Nasheman News :  The Congress on Sunday won the Kolebira assembly byelection in Jharkhand, said an Election Commission official.

Congress candidate Naman Bixal Kongari defeated the BJP candidate by over 9,000 votes, the official said. Kongari polled 40,343 votes while the BJP candidate Basant Soreng managed to get 30,685 votes.

The sitting legislator Enos Ekka’s wife Menon Ekka managed to get only 16,445 votes. The polling took place on December 20.

The seat fell vacant following conviction of former Minister Enos Ekka in the murder of a school teacher. There were five candidates in the fray. 

The Congress candidate was ahead of his BJP rival from the first round, sources said.

“It’s a victory of secular forces in the country. People of the country have started rejecting the BJP,” said Alok Dubey, Congress general secretary.

Nasheman News : Maruti Suzuki India recently launched new ertiga version 2.0 in mid-November 2018  the new ertiga is said to give tough competition to Mahindra marazzo. The new ertiga is very different from old ertiga with new features included. It is available in 10 variants in including 2 petrol automatic segments. Ertiga has grown in size and is now 99 mm longer than the old version of ertiga climate control has been added and its only available on z & z+ variants the touch screen smart play system has been reserved for the top of line zxi+ petrol & in diesel zdi+ variants only. The new ertiga has 5 speed manual & 4 speed automatic gearbox the 1.3 litre diesel powertrain has been carried over as is the outlook of the new ertiga look excellent with 5 new colours available.

There are 10 variants available in ertiga prices starts from 7.44 lakhs for petrol and goes up to Rs 9.95 lakhs and diesel price starts from 8.84 lakhs and top end diesel priced from 10.90 lakhs. India has loved ertiga as family car it definitely gives the best outlooks as a car.

Car reviewed by : Faizan Rizwan

Nasheman News : Twenty-three ministers took oath in Rajasthan on Monday. They included 13 cabinet ministers and 10 ministers of state.

Governor Kalyan Singh administered the oath of office at the Raj Bhavan.

The cabinet ministers are B.D. Kalla (Bikaner), Shanti Dhariwal (Kota North), Parsadi Lal Meena (Lalsot), Ramesh Chand Meena (Sapotara) Pratap Singh Kachriyavas (Civil lines-Jaipur), Vishvendra Singh (Deeg), Raghu Sharma (Kekdi), Lalchand Karatiya (Jhotwara), Pramod Jain Bhaya (Anta), Harish Chaudhary (Bayatu), Bhanwarlal Meghwal (Sujangarh), Udaylal Anjana (Chittorgarh) and Saleh Mohammad (Pokhran).

Among the ministers of state are Sukhram Bishnoi, Govind Singh Dotasara, Ashok Chandna, Tikaram Juli, Mamta Bhupesh, Arjun Bamniya, Bhanwar Singh Bhati, Bhajan Lal Jatav and Rajendra Yadav.

Lone Rashtriya Lok Dal MLA Subhash Garg has also been inducted as a minister of state.

The decision on cabinet formation was finalised soon after Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his deputy Sachin Pilot returned to Jaipur from Delhi on Sunday after meeting Congress President Rahul Gandhi.

Of the 23 ministers, 18 are first timers. There is one woman minister, Mamta Bhupesh, and one Muslim minister, Saleh Mohammad.

The much-awaited expansion of the six-month-old H D Kumaraswamy-led coalition Cabinet in Karnataka was carried out at Raj Bhavan on Saturday evening.    

Governor Vajubhai Vala administered the oath to CS Shivalli, MT Nagaraj, Tukaram, PT Parameshwar Naik, Satish Jarakiholi, Timmapur, MB Patil and Rahim Khan as Cabinet Ministers.

4 DCp’s, 10 inspectors, 20 SP’s and about 300 constables were deployed around Raj Bhavan to maintain the law and order.

Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, former CM Siddaramaiah and DCM Parameshwar were also present.

Agencies

Nasheman News : Himachal Pradesh, Kerala and Tamil Nadu have come out as the front runners in implementing the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) targets, as per a NITI Aayog report released on Friday.

The government’s premier think tank has developed the country’s first SDG India Index to document the progress made by India’s states and Union Territories towards meeting SDG targets and released a baseline report for 2018.

Along with the three states, the UTs of Chandigarh and Puducherry were also among the front runners on the SDG India Index with a score between 65 to 99 on a scale of 0 to 100, where 100 signifies that it has achieved the 2030 national targets.

“The SDG India Index baseline report 2018 highlights the progress being made by states and UTs in moving towards multiple targets of the SDGs, in the true spirit of cooperative and competitive federalism,” NITI Aayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar said.

The SDGs are ambitious global development goals that address key aspects of universal wellbeing across different socio-economic, cultural, geographical divisions and integrate the economic, social and environmental dimensions of development.

“By ranking its states and UTs, India has become the first country to create a composite SDG index to measure progress on SDG targets at the sub-national level,” NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said.

The Index has been developed in collaboration with the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), Global Green Growth Institute and United Nations in India.

“Himachal Pradesh ranks high on providing clean water and sanitation, in reducing inequalities and preserving mountain ecosystem. Kerala’s top rank is attributed to its superior performance in providing good health, reducing hunger, achieving gender equality and providing quality education.

“Chandigarh leads because of its exemplary performance in providing clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, generating decent work and economic growth and providing quality education,” the report said.

While most of the states and UTs, 28 in all, were in the ‘Performer’ category with index scores being between 50 and 64, only three states Assam, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh were in the bottom-most category of ‘Aspirant’ having a score between 0 to 49.

The Index tracks progress of all states and UTs on 62 priority indicators selected by NITI Aayog, which in turn is guided by MoSPI’s National Indicator Framework comprising 306 indicators and based on multiple-round consultations with ministries and states.

The indicators will be further refined and additional indicators will be added with improvement in data collection, reporting processes and methodology, the report said.

“NITI Aayog is also exploring potential for disaggregating data and developing capacity for real time monitoring and measuring incremental progress,” it added.

Nasheman News : At least eight people were killed in twin suicide car bomb blasts near Somalia’s Presidential Palace in the capital on Saturday, the police said.

A police officer told Xinhua news agency that the two coordinated blasts could have caused a higher number of deaths and injuries. “So far, we know that at least 8 people killed in the blasts but the death toll could rise,” he said.

Somali militant group Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the latest attack.

Eyewitnesses said the explosions were so huge that they shook a wide radius. 

“There were massive car bombs, causing panic among the residents. We don’t know the number of casualties but we heard several people died,” Mukhtar Abdi, a witness, told the agency.

Earlier reports said Mogadishu’s Deputy Governor Mohamed Abdulahi was injured in the explosion while some of his bodyguards were killed.

A senior reporter from Universal Television died during the blast, but the fate of his colleagues was yet to be established.

Nasheman News : Controversial retired IPS officer DG Vanzara on Friday asserted that had it not been for the “genuine encounters” by the Gujarat police, Pakistan might have been successful in its design to assassinate the then chief minister and now Prime Minister Narendra Modi and turn the state into another Kashmir.

In a statement after the special CBI’s court’s judgement in the Sohrabuddin-Tulsiram Prajapti encounter case in Mumbai on Friday, Vanzara, who was earlier an accused in the case, said the police personnel of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh were made scapegoats in the “political war” between the then BJP government in the state and the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre.

“The CBI court’s judgement acquitting all the 22 accused police officers in the Sohrabuddin encounter case has only corroborated the claims I had been making right from the beginning that none of these encounters was stage-managed but were all genuine to annihilate the Pakistan-sponsored terrorists who had been coming to Gujarat with the mission to kill Modiji. 

“But for the encounters, it might have become difficult to ensure the safety of Modiji and Pakistan by now would have succeeded in turning Gujarat into another terrorist-ridden Kashmir,” he said.

Vanzara, who was initially a prime accused in the Sohrabuddin-Kausar Bi alleged fake encounter case but was exonerated by the special CBI court three years back, held some “anti-national elements” were responsible for turning the genuine encounter incidents into fake ones to assist the terror groups and harass the honest police officers.

He claimed that the Gujarat police had accurate information about the movements of the Pakistan-sponsored terrorists and acted swiftly to “ensure the safety of the country and protect the life of the then chief minister who was under constant threat.”

Meanwhile, Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel hailed the CBI court’s judgment and accused the former UPA government of trying to tarnish the Modi dispensation in Gujarat in the name of “fake encounter.” 

Patel also promised to consider restoration of the genuine promotions and other benefits due to the accused police officers in the last 13 years because of the pending case, now that they had been acquitted of all the charges.

N Christian Michel, the alleged middleman arrested in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal case, was produced before a Delhi court Saturday.

Special Judge Arvind Kumar allowed the Enforcement Directorate to interrogate Michel inside courtroom for 15 minutes after the agency sought his custodial interrogation.

ED also sought to arrest the British national in a money laundering case.

The court had reserved the order on Michel’s bail plea on December 19 and had sent him to judicial custody till December 28.

Michel is among the three alleged middlemen being probed in the case by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the CBI. The others are Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa.

PTI

With an eye on pacifying edgy MLAs with JD(S), Congress government, the Karnataka cabinet is all set to induct new ministers on Saturday.

Wheels for the much-expected cabinet expansion were finally set rolling after Congress president Rahul Gandhi gave the go-ahead for the induction of six new faces and the replacement of two ministers in the JD(S)-led coalition government in Karnataka, according to a report. Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy is expected to meet Governor Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala at 11 am to inform him of the government’s decision and schedule a swearing-in ceremony for the to-be ministers.

MTB Nagaraj, Raheem Khan, E Tukaram and PT Parameshwara Naik are among the six leaders whose names are understood to have been finalised after discussions with state leaders in a meeting.

Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah, Pradesh Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao, Deputy chief minister G Parameshwara, and Congress general secretary in-charge of Karnataka KC Venugopal were present in the meeting. Besides inducting six new faces, the sources said the Congress chief is understood to have approved dropping two ministers — Municipal Administration minister Ramesh Jarkiholi and Forest minister R Shankar — from the cabinet.

Jarkiholi, who has been allegedly hobnobbing with BJP leaders, will be replaced by his brother Satish Jarkiholi, whereas Shankar’s portfolio will be handed over to CS Shivalli from Kuruba community. Shankar, an Independent MLA from Ranebennur too had in the past interacted with the BJP ahead of the Karnataka government formation.

In the meeting, the Rahul gave the green signal for appointing Congress leaders V Muniappa as political secretary and Ajay Singh as state representative in the national capital.

Meanwhile, the cabinet expansion bore clear footprints of Siddaramiah’s influence. The Congress leader pressed for induction of more ministers from constituencies in Mumbai-Karnataka and Hyderabad-Karnataka, besides batting for the inclusion of two Kuruba, reported in media.

The sources said the swearing-in ceremony of new members will take place depending on the availability of the governor.

According to the pact reached between the two partners at the time of formation of the coalition government in May, there are at present six vacant ministerial positions left for the Congress and two for the JD(S).  The cabinet expansion is expected to pacify members of the Congress camp who have become restless following its repeated postponement.

PTI