Mamata condoles Bangladesh fire tragedy

[Nasheman news] KolkataWest Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday expressed condolences for the victims of a massive fire that killed at least 70 people in Bangladeshi capital Dhaka.

Another 56 people were injured in the Wednesday night fire that engulfed several multi-storey buildings in Chawkbazar area of Old Dhaka.

“Saddened to hear about the tragic loss of lives… My heartfelt condolences to the grieving families,” Banerjee tweeted. “We wish the injured a speedy recovery.”

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[Nasheman news] Chennai DMK chief M.K. Stalin on Thursday said Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Palaniswami must meet Governor Banwarilal Purohit and urge him to allow release of seven persons convicted for former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination.

Perarivalan, Murugan, Nalini, Shanthan, Ravichandran, Jayakumar and Robert Pyas have been in jail for naerly three decades after Gandhi was killed in a blast triggered by a human bomb in Sriperumbudur on May 21, 1991. 

In a statement issued here, Stalin said the state cabinet had passed a resolution for the release of the seven and had sent the same to Purohit in September 2018.

The DMK leader said the Tamil Nadu cabinet had taken the decision as per the Supreme Court order and the Governor should have accepted the same.

“It is painful to note the Governor is keeping silent on the matter and not taking any action on the cabinet recommendation,” Stalin said.

Stalin said the Chief Minister is also keeping silent by not taking up the matter with Purohit.

He said it is not known whether the AIADMK had set conditions to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) relating to the release of the seven convicts; non construction of dam across Cauvery at Mekadatu by Karanataka; exemption for the state from NEET (common medical exam).

After announcing that AIADMK will align with parties who have done good for the state Palaniswami should at least demand the release of the seven prisoners first.

Stalin said Purohit should release the seven convicts under Article 161 of the Constitution.

Nasheman News : With a view to preventing infighting due to ticket distribution, the Congress has directed all its state units to expedite the process of candidate selection as well as state-wise electoral understanding for the Lok Sabha before this month which shall be then approved by the Congress Election Committee.

The recent Assembly polls, particularly in Rajasthan, saw a lot of infighting in the Congress over ticket distribution, causing embarrassment to the central leadership. Several disgruntled party leaders staged protests and over a dozen contested as independents, denting the party’s showing.

In order to avoid a repeat of a similar situation, the state units have been told to expedite the procedure of candidate selection and submit the lists before the month end.

One of the major issues discussed during the recent Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s meeting with general secretaries and state unit chiefs was ticket distribution.

“Ticket distribution has always been a contentious issue with all the parties. But this time it has been decided that ticket distribution will be finalized only after names recommended are approved. All state units will prepare their candidate lists before end of February,” a Congress leader who did not want to be identified by name told IANS.

The leader also said that the Congress will announce most of its candidates by the end of March, allowing them sufficient time to campaign. The Lok Sabha election schedule is expected to be announced by the Election Commission in the first week of March.

“Soon after the schedule is announced, the candidate lists will be published gradually and we expect to complete the process by the end of March,” said the leader.

Besides giving more powers in term of candidate selection, the state units have been asked to provide details of local issues and feedback on the central issues that are to be included in the election manifesto.

Along with the key issues of unemployment, agrarian distress, attacks on democratic institutions and “Rafale scam”, suggestions from the Indian diaspora across the globe has also been taken to incorporate their views in the manifesto expected to be released in March.

The Manifesto Committee, comprising key party leaders P. Chidambaram, Jairam Ramesh, Salman Khurshid, Shashi Tharoor and Sam Pitroda among others, so far has held 176 consultations in 56 cities taking public feedback on the issues to be incorporated in the manifesto.

Among the major highlights of the manifesto will be Gandhi’s mega poll promise of “minimum income guarantee”. With consultations from renowned economists that reportedly include former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, the manifesto will provide the blueprint of the scheme touted by the Congress as a “game-changer”.

Involving the party’s various wings including women, students and youth, the Congress has also taken the views of transgenders. An advocate of transgenders rights, Apsara Reddy was appointed the General Secretary of the Congress women wing in January.

The party has also been seeking ideas from the public through a dedicated website for the manifesto where netizens can submit their ideas and issues.

The meeting of the CWC – the Congress’ highest decision making body – will be held on February 26 in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state Gujarat. The meeting, presided over by Rahul Gandhi, will also be attended by newly-appointed General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh among others.

Besides the strategies and roadmap for the election battle, the party leaders will also discuss and chalk out a draft of the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) of the anti-BJP front of opposition parties.

Following a meeting on February 13, opposition parties decided to have a pre-poll pact and Rahul Gandhi was tasked to circulate a draft CMP among the opposition parties.

“As has been decided by all the opposition parties earlier, the major agenda in the CMP will be unemployment, agrarian crisis, attacks on democratic institutions and the abuse of central agencies to stifle the opposition and dissenting voices,” said a Congress leader.

Nasheman News : In a major blow to Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s brother-in-law Robert Vadra, who was questioned twice by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case involving the Bikaner land deal, the agency on Friday attached the properties related to his company Skylight Hospitality in Delhi.

A senior ED official said the agency has attached Skylight Hospitality Pvt Ltd., which has now been named as Skylight Hospitality LLP’s property in Delhi’s Sukhdev Vihar. Its worth is Rs 4.43 crore. 

Besides the Delhi property, the agency also attached movable properties worth Rs 18.59 lakh pertaining to four persons linked to the Bikaner land deal case.

The agency claimed that Skylight Hospitality (P) Ltd had purchased 275 bigha (69.55 hectare) fraudulent land for Rs 72 lakh and sold the same for Rs 5.15 crore to Allegeny Finlease Pvt. Ltd., illegally generating profit of Rs 4.43 crore. 

The four other individuals too generated a profit of Rs 18.59 lakh in the sale of impugned fraudulent land. 

The agency had earlier attached properties worth Rs 1.82 crore and filed a chargesheet before the Special PMLA court against nine accused. 

So far, the total attachment by ED in the case is worth Rs 6.44 crore. 

Vadra, along with his 75-year-old mother Maureen Vadra, was questioned for the first time in the land deal case on Tuesday for over eight hours in Jaipur. However, on Wednesday, Vadra was also questioned alone for over eight hours by the agency sleuths in Rajasthan capital.

The ED has been probing the alleged irregularities in the purchase of land in Kolayat area of the border town of Bikaner in Rajasthan, which was meant for those displaced due to Army’s field firing range.

The agency registered a criminal case under the Money Laundering Act in 2015, taking cognizance of the case filed by the Rajasthan Police after forgery allegations.

The agency had earlier issued notices to Skylight Hospitality, but had not mentioned Vadra’s name or any company linked to him in its FIR.

According to the ED, during investigation it had surfaced that Allegeny Finlease as a company was “not involved” in any “real business activities” and many of its shareholders were found to be dummy or non-existent.

The government had cancelled the mutation (transfer of land) of 374.44 hectares of land after allotments were found to have been allegedly made in the names of “illegal private persons”.

Revenue officials had said in the complaint that government land in 34 villages of Bikaner, which was meant to be used for expanding the Army’s firing range, was “grabbed” by the land mafia by preparing “forged and fabricated documents” in connivance with government officials.

The ED suspects that a huge amount of money was laundered in this case by people buying land at cheaper rates through forged documents.

Vadra was also questioned for over 24 hours last week in Delhi for three days — Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday — in a separate money laundering case. 

Srinagar, Feb 15 (IANS) The toll from Thursday’s terror attack on a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) convoy in Jammu and Kashmir rose to 45 as two more troopers succumbed to their injuries, officials said on Friday.

Besides, 38 others were wounded in the worst-ever terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir.

The attack took place around 3.15 p.m. on Thursday when a ‘Fidayeen’ bomber belonging to the Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) terror outfit rammed an explosive-laden SUV into a bus carrying CRPF troopers in Lethpora area of Pulwama district on the Srinagar-Jammu Highway, officials said.

“None among the 44 CRPF men travelling in the bus that took the full impact of the suicide bombing survived,” a CRPF official said.

“An injured person in another bus has also succumbed taking the death toll to 45,” he added.

The official said the injured (38) CRPF men are being treated in the Army base hospital in Badamibagh cantonment area of Srinagar.

The CRPF convoy of 78 vehicles was coming from Jammu to Srinagar. The convoy carried 2,547 CRPF personnel.

The attack happened even as an intelligence input had warned of its the possibility 48 hours earlier.

The audacious attack, the worst-ever since armed insurgency started in the state in 1989, was carried out by the JeM.

The intelligence input had said: “Chatter inputs reveal that JeM outfit has hinted to carry out IED attacks along the routes of security forces across Jammu and Kashmir. A video uploaded by the outfit has also been shared with all concerned. It is as such suggested that security forces need to be put on alert to thwart any such attempt by terrorists.”

Informed sources said the intelligence input was shared with all security forces in Jammu and Kashmir.

The video that was uploaded along with the threat message showed a truck carrying troops in Somalia blown up in a powerful improvised explosive device (IED) blast. In the message, the JeM had warned of a similar type of blast.

A video released by the JeM after the attack identified the suicide bomber as Adil Ahmad Dar alias Waqas Commando, belonging to Kakapora town of Pulwama district.

Police sources said the bomber rammed his explosive-laden SUV into the CRPF bus and is believed to have been killed in the explosion. 

There is, however, no official confirmation about the bomber’s death .

Senior police and CRPF officials reached the spot immediately for post blast analysis.

The explosion was so massive that its sound was heard 10 km away.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was briefed by National Security Advisor (NSA), Ajit Doval about the incident on Thursday.

Modi would chair a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) at 9.15 a.m. in Delhi on Friday.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh, accompanied by Union Home Secretary and other senior officers of the ministry, is likely to arrive here on Friday.

A 12-member team of national Investigation agency (NIA) and another team of t he national security guards (NSG) are also expected to arrive here to assist the police in the investigation of the terror strike.

Nasheman News : The Union Cabinet on Wednesday gave its ex post facto approval to the Registration of Marriage of Non-Resident Indians Bill, 2019 which was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on Monday.

The Bill seeks to provide safeguards to Indian women who are trapped in fraudulent marriages with NRIs.

“The Bill provides for amendment of the legal framework to act as a deterrent to the erring NRI spouses and creating more accountability and offer protection against exploitation of Indian Citizens married to NRIs,” Union Minister Piyush Goyal told reporters after the Cabinet meeting.

Once the Bill is passed, marriages by NRIs would be registered in India or Indian missions and posts abroad, and necessary changes would be carried out in the Passports Act and Code of Criminal Procedure, an official statement said.

Goyal said the Bill would offer great protection to Indian citizens married to NRIs, and serve as a deterrent to NRIs against harassment of their spouses and benefit Indian women married to NRIs worldwide. 

Nasheman News : Kicking off his campaign for the next Lok Sabha elections in the southern states here on Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi came down heavily on the opposition parties.

Modi was on a day-long visit to the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh for the launch of several developmental projects as well as his poll campaign. He visited Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, Raichur in Karnataka and Tiruppur in Tamil Nadu. 

Addressing a public rally in Tiruppur, about 470 km from the state capital Chennai, Modi said, “For us, social justice is an article of faith and not a mathematical formula, the way it is for the opposition parties.”

He said it was the NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee that restored reservation in promotions for the SC/ST, a privilege that was scrapped by the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre earlier.

Referring to his government’s decision to provide 10 per cent reservation to the economically backward sections, Modi said the move aims at equality of opportunities to all.

He said the 10 per cent reservation will not affect the existing reservation for SC/ST and Other Backward Communities.

Alleging that the opposition was good at spreading panic and misleading the youth, farmers and other sections of society, the Prime Minister said that for a long time the opposition parties had created tension in society on the issue of social justice.

Modi criticised the Congress’ farm loan waiver scheme saying that it would not benefit anybody, but would result in an extra burden of Rs 50,000 crore.

He said for the first time in India’s history, his government had announced a Rs 6,000/pa income scheme for farmers’ holding less than five acres of land.

When the scheme was announced in Parliament the opposition parties were left shocked, he added.

Modi disclosed that under the farmer income scheme, a sum of Rs 7,50,000 lakh crore would be deposited in banks over the next 10 years.

The PM also announced the setting up of a department for fisheries in Tamil Nadu and laid the foundation stone of a 100-bed Employees State Insurance Corp (ESIC) hospital.

The hospital will cater to the needs of over 100,000 workers and their family members in the hosiery town and nearby areas covered under the ESI Act.

Modi also laid the foundation stones of a new integrated building at Trichy Airport and the new Chennai airport via video conferencing.

To ensure a reliable supply of crude oil to Tamil Nadu and the neighbouring states, the PM also dedicated to the nation Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd’s Ennore Coastal Terminal in Chennai.

He also inaugurated a crude oil pipeline from Chennai Port to Chennai Petroleum Corp Ltd’s (CPCL) Manali Refinery in Chennai. The pipeline has been built with enhanced safety features.

Modi also dedicated to the nation a 470-bed ESIC Hospital in Chennai and passenger service on the 10-km stretch of the Chennai Metro Rail — AG-DMS Metro station to Washermenpet Metro station.

Earlier, Modi flew down from Andhra Pradesh to Tiruppur via Coimbatore. At Coimbatore airport, he was received by Governor Banwarilal Purohit. 

The visit met with a black flag protest led by Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) leader Vaiko. 

Vaiko and his supporters were detained by the police as they released black balloons in the sky and shouted “Go back Modi” near the railway station. 

 Eicher Trucks & Buses Introduces Industry 1^st Ever  Truck

 In an industry’s 1^st first ever move,  Eicher Trucks & Buses, part of VE Commercial Vehicles Limited, introduced state-of-the-art AMT (Automated Manual Transmission) technology in 16T category, namely Eicher Pro 3016 AMT.

 This industry 1^st ever 16 ton GVW AMT truck, the Eicher Pro 3016 AMT is equipped with an Intelligent Shift Control Actuator that automatically performs clutch & shift operations which completely eliminates the need to use clutch & shift gears manually. The Pro 3016 AMT comes with Auto & Manual modes along with Transmission drivability features, that is, power mode for time bound deliveries & Eco mode for Fuel Efficient operations. With this new development, Eicher’s further reinforces its vision of driving modernization in commercial transportation in India & developing world.

 The biggest advantage of Eicher Pro 3016 AMT is that it comes with additional driving comfort over manual transmission-equipped models. The elimination of a clutch pedal frees drivers from gear-shifting, reduces their stress & fatigue & minimizes performance gap between skilled & less experienced drivers.

Pro 3016 AMT has been equipped to address challenges around driver safety, comfort &  protection of cargo, thus ensuring fast & efficient movement of goods. This makes vehicles apt for variety of applications such as ecommerce, consumer goods, parcel & courier, pharmaceuticals, industrial goods, agriculture produce, poultry &  dairy products. The Pro 3016 AMT trucks are being manufactured in Eicher Trucks & buses facility in Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh, where Eicher produces its complete range of 4.9T to 55T commercial vehicles.

 Eicher Trucks & Buses has lineage of 3 decades of operations in India. Adopting most professional & holistic approach to modernize Indian trucking industry, their brand philosophy, “Go Pro”, promises to deliver best-in-class fuel efficiency, higher loading capacity, superior uptime & overall vehicle life time profitability. Eicher Trucks & Buses (ETB) is present in LMD range with a strong presence in 4.9T-16T truck segment & an ever increasing market share in 16T-49T heavy duty trucks segment. Eicher Pro Series buses also have a strong presence in Light & Medium segment along with a leadership in school bus segment.

 VE Commercial Vehicles Limited (VECV) is a joint venture between Volvo Group & Eicher Motors Limited. In operation since Jul, 2008, the company includes complete range of Eicher branded trucks & buses, VE Powertrain, Eicher’s components businesses as well as sales & distribution business of Volvo trucks within India. VECV’s vision is to be recognized as industry leader driving modernization in commercial transportation in India & developing world.