I hereby wish to share my happiness on winning the Board of Director’s election of Amanath Cooperative Bank Ltd. It was indeed a pleasurable majority win, that apart I wish to thank all the shareholders from the bottom of my heart for being very supportive and coming forward to cast their precious vote and help us to achieve this goal and I take a pledge to serve all the shareholders to the best of my ability and capacity.

Mumbai: Maharashtra’s ruling ally Shiv Sena on Monday launched a sharp attack on the BJP for the runaway inflation and zooming fuel prices and said “Achhe Din” were being “murdered” daily by the government.

The party also took to task new union minister K.J. Alphons — who said recently that “those who can afford high prices of petrol and diesel are not starving” — for making “such highly irresponsible utterances.”

“This Navratna (Jewel) in the cabinet is justifying the steep high prices of fuel because he has never paid for it from his pocket. This is like spitting on the face of the poor who were not humiliated to such an extent even during the Congress rule,” the Sena said.

In strong editorials in the party mouthpieces ‘Saamana’ and ‘Dopahar Ka Saamana’, the Shiv Sena said it was shocking that Alphons even justified how nobody was dying because of the spiralling fuel prices.

“Listen to him! This bureaucrat-turned-minister with no political experience is probably full of the ‘merit’ that the BJP President Amit Shah said the Congress is lacking,” the Sena said.

“Have they forgotten, how – when there was a fuel hike during UPA, all top BJP leaders like Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Smiri Irani and Dharmendra Pradhan – jammed the streets protesting with empty gas cylinders?” the Sena asked.

However, now when they have come to power, the poor were being mocked and ridiculed by persons like Alphons who were advocating inflation – and “all this is truly distressing”, the edit said.

“A major reason behind the thousands of farmers’ deaths in Maharashtra and elsewhere in the country is due to steep hike in fuel prices. There is the regular ‘shock of load-shedding’, so they have to depend on diesel-run generators for agriculture. Then, they are required to shell out higher prices for transportation of their farm produce to the distant markets.

“Many farmers simply can’t afford to pay all these high costs and hence resort to committing suicide,” the edit said.

The Sena pointed out that the masses were suffering because of the hike in petrol, diesel and gas prices. “‘Achhe Din’ are being killed daily,” it said.

“People have no food to eat, farmers continue to be in crises, inflation and unemployment are adding to peoples’ woes. When questioned about all these, a livid Maharashtra BJP legislator Pasha Patel abused and threatened a journalist last week and said he (the journalist) requires mental treatment,” the Sena said.

It said that from the billions of rupees to be spent on the Bullet Train project, if Rs 30,000-40,000 crore was diverted to tackle inflation, it would be serve everyone better.

“Patel called the journalist ‘mad and needing mental treatment’. Actually, it is those people who are praising the Bullet Train who are lunatics and deserve to be packed off to mental hospitals,” the Sena said.

(Agencies)

Hyderabad: A 24-year-old woman was allegedly burnt alive by her husband for not being able to secure a MBBS seat. The incident took place in Hyderabad in L B Nagar police station limits on Sunday night.

Harika had married her cousin Rushi Kumar (29), a resident of Rocktown Colony of L B Nagar, two years back.

Rushi wanted Harika to study MBBS and fulfil his dream of becoming a doctor. So he made her stay in a hostel and enrol to coaching classes. She appeared for medical entrance test by giving EAMCET exam but failed to secure a MBBS seat and instead secured a Bachelor of Dental Surgery seat at Kamineni Medical College.

According to Harika’s family, Rushi used to harass her for dowry and constantly pick fights with her.

On Sunday night, Rushi called Harika’s mother and told that she had immolated herself by pouring kerosene. The family rushed to her house and found her dead. “Harika’s husband claimed she committed suicide, but after seeing the scene of the offence, it appears to be a murder. We suspect that the man has killed his wife,” ACP (LB Nagar division) Venugopala Rao said.

As of now Rushi is in police custody and investigators registered a case under 174 (suspicious death) of Cr.PC.

(Agencies)

(AP Photo/Ajit Solanki)

Ahmedabad: BJP President Amit Shah appeared before a special Sessions Court here on Monday in the 2002 Naroda Gam case in which 11 persons were killed and said the key accused and former Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani was with him when the crime took place.

Shah was summoned by the court after Kodnani claimed to have failed to get the BJP chief to depose as a witness in her favour despite repeated attempts. She submitted that she was unable to find Amit Shah or his address to issue the summons.

As many as 14 witnesses have deposed and 13 have been examined. She is among the 82 accused in the case.

The incident occurred on February 28, 2002, a day after a coach of the Sabarmati Express train was set on fire at the Godhra railway station leaving 57 Hindus dead.

Naroda Gam is close to Naroda Patiya where 97 Muslims were killed on the same day in which Kodnani was convicted in 2012 for life imprisonment.

Deposing in the court of Justice P.D. Desai on Monday, Amit Shah stated that Kodnani was with him in the Assembly and later at the Civil Hospital at Sola where the bodies of the Godhra train victims were brought.

Shah said he had gone to the Sola Civil Hospital since it fell under his constituency.

Speaking in defence of the former minister, Amit Shah submitted to the court in Gujarati: “Mayaben Kodnani was not at Naroda Gam but at the State Assembly at 8.30 am. From 9.30 a.m. to 9.45 a.m., I was at the Civil Hospital and I met Maya Kodnani there.”

He added that Kodnani was consoling families of those killed in the Godhra attack when he reached there.

Kodnani, who was a minister in 2002 in the Gujarat government led by Chief Minister Narendra Modi, wants to prove that on the day of the Naroda Gam killings she was not at the site of the crime.

(IANS)

Hyderabad: If refugees from Tibet, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka can stay in India, why not the Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi has said.

He also cited the case of Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, who has taken shelter in India for over a decade now following threats from Islamic fundamentalists in her country.

Attacking the NDA government over its stance on Rohingyas, who are fleeing Myanmar’s violence-hit Rakhine state, he said, “Is it humane that you want to send back those who have lost everything. This is wrong.”

If Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen can take shelter in India, why not the Rohingya Muslims? he asked while addressing a gathering here late last night.

“When Taslima Nasreen became your sister, can’t Rohingya become your brother, Mr Modi,” Owaisi, the Lok Sabha member from Hyderabad, said.

The BJP government at the centre should not see the Rohingyas as Muslims but as refugees, he maintained.

“We want to tell the BJP government, don’t look at them as Muslims. They are refugees,” he said.

“India gave shelter to refugees from Tibet, those from Sri Lanka and Chakma refugees from Bangladesh,” Owaisi said.

“When it was told that they (Lankan refugees) are taking part in terror, what was done? They were shifted from one camp to another,” the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader alleged.

The Constitution of India gives right to equality and that applies to refugees as well, Owaisi said.

“The BJP government says we will send all Rohingyas back. We want to ask the Indian prime minister, under which law you will send them back, which law?” he asked.

(Agencies)

Lucknow: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday announced it will contest the forthcoming municipal corporation elections in Uttar Pradesh.

Addressing a press conference in the state capital, national spokesman of the party and incharge for Uttar Pradesh Sanjay Singh said the AAP was committed to weeding out graft from the civic bodies and giving people good governance.

Stating that the people had already become fed up with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government led by Yogi Adityanath, the AAP leader said civic bodies over the years had turned into centres of graft in the state.

The party had serious intent to set things right, apart from putting an end to the exploitation of “safai karmacharis”, he said.

Elections to the 16 civic bodies in the state are likely to be held later this year. The AAP, he further informed, would waive house tax if it came to power and would ensure that people got clean drinking water.

These and other issues would be part of the party’s election manifesto.

(IANS)