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Chennithala demands probe into spike in Amit Shah’s son’s business wealth

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Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress party in Kerala on Monday demanded a comprehensive probe into allegations of phenomenal rise in the business owned by Jay Shah, son of BJP national president Amit Shah.

Leader of Opposition and Congress veteran Ramesh Chennithala in a press release said that the “fake image of the stand taken by the BJP against corruption has fallen flat with the revelation of the huge growth achieved by the business owned by the junior Shah”.

“In a matter of three years after the Narendra Modi government, when the country’s economy went into a crisis, the phenomenal growth of the business of Amit Shah’s son speaks volumes of the things that are happening. While the ordinary man was hit badly on account of demonetisation, the corporates had a field day. Now that the allegations have surfaced, the BJP has been caught on the back foot and the need of the hour is for a comprehensive probe into these allegations,” said Chennithala.

Chennithala’s demand has come at a time when the Kerala unit of the BJP led by state president Kummanem Rajasekheran is on a state-wide padyatra against the CPI-M. The yatra, which began on October 3 and will reach here on October 17, is being participated by every top national leader of the party besides Union Ministers.

The BJP has termed the media report on Jay Shah’s alleged rise in wealth as “malicious and defamatory” and is going ahead with filing a defamation suit against it.

(IANS)

Will pay half to avoid fare hike, let us take over Delhi Metro: Arvind Kejriwal to Centre

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New Delhi: Amid a face-off with the Centre over a proposed metro fare hike, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has offered to take over the Delhi Metro claiming to make it more efficient and said the Aam Aadmi Party government was ready to provide half the funds needed to meet the gap in its finances for three months.

In a letter to Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Mr Kejriwal said the Centre bore the entire loss of Kolkata Metro and there should be no difficulty if it provided half the funds in the case of Delhi.

Mr Puri had on Friday told the Delhi government it would need to pay Rs. 3,000 crore annually for five years if it wanted to stop fare hikes on the Delhi Metro.

Arvind Kejriwal said Mr Puri’s contention that the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation was bound to follow the Fare Fixation Committee’s recommendations seemed “untenable”.

Citing Section 86 of the DMRC Act, he said it was the Centre which had set up the fourth Fare Fixation Committee after a lapse of seven years. Therefore, the Union minister’s contention that the central government was “powerless” in respect of fare fixation was “flawed”.

The Fare Fixation Committee-recommended fare hike, a second in seven months, will come into effect on October 10.

Mr Kejriwal said the AAP government was confident it would be able to fund the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation by improving its efficiency rather than imposing fare hikes.

“As for your suggestion regarding a grant to the DMRC (Delhi Metro) for meeting the gap in their finances, my government is willing to bear half the grant if only a matching grant is provided by the central government.”

“As you know, the central government and the Delhi government are 50-50 owners of the DMRC (Delhi Metro) and its equity etc. have been shared in this proportion all along,” Mr Kejriwal said in his letter.

“Let an assessment be made of the financial gap likely to be created on account of the postponement of the second fare hike and we will be able to bear half of it,” he said.

Sources in the Delhi government said that the chief minister offered to provide on a short-term basis, half the funds the DMRC (Delhi Metro) needed to meet the gap in its finances so that another Fare Fixation Committee could be set up to recommend fresh fares.

Besides cooperative federalism, the point remains that the Centre and Delhi government are equal partners in the DMRC, Mr Kejriwal said. “From the recent developments, it is becoming evident that the relationship is not one of equal partners since what the Delhi government proposes is often summarily disposed by the Cental government.”

“If the Central government agrees, Delhi government would be willing to take over the DMRC (Delhi Metro),” he said.

Fares will go up by a maximum of Rs. 10 after the latest hike comes into effect.

The existing fare structure is: up to 2 kms — Rs. 10, 2-5 kms — Rs. 15, 5-12 kms — Rs. 20, 12-21 kms — Rs. 30, 21-32 kms — Rs. 40 and for journeys beyond 32 kms — Rs. 50.

From October 10, for a distance of up to two kilometres, the fare will remain Rs. 10, but for a distance between two and five kilometres, it will go up from Rs. 15 to Rs. 20. For the subsequent slabs, it will go up by Rs. 10 each, which means the maximum fare will be Rs. 60.

Delhi Metro managing director Mangu Singh also met the chief minister at his residence today. It was immediately not known as to what transpired at the meeting.

(PTI)

No firecrackers for Delhi-NCR during Diwali: SC

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that there will be no sale of firecrackers during Diwali, as it restored a November 2016 order banning the sale and stocking of firecrackers in Delhi and National Capital Region.

A bench headed by Justice A.K. Sikri, while restoring the order, said: “We should see at least in one Diwali the impact of a cracker-free festivity.”

However, the court said that the September 12, 2017 order lifting the ban on the sale and stocking of firecrackers in Delhi NCR will be back into effect from November 1.

(IANS)

Why was Jay Shah’s company shut down ahead of demonetisation, asks Congress

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New Delhi: The Congress on Monday demanded to know why Temple Enterprises, a firm owned by BJP chief Amit Shahs son Jay Shah, shut down four weeks before the November 8 demonetisation, and demanded the setting up of an inquiry commission of two sitting judges of the Supreme Court to look into alleged irregularities in the companies owned by the junior Shah.

“We are not levelling any allegations (of criminality) in this. But it should be made public which commodities were exported/imported by Jay Shah’s firm Temple Enterprises and to which countries so that they earned Rs 51 crore from foreign countries and their turnover swelled by 16,000 times,” Congress leader and former Union Minister Anand Sharma said.

“And after showing a sudden spike of 16,000 times in its turnover, why did the company suddenly shut down just ahead of demonetisation?” Sharma said.

Temple Enterprise Private Limited, in which Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah was a director, was incorporated on August 23, 2004.

On Sunday, Congress leader Kapil Sibal said at a media briefing that Temple Enterprises had recorded losses in 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 of Rs 6,230 and Rs 1,724, respectively but showed a profit of about Rs 18,000 in 2014-15.

But the following year (in 2015-16), the company’s turnover jumped to Rs 80 crore, he said.

“This is beyond comprehension as to why persons who had the potential to raise their company’s turnover 16,000 times in a year, and who got Rs 51 crore from foreign countries, would suddenly decide to shut down the company,” Sharma said.

He said if any other company would have shown such hike in turnover, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Income Tax Department would have landed at their door to find out how it happened.

The Congress also demanded to know how many firms, especially those without any prior experience or core competence in renewable energy, were extended loans of Rs 10 crore or above by government-owned Indian Renewable Energy Development Authority (IREDA).

The IREDA, a PSU under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, had extended a loan of Rs 10.35 crore to Kusum Finserve, a company owned by Jay Shah that dealt in shares and stocks before getting a contract to build a 2.1 MW windmill in Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh.

“What is the status of that windmill as of now. Does a windmill exist at the site?” Sharma said.

“We request the Prime Minister to break his silence over this issue and constitute an inquiry commission consisting of two sitting judges of the Supreme Court to look into the matter. If there is no irregularity, let it come into the public domain,” the Congress leader said.

Sharma also alleged that the loan of Rs 25 crore given by Kalupur Cooperative Bank to Kusum Finserve against a security of Rs 7 crore was not in conformity with the RBI guidelines.

(IANS)

16 kids die at Gorakhpur’s BRD Medical College in last 24 hours

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Lucknow: Sixteen children, including ten infants, died at the Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College in Gorakhpur during the last 24 hours, authorities said on Monday.

Of the children who died, ten were admitted in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) while six were in the paediatric ICU.

According to reports, 20 patients — including six from Deoria, two from Kushinagar, four each from Gorakhpur and Maharajganj, and one patient each from Basti and Balrampur — afflicted with encephalitis have been admitted to the hospital in the last 24 hours.

As many as three dozen patients, mostly affected by encephalitis, were being treated at BRD Medical College. Five patients from Bihar were also being treated there, doctors said.

Officials said that 1,470 patients have been admitted to the BRD Medical College since January this year, adding that a total of 310 have died.

The BRD Medical College hit the headlines earlier in August when 63 children, including infants, died within a span of one week due to disruption of oxygen supply by the vendor.

The FIR was lodged against nine people, including the owner of the oxygen supplying company and the principal of BRD Medical College.

Doctors said the latest deaths did not occur due to lack of oxygen, treatment or anything else but the fact that they were brought to the hospital in a very critical condition.

(IANS)

Novelist Kazuo Ishiguro wins Nobel Literature Prize

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Kazuo Ishiguro, best known for works including Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day, wins prestigious prize.

by Al Jazeera

The 2017 Nobel Prize for Literature has been awarded to British novelist Kazuo Ishiguro.

Born in Japan in 1954, the author’s family moved to England when he was five years old.

The writer, “in novels of great emotional force, has uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world”, said the Nobel Prize committee in a statement on Thursday.

He is best known for the dystopian work Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day, a book Ishiguro has said he wrote in just four weeks.

The 62-year-old also writes screenplays.

Ishiguro studied at the University of Kent, receiving an undergraduate degree in English and Philosophy and later received a Master’s degree from the University of East Anglia in Creative Writing.

His latest book, The Buried Giant, was published in 2015.

Social media users took to Twitter to congratulate Ishiguro on the high acclaim.

“Congrats to Kazuo Ishiguro on the Nobel! REMAINS OF THE DAY was perfect, emotionally, politically, structurally. Makes me burn with envy,” tweeted author Raj Balasubramanyam.

“Kazuo Ishiguro! The Nobel committee somewhat begins to redeem itself after last year’s blooper,” said writer and journalist Abubakar A Ibrahim, in an apparent dig at the 2016 decision to award Bob Dylan.

Sri Lanka batsman Gunathilaka suspended for six games

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Danushka Gunathilaka of Sri Lanka (Photo: Bipin Patel/IANS)

Colombo: Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) on Thursday announced the suspension of batsman Danushka Gunathilaka for six international matches together with a 20 per cent fine of his applicable annual contract fee for misconduct and breach of contract.

According to a SLC statement, the 26-year-old violated Section 30 (a-ii ) and 30 (b) of its Constitution of clauses 3.1.2, 3.1.9, 3.3.1, and 3.4 of his contract with Sri Lanka Cricket during the series against India last month.

According to a report on the espncricinfo website, Gunathilaka missed a training session, turned up for a match without his gear, and was generally found to have had an indifferent attitude towards training during the series.

“The suspension is effective September 30, 2017, and is issued by the Executive Committee by the powers vested in it vide Section 30 (c) of the SLC Constitution and Clause 10. 3 of the contract entered into with the said player,” the statement read.

Gunathilaka has pleaded guilty to the charges.

(IANS)

Gujarat HC rejects Zakia Jafri’s plea against SIT clean chit to Modi

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Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court on Thursday rejected the plea of Zakia Jafri, the wife of slain former MP Ehsan Jafri, challenging a clean chit by the Special Investigation Team to then Chief Minister Narendra Modi and other top officials in the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The court rejected Zakia Jafri’s plea on allegations of “a larger conspiracy” behind the riots.

Ehsan Jafri, a Congress leader, was one of the 69 people killed when a large mob attacked Gulbarg Society in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002.

(IANS)

How long will PM tell ‘lies’, asks Raj Thackeray

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Mumbai: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) President Raj Thackeray attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi again on Thursday, asking “how long will he (PM) continue to tell lies” to the country.

Addressing a rally after taking out a massive procession to Churchgate to demand better facilities for Mumbai commuters after last week’s stampede killed 23 commuters, Thackeray said the country was being pushed into crises on all fronts, brought about by the Bharatiya Janata Party government.

“Modi has been lying and misleading the people of this country. Now I realize that when I visited Gujarat a few years ago at the behest of (industrialist) Ratan Tata when Modi was the CM, I was shown a misleading picture of the development there,” Thackeray said to cheers.

He reiterated that the people of the country had lost faith in Modi, who “only keeps giving speeches daily – how much is he going to speak?”

In an exasperated tone, Thackeray said that “now whenever Modi comes on TV, we feel like switching it off, but then he starts his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ on the radio”.

Calling the PM “a liar”, he said that like the people of the country, Thackeray said he believed and had faith in Modi, but now “we have been betrayed” and there is so much anger among the masses.

Targetting BJP President Amit Shah, who had once said the election statement of depositing Rs 15 lakh in every Indian’s bank account was a ‘jumla’ or an electoral stunt, he said that it meant they “cheated the people of the country”.

He also gave an earful to Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari who once said that the slogan of ‘Achhe Din’ had stuck in the BJP’s throat, proving to be very troublesome, and ‘Achhe Din’ would never come.

Attacking the Bullet Train proposal, Thackeray wondered for whom it was intended. “It will benefit only the people of Gujarat, but the loan of Rs 1.08 lakh crore will be repaid by all the people of the country who have nothing to do with the project.”

He alleged that Suresh Prabhu was ejected as Railway Minister because he opposed the Bullet Train and Piyush Goyal brought in to facilitate it.

The MNS leader claimed he was “the first to oppose the mega-project” before other “parrots” started talking about it, indirectly referring to his cousin and Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray.

Training guns on the Western Railway and Central Railway which runs the lifeline of Mumbai, the suburban trains network, Thackeray demanded that “within 15 days all hawkers, encroachments and obstacles” to commuters must be removed from all railway station premises to prevent recurrences of another tragedy like the September 29 stampede.

“If you fail within this ultimatum, then on the 16th day, my MNS men will do it. After that the railways shall be directly responsible for whatever be the repercussions,” he warned amidst thunderous applause.

He also warned that Thursday’s procession was a peaceful one, but if there is no if there is no change, the next one would be otherwise.

(IANS)

UN: Myanmar violence may be ‘crimes against humanity’

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UN rights experts urge Myanmar to ‘vigorously prosecute cases of violence’ against Rohingya women and children.

More than 500,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar to Bangladesh [Showkat Shafi/Al Jazeera]

by Al Jazeera

UN rights experts have warned that the violence against women and children in Rakhine State “may amount to crimes against humanity”.

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Committee on the Rights of a Child called on Myanmar authorities to “promptly and effectively investigate and vigorously prosecute cases of violence against women and children” in northern Rakhine.

“We are particularly worried about the fate of Rohingya women and children subject to serious violations of their human rights, including killings, rape and forced displacement,” the committees said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Such violations may amount to crimes against humanity and we are deeply concerned at the state’s failure to put an end to these shocking human rights violations being committed at the behest of the military and other security forces, and of which women and children continue to bear the brunt.”

More than 507,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since Myanmar’s army launched a military crackdown in response to an attack by Rohingya fighters on dozens of police posts and an army base on August 25.

Rohingya who have fled have told stories of rape and other sexual abuse, indiscriminate killings and arson by Myanmar security forces.

The UN has previously called the Rohingya exodus from Myanmar to Bangladesh “the most urgent refugee crisis in the world”.

The mainly Muslim minority, who live primarily in Rakhine State, is not recognised as an ethnic group in Myanmar, despite having lived there for generations. They have been denied citizenship and are stateless.

On Monday, Bangladesh’s foreign minister said Myanmar proposed taking back Rohingya refugees who had fled to his country.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Myanmar official Kyaw Tint Swe, Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali said both countries agreed to form a joint working group to begin work on the massive repatriation.

No details were provided about how such repatriation will take place and rights groups fear the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya without documents will be left in limbo.

The two UN rights committees on Wednesday pointed to how the statelessness of Rohingya women and children and “their protracted displacement had exposed them to high levels of poverty and malnutrition”.

“We urged the Myanmar authorities to address the needs of internally displace Rohingya women and children, as well as Rohingya refugee women and children living in camps in neighbouring countries, with the support of the international community,” the committees said.

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