Archives for 2024

New Delhi: The Centre has suspended two DANICS officers in connection with alleged “unproductive expenditure” on advertisements by the Delhi government, officials said.

They said Shamim Akhtar and Manoj Dwivedi previously worked as the director of the Directorate of Information and Publicity, Delhi government.

In separate orders issued on Friday, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said Akhtar and Dwivedi were suspended with immediate effect by the president in exercise of the powers conferred by the Central Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1965.

Akhtar, a 1996-batch officer of the Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Island Civil Services (DANICS), is currently posted at the Urban Development department of the Delhi government, while Dwivedi (DANICS, 2003) was last posted in the Andman and Nicobar Islands.

Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena had in January this year recommended to the MHA disciplinary action against the two officers.

The MHA is the competent authority to take action against DANICS officers.

A complaint in the matter was lodged by former Delhi Congress president Ajay Maken with the LG office in 2016 for the recovery of alleged “unproductive expenditure” on advertisements of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi, amounting to the tune of Rs 97 crore, officials said.

The complainant had accused the AAP government of allegedly publishing political advertisements in the garb of government promotions.

The complaint was examined by the Supreme Court mandated Committee on Content Regulation on Government Advertising, CCRGA, they said.

The committee in its report had directed the recovery of the expenditure incurred on issuing advertisements on various occasions published outside Delhi, advertorials carrying AAP’s name, advertisements with Delhi chief minister’s views on issues in other states, the officials said.

On March 29, 2017, the matter was placed before the then Delhi LG who directed to recover the payments already released and freeze fresh payments. He also ordered an inquiry and fixing of responsibility.

The Directorate of Information and Publicity (DIP) secretary issued a notice to AAP on March 30, 2017 for reimbursement of Rs 97 crore incurred on specific advertisements.

The AAP challenged the notice before the Delhi High Court. The matter is still pending before the court.

New Delhi: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Assam’s Kaziranga National Park, the Congress on Saturday attacked the Centre over the “increasingly disturbed” situation in different parts of the Northeast, and asked why the PM had not found time to visit the violence-hit Manipur yet.

Prime Minister Modi took the elephant and jeep safari inside Assam’s Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve on Saturday morning.

In a swipe at Modi, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said, “We’re glad that the Prime Minister has found time amidst his various travels to spend today morning in Kaziranga, an iconic national park which owes much to the great interest shown both by Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi.”

However, beyond Kaziranga, there are four questions for him on the “increasingly disturbed” situation in different parts of the Northeast of India, he said.

“On June 19th, 2020, at the all-party meet on China, the Prime Minister declared that not a single Chinese soldier had crossed over into Indian territory. By giving a public clean chit to China, the Prime Minister has tied his own hands, and failed to take action to restore the status quo after Chinese aggression,” Ramesh alleged.

“Chinese troops continue to deny Indian citizens access to grazing lands and Indian patrols access to strategic spots along the LAC — where they previously had unimpeded access,” he said.

Ramesh claimed that there have been multiple instances of PLA troops kidnapping Indian citizens on Indian soil.

In 2022, a BJP MP from Arunachal Pradesh himself alleged that the PLA had abducted and tortured 19-year-old Miram Taron for ten days, he said.

“During the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Itanagar, Rahul Gandhi also met the family of Tapor Pullom, who has been missing since he was allegedly abducted by the PLA in 2015. Modiji, bhul gaye kya? Were you lying to the people back then?” the Congress leader said.

He also said that Manipur has been in a “state of virtual civil war” for nearly a year now.

“Hundreds of people have died in widespread violence, lakhs have been displaced, communities are at war with each other, and the administration has collapsed,” he said.

Ramesh claimed that the violence still continues with two youths in Moreh beaten up on March 7, and Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) Konsam Kheda Singh of the Indian Army “kidnapped” from his own house in Thoubal district by militants on March 8.

“Why has the Prime Minister, ordinarily misusing taxpayer’s money to campaign around the country, not found the time to visit Manipur yet, or even take a call with the Chief Minister and the political parties of the state?” Ramesh said.

Is he waiting for the people of India to buy him a ticket to Imphal, the Congress leader asked.

Ramesh said the Eastern Nagaland Peoples’ Organization (ENPO) has declared a “public emergency” in Eastern Nagaland threatening to disallow any political party from campaigning or contesting elections in the region to protest the delay in the creation of a ‘Frontier Nagaland Territory.’

“The Konyak Union (KU) and Tikhir Tribal Council (TTC) have echoed the ENPO’s declaration of a public emergency. On the 8th of March, there was a large-scale bandh in most of Eastern Nagaland,” he said.

Even as the situation becomes increasingly more tense and threatens to disrupt the rule of law and democracy in Nagaland, the Union government appears to be missing in action, Ramesh alleged.

“This is not a new development: we have seen the Modi Sarkar previously obscure the political situation of Nagaland with the 2015 Naga Accord, which has not even been released to the public, much less implemented. What steps is the Modi Sarkar taking to defuse the situation brewing in eastern Nagaland today?” he said.

Ramesh also raised the issue of three labourers, who worked in a stone quarry in Cachar, Assam and were abducted by the Zeliangrong United Front (ZUF) in December 2023.

In mid-February 2024, 10 labourers working at Finboro Coalmine in Changlang district on the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border were abducted by the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) and the United Liberation Front of Assam Independent (ULFA-I), he said.

“There has been a disturbing re-emergence of separatist groups emboldened to disrupt the lives of common people and enact their reign of terror. When faced with this renewed violence, why is the Modi Sarkar sitting on its hands?” Ramesh said.

Bhopal: A fire broke out on the third floor of the multi-storey Madhya Pradesh state secretariat building here on Saturday morning, officials said.

Nobody was reported injured in the incident, they said.

Some sanitation workers noticed smoke at the Vallabh Bhawan – as the secretariat building is officially known – around 9.30 am, following which the fire brigade was alerted, sources said.

“The blaze has been brought under control by the firefighters and further work is on. Now, only smoke is emanating from the third floor where the documents have been kept,” Bhopal Municipal Corporation’s Fire Officer Rameshwar Neel told PTI.

Fifteen to twenty fire tenders have been pressed into service, he said.

The sources said that some sanitation workers, who were working near the gate number 5 and 6 of the secretariat complex, noticed the smoke, following which the authorities were informed. 

New Delhi: A ration card is issued exclusively for obtaining essential commodities under the public distribution system and it cannot be considered a proof of address or residence, the Delhi High Court has said.

Justice Chandra Dhari Singh, while dealing with petitions by erstwhile residents of Kathputli Colony seeking an alternative accommodation under the rehabilitation scheme following the re-development of the area, held that the requirement of a ration card as a mandatory document to claim benefit under the scheme was arbitrary and illegal.

“As per the definition of the Ration Card, the intent of issuing the same is that it aims to distribute the essential food items by way of the fair price shops. Therefore, it does not amount to becoming an identity proof of residence for any Ration Card holder,” said the court in a recent order.

“There is no mechanism set up by the authority issuing Ration Cards to ensure that the holder of the ration card is staying at the address mentioned in the ration card.

“The aim of the ration card is to ensure that the citizens of this country are provided foodgrains at a reasonable price. Hence, it is not a reliable source of proof of address since the scope is limited to distribution of food items by way of the Public Distribution System,” the court observed.

The petitioners contended that authorities breached their trust and played fraud on Kathputli Colony slum dwellers by suddenly changing the eligibility criteria in 2015 after the demolition of the entire colony as they wrongly mandated the requirement of a separate ration card for the first-floor dwellers of jhuggi.

The court noted that a gazette notification issued by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution in 2015 itself disallows the use of a ration card as a document of identity or proof of residence, and in Delhi, fresh ration cards were not being issued on account of it having exhausted its state-wise ceiling of number of eligible households as per the 2011 census.

Remarking that authorities should have “introspected” into the intent and motive behind the issuance of ration cards as well as the harassment and pain caused to the petitioners, the court stated, “The requirement of a Ration Card as a mandatory document to be produced before the respondent as a proof to claim that first floor of the jhuggi is a separate dwelling unit is arbitrary and illegal”.

“The respondent should have exercised due caution and care before adhering to such a requirement. It should take a fair and realistic view of the circumstances before it.. the actions of the respondent are in clear violation of the petitioners’ right to shelter as enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution of India,” stated the court.

The court directed authorities to allocate an alternative dwelling unit in favour of the petitioners, subject to the condition that they produce other relevant documents as per the Delhi Slum & JJ Rehabilitation and Relocation Policy, 2015 and meet necessary requirements.

“This court is also of the view that the petitioners’ right to housing shall be kept at the highest pedestal. It is one of the safeguards provided in our Constitution and the legacy has been carried forward by the writ Court by way of various judicial precedents which reiterate the same,” the court asserted.

Ahead of general elections, the government on Thursday announced the extension of Rs 300 per LPG cylinder subsidy to poor women under the Ujjwala Yojana for the next fiscal starting April 1.

The government had in October last year hiked the subsidy from Rs 200 per 14.2-kg cylinders for up to 12 refills per year to Rs 300 per bottle. The Rs 300 per cylinder subsidy was for the current fiscal, which ends on March 31.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has now decided to extend this subsidy to 2024-25, Union Minister Piyush Goyal told reporters here.

The move, likely to benefit nearly 10 crore families, will cost the government Rs 12,000 crore.

The general elections are due in April-May.

To make Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG), a clean cooking fuel, available to rural and deprived poor households, the government launched Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) in May 2016 to provide deposit-free LPG connections to adult women of poor households.

While the connection was provided for free, the beneficiaries had to purchase LPG refills at market price.

As fuel prices soared, the government in May 2022 provided a Rs 200 per cylinder subsidy to PMUY beneficiaries. This was increased to Rs 300 in October 2023.

Ahead of assembly elections in five states, including Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the government had in late August cut cooking gas prices by Rs 200 per cylinder. After this, the LPG cylinder price came down to Rs 903.

For Ujjwala beneficiaries, the price was Rs 603 after considering the Rs 300 per cylinder subsidy, which is directly paid into the bank accounts of connection holders.

The targeted support to PMUY consumers encourages them for continuous use of LPG.

The average LPG consumption of PMUY consumers increased 20 per cent from 3.01 refills in 2019-20 to 3.68 in 2021-22.

All PMUY beneficiaries are eligible for the targeted subsidy scheme.

New Delhi: The CBI has conducted searches at 67 locations in seven cities of Rajasthan and Maharashtra in connection with the Rs 820-crore Immediate Payment System (IMPS) scam in UCO bank, officials said Thursday.

The searches that started on Wednesday and continued till Thursday pertain to the mammoth scam in UCO Bank that transpired in three days – November 10-13, 2023 – through 8,53,049 transactions spread across 2,874 branches in 41,296 accounts across 35 states and Union territories.

“IMPS inward transactions initiated from around 14,600 account holders of seven private banks were wrongfully posted in the accounts of over 41,000 UCO Bank account holders. This resulted in Rs. 820 crore being credited to UCO Bank accounts without actual debiting from the originating banks,” the CBI Spokesperson said.

The transactions were initiated from IDFC First Bank, Jana Small Finance Bank, Suryoday Small Finance Bank, Fincare Small Finance Bank, Capital Small Finance Bank, Utkarsh Small Finance Bank and ESAF Small Finance Bank, the FIR registered on the basis of UCO bank’s complaint and made public on Thursday alleged.

The CBI has filed the FIR against Avishek Srivastava and Supriya Mallick, Support Engineers in the Mangaluru-based LCode Technologies, it said.

The company was hired to develop and maintain mobile banking applications for the bank, including the IMPS channel, the FIR said.

It is suspected that both were present during the incident and log reports indicate that either of the two changed the port number of IMPS transactions without authorisation from the bank on November 8 at 7 PM, it alleged.

Because of the alleged changes made in the system, the core banking software credited the beneficiary’s account but sent a failed message to the remitter bank through the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the FIR alleged.

“Due to this, the amount got credited in both banks i.e UCO and originating bank customers’ accounts,” it said.

It was also found that several of the account holders misused and made wrongful gains by withdrawing the proceeds from UCO Bank using various banking channels.

The bank also came across various social media posts where the fact has been mentioned that despite the transaction being reversed in the IMPS remitters’ account, the IMPS beneficiary account with UCO bank was being credited.

“The suspected persons and their associates with criminal intent and ulterior motives, have colluded on a large scale, carried these transactions and committed the organised crime against the public sector bank i.e UCO Bank,” it said.

The bank alleged in its complaint, which is now part of the FIR, that several account holders collaborated with others and undertook these illegal transactions in a syndicated manner.

The searches in Rajasthan and Maharashtra, which started on Wednesday and continued till Thursday, focused on people who received the money and withdrew it rather than returning it to the bank, officials said. This is the second round of searches.

In Rajasthan alone, the amount involved was over Rs 766 crore through 7,71,752 transactions spread across 232 branches, followed by Maharashtra, where Rs 11 crore came into dispute.

The bank has recovered Rs 664 crore but Rs 156 is yet to be realised, the bank said.

“Earlier in December 2023, searches were conducted at 13 locations involving private individuals and UCO Bank officials in Kolkata and Mangalore,” the Spokesperson said.

Over 330 police personnel, including 120 from Rajasthan Police, in 40 teams and 80 independent witnesses were involved in the action spread across multiple cities, including Jodhpur, Jaipur, Jalore, Nagaur, Barmer, Phalodi) and Pune (Maharashtra).

“During these operations, approximately 130 incriminating documents related to UCO Bank and IDFC, as well as 43 digital devices (including 40 mobile phones, two hard disks, and one internet dongle) were seized for forensic analysis.

“Additionally, 30 suspects were also found and examined on the spot,” the Spokesperson said.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a reduction of Rs 100 in cooking gas cylinder prices on Friday on the occasion of International Women’s Day.

This will significantly ease the financial burden on millions of households across the country, especially benefiting “Nari Shakti” (women power), he said in a post on X.

“By making cooking gas more affordable, we also aim to support the well-being of families and ensure a healthier environment. This is in line with our commitment to empowering women and ensuring Ease of Living’ for them,” he said.

In a related decision, the government on Thursday announced the extension of Rs 300 per LPG cylinder subsidy to poor women under the Ujjwala Yojana for the next fiscal starting April 1.

The government in October last year hiked the subsidy from Rs 200 per 14.2-kg cylinders for up to 12 refills per year to Rs 300 per bottle. The Rs 300 per cylinder subsidy was for the current fiscal, which ends on March 31.

In another post on X, Modi greeted people on the International Women’s Day.

“We salute the strength, courage, and resilience of our Nari Shakti and laud their accomplishments across various fields. Our government is committed to empowering women through initiatives in education, entrepreneurship, agriculture, technology and more,” he said.

This is also reflected in the government’s accomplishments in the last decade, Modi added.