Nasheman News : The Rajya Sabha was on Friday adjourned for the day amid ruckus, minutes after it met for the day’s proceedings.

After the papers were laid, Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu took up Zero Hour submissions. However, a few members trooped to the Chair’s podium holding placards and raising slogans.

Naidu told the members to return to their seats and raise their issues as per the procedures.

When the agitating members paid no heed, Naidu said: “I have been very patient throughout. But I think time has come now to take action.” He then adjourned the House for the day.

Earlier, the House remembered the martyrdom of the four sons of the tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, who went down fighting the Mughals.

The Members also greeted Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and former Union Minister A.K. Antony on their birthdays.

Nasheman News : The NITI Aayog will on Thursday release the second delta ranking of the most backward districts of the country — which it has dubbed as “aspirational districts” — reflecting the incremental progress made by them between June and October.

The government think-tank said the districts have been ranked on parameters including health and nutrition, education, agriculture and water resources, financial inclusion and skill development, and basic infrastructure.

“The rankings, for the first time, will also factor in inputs from household survey conducted by NITI Aayog’s knowledge partners — Tata Trusts and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,” a NITI Aayog statement said.

In its first such ranking released in June, Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara came at the bottom while Gujarat’s Dahod topped the chart in terms of improvement made by them.

The 20 bottom-ranked districts included nine districts from Bihar, five from Jharkhand and three from Odisha.

The government has maintained that its Aspirational District Programme aims to rapidly transform the districts that have shown relatively lesser progress in key social areas and have emerged as pockets of under-development, thereby posing a challenge to ensure balanced regional development.

 Nasheman News : The Allahabad High Court orders will from January 1, 2019 be available to petitioners in Hindi as well, an official said on Tuesday.

The Hindi version would be available to petitioners on demand at a minimal fee.

To ensure this facility, the administrative wing of the court would be appointing translators. 

The official said the decision would go a long way in helping people who cannot understand the orders due to a language barrier.

The decision was taken by an administrative committee of senior High Court judges. 

Nasheman News : An anti-corruption court in Pakistan on Monday sentenced former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to seven years in prison for owning a steel factory abroad without disclosing its ownership. The ruling was slammed by his daughter, Maryam Nawaz, as “the “last hiccup of blind revenge”.

Judge Arshad Malik imposed hefty fines on the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) leader after ruling that Al-Azizia Steel Mills — a Saudi Arabian firm carrying the name of his son — belonged to the former Prime Minister and that he was unable to demonstrate how the project was funded, Dawn newspaper reported.

The police took Sharif, 68, into custody following the verdict by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) court here. He requested the judge to keep him imprisoned in Lahore, instead of the city of Rawalpindi near Islamabad.

The three-time Premier was expected to appeal against his latest conviction and maintained that he never misused his powers or indulged in corruption. “My conscience is clear as I never did corruption,” he told reporters outside the court following the verdict.

His daughter took to Twitter to criticise the ruling, saying: “One man has been sentenced for the fourth time. This is the last hiccup of blind revenge.”

Sharif’s sons — Hassan and Hussain — who are not in Pakistan, were declared absconders. 

Sharif was, meanwhile, acquitted in another case of alleged corruption concerning the Flagship Investments firm in the UK for lack of evidence. 

He and his sons were also accused of using 16 offshore companies to acquire and manage expensive properties. 

A disqualification of 10 years from holding any public office was part of the sentences awarded to Sharif, said NAB special prosecutor Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi. The disqualification will go into effect following his release from jail after serving the seven-year sentence.

Sharif was taken away from the court premises amid strong security measures. The verdict led to clashes between his supporters and the security forces guarding the court.

The agitated PML-N supporters tried to enter the court and threw stones at the police personnel, who responded with tear gas.

Former Prime Minister and PML-N leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi termed the verdict “another black decision” and said there was neither any evidence nor any witnesses in either case. 

“This is another black (day) for Pakistan, another black decision,” he said.

The verdict was hailed by the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), whose Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said that the “real face of Nawaz Sharif has been unmasked today”. 

He said that the people who were still defending Sharif “should be ashamed of themselves because the money involved in the scam belonged to the people of Pakistan”.

The trial against the Sharifs commenced on September 14, 2017 after Pakistan’s anti-corruption body filed three cases relating to the Avenfield properties case, Al-Azizia Steel Mills and Flagship Investment Limited on the Supreme Court’s directives in the landmark Panamagate verdict.

Sharif, his daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Muhammad Safdar were sentenced to 10 years, seven years and one year in prison, respectively by the same court in July in the Avenfield case — ownership of four luxury flats in London. They later bailed on appeal when the Islamabad High Court suspended their sentence in September.

The Supreme Court had set the deadline for Monday to wrap up the remaining two corruption cases against the former Prime Minister. 

Sharif’s sons are accused in all three references whereas daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law Muhammad Safdar were accused in the Avenfield reference only.

Nasheman News :  A serving Major General of the Indian Army has been ordered to be dismissed by general court martial (GCM) on Sunday following allegations of sexual harassment of a young woman officer.

The GCM verdict came early on Sunday. The court was held in the jurisdiction of the Western Command.

The verdict of the GCM is subject to confirmation by the Chief of the Army Staff, sources said.

The senior Army officer, who has denied the charges levelled against him and has claimed that he has been made a victim of of the Army’s factional feud at the top level, has the right to appeal against the order.

The Major General was charged under Section 69 of the Army Act read with Section 354 (outraging modesty of a woman by criminal force or assault) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for conduct unbecoming of an officer.

The officer was posted in the North-East sector (Assam Rifles in Nagaland) with the Eastern Command when he was accused of sexual harassment, through a written complaint, by the Captain-rank woman officer of the Judge Advocate General branch of the Army.

The court proceedings against him started in June this year. He was attached to an Army formation in Ambala for disciplinary proceedings.

Sources said that lawyers of the Major General will appeal against the GCM verdict.

Nasheman News : Twelve years after the sensational killing of Sohrabuddin Shaikh, his associate Tulsiram Prajapati and rape-cum-murder of Kausar Bi, a Special CBI Court here on Friday acquitted all 22 accused in the politically sensitive case, saying “witnesses and proofs were not satisfactory”.

“Witnesses and proofs the prosecution put forward were not satisfactory to suggest or establish the alleged conspiracy and murder in the 2005 encounter killing,” said Special CBI Judge S.J. Sharma, who also observed that “the documentary and circumstantial evidence was not substantial”.

The much-awaited verdict in the case came more than 12 years after the alleged ‘fake encounters’ of Sohrabuddin and his associate Prajapati, besides the rape-and-murder of Sohrabuddin’s wife, Kausar Bi.

The 22 accused, including 21 lower police officials of Gujarat-Rajasthan police, who have been acquitted are: M.L. Parmar, Raman Singh, Narayansing Dhabi, Shyam Singh, Abdur Rehman, Himanshu Singh Rajawat, Balkrishna Choubey, Rajubhai Jeerawala, Ajay Parmar, Shantram Sharma, Yudhveer Singh, Kartar Singh, Narayan Singh Jat, Vijaykumar Rathod, C.P. Srinivasa Rao, Jethu Solanki, Kiran Singh Chauhan, Vinod Limbachia, Kanjibhai Kutchi, Karan Singh Sishodia, Ashish Pandya, and Naresh Chauhan.

According to the prosecution, the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) had gunned down Sohrabuddin on November 26, 2005, in an alleged staged killing. 

Prajapati was also killed in a similar fashion on December 28, 2006, while Kausar Bi, who had witnessed the abduction of her husband (Sohrabuddin) was later raped and murdered.

These killings kicked off a major political controversy in the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Gujarat then, with allegations of the purported involvement of several top political bigwigs, IPS officers and other officials.

The prosecution contended that Sohrabuddin had connections with the Lashkar-e-Taiba and other terror groups and was conspiring to assassinate “an important political leader” presumably the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who is now the Prime Minister.

A total of 37 accused were named in the case of whom 16 — mostly politicians and IPS officers — were subsequently discharged by the Special CBI Court in Mumbai and another by the Bombay High Court.

Among those discharged initially were BJP President Amit Shah, who was the Gujarat Home Minister at the relevant time, the then Rajasthan Home Minister G.C. Kataria, high-profile ATS chief and DIG D.G. Vanzara, Superintendents of Police M.N. Dinesh and R.K. Pandian, among many others.

Interestingly, after appeals from various quarters, the politically-sensitive trial was shifted from Gujarat to Mumbai by the Supreme Court in September 2012.

When the Special CBI Court recorded the statements of the remaining 22 accused during the trial, all claimed “innocence” and said they were nabbed owing to rivalry among the Gujarat top police brass and related factors stemming from the then political situation prevalent in that state.

Of the 210 witnesses examined during the trial, 92 turned hostile, seriously undermining the CBI case, prompting the CBI counsel B.P. Raju to admit to ‘lacunae’ in the probe as the Sohrabuddin encounter took place in 2005, Prajapati in 2006, but CBI came into the picture only in 2010.

Nasheman News: The Delhi High Court on Friday rejected a plea seeking more time to surrender by former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, who was given life imprisonment in an anti-Sikh riot case earlier this week.

Sajjan Kumar had sought more time to surrender so he could settle some family matters, as the court ordered him behind bars for the rest of his remaining life.

A Division Bench of Justices S. Muralidhar and Vinod Goel asked him to surrender by December 31.

Claiming his innocence, Sajjan Kumar had requested the court to grant him 30 more days so that he could settle certain property matter and meet his close relatives.

In his plea, the 73-year-old said that he has a big family that includes besides his wife, three children and eight grandchildren.

The Delhi High Court on Monday convicted Kumar in an anti-Sikh riot case of 1984 and sentenced him to imprisonment for the remainder of his natural life. The court asked him to surrender till December 31.

Sajjan Kumar said he was shocked and surprised by the judgement as trial court had acquitted him in the case.

He told the High Court that he would appeal in the Supreme Court challenging its order and therefore he needed time to engage senior lawyers. 

He also told the court that most senior counsels were on holiday as the apex court was closed due to winter vacation.

He informed the court that he was out on bail in the 1984 cases and never flouted any bail conditions or hampered investigation and has cooperated with the probe agencies.

Sajjan Kumar and the others were charged with the killing of five Sikhs — Kehar Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Raghuvender Singh, Narender Pal Singh and Kuldeep Singh — who were members from the same family — by a mob in Delhi Cantonment’s Raj Nagar area in the wake of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s assassination by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984.

New Delhi, Growth rate at 8 per cent, investment at 36 per cent, and agripreneurs, codification of labour laws and revamping of minerals exploration policy are the prescribed drivers for India to become a $5-trillion economy by 2030, as per NITI Aayog.

Drawing inspiration and direction from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s clarion call for making a New India by 2022, NITI Aayog — the government’s premier think tank — released a strategy document detailing a comprehensive agenda for India on Wednesday.

“The overarching focus of the strategy document is to further improve the policy environment in which private investors and other stakeholders can contribute their fullest towards achieving the goals set out for New India 2022 and propel India towards a USD 5-trillion economy by 2030,” the document said.

The detailed exposition in “Strategy for New India @75” (India turns 75 in 2022) across 41 crucial areas recognises the progress already made, identifies binding constraints and suggests the way forward for achieving the clearly stated objectives.

Seeking a “Jan Andolan” (people’s movement) for economic transformation to become the New India, the document, released by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, prescribes a growth rate of 8 per cent over the next five years during 2018-23.

“Steadily accelerate the gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate to achieve a target of about 8 per cent during 2018-23. This will raise the economy’s size in real terms from USD 2.7 trillion in 2017-18 to nearly USD 4 trillion by 2022-23. 

“Besides having rapid growth, which reaches 9-10 per cent by 2022-23, it is also necessary to ensure that growth is inclusive, sustained, clean and formalised,” the document said.

The investment rate should be raised from 29 per cent to 36 per cent of GDP — which has been achieved in the past — by 2022-23. It also said exports of goods and services combined should be increased from $478 billion in 2017-18 to $800 billion by 2022-23.

The 41 chapters have been disaggregated under four sections namely drivers, infrastructure, inclusion and governance.

With a special focus on farming, the document suggests converting farmers into “agripreneurs” by further expanding e-National Agriculture Markets and replacing the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee Act with the Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing Act.

“Give a strong push to ‘Zero Budget Natural Farming’ techniques that reduce costs, improve land quality and increase farmers’ incomes. This has emerged as a tested method for putting environment carbon back into the land,” it said.

It also favours complete codification of labor laws and a massive effort to upscale and expand apprenticeships to ensure maximum employment creation.

Further, the document suggests launching a mission “Explore in India” by revamping minerals exploration and licensing policy.

The second section on infrastructure deals with the physical foundations of growth which are crucial to enhancing the competitiveness of Indian business as also ensuring ease of living for the citizens.

It suggested expediting the establishment of the Rail Development Authority (RDA), which is already approved. RDA will advise or make informed decisions on an integrated, transparent and dynamic pricing mechanism for the railways, it said.

“Double the share of freight transported by coastal shipping and inland waterways. Initially, viability gap funding will be provided until the infrastructure is fully developed. Develop an IT-enabled platform for integrating different modes of transport and promoting multi-modal and digitised mobility,” it added.

Further, as part of infrastructure, it suggested completing BharatNet programme in 2019, which will digitally connect all 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats in the country. 

Aim to deliver all government services at the state, district and gram panchayat level digitally by 2022-23, it said.

The section on inclusion deals with investing in the capabilities of all citizens of India. Three themes in this section are health, education and mainstreaming of traditionally marginalised sections of the population.

Successful execution of government-run healthcare programmes Ayushman Bharat and Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Abhiyaan will be a prerequisite for the New India, it said.

“Upgrade the quality of the school education system and skills, including the creation of a new innovation ecosystem at the ground level by establishing at least 10,000 Atal Tinkering Labs by 2020,” it said and suggested to have an electronic national educational registry for tracking each child’s learning outcomes.

It also talked about offering affordable housing in urban areas to improve workers’ living conditions and to ensure equity while providing a strong impetus to economic growth.

The document also delved into how the governance structures can be streamlined and processes optimised to achieve better developmental outcomes.

New Delhi, President’s rule will be imposed in Jammu and Kashmir from Wednesday midnight with President Ram Nath Kovind signing a proclamation to give effect to the recommendation of the state Governor Satya Pal Malik.

Home Ministry officials said that Kovind has signed the proclamation based on the proposal sent by the ministry following a report by the state governor.

The term of Governor’s Rule, imposed in the state in June this year, comes to an end on Wednesday. 

The state had plunged into a political crisis in June this year after BJP withdrew from the coalition government with People’s Democratic Party. Last month Malik dissolved the state assembly which had been kept in suspended animation. 

Under the provisions of Jammu and Kashmir Constitution, Governor’s rule can be imposed for six months, but with consent of the President. The Constitution grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

New Delhi,  On Congress chief Rahul Gandhi’s demand for loan waivers for farmers, NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar on Wednesday said farm loan waivers are just a palliative and not a long-term solution for the farming community.

However, he said short-term measures might be required in some states that are facing real farm distress. The Centre does not take a pan-India view on the issue as it would not be fair for farmers in states where the loan exposure is very less.

“Farm loan waiver is not a solution. It’s just a palliative. This is a state government prerogative whether they want to give the farm loan waivers, as agriculture is a state subject,” Kumar said on the sidelines of release of NITI Aayog’s “New India – 2022” strategic document.

“The states have to look into their own fiscal resources and go ahead with what they want to do. In states, where there is a genuine and real farm distress, some short-term measures would have to be taken. This is in that nature, it’s not a long- term solution for the farmers’ problem or for agricultural modernisation,” he said.

On the employment data that the NITI Aayog has been working on, he said the actual data on employment would be out in “a fraction of a year” after the Central Statistics Office (CSO) completes its household survey for both rural and urban employments.

As for the liquidity concerns in the economy and the possibility of rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India, Kumar said the current inflation figures, which are well below the target of four per cent, itself call for a rate cut to support liquidity and growth in the economy.

Further, on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement that 99 per cent items could soon see 18 per cent Goods and Services Tax (GST) or less, Kumar said: “About 97 per cent of the items are already at or below 18 per cent GST and as the taxbase widens and there is a revenue buoyancy, 99 per cent of items can come below 18 per cent tax, leaving only the non-merit items like cigarettes and alcohol in the above 18 per cent category.”