Chennai: The ruling AIADMK on Sunday unveiled a super populist manifesto for the April 6 Assembly polls, promising, among others, houses free of cost to people, Rs 7,500 annual subsidy to farmers, free solar cooking stoves and washing machines.

Educational loan waiver, government jobs to families without anyone in state service and many more sops were announced.

Notably, the ruling party, an ally of the BJP, said it would urge the Centre to scrap the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act and strive to bring education to the state list from the concurrent list of the Constitution.

Essential commodities given through Public Distribution Outlets would be door delivered to beneficiaries.

An initiative along these lines was recently launched by the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh government.

Increase in maternity leave for women government employees from nine months to one year and construction of new buildings with modern medical facilities for about 2,000 Amma Mini Clinics found mention in the manifesto.

To those not owning houses,the government would build and provide houses free of cost in rural and urban areas under the ‘Amma Illam Thittam’ (Amma Housing Scheme) and interest on housing loans availed from cooperative housing societies would be waived on loan repayment.

As part of measures to bring about economic equality, Rs 1,500 per month would be disbursed to all ration card holders and the amount would be credited to bank accounts of woman family heads, senior AIADMK leader C Ponnaiyan said here.

Women would get a 50 per cent fare cut in town buses, Ponnaiyan, also the party’s organising secretary said, underscoring the important aspects of the manifesto at the party headquarters.

Distribution of solar powered cooking stoves, washing machines and six LPG cylinders a year -all free of cost- to rice category ration card holders, a subsidy of Rs 7,500 per year to farmers to incentivise farm production were among the over 160 promises made by the ruling party, that has been in power in Tamil Nadu since 2011.

“To protect the interests of students and parents, educational loans would be waived,” the party said. However, aspects like criteria for waiver and beneficiaries was not known immediately.

Steps to get fuel prices reduced, expanding the rural employment guarantee scheme to 150 days from the present 100, increase in subsidy under the Amma Green Housing Scheme from Rs 2.43 lakh to Rs 3.40 lakh were promised.

College students who have been getting 2 GB data to support studies would get it throughout the year.

“For sure, a government job will be provided to one person from a family without anyone in government service.”

Increase in social security pensions for beneficiaries, including senior citizens, from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000, ‘Amma’s gift (Amma Seervarisai)’ like household items for newly wed couples under the state’s marriage financial support scheme, free of cost cable TV connections to rice ration card holders and two free mosquito nets to poor were among the promises.

The financial assistance to differently abled would be increased to Rs 2,500 from Rs 1,500.

Continued support for release of seven Rajiv Gandhi assassination case convicts, steps to ensure welfare of Tamils in Sri Lanka and to get dual citizenship for Sri Lankan Tamil refugees living in camps in India were assured.

The AIADMK said it would further expand the nutritious meal programme for school students and give laptops to students of self-financing classes of government schools.

Milk (200 ML milk or milk powder) to school students and children attached to Anganwadi centres and Rs two cut in state run Aavin milk price were some of the planned initiatives.

‘Amma banking card’ scheme to provide interest free loans (in association with banks) to help ordinary and poor people repay loans in installments and Rs 25,000 subsidy to purchase e-Autos were assured.

AIADMK pledged to set up an Islamic university, increase assistance to Hindu pilgrims to visit important centres of pilgrimage in India, hike Haj subsidy from Rs six crore to Rs 10 crore and bear the full fare for Jerusalem pilgrims.

Increase in the quota for women in government jobs to 40 per cent (from the current 30 per cent) and appropriate reservation for all castes are some of the other key aspects.

Features, including quota for women in state jobs, found in the ruling party’s 163-point manifesto has already been promised by the DMK, which released its poll document on Saturday.

Mumbai: Mumbai police officer Sachin Vaze, arrested in the probe into recovery of explosives from a car near industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence, was on Sunday remanded to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) custody till March 25 by a court here.

The NIA, which arrested Vaze (49) on Saturday night, brought him to the court in south Mumbai after taking him to a local hospital for his medical examination, an official said.

The court remanded him to the central agency’s custody for further probe in the matter, he said.

The NIA, while seeking Vaze’s custody for 14 days, told the court that they had received some inputs about his role in placing gelatin sticks in the SUV that was found parked near Ambani’s multi-storey residence ‘Antilia’ on February 25, and that when he was questioned about it, he admitted his involvement.

Following that, Vaze was placed under arrest, the probe agency said.

Vaze has been arrested under IPC sections 286 (negligent conduct with respect to explosive substance) 465 (forgery), 473 (making or possessing counterfeit seal, etc with intent to commit forgery), 506(2) (punishment for criminal intimidation), 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and relevant provisions of the Explosive Substances Act, the official said.

In its remand plea, the NIA submittedwitnesses’ statements to show Vaze’s involvement in the case.

The central agency also told the court that his custodial interrogation was required to unearth the conspiracy and gather evidence.

Talking to PTI, Vaze’s advocate Sudeep Pasbola, however, said the arrest has been made only on the basis of suspicion and that there was no concrete evidence against him.

“The court remanded Vaze till March 25, but kept the matter for further hearing on Monday. The court has asked the NIA to show what evidence it has collected and what is the stage of investigation,” Pasbola said.

Another defence lawyer, Sunny Punamia, submitted before the court that Vaze’s arrest was “completely illegal”.

“The argument placed before the court was that the accused has been arrested solely based on suspicion and no prima facie case is established in the FIR.

“Therefore, if no prima facie case is established on a bare reading of the FIR against the accused, the detainment and arrest of the accused itself is completely illegal and even one day’s incarceration of the accused would be violative of his constitutional rights,” he said.

The lawyer also said that Vaze’s arrest was also illegal as the accused was not informed of the grounds of the arrest, and he wasn’t given an option to seek legal help and make a call to a relative of his choice.

On these grounds, his custodial interrogation is not warranted, it’s arbitrary and the accused must be released on bail forthwith as the investigation has not been conducted on the settled principles of law, he added.

Vaze was summoned at the agency’s Mumbai office at Cumballa Hill in south Mumbai around 11.30 am on Saturday to record his statement.

The spokesperson said that Vaze was arrested after being questioned by the NIA officials for around 12 hours.

The case was handed over to the NIA after the mysterious death of Thane-based businessman Mansukh Hiran, who claimed that the vehicle had been stolen a week earlier. His body was found in a creek at Thane on March 5.

Hiran’s wife had claimed that her husband had given the SUV to Vaze in November, which the officer returned in the first week of February.

However, during his questioning by the ATS, Vaze had denied using the SUV that was in possession of Hiran.

Credited with eliminating 63 alleged criminals in ‘encounters’, Vaze, a 1990-batch officer of the state cadre, was suspended in 2004 over his role in the custodial death of a 2002 Ghatkopar blast suspect Khwaja Yunus and was reinstated last year.

Vaze, who led the team that arrested journalist Arnab Goswami in November last year in a suicide abetment case, had joined Shiv Sena while he was under suspension. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray recently said Vaze was a member of Shiv Sena till 2008.

MAHARASHTRA: Roads across Nagpur wore a deserted look as the city entered a week-long lockdown on Monday.

“There is no crowding and social distancing is properly maintained during the walks. People are wearing masks,” he further said.

“Unless people sanitise themselves regularly and follow social distancing, we cannot be sure that lockdown will contain the coronavirus,” he added.

Due to a surge in COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra, the state government on Thursday decided to impose a lockdown in Nagpur district from March 15 to 21.

Only essential services such as vegetable and fruit shops and milk booths will stay open, according to the order issued by the district administration.

“Complete lockdown to remain imposed in Nagpur City Police Commissionerate area from March 15 to March 21. Essential services will continue,” said Nagpur Guardian Minister Nitin Raut.

The state health department on Sunday evening informed Maharashtra reported 16,620 new COVID-19 cases and 50 deaths in the last 24 hours.

The state had a total of 1,26,231 active cases. The total death toll in the state stood at 52,861.

In the last 24 hours, Mumbai reported 1962 new COVID-19 cases.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had on Thursday said strict lockdown measures will be enforced in some parts of the state to contain the spread of COVID-19. 

Pramesh Jain

Cab Driver arrested for stealing LED TVs from Hotels,Nine LED TV Worth Rs.2.7 Lakh Recovered by Upparpet police:

The West Division police of Upparpet police have arrested 32 year old cab driver for stealing LED TVs and electronic goods from the Lodges and hotels after he checked in as guest.

The accused has been identified as,Vijay Ashok Kale Hiremath,32,year old hailing from Hyderabad.

Senior officer told Media persons,a complaint was registered in upparpet police station by a hotel manager of Vishnu Paradise who stated in his complaint when he was checking rooms after the customers checkout from the room we usually clean the room and check once anything missing.

When our housekeeping staff went to room to clean he noticed a LED TV was missing in the room and we have a doubt on the last customer who checked out might stolen the Micromax TV worth of Rs.12k.

Based on the complaint,Upparpet police inspector visited the lodge and inspected the crime scene and found vital clue from the hotel and based on which a team was formed.

The team which swooped down to track the culprit the team analyzed the CCTV footage and the team swung into action and with the technical inputs the team zeroed in on accused identified as,Vijay Ashok Kale Hiremath from majestic bus stand while he was trying to board a bus and was trying to escape.

The team took him to station for questioning a detailed questioning by the team the accused confessed the crime and based on his statement the team recovered nine led TVs and four phones  worth Rs 2.7 lakh from him which has stolen from different hotels around majestic.

The team grilled him to ascertain reason behind the crime the accused spilled the beans and it has revealed that Hiremath is native of Hyderabad and a cab driver by profession.He lost job one year ago and started stealing valuables from hotels to make quick money he said in his statement and further investigation is on.

Finally Bengaluru Police Commissioner,Kamal Pant has appreciated Addl CP West,Soumendhu Mukherjee,DCP West,Dr Sanjeev M Patil,ACP,P Ravi,PI,Shivaswamy CB,and his whole team for the commendable job done by them who has nabbed a cab driver who used to steal electronic gadgets from hotels where he used to check in as guest a suitable reward will be given to the team he added.

Pramesh Jain

Ramesh Jarkiholi Sleaze CD case:SIT Trapped 5 suspects in first day who involved in Ramesh Jarkiholi CD Scandal:

A day after formation of SIT,the officials on friday picked up five persons including a woman who are linked to the CD.

,A seven-member SIT team has been formed to probe the scandal involving former state minister Ramesh Jarkiholi.Basavaraj Bommai,Home minister of Karnataka,had ordered the formation of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on March 10.

Bengaluru City Police Commissioner,Kamal Pant told reporters,The seven-member SIT team will be headed by Additional Commissioner of Police,(West)Soumendu Mukherjee,with senior officials, including CCB Joint Commissioner,Sandeep Patil, DCP, Central MN Anucheth,CCB DCP, Crime-1, Ravikumar,with,ACP,CCB,Dharmendra will assist the SIT in its probe along with, Police Inspectors,as,Maruthi B of Cubbon park police station and Prashanth Babu of CCB technical wing officers will probe the case and if there is a need of more officers in case the team had can add more officers and men he added.

Senior officer told media persons,The police who have completed the tracking before the formation of SIT stepped up probe and detained a media person Bhuvith from Ramnagar.

He was with the girl friend when the police swoop down and caught them.

Based on their information the police detained one more person in Vijayanagar and another person from Chamarajpet.

They were brought to SIT office in CID for questioning

The SIT is now probing to find out who are all behind the CD and their handlers.

These accused are said to be in touch with Dinesh Kallahalli and handed over CD.

A meeting was held on Friday morning to finalise the members of this SIT formed to investigate the scandal that led to Karnataka ex minister Ramesh Jarkiholi’s resignation.

Within hours of its formation,the SIT detained around nine individuals including a women who is said to be a roommate of alleged victim in the CD.

The SIT team pressed into action after formation the team which had prepared list of suspects after formation in 2 hours the team detained five persons including a woman,the team detained suspects from Vijayanagar,Chamarajapet, Chikkamagaluru,Vijayapura and Ramanagar.

One of the suspect has been identified as Bhuvit Aldur,a resident of Chikkamagaluru was picked by SIT team after getting technical evidence against all the suspects.

Sources said that the kingpin and mastermind behind this is still absconding and in preliminary Probe it was found that the CD has been uploaded from Bengaluru using Russia IP address as proxy ID and the CD was created by a expert they are questioning all the five suspects.

The team has found that the CD was exchanged in RT Nagar by these suspects and they have handed over the CD to Dinesh kalahalli near one of the Metro station.

A team of the SIT has left for Andhra Pradesh to locate and detain a person of interest considered close to a prominent leader.

The SIT has intensified the probe and grilling the suspects to know who are behind this conspiracy and how they have executed it and it is alleged that totally six persons are from media in which four are and two masterminds are on run sources added.

SIT team has intensified the probe to nab all the masterminds and kingpin of the alleged fake CD and in coming days the prominent leader behind the major conspiracy will be exposed says Balachandra Jarkiholi.

Ordering the formation of an SIT to probe the matter, Karnataka Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai told reporters, In a letter,Ramesh Jarkiholi has said that there was a politically motivated attempt to defame him. He has requested a thorough investigation into the case.”

“Based on this, after having discussions with the chief minister and senior police officers,we have decided to form an SIT(Special Investigation Team) to probe who conspired in this case and where the CD was prepared,” Basavaraj Bommai had said.

Speaking to reporters here,HD Kumaraswamy said the state government has handed over the  CD case to Special Investigation Team (SIT).

Against whom and on what basis the investigation will be conducted,he questioned, adding,I don’t know on what basis the probe was ordered.

The Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) authorities might claim the CD is fake and nothing more can be expected. Several such cases, including former minister H Y Meti’s case, received a clean chit. No accused were punished in such cases, Kumaraswamy said.

Jakarta: A tourist bus plunged into a ravine on Indonesia’s main island of Java after its brakes apparently malfunctioned, killing at least 27 people and injuring 39 others, police and rescuers said Thursday.

The bus was carrying a group of Islamic junior high school students, teachers and parents from the West Java province town of Subang when the accident happened late Wednesday on a winding road, said local police chief Eko Prasetyo Robbyanto.

He said the bus was on its way back to Subang from a pilgrimage site in the province’s Tasikmalaya district when it plunged into the 20-metre-deep ravine after the driver lost control of the vehicle in an area with a number of sharp declines in Sumedang district.

Police were still investigating the cause of the accident, but survivors told authorities that the vehicle’s brakes apparently malfunctioned, Robbyanto said.

Bandung search and rescue agency chief Deden Ridwansah said the 27 bodies and 39 injured people were taken to a hospital and a nearby health clinic, including a body of a young boy who was pinned under the overturned bus and pulled from the wreckage Thursday morning.

Thirteen of the injured were treated for serious injuries, Ridwansah said. The driver was among those killed.

Television video showed police and rescuers from the National Search and Rescue Agency evacuating injured victims and carrying the dead to ambulances. Grieving relatives waited for information about their loved ones at Sumedang’s general hospital, others tried to identify the bodies laid at a morgue.

Road accidents are common in Indonesia because of poor safety standards and infrastructure.

In December 2019, 35 people were killed when a passenger bus fell into a 80-metre-deep ravine and crashed into a fast-flowing river on Sumatra island. In early 2018, 27 people killed after a packed tourist bus plunged from a hill in West Java’s hilly area.

New Delhi: The Editors Guild of India (EGI) on Tuesday expressed “shock and disbelief” at the recent report of a group of ministers (GoM) suggesting steps to “neutralise” the negative narrative against the government.

It said the GoM report illustrates government’s “increasingly draconian attitude” against any critique and inquiry by the press.

“The Editors Guild of India expresses shock and disbelief at the manner in which a group of ministers (GoM) has prepared a report with an embedded toolkit to control the narrative about the government in the media.

“This GoM, comprising five cabinet and four ministers of state, had been constituted by the government in mid-2020, without any provocation and at a time when various press freedom and democracy indices show a rapid slide,” the EGI said in a statement.

It said that the report, which was prepared at the end of 2020 and has recently emerged in the media, “further illustrates the government’s increasingly draconian attitude against any critique and inquiry by the press.”

The suggestions from the GoM report hint at increased surveillance and targeting of writers and journalists who depart from the government’s narrative, the editors’ body said.

It also said, “One of the more disturbing instances is the suggestion by a Union Minister that refers to developing a strategy to neutralise the people who are writing against the government without facts and set false narratives/spread fake news.”

The EGI said that in the absence of any clarity on what will constitute fake news and the process to be followed, such observations smack of an intention to simply muzzle any criticism of the government.

Since the report was made public, some of those who have been named in the report have denied any involvement in its drafting, it said.

It added that the preparation of the GoM report and its debilitating import on media freedom and journalists is a major concern for EGI, which demands that the government, which is supposed to safeguard constitutional values of freedom of expression should make it clear that it is committed to the plurality of views in the media.

The report of the Group of Ministers has suggestions of tracking 50 negative and 50 positive influencers on social media and neutralise people who are writing against the government without facts to spread fake news .

The GoM comprising nine ministers — Ravi Shankar Prasad, Prakash Javadekar, Smriti Irani, S Jaishankar, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Hardeep Singh Puri, Babul Supriyo, Anurag Thakur and Kiren Rijiju — had held six meetings between June 14 and July 19 2020 before putting together the 97-page report.

New Delhi: Farmer unions on Wednesday called for a Bharat bandh on March 26, when their protest at Delhi’s borders against the Centre’s three new farm laws completes four months.

Farmer leader Buta Singh Burjgill said farmers along with trade unions will protest the hike in fuel prices and privatisation of railways on March 15.

“We will observe a complete Bharat bandh on March 26, when our protest against the three farm laws completes four months. The peaceful bandh will remain effective from morning till evening,” he told reporters at the Singhu border.

On March 19, the farmers will observe “Mandi Bachao-Kheti Bachao” day, he said.

The farmer unions have also decided to celebrate Shaheedi divas’ of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev, Burjgill added.

Farmers leaders also said that copies of the new farm laws will be burnt during Holika Dahan’ on March 28.

Thousands of farmers, mostly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, have been camping at the Delhi border points — Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur — for over four months, demanding the repeal of farm laws and a legal guarantee on the minimum support price (MSP) for their crops.

The protesting farmers have expressed apprehension that these laws would pave the way for the dismantling of the MSP system, leaving them at the “mercy” of big corporations.

However, the government has maintained that the new laws will bring better opportunities to farmers and introduce new technologies in agriculture.