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YSR Congress MPs resign from Lok Sabha

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All the five Lok Sabha MPs of the YSR Congress tendered their resignations to Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on Friday — the last day of Budget session — to protest against their unfulfilled demand of Special Category Status to Andhra Pradesh.

They are also enraged at the Speaker not taking up the no-confidence motion moved by the party against the Narendra Modi government.

The five MPs — Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy, Y.V. Subba Reddy, Vara Prasadarao Velagapalli, Midhun Reddy and Y.S. Avinash Reddy — had announced their decision to resign on Thursday itself.

The MPs would now proceed on an indefinite fast at the Andhra Bhawan in the national capital till their demand is met.

YSR Congress chief Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy also dared the rival Telugu Desam Party (TDP) to follow the suit.

“We do as we say! YSRCP MPs are submitting their resignations today (Friday). I challenge Chandrababu Naidu to make TDP MPs resign and stand united with the people of Andhra Pradesh in their rightful demand of special status for Andhra Pradesh,” Jaganmohan Reddy tweeted.

The YSR Congress, as well the TDP, staged noisy protests inside both Houses of Parliament over the demand of special status to Andhra Pradesh ever since the second-half of the Budget session had commenced on March 5.

While the TDP quit the ruling coalition — the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) — over the issue, the YSR Congress gave notice for the no-confidence motion against the Modi government.

However, the Speaker did not take up the motion even as other opposition parties also gave no-confidence notices, saying the motion could not be taken up when the House was not in order.

“On one pretext or the other, the Speaker is not admitting our no-confidence notices and has been denying us a discussion on the motion. We have given at least 12 notices. If the motion is not taken up again on Friday, we will have no choice but to resign,” Vara Prasadarao Velagapalli of the party had said on Thursday.

Bowing to a long-pending demand by a section of the state’s population, the central government had in 2014 bifurcated the state to carve out Telangana and residuary state of Andhra Pradesh by getting the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act passed in Parliament.

The Andhra parties say that Telangana, despite having less population, has walked away with the largest chunk of resources as it has got Hyderabad as its capital. Hence, they demand special status for Andhra Pradesh which entails special financial packages and other perks from the central government.

(IANS)

Financier, 68 year old Smothered to death

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A 68-year-old financier was smothered to death at his home in Devasandra close KR Puram by unidentified men.

The deceased has been identified as Sanjay Sathish assumed name Shailesh, a local of Uttar Pradesh. He has been living in Bengaluru for the past 30 years.

The incident came to light when the neighbours observed foul scent coming from his flat. The house proprietor utilized the copy key to open Shailesh’s door and discovered his decomposed body. They immediately informed the police who arrived at the spot. The police presume that Shailesh could have been killed five days prior.

Investigations uncovered that Shailesh had hitched a local lady, but separated from her after seven years. He then married for the second time and remained in Malleswaram. Presently his wife and son, a software engineer, are settled in New Zealand.

The assailants had bound his hands and legs and squeezed a pillow to his face and murdered him before locking the door from outside and escaping the place, said the police, who are checking the CCTV footages for indentifications of Shailesh’s murderers.

Congress is misusing government machinery : Deve Gowda

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supremo and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda during his meeting with Chief Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat communicated his doubts over the transparent conduct of the Assembly elections in the State here on Thursday.

After meeting Rawat Deve Gowda told the media “I conveyed to the notice of the Election Commission the conduct of a few authorities. The election procedure ought to be transparent and I have communicated my doubts about it,”

Alluding to developments in the Home Department, he said honest officers had been changed. “However (guide to the Home Minister) Kempaiah’s office has been shut in the Vikasa Soudha, it has been moved somewhere else. I have brought this and his impedance in the office to the Election Commission’s notice,” he included.

BJP’s Odisha victory will be bigger than Tripura, claims Amit Shah

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Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah on Thursday said that the party’s win in Odisha would outshine that of Tripura.

“The verdict in Odisha is going to be bigger than Tripura,” said Shah addressing a ‘Mahasamavesh’ in Bolangir.

Odisha will witness general and assembly polls in 2019.

“I had not spoken about Mission 120 yesterday (Wednesday) and Naveen babu planted news in media as to why I was silent. But I had not spoken about it because I am sure we will win more seats here, much bigger than the mandate we got in Tripura recently,” said Shah.

The BJP President attacked the Chief Minister saying “Naveen Patnaik is scared, not me. He is scared because the youth have come with us.”

Shah also accused Patnaik of “shielding criminals”, who, he said, were attacking the BJP workers.

“The ruling BJD is resorting to political violence and over 14 of our activists have been murdered in the last one and half years and their killers are moving scot-free as Naveen Patnaik is shielding them,” said the BJP President.

Maintaining that BJP doesn’t believe in violence, he said once BJP comes to power, they will ensure that the killers are put behind bars.

He also criticised the ruling BJD for not working for the welfare of the people of Odisha.

“If a government, which has been ruling in the state for the last 18 years, cannot at least provide drinking water to the people of the state, then it has no right to stay in power,” Shah pointed out.

Earlier in the day, Shah had a meal at a Dalit’s residence in Bolangir’s Deogaon village. The BJP President was accompanied by Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and other leaders.

Kerala politicians caught off guard as SC cancels 180 MBBS admissions

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The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered cancellation of admissions of 180 third-year MBBS students in Kerala, leaving both the ruling and opposition political leadership red faced as the Assembly had unanimously passed a bill a day earlier to regularise the admissions.

The Supreme Court verdict came on an appeal by the Medical Council of India against regularisation of these admissions made in two self-financing Kannur and Karuna medical colleges in 2016-17.

The Kerala government was directed to see to it that all 180 admissions were cancelled and there was no attempt to disobey the apex court directive.

Former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said the entire opposition voted for the bill because ofconcern over the future of the students.

Calling the apex court ruling “most unfortunate”, Communist Party of India-Marxist State Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said “the government had only the future of these students in mind.”

The state had decided to replace the ordinance to regularise these admissions with the new bill. The apex court pointed out that it was yet to become a law as the Governor had not given his assent.

Former State Congress President V.M. Sudheeran flayed the Congress-led opposition for voting in favour of the bill. “This shows all protests by the opposition against exploitation by self-financing institutions’ managements is nothing but hoax,” he said.

Affected students said they were at a loss of words since their future appeared bleak.

“We really do not know what wrong we did to suffer like this. We did not even have a counsel to represent us,” said one of them.

The court will take up the matter again after four weeks.

Super cop Ravi Channannavar wins hearts of street vendors, video goes viral

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A video of DCP Ravi Channannavar addressing a group of street vendors of Majestic area has gone viral with many praising him in the social media.

Ravi D Channannavar, who recently got posted as DCP (West), Bengaluru held a meeting with street vendors of Majestic area and called upon everyone not to harass the vendors, but instead to respect them. During the meeting, he also offered free education to the children of vendors in his hometown much to the appreciation of the vendors.

In the viral video, the super cop can be seen addressing street vendors at his office where he says that no one should live in fear in an area like Majestic. “This Majestic area belongs to you. When it comes to Majestic area, people are afraid and they talk about rise in thefts and criminal activities. In order to make the area safe, we need support from vendors like you and there is a need to create people-friendly atmosphere here.”
During the meeting Channannavar also offered free education to the children of vendors.”Your children must not become street vendors. Instead they should be getting educated. It is not easy to send your children to schools in a place like Bengaluru,” he said adding that he would help them if they can send their children to Mysuru.

“There is a school supported by several donors. There is no discrimination in the name religion, caste or colour in this school. Your children can avail education from high school to graduation. Be it Ram, Rahim or Antony I will make sure that your children get education there without any discrimination,” he told them.

Channannavar is known for his people-friendly initiatives and stern action against trouble mongers. As a SP of Belagavi his Bollywood style of functioning during a particular communal riot won much praise from general public. Earlier his people-friendly initiatives in Mysuru as superintendent of police and in Shivamogga earned the support of his department as well as the general public.

Pakistan approaches World Bank over Kishanganga dam in Kashmir

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Pakistan approached the World Bank to complain that India despite the arbitrator’s pause period had completed the construction of the disputed $860-million Kishanganga hydropower project in Jammu and Kashmir.

Dawn newspaper, citing an unnamed official, reported on Thursday that power division of the Energy Ministry sent a fresh communiqué early this week to the World Bank, urging it to ensure that India abided by the the Indus Waters Treaty — a 1960 pact that gives control over the water flowing from Beas, Ravi and Sutlej rivers to India.

The control over the water flowing in three western rivers — the Indus, the Chenab and the Jhelum — all in Jammu and Kashmir — was given to Pakistan.

Islamabad had in the past reached out to the World Bank, the mediator between the two countries in the water treaty, to express its objection to the design and construction of the two projects — the 330 MW Kishanganga hydroelectric project and the 850 MW Ratle hydroelectric project — on the tributaries of the Indus in Jammu and Kashmir.

India says it has the right under the treaty to set up hydropower plants on the tributaries of the rivers flowing through its territory. But Pakistan fears this might reduce the water flow of the rivers into its territory.

The Pakistani official said there was no doubt that India had completed the Kishanganga project during the period the World Bank “paused” the process for constitution of a Court of Arbitration (COA) as requested by Pakistan in early 2016.

The Pakistani request was countered by India by calling for a neutral expert, Dawn reported.

Pakistan had called for resolution of disputes over Kishanganga project on the Neelum river and 850 MW Ratle hydropower project on the Chenab.

The daily said that Islamabad had received reports in August 2017 that New Delhi had completed the Kishanganga project as per the design that had been objected to by the former.

The new letter was sent to the World Bank after a Pakistani delegation of the Indus Waters Commission was not allowed to visit various controversial projects in India, including Kishanganga and Ratle schemes, it said.

In December 2016, the Bank announced that it had “paused” the process for either appointing a COA or a neutral expert and started mediation between the two countries. Since then the Bank arranged two rounds of talks between the two sides but the Indians kept on building the project, the daily said.

The last round of bank-facilitated and secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan were held in Washington in September but no consensus was reached.

In view of the inability of the parties to agree on the matter, the World Bank was reported to have called another round of discussions but failed to bring New Delhi to the negotiating table, the daily said.

Court refuses to direct lodging of FIR against Kejriwal

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A Delhi court has refused to direct the lodging of an FIR against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for allegedly misusing public money in advertisement for his own political gains, saying spending money on ads was the prerogative of the government.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal said that publication of the advertisement and spending public money on it was a matter of administrative and policy decisions of the government. The complainant had alleged that on October 30, 2015, the chief minister had given an advertisement in a newspaper and dishonestly misappropriated the public money for his own political benefits.

“The expenditure on this public letter (in form of advertisement) from state exchequer is not misappropriation of money. The complainant cannot interfere in the same nor can take assistance of the court because the courts have to show judicial restraint in interfering with the policy matters of the government. It’s not the case of any personal loss of the complainant.

Nitish Kumar-led government is anti-Dalit: Manjhi

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Former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on Thursday said the Nitish Kumar-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in the state was anti-Dalit as most of the people arrested under prohibition laws were from the community.

“Nitish Kumar ki sarkar Dalit virodhi hai, sharab bandi ke kanoon ke naam pe sabse jayada Dalit aaur garib logon ko hi giraftar kiya gaya hai (Nitish Kumar’s government is anti-Dalit. In the name of justifying the liqour ban, majority of those arrested are Dalits and the poor),” Manjhi said at a public meeting in Punpun, about 20 km from here.

Manjhi said Dalits and the poor were being harassed and humiliated in the name of implementing prohibition laws.

Earlier, Manjhi said the government’s prohibition policy had become a tool to persecute Dalits in the state

Last December, Manjhi said Nitish Kumar’s much-hyped prohibition policy in Bihar was a failure.

According to police records, over one lakh people have been arrested for violating the liquor ban imposed by the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar on April 5, 2016.

Trump orders National Guard troops to US-Mexico border.

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US President Donald Trump has officially signed a memorandum to deploy the National Guard to the country’s border with Mexico, a move that followed days of him calling for a larger crackdown on illegal immigration.

In the memo signed on Wednesday evening, Trump declared that Defence Secretary James Mattis “shall request use of National Guard personnel” to secure the border and that Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen will work with him to train and direct the troops in that mission.

Key details like the numbers of troops, how long they will be deployed, how much it will cost and where they will go are still being finalised, CNN reported.

“Despite a number of steps this administration has taken… we continue to see unacceptable levels of illegal drugs, dangerous gang activity, transnational criminal organisations and illegal immigration flow across our border,” Nielsen said, adding that troops could be sent to the border “immediately”.

The move followed days of public fuming by Trump about immigration policy, during which he tweeted about immigration legislation in Congress, a caravan of migrants making its way through Mexico and what he called “weak border laws”.

He tweeted earlier on Wednesday that he would “be taking strong action” on the Mexico border, a day after he said that he wants to send the military to secure it until a wall was built.

Nielsen cited a historic uptick in border crossings in spring months like April and advertising from smuggling groups as reasons for the move, calling it in part “anticipating”.

“Why not yesterday and tomorrow? Today is the day we want to start this process,” she said. “The threat is real.”

“We will not allow illegal immigration levels to become the norm… More than 1,000 people a day, 300,000 a year violating our sovereignty as a nation will never be acceptable to this President,” she said.

The memo instructed the two secretaries and Attorney General Jeff Sessions to put together a report within 30 days on further steps the administration can take to combat what it called a “crisis” and “a drastic surge of illegal activity on the southern border”.

Meanwhile, the Mexican Senate “categorically” rejected the US move and said that deploying Army troops or the National Guard in the region would be “yet another wrong” against the Mexican community.

The letter, signed by Mexican Senate President Ernesto Cordero, called on the Mexican government to suspend bilateral cooperation in immigration matters and the fight against organised crime until “Trump behaves with civility and shows respect to Mexico”.

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