former National Finance Commission Member Govinda Rao predicted that GST collections will continue to rise in the coming days, thanks to the stable system. Additional Chief Secretary ISN Prasad and Commercial Tax Commissioner C Shikha said the GST is being enforced harder, ensuring better compliance.

NEW DELHI:  Surging crowds at election rallies, especially in states like Bihar, are hardly a barometer of political temperature.

Opposition RJD and Congress star campaigners had drawn huge crowds. However, this did not convert into votes.  

RJD chief Lalu Prasad campaigned in the bypolls after a gap of about six years.

The result: the RJD candidate from Kusheshwar Asthan was defeated by the ruling JD-U by a margin of more than 12,000 votes. In Tarapur too, the JD-U won.

Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar and others also campaigned for three days. In both constituencies, the Congress candidates forfeited their deposits. 

The most striking similarity among Bihar’s three eligible bachelor politicians — Chirag Paswan, Tejashwi Yadav and Kanhaiya Kumar — is that they draw crowds, but don’t bring in votes. 

“Theirs is a model of hurling loud accusations. Secondly, they are largely inaccessible to the common people,” said an observer.

Sociologist Nirmal Kumar says states like Bihar, West Bengal and UP where you have a vast population suffering in poverty, the people generally go out to listen to big politicians at their rallies. 

“Lalu, his son Tejashwi, Chirag Paswan, Kanhaiya Kumar and CM Nitish Kumar did well in campaigning. Even when Lalu threatened to do an ‘immersion’ (visarjan) of the Nitish government in the bypolls, Nitish simply countered by a well thought-after line: “He (Lalu) can do nothing except getting me killed, when he wants.” 

Nitish’s one-liner refreshed the people’s memories about the 15-year reign of ‘jungle raj’ of Lalu-Rabri,” says Arun Kumar Pandey, a political analyst.

Meanwhile, Nitish on Tuesday asserted that results of the just-concluded by-elections won by his JD(U), were a resounding rejection of the RJD founded and headed by his arch-rival Lalu Prasad who betrayed arrogance and a lack of humility.

Kumar was talking to reporters at the state headquarters of the JD(U) where he joined a function organised to felicitate the victorious debutants Ganesh Bharti and Rajiv Kumar Singh who respectively retained for the party Kusheshwar Asthan (SC) and Tarapur assembly constituencies.

“The by-polls were a sad occasion for us as these were necessitated by the deaths of our sitting MLAs. I have always held that people’s will is supreme. They have reposed their trust in us. We will continue serving them as long as the trust continues,” Kumar said.

For Kumar, the by-poll outcome has come as a big relief, a year after his party was drubbed in the assembly polls though he returned as the chief minister, enjoying full support of allies.

“Our candidates belonged to the JD(U). But the entire NDA backed them solidly, down to the grassroots level,” said Kumar.

Kumar was also asked about the failure of Prasad, who had plunged into campaign himself, despite old age and ill-health, and claimed that the RJD’s victory in the by-polls would trigger a “stampede” in the NDA and pave way for a change of guard.

‘What can I say about them? What type of language did they use during the elections? There lies the difference. We believe in the supremacy of people. They (Prasad and his family) believe in lording over everybody else. People have made their preference clear, though,” Kumar said.

Prasad, who had been the chief minister himself in the 1990s, was succeeded by his homemaker wife Rabri Devi when a charge-sheet in the fodder scam caused him to step down.

His wife occupied the top post for eight years until being voted out of power in 2005.

Convicted in a number of fodder scam cases, Prasad now stand disqualified from contesting elections himself though his younger son and heir apparent Tejashwi Yadav has been repeatedly called the “chief ministerial” candidate of the RJD.

RAIPUR: Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (J) legislator and former MP Devvrat Singh died on Thursday following cardiac arrest, his family members said.

“Singh complained of chest pain at around 1 am following which he was rushed to a government hospital where doctors declared him dead,” Sunil Singh, a close relative of the legislator, told PTI over phone.

His final rites will be held later in the day in Khairagarh He has a son and a daughter, the relative said.

In March this year, the MLA had contracted the coronavirus infection when the budget session of the Chhattisgarh Assembly was underway.

The four-time MLA, who belonged to the erstwhile royal family of Khairagarh, was first elected as legislator in 1995 on a Congress ticket from Khairagarh and the second time in 1998, in the then undivided Madhya Pradesh.

After the formation of Chhattisgarh in 2000, he was elected for the third time in 2003.

In 2007, he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Rajnandgaon parliamentary seat.

He quit the Congress in December 2017, claiming he was forced to do so as he was “neglected” and “sidelined” by senior party colleagues.

In February 2018, he joined former chief minister Ajit Jogi’s party JCC (J), months ahead of the Assembly election.

He contested the Assembly election on the JCC(J) ticket and became MLA for the fourth time from Khairagarh.

In last year’s Marwahi bypoll, necessitated due to the death of sitting legislator Ajit Jogi, Devvrat Singh supported the ruling Congress’s nominee, who won the election.

CHANDIGARH: Political strategist Prashant Kishor may be roped in to develop the election campaign of the Congress for next year’s Assembly polls, Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi has indicated.

In a short video of the party meeting, Channi is heard saying that “Harish Chaudharyji was even advising to hire Prashant Kishor”.

Channi was also seen discussing recent decision of his government to reduce power tariff and how it had received positive response from people.

There is enthusiasm among people and the party workers, Channi said.

“As per suggestions from you all, power tariff was reduced. We still have a couple of months (before code of conduct comes into effect in view of polls) and I will ensure that whatever you suggest will be done,” he said.

Earlier this year, Kishor had resigned as former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s principal adviser.

Kishor is currently lobbying for the Trinamool Congress (TMC) for the upcoming Goa Assembly elections.

Earlier, Kishor had crafted Amarinder Singh’s campaign in 2017 assembly polls.

The Congress had stormed to power with an overwhelming majority in the 2017 polls in Punjab.

Channi recently replaced Amarinder Singh as chief minister following the unceremonious exit of the veteran leader, who on Tuesday quit the Congress and announced the name of his own political outfit to contest the upcoming state polls.

NEW DELHI: Delhi’s Diwali started with “very poor” air quality which is predicted to take a turn for the worse irrespective of cracker bursting, according to authorities.

The 24-hour average AQI was 303 on Tuesday and 281 on Monday.

AQI between zero and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 and 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 and 200 ‘moderate’, 201 and 300 ‘poor’, 301 and 400 ‘very poor’, and 401 and 500 ‘severe’.

While SAFAR said the air quality may become ‘severe’ on November 5 and 6 if firecrackers are burnt, an official from the India Meteorological Department said model predictions do not indicate the AQI reaching the ‘severe’ category “even with higher emissions”.

The Ministry of Earth Sciences’ air quality forecast agency said 3,271 farm fires accounted for eight per cent of Delhi’s PM2.5 pollution on Wednesday.

It is likely to increase to 20 per cent on Thursday (Diwali) and further to 35 to 40 per cent on Friday and Saturday with the wind direction changing to northwest, it said.

Northwesterly winds carry smoke from farm fires in Punjab and Haryana towards the national capital.

Last year, the share of stubble burning in Delhi’s pollution had peaked at 42 per cent on November 5.

In 2019, crop residue burning accounted for 44 per cent of Delhi’s PM 2.5 pollution on November 1.

Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai had Wednesday urged the Centre to issue an advisory to Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to completely stop stubble burning during the Diwali period so that people could breathe easy after the festival.

The contribution of stubble burning in Delhi’s PM 2.5 concentration was 32 per cent on Diwali day last year as compared to 19 per cent in 2019.

The contribution of farm fires in Delhi’s air pollution has remained low this season so far due to the record-breaking rainfall in October and “unfavourable” wind direction for transport of smoke from stubble burning.

SAFAR said “very calm” local Delhi wind conditions with little ventilation is expected for the next three days which will be unfavourable for dispersion of pollutants.

Under a zero firecracker emission scenario, Delhi’s PM2.5 concentration is predicted to be in the upper end of the ‘very poor’ category from November 4 to November 6.

“However, even if we consider 50 per cent of firecracker load of 2019, the AQI is predicted to degrade to the ‘severe’ category during the period,” SAFAR said.

The PM2.5 concentration in the national capital can surpass 500 micrograms per cubic metre on November 5.

The safe limit is 60 micrograms per cubic metre.

On October 27, the Delhi government had launched the ‘Patakhe Nahi Diye Jalao’ campaign to create awareness against the bursting of crackers.

Action is being taken under relevant IPC provisions and the Explosives Act against anyone found burning crackers under the campaign.

On September 28, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee ordered a complete ban on the sale and bursting of firecrackers in the national capital till January 1, 2022.

The Delhi police has arrested 55 people and seized over 6,000 kilograms of firecrackers since the ban on fireworks in the national capital, officials said on Wednesday.

According to police data, 56 cases have been registered against the 55 people for storing, selling and bursting firecrackers.

Out of total 6,050 kg seized crackers, 2,400 kg was recovered from Delhi Police’s north district, followed by Rohini district 1,163 kg and central district 298 kg, the data said.

Police said even though most of the manufacturing and storage units have been shut in the national capital, people engaged in the business have managed to procure firecrackers at lower prices from neighbouring states of Uttar Pradesh and Harayana in huge quantities.

On September 28, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) had ordered a complete ban on the sale and bursting of firecrackers in the national capital till January 1 next year.

In central Delhi, over 286 kg of firecrackers were seized where these crackers were being sold illegally in Chandni Chowk, Paharganj, Karol Bagh and other market areas, police said.

Firecrackers have been banned in entirety by the Delhi government, and an older ban by National Green Tribunal (and endorsed by the Supreme Court) bans the sale and use of ones made with barium-based formulations in the National Capital Region (NCR).

The Shahdara district police has nabbed four persons and seized 294 kg of illegal firecrackers.

On Tuesday, information was received regarding supply of illicit firecrackers in Anand Vihar area.

Thereafter, a trap was laid and a raid conducted at a shop in Arya Nagar village near Karkardooma.

A total of 235 kg of illegal firecrackers was recovered and shop owner Vinod Kumar (53), a resident of Karkardooma, was arrested.

He purchased firecrackers from Gurgaon in Haryana, a senior police officer said.

Later, the other teams of Shahdara district recovered 59 kg of illegal firecrackers.

The accused have been identified as Ram Avtar, Masum Ali and Harish Singhal, they said.

In another incident, police arrested 38-year-old Manish Gupta, a resident of Mayur Vihar, Phase-3, from Kalyanpuri area.

On Tuesday, police were patrolling in the Kalyanpuri area and around 2.30 pm, they reached the central market.

They saw a person selling crackers in his shop.

Twelve sacks and two cartons of crackers, a total of 236 kg, was recovered from his shop, police said.

Similarly, the northeast district police has nabbed two persons with firecrackers.

The first person, identified as Amit Mittal (36), a resident of Chajjupur, Babarpur was arrested on Tuesday after police raided the premises of Mittal and recovered crackers 32.3 kg.

Mittal revealed that he had procured the firecrackers from Dehradun in Uttarakhand for sale on Diwali, police said.

It has also apprehended a 32-year-old man from Sonia Vihar area.

On Wednesday, police conducted a raid at a house near Shiv Mandir, Chauhanpatti and recovered 81.32 kg firecrackers.

Police nabbed Imran (32), a resident of Chauhanpatti in Sonia Vihar, they said.

Imran rented the house to store the fire crackers for sale during Diwali, they added.

JERUSALEM: Palestinian families on Tuesday rejected an offer that would have delayed their eviction by Jewish settlers in a tense Jerusalem neighborhood, where protests and clashes helped ignite the 11-day Gaza war in May.

The four families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood near the Old City said their decision springs from “our belief in the justice of our cause and our right to our homes and our homeland.” They said that rather than submit to an “unjust agreement” they would rely on the “Palestinian street” to raise international awareness of their plight.

The proposal floated by Israel’s Supreme Court earlier this month would have made them “protected tenants,” blocking any eviction and demolition order for at least the next 15 years, according to Ir Amim, an Israeli rights group that closely follows developments in the city.

The families would have still been able to argue their case in Israeli courts. But it would have forced them to at least temporarily attest to the settlers’ ownership of the properties, which could weaken the families’ case going forward, and pay rent to the settlers.

The four families are among dozens in Jerusalem who are threatened with eviction by Jewish settler organizations in several cases that have been working their way through the Israeli court system for decades.

The settlers are making use of an Israeli law that allows them to claim properties that were owned by Jews prior to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. Palestinians who lost homes, properties and lands in the same conflict do not have the right to recover them.

There was no immediate comment from the settlers, but Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Arieh King, a staunch supporter, said they had accepted the offer.

The families, who are originally from what is now Israel, say the Jordanian government granted them the land on which their homes were later built in exchange for their refugee status after it assumed control of the West Bank and east Jerusalem in 1948. They have been living there ever since.

Israel has portrayed the matter as a private real-estate dispute, but the Palestinians and human rights groups view it as a coordinated attempt to push Palestinian residents out of Jerusalem and change the city’s identity. The U.S. has spoken out against the evictions, saying it undermines efforts to eventually revive the long-dormant peace process.

Israel captured east Jerusalem, along with the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 war. The Palestinians want all three territories to form their future state and consider east Jerusalem their capital. Jordan supports their claims.

Israel annexed east Jerusalem shortly after the 1967 war and considers the entire city to be its capital, a claim not recognized by most of the international community.

The threatened evictions were one of the main drivers of protests that erupted in Jerusalem in April and May. The city, with major holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, is the emotional heart of the century-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has been the epicenter of several waves of unrest over the years.

After weeks of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police, including at a flashpoint holy site, Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers fired rockets at the city.

That set off the fourth Gaza war since Hamas seized power from rival Palestinian forces in 2007. Hamas has repeatedly warned Israel against evicting the families.

The families’ decision to reject the offer sends the matter back to the Supreme Court, which could approve the evictions and pave the way for them to be carried out in the coming weeks. That would risk setting off another cycle of violence.

Ir Amim says the Israeli government has various tools at its disposal to delay or halt the evictions, but so far it has shown no indication it plans to do so.