BENGALURU: Amid Congress’s attempt to show its might with a party meeting on Friday, state Bharatiya Janata Party chief BS Yeddyurappa seemed unfazed.

“I’m not bothered about their Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting. That is left to Congress and JDS. Why should I comment about it? They’re telling many things, I’m not responsible for that,” said Yeddyurappa.

“Our 104 MLAs are worried about our party and preparing for Lok Sabha elections,” added the senior BJP leader.

Amid accusations of poaching MLAs, Yeddyurappa – who returned to Karnataka on Thursday – asserted that his party was not involved in any operation to topple the government.

Our party MLAs were also flying back from Gurugram, where they are staying for the past few days, he added.

Political turmoil hit Karnataka on Monday after both the ruling coalition of Congress-JD(S) and BJP hurled charges of horse-trading against each other.

The BJP has strongly denied the poaching allegations and said that its legislators were in Delhi last week for a party meet with national leadership, at a private resort in Gurugram, Haryana. The party further claimed that the coalition was attempting to poach its legislators.

Amid the exchange of horse trading charges by the three major parties in the state, two legislators withdrew their support to the coalition government on Tuesday. They were R. Shankar of Karnataka Pragnavantha Janata Party from Ranebennur Assembly segment in Haveri district and H.Nagesh, an Independent from Mulbagal constituency in Kolar district.

The coalition partners, however, continued to maintain that the government was stable and that they had the support of all their legislators. 

In the 225-member Legislative Assembly, including one nominated member, the Congress has 80 legislators, JD-S 37, and the BJP 104, while one Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA continues to support the coalition after one Independent Nagesh and the KPJP legislator Shankar withdrew their support.

The coalition government thereby has 118 legislators on its side, while BJP has 104.

Nasheman News : Pocharam Srinivas Reddy was unanimously elected the Speaker of the Telangana Legislative Assembly on Friday.

The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader was elected unopposed as no other nomination was received for the post.

The main opposition Congress and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) extended their support for the Speaker’s election.

Pro-tem Speaker Mumtaz Ahmed Khan announced Srinivas Reddy’s unanimous election. 

Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao, Congress leader Uttam Kumar Reddy, AIMIM MLA Ahmed Balala and TRS MLA E. Rajender conducted Srinivas Reddy to the chair.

Later Chandrashekhar Rao and leaders of other parties in their speeches congratulated him on becoming the Speaker of the second Assembly of the new state. 

Srinivas Reddy, whose real name is Parige Srinivas Reddy, is popular as Pocharam Srinivas Reddy. Pocharam is the name of his native village in Kamareddy district.

According to the affidavit submitted by him, 66-year-old Srinivas Reddy is an agriculturist.

He has served as Agriculture Minister in KCR’s earlier cabinet, and was re-elected to the Assembly from the Banswada constituency in the December elections.

He also served as a minister in the cabinet of N. Chandrababu Naidu in undivided Andhra Pradesh. He had quit the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in 2011 to join the TRS, which was then fighting for separate statehood for Telangana.

During his student days, Srinivas Reddy had participated in Telangana movement of 1969. 

He began his political career in 1976 and became the president of Primary Agriculture Cooperative Society of Dasipet village. In 1983, he joined TDP floated by actor-turned-politician N.T. Rama Rao.

Srinivas Reddy was first elected to the Andhra Pradesh Assembly in 1994. He was re-elected in 1999, 2009, 2011, 2014 and 2018.

Nasheman News :The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday summoned senior IAS officer B. Chandrakala for questioning in connection with an illegal sand mining case in Uttar Pradesh, officials said.

Chandrakala, the former District Magistrate of Hamirpur district, has been summoned for questioning to the ED office in Lucknow, a senior agency official told IANS. 

A CBI FIR on which the ED based its case has alleged that Chandrakala as the Hamirpur District Magistrate had granted several lease in violation of the Allahabad High Court orders which had ratified an e-tender policy.

Beside, Chandrakala, the financial probe agency has also summoned three more people, including the Samajwadi Party MLC Ramesh Kumar Mishra for questioning on January 28.

The ED summon comes a day after it registered a case under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) based on a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case in connection with its ongoing probe into illegal sand mining and role of bureaucrats and politicians in Uttar Pradesh.

On January 5, the CBI had raided Chandrakala’s homes in Lucknow and Noida and seized two bank accounts and one locker, besides recovering some documents. Mishra’s house in Kanpur was also searched.

It was on January 2, when the CBI had registered the case against 11 people, including Chandrakala, miner Adil Khan, geologist/mining officer Moinuddin, Mishra and his brother, besides Sanajy Dikshit who contested the 2017 Assembly polls on the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket and his father.

The then Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had granted the mines leases to 14 people in 2013 in Hamirpur district against the High Court’s order.

On January 7, the CBI released a list of 22 leases cleared by the Samajwadi Party chief, who was also the Mining Minister during that period, and was later succeeded by Gayatri Prasad Prajapati.

Nasheman News : The Central government on Thursday curtailed the tenure of Special CBI Director Rakesh Asthana, who had a bitter fight with ousted agency Director Alok Verma and who himself faces corruption charges, with immediate effect.

Along with him, the tenure of three other top officers — Joint Director Arun Kumar Sharma, DIG Manish Kumar Sinha and SP Jayant J. Naiknavare, who were considered close to Verma during the fight with Asthana — was also reduced.

Naming the four officials, an official notification said the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the proposal of Department of Personnel and Training for “curtailment of tenure” of the Indian Police Service officers working in the rank of Special Director, Joint Director, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) and Superintendent of Police (SP).

The government on October 23 had sent Asthana on forced leave divesting him of his powers along with Verma after their clash levelling mutual allegations of corruption against each other.

Asthana had levelled serious charges against Joint Director Sharma with Central Vigilance Commission alleging that he and his family operates shell companies in partnership with dubious individuals.

Gujarat-cadre IPS officer Sharma was appointed Joint Director (Policy) in March after Verma took over as Director in February.

Sharma was also appointed the officer supervising the investigation of a bribery case registered against Asthana on October 15.

DIG Sinha was also supervising the probe into an allegation of bribery against Asthana.

Verma, who approached the Supreme Court against the order, was ousted as CBI Director on January 10 by a three-member selection committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and two of its members including leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, and Chief Justice of India-nominated Justice A.K. Sikri.

Nasheman News : Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Thursday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was jealous of Andhra Pradesh and hence was behind the proposed Federal Front of Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao.

Reacting to the meeting of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leaders with YSR Congress Party President Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy to discuss the proposed front, Naidu said that “jealous people were coming together under a conspiracy against Andhra Pradesh”.

During a teleconference with leaders of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), he said Modi was jealous of his state as it was making rapid progress. 

According to TDP sources, the TDP chief said Modi was afraid that the southern state might overtake Gujarat in development.

He alleged that TRS President Chandrashekhar Rao was also against Andhra Pradesh’s development and afraid of his own inefficiency while Jaganmohan Reddy was scared that he might have to go to jail in corruption cases.

Claiming that KCR’s Federal Front was not getting a response from any party, he said this was the reason his son K.T. Rama Rao met Jagan in a hurry. 

“With this meeting the nexus between them is exposed,” said Naidu, who was trying to play anchor to an anti-BJP front at the national level.

Naidu also remarked that the three parties were attacking Andhra Pradesh like vultures. He alleged that they were trying to create a rift among various communities and castes in his state.

The TDP chief alleged that the Federal Front was aimed at implementing the Bharatiya Janata Party’s agenda. He said the BJP was trying to ensure that the parties against it do not unite. 

“It wants to create confusion among people. It wants to split anti-BJP votes,” he said.

KCR’s son Rama Rao, who is also the Working President of the TRS, met Jagan in Hyderabad on Wednesday to discuss the Federal Front proposed as an alternative to both the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA).

KCR plans to visit Andhra Pradesh soon for further talks with Jagan, whose YSR Congress is the main opposition party in Andhra Pradesh.

Nasheman News : Indian-American business leader Indra Nooyi, who headed the multinational PepsiCo, is under consideration for heading the World Bank, according to multiple media reports.

If she is nominated by US President Donald Trump to be the Bank’s president, she will succeed Jim Yong Kim, a Korean immigrant who unexpectedly announced at the beginning of the year that he is quitting.

By tradition, the US president names the head of the global financial institution and the nomination is rubber-stamped by the executive directors.

Nominating Nooyi, an immigrant woman from a developing country, could head off the mounting challenges to the US role in determining the Bank’s presidency.

She would also fit the bill for Trump’s preference for the private sector and for making international organisations fiscally more efficient.

Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, who is an admirer of Nooyi and considers her as a mentor is said to be backing her for the Bank job, according to the media reports quoting anonymous administration sources.

Nooyi stepped down as chairwoman of the PepsiCo last August after leading the international soft drinks, food and snacks giant for 12 years.

When Nooyi was leaving Pepsico, Ivanka Trump called her an inspiration and a mentor and gushed, “I am deeply grateful for your friendship. Thank you for your passionate engagement on issues that benefit the people of this country, and beyond.”

If Nooyi becomes the Bank’s president, the four top jobs in international financial policy-making would be held by women, two of them by women of Indian descent.

This month Gita Gopinath became the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF), which is headed by Managing Director Christine Lagarde. The Bank’s chief economist is Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg.

Another Indian-American, Nikki Haley, who stepped down as the US Permanent Representative to the UN at the end of last year, is also on the list of candidates under consideration, according to The Financial Times.

The former South Carolina governor was the first Indian-American to be on the US federal cabinet and she pushed the UN to cut its budget and enhance efficiency.

If Nooyi, who headed a multinational with an annual revenue of $63.5 billion and assets of $79.8 billion, gets Trump’s nod, it will mark an ideological turnaround from former President Barack Obama’s orientation.

Departing from the tradition of economists or politicians heading the Bank, Obama appointed Kim, a medical doctor and academic, to reinforce the mission of fighting poverty and promoting what was considered a more holistic development.

But Kim also advocated greater cooperation with the private sector for financing development, which Nooyi would strengthen if she gets the job.

During her tenure PepsiCo, Nooyi led its reorganisation, shedding some parts of the conglomerate.

The formal process of selecting the nominee to head the Bank is being overseen by a panel made up of Ivanka Trump, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and the president’s acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.

Although Trump has been critical of international organisations and called for curtailing their budgets, he had – at least openly – a close rleation with Kim and backed increasing the Bank’s capital by $13 billion.

Nooyi had a rocky start in relating to Trump: after his election she said that her employees were in “mourning.’

She, however, drew close to Trump as he began pushing business-friendly policies and firmer ties to business leaders.

Nooyi served on his business advisory council and has had dinners with him and other business leaders at his golf club in New Jersey.

Nasheman News :  BJP National General Secretary Ram Madhav on Thursday termed the proposed ‘Mahagathbandhan’ or Grand Alliance as a non starter, saying that the opposition parties have no credible issues or agenda against the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre.

“Utter chaos is going on in the name of ‘Mahagathbandhan’ by the opposition parties. They have no common agenda, principle or ideals. However, efforts are on to form the Grand Alliance against the Centre. It is going to be a non starter,” he told the media here.

“The opposition parties have no issues against the present government. They are trying to form the alliance with just one agenda, to stop Modi from coming to power again.” 

He said that the Bharatiya Janata Party was going to the upcoming Lok Sabha polls with all the NDA partners and assured that the NDA alliance will be more victorious that ever. 

“We are facing the people of the country with the developmental works we have undertaken in the past five years. A total of 129 schemes have been started for the benefit of under privileged people and 22 to 23 crore people have benefited.

“The BJP-led NDA government at the Centre is also transparent and corruption free and there has not been a single allegation of corruption against anyone in the past five years except for the false allegation levelled by the Congress,” Ram Madhav added.

The senior party leader said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is incorruptible and that there is no leader in the country at present who can match him.

The Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) has succeeded in reducing the Unaccounted For Water (UFW) levels in the city to 37 per cent this financial year, said Chairman Tushar Girinath. This has shot up the monthly revenue to a record high of over Rs 113 crore last month.

Speaking at a function at Cauvery Bhavan, organised by the BWSSB, to mark the release of the annual Bangalore Jalamanandali Abhiyantharara Sangha diary, Girinath lauded the efforts of all engineers, officials, water inspectors and meter readers for achieving this feat. 

The Rs 164 crore UFW project started in 2013, aimed at bringing down the water losses in the city, from the 48 per cent mark it was at the time. It focused on replacing all old pipelines below 100mm diameter, repairing all leaks and cracks in old pipelines, and cracking down on unauthorised connections, to reduce leakage of water in any form. 

The Chairman also said that 35 villages have started receiving drinking water under the water supply scheme for 110 villages. Tenders were being finalised in connection with the rejuvenation of the T K Halli reservoir and the contract will be awarded shortly, the Chairman added. 

PTI

BENGALURU: JD(S) Arasikere MLA Shivalinge Gowda on Wednesday alleged that the BJP, in a fresh attempt to poach a JD(S) legislator, had offered Tumkur Rural MLA Gowrishankar Rs 60 crore in cash and a ministerial berth.

The offer was made by former chief minister Jagadish Shettar, he claimed. He said this after JD(S) leader HD Revanna briefed the media in Hassan. Shivalinge Gowda did not elaborate on the conversation between reported Gowrishankar and Jagadish Shettar.

KPCC Working President Eshwar Khandre said, “They have made such offers to Congress and JD(S) MLAs on many occasions, and have got a slap in the face many times too. Since they do not have a mandate to rule, they should sit in the opposition and allow the government to function properly,’’  

However, senior BJP leader CT Ravi rubbished these claims and said that they are not in any way connected to what is happening in the coalition government.

Another BJP leader, Aravind Limbavali, countered that it was not BJP, but JD(S) that was indulging in horse-trading. “BJP MLAs have decided to stay in Gurugram to ensure that such an unholy act of the JD(S) and Congress fails. Instead of indulging in horse-trading, CM should concentrate on governance.’’

Agencies