Three days after a sanitation worker died due to drowning in a sewer here, the police on Wednesday said they have arrested three men including the supervisor of the site.

“Project Manager Ashwini Kumar Jha, Site Supervisor Subodh and Safety Officer Shubham Notiyal have been arrested,” Deputy Commissioner of Police Aslam Khan said.

The 32-year-old labourer, Dooman Ray died while cleaning a Delhi Jal Board sewer in Jahangirpuri area on Sunday.

Hailing from Bihar, Ray was rushed to Max Hospital in Shalimar Bagh, where he was declared brought dead.

In September, five men died after inhaling toxic fumes while working in a sewage treatment plant in Moti Nagar area.

IANS

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh to the kin of the deceased and Rs 1 lakh to those injured in a stampede at a railway foot overbridge at Santragachhi station in Howrah.

Goyal in a statement said, “Railways would give ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh each to the kin of every deceased, Rs 1 lakh would be given to the grievously injured and Rs 50,000 to those who suffered simple injuries.”

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who visited the hospital where the injured were being treated, earlier announced a compensation of Rs five lakh each to the families of the deceased and Rs 1 lakh each to the injured.

At least two people died and over dozen others injured including two children on Tuesday evening in a stampede at Satrangachhi station.

Railway Ministry spokeserson Smita Vats said, “The incident happened around 6 p.m. at a foot overbridge due to over crowding.”

She said that the incident happened due to arrival of three trains in a short interval of time.

The stampede occurred around 6 p.m. when the passengers hurriedly tried to cross the foot overbridge between two platforms following an announcement of three trains coming simultaneously on two adjacent tracks.

The mishap occurred just four days after 59 people were killed when a train crushed them as they stood on rail tracks watching Ravana effigies go up in flames during Dussehra celebrations in Amritsar.

IANS

In a post-midnight drama, the Centre on Wednesday virtually sacked CBI Director Alok Verma in the midst of the war at the agency’s top, a decision that came under all-round fire from the opposition who termed it “the last nail in the independence” of the organisation. Verma moved the Supreme Court, which will hear his plea on Friday.

Verma who has two more months as the Central Bureau of Investigation chief and cannot be removed formally. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), which took the decision on Verma, also asked Joint Director M. Nageshwar Rao to “look after the duties and functions of the CBI Director”.

An official order said the arrangement would continue “during the period of the subsistence of the aforesaid interim measure”, as the rift between Verma and CBI Special Director Rakesh Asthana escalated over bribery allegations.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it will hear Verma’s plea challenging the Centre’s order asking him to proceed on leave on October 26.

“The Modi government buries the last nail into the independence of CBI. Systematic dismantling and denigrating of CBI is now complete. Once a premier investigating agency, PM ensures that CBI’s integrity, credibility and reliability is buried and dead.

“PM Modi seeks to achieve surreptitiously and clandestinely what he can’t do directly to sack the CBI Director. Habitual and perpetual misuse of CBI by Modi government and BJP to tamper fair investigation of serious criminal cases is the reason for this unfathomable mess,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said in a series of tweets.

The Prime Minister has demonstrated “the true colour of his infamous Modi Made Gujarat Model by this cloak-and-dagger mugging of the CBI, the Congress said. Surjewala asked whether the CBI director was “sacked” for his keenness to probe the layers of “corruption in Rafale Scam”.

“Isn’t the rest a shoddy cover up? Let PM answer!” he tweeted.

Aam Aadmi Party supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said: “What are the reasons for sending CBI director on leave? Under which law did the Modi government get the authority to initiate action against the chief of an investigating agency appointed as per the Lokpal Act? What is the Modi government trying to hide?”

“The illegal removal of CBI chief by the Modi government to protect their own handpicked officer, against whom serious charges of corruption are being investigated, points to attempts at a serious cover-up to protect his direct links to the BJP’s top political leadership,” Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury said.

“To ensure that the CBI is not a caged parrot, Supreme Court had granted protection to the Chief from government’s whims and fancies by giving him a two-year tenure. What is Modi government trying to hide by its panic move? #BJPCorruption,” the Left leader added.

The decision came after Asthana was divested of all supervisory charges on Tuesday. The government appeared to be peeved over the war at the top in the country’s premiere probe agency and took the action as he could not be sacked straight away.

Verma was appointed as CBI Director for two years and his tenure ends in December.

The CBI on Tuesday also suspended its Deputy Superintendent of Police Devender Kumar, who was arrested on Monday on the charge of falsification of records while probing allegations against meat exporter Moin Qureshi. It also added five new sections into the existing bribery FIR lodged against its Special Director.

Kumar is an Investigating Officer in a case against Qureshi, who is facing multiple cases of money laundering and corruption. A trial court on Tuesday sent Kumar to CBI custody for seven days.

Asthana, a 1984 batch Indian Police Service officer of the Gujarat cadre, is accused of accepting a bribe of Rs 2 crore from a Hyderabad-based businessman Sathish Babu Sana who was under probe in the Qureshi case in order to “wreck” the investigation.

The case was being examined by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Asthana. The CBI has said that there was “no change in responsibilities” of the the second-in-command so far.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi on Wednesday said Verma’s plea would be taken up on October 26 after his counsel pressed for an urgent hearing on the midnight order issued against the central probe agency’s chief following an escalation of rift between the top officials at the organisation over bribery charges.

Karnataka’s tax collection went up 11 per cent in six months from April to September to Rs 75,634-crore, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy said on Tuesday.

“Taxes to the tune of Rs 75,634-crore were collected till the end of September, which is 11 per cent more than the same period of the previous fiscal,” Kumaraswamy told reporters here on the occasion of the Janata-Dal-Secular (JD-S)-Congress coalition government completing 150 days in office.

After forming a post-poll alliance with Congress, JD-S leader Kumaraswamy took the chief minister’s office on May 23, and presented his maiden budget on July 5, as he also holds the finance portfolio.

However, a total of 38 per cent budget expenditure was made by the coalition government during its term so far, of the state’s estimated total expenditure of Rs 2,18,488-crore for the fiscal 2018-19.

The Chief Minister claimed that the coalition government, which had committed to waiving farm loans to the tune of Rs 43,448-crore from state-run nationalised banks and state co-operative banks, has also begun the process of obtaining the details of the loans obtained by 10 lakh farmers.

“Information will be obtained from farmers as well. Loan details obtained will be verified with the data,” he added.

The loan waiver will not affect other programmes as the state government has alternative resource mobilisation mechanism, the Chief Minister asserted.

Ordinance on the Debt Relief Act-2018 is awaiting President Ram Nath Kovind’s approval, he said.

The Debt Relief Act-2018 has been formulated to protect interests of small farmers, agricultural labourers, small vendors and the poor from being harassed by money lenders.

“The President as well as Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh were briefed about the provisions of the Act and were requested to approve it,” Kumaraswamy said.

After the state’s Kodagu district was affected by floods in August, the state has released Rs 127-crore so far for rehab works in the district, he stated.

The Chief Minister’s Relief Fund has received Rs 187.16-crore donations from public for the flood-hit district’s relief so far. Bengaluru-based Infosys Foundation had contributed Rs 25-crore aid to the district, Kumaraswamy said.

“Kodagu Reconstruction Authority is being formed under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister to rebuild houses,” he added.

Initiatives have also been taken by the state to provide scholarships online to 56.69 lakh students belonging to Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (STs) and other backward classes, the Chief Minister said.

IANS

A dozen ministers and leaders of the ruling Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) coalition government on Monday jointly launched their campaign for the five by-elections in Karnataka on November 3.

With Dussehra holidays ending on Sunday, senior leaders and ministers of the both the parties have fanned out in the three Lok Sabha and two assembly segments to campaign for the joint candidates, a Congress official told IANS in Bengaluru.

The three parliamentary seats are Ballari (reserved), Mandya and Shimoga while the two Assembly seats are Jamkhandi in Bagalkote district and Ramanagara near Bengaluru.

Former Congress Chief Minister and party leader in the Assembly Siddaramaiah addressed public meetings and participated in rallies in Ballari for its candidate V.S. Ugrappa, a senior legislator in the legislative council.

In Jamkhandi, Deputy Chief Minister G. Paramehswara campaigned for Congress candidate Anand Siddu, son of Siddu Nyamagouda, whose death in a road accident on May 28 necessitated the by-election.

“We are confident of winning in all the five seats as our alliance partners have fielded joint candidates to prevent division of secular votes and defeat the BJP at any cost,” said a Congress leader.

In the Shimoga contest, the party’s state unit president Dinesh Gundu Rao and Revenue Minister R.V. Deshpande participated in the campaign for JD-S contestant Madhu Bangarappa.

“We have joined hands to keep communal forces out; both at the Centre and state levels. We will be successful,” asserted Parameshwara.

In Mandya and Ramanagara, where JD-S candidates are in the fray, district leaders and cadres campaigned and held roadside meetings and went on door-to-door canvassing.

L.R. Shivarama Gowda is the JD-S contestant in Mandya.

In Ramanagara, JD-S contestant Anitha, wife of Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, will campaign from Tuesday.

For the BJP, party’s state unit president B.S. Yeddyurappa, K.S. Eshwarappa, C.T. Ravi and Shobha Karandlaje campaigned in Shimoga where the former’s son B.Y. Raghavendra is contesting.

BJP’s legislator B. Sriramulu campaigned for his sister and party’s contestant B. Shanta in Ballari (Scheduled Tribe).

BJP’s candidates are Siddaramaiah from Mandya, Srikant Kulkarni from Jamkhandi and L. Chandrashekar from Ramanagara.

Besides candidates of the three main parties, about 30 independents are in the fray in all the five seats.

Vote count will be held on November 6.

IANS

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has expressed the hope that the state would get an assistance which would be much bigger than the amount offered by the Emirates government earlier.

“It was no secret that the UAE government had offered Rs 700 crore which could not materialise because of various reasons. We will receive a much bigger amount. This was evident from the overwhelming response of the diaspora and the UAE administration,” he told reporters here after his five-day visit to the UAE.

He said the visit to the UAE was an opportunity to understand directly the love, affection and concern that the NRKs have for their brethren. “We met the representatives of UAE’s three prominent charitable and humanitarian foundations and held detailed discussions with them,” he said.

UAE president Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s brother and chairman of Emirates Red Crescent, Sheikh Hamdan Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, praised the contributions of the Indian community to the development process witnessed by the country. He expressed the readiness of the UAE Red Crescent Authority to provide all kinds of support to Kerala and its people. It is one of the biggest charitable societies in the world. The Red Crescent had extended help during the floods, he said.

The Kerala delegation held a meeting with the representatives of Zayed Charitable and Humanitarian Foundation which was formed in memory of the Father of UAE, Zayed bin Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The chairman of the foundation, Sheikh Nahyan bin Sayed Al Nahyan, led the discussions. “They sought detailed information on our rebuilding plan. A high-level delegation of officials will visit Kerala to hold further discussion. They have promised all assistance,” he said.

The meeting with Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Charitable and Humanitarian Foundation vice-chairman Ibrahim Mohammed Ahmed BuMelha was fruitful. This foundation had sent relief materials soon after the floods.

He said the visit to the UAE was an opportunity to understand directly the love, affection and concern that the NRKs have for their brethren. “We met the representatives of UAE’s three prominent charitable and humanitarian foundations and held detailed discussions with them,” he said.

UAE president Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s brother and chairman of Emirates Red Crescent, Sheikh Hamdan Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, praised the contributions of the Indian community to the development process witnessed by the country. He expressed the readiness of the UAE Red Crescent Authority to provide all kinds of support to Kerala and its people. It is one of the biggest charitable societies in the world. The Red Crescent had extended help during the floods, he said.

The Kerala delegation held a meeting with the representatives of Zayed Charitable and Humanitarian Foundation which was formed in memory of the Father of UAE, Zayed bin Sultan bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The chairman of the foundation, Sheikh Nahyan bin Sayed Al Nahyan, led the discussions. “They sought detailed information on our rebuilding plan. A high-level delegation of officials will visit Kerala to hold further discussion. They have promised all assistance,” he said.

The meeting with Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Charitable and Humanitarian Foundation vice-chairman Ibrahim Mohammed Ahmed BuMelha was fruitful. This foundation had sent relief materials soon after the floods.

“They have assured of all help, especially in the housing sector,” he said.

Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, who heads the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Culture, Youth and Social Development, assured assistance for rebuilding Kerala. “It was the affection shown by him that prompted me to say at a public meeting that his words were worth over 100 million dollars for the people of Kerala,” the chief minister said.

Mohammad Abdulla Al Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs, came to his office on Friday which was a holiday, to meet the state’s delegation. This indicated their government’s affection towards Kerala, he said.

The Kerala delegation met Crown Prince and Chairman of Mubadala Investment Company, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan, and other senior functionaries. They evinced interest in investing in petrochemicals, defence park, life science park, food processing centre, aviation industry and agriculture sector. Mubadala has a clear perception about the investment-friendly policy of the state government. A high-level delegation of the company will visit the state soon to discuss the common areas of interest.

DP World evinced interest in joint venture with the state government in logistics park, industrial park and related sectors. They are particularly interested in the inland water transport project.

DP World also was keen on Thiruvananthapuram – Kasargod water way. They are ready to construct small ports for carrying freight. A high-level delegation of DP World will visit the state soon to carry forward the discussions. Dubai Holdings, the promoters of Kerala SmartCity project, have also assured all assistance for rebuilding the state, he said.

‘No going back on Sabarimala’

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said there is no going back on SC verdict on Sabarimala. He said the government intends to implement the verdict in letter and spirit. “At a time when women are getting ready to go to Mars, they are being denied entry into a temple.”

IANS