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Bengaluru: Bike ambulance service to start from Wednesday

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U T Khader Ambulance

Bengaluru: The much-awaited two-wheeler ambulances finally hit the streets in Karnataka on Wednesday.

Health Minister U.T. Khader, who launched 30 first responder bike ambulances in Bengaluru on Tuesday, said his department was working at introducing air ambulances in the State by year end. Two companies have evinced interest in taking up the air ambulance project, he said.

Mr Khader terming the bike ambulance project as a “platinum 10 minutes” trauma care initiative. In Bengaluru on Wednesday the bikes will be flagged off by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. Aimed at reducing deaths owing to road accidents, the platinum trauma care initiative is useful for negotiating heavy traffic in urban areas where it is difficult for four-wheeler ambulances to reach.

Of the 30 bike ambulances, 21 will be stationed at strategic locations in the city and one each in the districts of Mysuru, Mangaluru, Kalaburgi, Belagavi, Hubbali-Dharwad, Davangere, Tumakuru, Vijayapura and Shivamogga. The initiative will be implemented through GVK-EMRI, the organisation that runs the 108 Arogya Kavacha ambulance service. The bike ambulance rider will be a trained paramedic.

“The paramedic will reach the spot in ten minutes and give first aid and start resuscitation measures to save the victim till the four-wheeler ambulance arrives,” Mr. Khader said. Each bike ambulance will carry 40 medical items, including stethoscope, pulse oximeter, bandages, and IV normal saline, apart from 53 basic drugs. The government has spent nearly Rs. 2 lakh on each bike ambulance.

A year after it was announced, the State government’s road traffic accident relief scheme is all set to be rolled out next week.

Mr. Khader told presspersons on Tuesday that the scheme will be launched by Mr. Siddaramaiah next week. The scheme, implemented with assistance from the Chief Minister’s medical relief fund, aims to bear the treatment cost incurred up to 48 hours of admitting to government empanelled hospitals. It would bear the treatment cost only up to Rs. 25,000.

(Agencies)

Modi government’s policies helping transfer of resources to haves: Medha Patkar

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Medha Patkar

Mysuru: The policies of the Central government are facilitating the transfer of resources from the have-nots to the haves, said social activist Medha Patkar here on Tuesday.

Targeting the land acquisition ordinance and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to farmers on his radio programme ‘Mann Ki Baat’, she said ‘Mann Ki Baat’ is one-sided, as the prime minister is not bothered about the concerns of the farmers.

Patkar was in the city to support the Badanavalu Satyagraha, which will be launched at Badanavalu near Nanjangud in the district on April 19. The Satyagraha, led by theatre person Prasanna, aims at raising awareness on sustainable developmental practices.

On the ordinance proposed to amend the Land Acquisition Act, she said, the consent clause was essential, despite complaints regarding the existing Act.

“Our demands regarding the ordinance are based on fundamental rights. No other country has such rules. The whole agenda of the ordinance is to enable corporates to take away lands and everything attached to it,” she said.

When a company is handed over land, all resources, including water and minerals in the region, are given to it. This has a devastating effect on the local population. There is no level playing field. The situation is such that the Adanis and Ambanis will soon be able to own several districts or states in the country, she said.

Successive governments had failed to consider agriculture as an industry and encouraged corporate industrialisation. Such industrialisation is taking a toll on both economy and democracy.

“Sharing of the revenue generated by harnessing natural resources is not taking place,” she said, citing the coal mines as an example.

(Agencies)

Sheila Dikshit questions Rahul Gandhi’s leadership

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Sheila Dikshit. Photo: IE

Sheila Dikshit. Photo: IE

New Delhi: Yet another Congress stalwart Tuesday voiced reservation over Rahul Gandhi’s elevation as party president, with former Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit saying there was “scepticism” over his leadership qualities and pitched for continuance of Sonia Gandhi at the helm.

The 77—year—old veteran said under Sonia Gandhi there was a “comfort feeling” and that the party could rely on the incumbent president’s “overpowering and very successful” leadership for its revival.

“I will not be able to give any idea what will happen or what will not happen. He (Rahul) could succeed. There is another point we must understand that the overpowering and very successful leadership of Mrs Sonia Gandhi is there. So there is a comfort feeling with her,” Dikshit told PTI in an interview.

Dikshit said Rahul’s leadership qualities have not been fully tested yet and it would be good for the party if Sonia continues to lead it.

“I am yet to meet anybody who has any critical remarks to make about the leadership of Sonia Gandhi. I can say it with absolute confidence. Whereas (in case of) Rahul, of course, there is a question mark, there is scepticism because you have not seen him perform as yet,” Dikshit said.

Dikshit’s comments have come at a time when Congress appears divided on whether to anoint Rahul as president replacing his mother Sonia. Senior party leaders Amarinder Singh and Dikshit’s son Sandeep had come out strongly against Rahul’s elevation.

Dikshit’s son Sandeep had earlier this month said that Sonia was the “leader” for “99 per cent of partymen” and she was needed at the helm now more than ever. Singh had said Sonia should “retain” Congress presidentship and a generational change cannot be done “with a knife“.

(PTI)

Car theft racket: Congress MLA arrested

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File photo of Congress MLA Rumi Nath

File photo of Congress MLA Rumi Nath

Guwahati: Congress MLA Rumi Nath was today arrested in connection with her alleged links with a pan-India car theft racket.

“We have arrested her from the MLA hostel at around 7 AM. At present, she has been kept at Dispur Police Station. During the day, we’ll produce her in court and seek police remand,” Assistant Commissioner of Police Suprotive Lal Barua said.

She was arrested in connection with her alleged “links with a car theft gang” under sections 120(B), 420, 212 of the IPC, which stands for criminal conspiracy, cheating and harbouring offender, he said.

Yesterday, the Congress MLA had appeared before the press and said that she was not absconding.

“I am not absconding. I am innocent. Seeking anticipatory bail does not mean, I am guilty. If I am proved guilty, I am ready to go to prison”, she had said at the press conference.

Earlier, the Gauhati High Court had rejected her two anticipatory bail applications in connection with a case registered at Dispur police station and another at Azara police station.

She had filed for anticipatory bail on April 9 following the arrest of her estranged second husband Jacky Zakir.

Zakir was arrested on April 8 from his house in Badarpur in Karimganj district, while Nath’s Personal Security Officer (PSO) Bedabrata Barpatra Gohain was caught from the Special Branch headquarters in the state capital.

During investigations, it was found that the alleged car theft gang leader Anil Chauhan, who was arrested by Guwahati Police and was wanted in a number of cases in Delhi and Mumbai besides other states, was issued Assam Assembly car passes on the recommendation of Nath.

Following this, the Assembly Secretariat issued a notice asking her to explain why she recommended issuance of car passes to the alleged car lifter, to which Nath responded by saying that she had signed the car pass application form of Chauhan’s wife who is a Congress worker.

“I have no connection with Chauhan, but only know his wife who was also a Congress worker. This is just a political conspiracy to defame me… I have full faith in the law of the land and will cooperate with the police at every step,” Nath had said yesterday.

Assam Congress President Anjan Dutta too issued a showcause notice to Nath for her alleged involvement with the notorious car lifter.

(Agencies)

Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan hold Swaraj Samwad

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Dissident AAP leaders Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav at a news confrence at Press Club in New Delhi. (Arvind Yadav/ HT Photo)

Dissident AAP leaders Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav at a news confrence at Press Club in New Delhi. (Arvind Yadav/ HT Photo)

New Delhi: The convention of rebel AAP leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan began this morning with volunteers from across the country terming it a day of “new beginning” even as the Arvind Kejriwal-led party warned of action against those attending the event.

Yadav and Bhushan had announced their decision of holding the dialogue, ‘Swaraj Samwad’, to discuss the future course of action after their expulsion from AAP’s top echelons, triggering speculations of floating a new party.

Before the session began at around 10 a.m, Yadav told reporters “I am sure we would witness something new here”.

“It’s a day of new beginning. AAP Constitution gives an ordinary member of the party, the freedom of expression which no other party gives and if the workers are using that freedom I am sure the party would respect it. I am not sure if the party has changed its own constitution,” he said.

At the convention, key leaders who were seen on stage include the four expelled members from AAP’s National Executive–Yadav, Bhushan, Anand Kumar and Ajit Jha–Timarpur MLA Pankaj Pushkar and several Lok Sabha candidates from various states.

“Our party is new. Different people have different opinions on discipline. I believe that today’s meeting is in line with the ideals of our party,” Pushkar said.

One hour into the meeting, an audio message of Admiral L Ramdas’s, who was recently removed from the post of party’s internal Lokpal, was played out from the stage.

In the message Ramdas said that a samwad cannot be seen as an “anti party activity” and that people must be allowed to speak in a democracy.

“I don’t belong to any particular faction of AAP. For me there is just one AAP…the party’s principle and image has been hurt most in the strong arm tactics that have been used and we have miserably failed as a party which was formed on the principles of swaraj,” he said adding his apology for not being present in the meeting that is underway in Gurgaon.

In a veiled threat, senior party leader Sanjay Singh said AAP’s all-powerful Political Affairs Committee (PAC) and its National Executive (NE) would decide the next move in this regard after the meeting.

“Swaraj Samwad is not a party function. The PAC and NE will decide on what action needs to be taken after the meeting,” Singh said.

(Agencies)

21 couple participate in 'thali' removal festival convened by Dravidar Kazhagam

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thali-removal

Chennai: Anticipating legal intervention the Dravidar Kazhagam preponed its thali removal festival by three hours against the scheduled time of 10 am.

As many as 21 couples participated in the programme convened at Periyar Thidal wherein the women discarded the thalis and pledged to lead a life of gender equality.

It may be recalled that when Dravidar Kazhagam had announced that they would conduct the thali removal festival the police had imposed ban on the event stating that it would disrupt the law and order situation. Many Hindu organisations and religious leaders too had expressed their opposition about the event. However, a division bench of the Madras High Court comprising of Justices Satish K. Agnihotri and M. Venugopal had granted an interim stay on a single judge’s order, which quashed the police ban on Tuesday, April 14.

Dravidar Kazhagam had gone ahead with the event on Tuesday and when the police communicated the stay order issued by the division bench all the functionaries were asked to disperse peacefully.

(Agencies)

#NetNeutrality: Flipkart walks away from Airtel Zero platform

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net-neutrality

New Delhi/Bengaluru: E-commerce giant Flipkart on Tuesday said it is “walking away” from the platform Airtel Zero and is committed to the larger cause of net neutrality.

“We at Flipkart have always strongly believed in the concept of net neutrality, for we exist because of the Internet,” a statement issued by the e-commerce company said.

“We will be walking away from the ongoing discussions with Airtel for their platform Airtel Zero. We will be committing ourselves to the larger cause of net neutrality in India. We will be internally discussing over the next few days, the details of actions we will take to support the cause,” the statement added.

Bharti Airtel recently launched Airtel Zero, an open marketing platform that will allow customers to access mobile applications at zero data charges.

Flipkart stated that over the past few days, there has been a great amount of debate, “both internally and externally, on the topic of zero rating, and we have a deeper understanding of the implications”.

In a series of tweets, Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal said he was all for #Net Neutrality.

“I spend time/money helping start-ups in India. I will never support things which suffocate innovation,” Bansal claimed in a tweet.

Observing that zero rated apps for limited time were not against net neutrality, Bansal said such apps could not be sustained for long as costs and competition were very high.

“Zero rating only reduces data costs for users. Fears of a telecom big brother emerging are unfounded. Choice wins. Always,” Bansal tweeted.

Following criticism by twitterati of its proposal to tie-up with Airtel, Flipkart said it was committed to the larger cause of net neutrality.

The company also said it will be working towards ensuring that the spirit of net neutrality is upheld and applied equally to all companies in India irrespective of the size or the service being offered and there is absolutely no discrimination.

Net neutrality means that governments and internet service providers should treat all data on the internet equally – therefore, not charging users, content, platform, site, application or mode of communication differentially.

Amid a huge hue and cry in social media over net neutrality, Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Monday that a panel examining the issue will submit its report by the second week of May to help the government take a comprehensive decision on the contentious issue.

The entire process of a committee of experts going into the pros and cons of the issue will benefit the government in making comprehensive decisions, he said.

“This is the reason we are doing it independent of TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India),” Prasad added. The six-member panel, which will conduct the study and submit its report, has been set up the department of telecommunications (DoT).

In March, telecom regulator TRAI released a paper inviting comments from users and companies on how over-the-top services should be regulated in the country.

It has asked stakeholders to send suggestions by April 24 and counter-arguments by May 8.

Congress leader Ajay Maken also said that his party supports net neutrality and Internet freedom must not be compromised.

N. Chandramouli, chief executive officer, Trust Research Advisory, publishers of the Brand Trust Report, said: “From a brand point of view we can already see it is impacting and hampering the equation with telecom brands such as Airtel, decided in December 2014 that they would charge more for calls made through services like Skype and Viber, but had to roll back the decision after outrage on social networks.”

(IANS)

Government notifies new law on judges' appointment

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Supreme Court India

New Delhi: Government on Monday brought into force a controversial law to appoint members to the higher judiciary, two days before a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court hears a clutch of petitions challenging the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act.

The notification bringing into effect from on Monday the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act along with a Constitutional Amendment Act (99th Amendment Act) to give constitutional status to the new body was issued by Department of Justice in the Law Ministry.

A bunch of petitions moved by the Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association (SCAORA), Bar Association of India and some individual lawyers challenging NJAC and the Constitition amendment will come up for hearing before the Constitution Bench on Wednesday.

Functionaries in the Law Ministry said with the notification, technically the collegium system has come to an end. But, at the same time, they said the new body may take some time to come into into being.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will now have to call Chief Justice of India H L Dattu and Congress’ Mallikarjun Kharge, the leader of single largest opposition party in Lok Sabha, to nominate two eminent persons to the NJAC.

The NJAC will have to ratify the rules governing its functioning in the first meetings before they are notified. The draft rules are ready with the government.

Under the collegium system, which came into existence in 1993 after a Supreme Court judgement, five top judges of the apex court recommend transfer and elevation of judges to Supreme Court and 24 High Courts.

The government can return the recommendation to the collegium under this system. But it has to accept the recommendation if it is reiterated by the collegium.

The collegium system had come under fire for lacking transparency by politicians and some eminent jurists, who contended that judges appointing judges without any say of the Executive has led to complaints of nepotisim and favouritism.

But successive CJIs have defended the system saying it has stood the test of time and was working without any hitches.

On April 7, a Supreme Court bench while referring the matter to a larger bench had refused to stay the implementation of the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act.

Law Minister D V Sadananda Gowda had last week said the government would like to have a “united show” in running the new body to recommend appointment and transfer of Supreme Court and High Court judges with the judiciary as it will be headed by the Chief Justice of India.

He said from nominating two eminent persons to the NJAC to ratifying the rules, the CJI has an important role.

NJAC was signed into an Act by President Pranab Mukherjee on December 31, 2014.

According to the new Article 124 A inserted in the Constitution, two eminent persons will be nominated to the Commission as members by the committee consisting of the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of India and the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha or where there is no such LoP, then the leader of single largest Opposition party.

One of the eminent persons will be nominated from among the persons belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, minorities or women.

The eminent persons will be nominated for a period of three years and will not be eligible for renomination.

The NJAC will be headed by the Chief Justice of India. Two senior-most apex court judges, the two eminent persons and the Law Minister will be the members of the high-level panel. Secretary, Justice in the Law Ministry will be the convenor of the NJAC.

President Mukherjee’s signing the two bills into a law paved the way for the scrapping of the 20-year-old collegium system.

Once new system comes into place, the task of selecting and transferring Supreme Court and high court judges will finally shift from the collegium to a committee headed by the Chief Justice of India.

The NJAC Act provides for the procedure to be followed by the NJAC for recommending persons for appointment of judges of the Supreme Court, and Chief Justice and other judges of the 24 high courts.

The Constitutional Amendment Act grants constitutional status to the composition of the proposed commission. It was done following demands by jurists and judges who felt that without a constitutional status, the composition could be altered by a future government by an ordinary legislation.

A government bungalow at Mathura Road here has already been earmarked for NJAC and there are plans to appoint initial staff from the existing strength of the three departments — Legal Affairs, Legislative and Justice — of the Law Ministry.

An earlier attempt by the then BJP government in 2003 to scrap the collegium system had failed. The then Law Minister Arun Jaitley had moved a bill in this regard but the Lok Sabha was dissolved when the bill was pending with the Parliamentary Standing Committee.

(PTI)

Haryana govt to give Cabinet Minister status to Ramdev

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Baba Ramdev

Chandigarh: The Haryana government today decided to give “status equivalent to Cabinet Minister” to Ramdev, who has been appointed as the state’s brand ambassador to promote yoga and ayurveda.

“Ramdev, Brand Ambassador for promotion of yoga and ayurveda in Haryana, will be given status equivalent to Cabinet Minister,” Haryana’s Health and Sports Minister, Anil Vij tweeted today.

Vij had earlier said a herbal forest would be developed in the state where plants of thousands of species of ayurvedic herbs would be grown under the supervision of Ramdev.

The emphasis on yoga and ayurveda would lead to an amalgamation of tradition and modernity and inclusion of yoga in the school syllabus would turn Haryana into a model state based on Indian values and traditions, Vij had said.

Yoga would be made a compulsory subject in Haryana’s schools for which ‘yogshalas’ will be constructed in all the towns and about 6,500 villages of the state under the guidance of Ramdev, he said.

Notably, last month, Haryana Assembly had witnessed uproarious scenes as the BJP government came under sharp attack from opposition Congress for allegedly “going out of way to please Ramdev by making him the brand ambassador” for promotion of yoga and ayurveda in the state.

(PTI)

Four policemen die as Maoists trigger blast in Chhattisgarh

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dandewada

Dantewada: Four policemen were killed and seven injured on Monday when Maoists triggered a massive explosion in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district, police said.

The terror strike took place just hours after a trooper was killed when armed Maoists attacked a BSF camp in Chhattisgarh’s Kanker district.

In the latest attack, four Chhattisgarh Armed Forces (CAF) personnel were killed and seven others were wounded in the deafening blast that targeted their anti-landmine vehicle.

The attack took place at Cholnar camp of the CAF in Dantewada district, some 400 km south of state capital Raipur.

“It’s a massive blast. I guess it could be about 50 kg IED (Improvised Explosive Device) used to trigger a blast near a bridge. The anti-landmine vehicle was shaken up by the blast and 4 CAF jawans succumbed to injuries,” Kamal Lochan Kashyap, superintendent of police, Dantewada, told reporters at the attack site.

The policemen were returning back to the Cholnar camp after area domination drive. The injured policemen were rushed to NMDC Ltd-owned hospital at Bacheli.

Chhattisgarh has witnessed a string of attacks since April 11.

(Agencies)

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