1. law, govt and politics
2. government

English Daily
[email protected]
www.indianhorizon.org RNI No: Deleng/2013/51507
Volume No: 3 Issue No: 179
In memory of Dr Asima Kemal and Prof. Dr. Salim W Kemal
Published from New Delhi and Hyderabad
New Delhi, Friday, July 3, 2015
AFPSA to be revoked in J&K when
situation is conducive, says Rajnath Singh
[email protected]
Pages 12 + 4 pull out (P16)
Price: 3:00
Ferry with 173 on board overturns in
Philippines, 36 dead, 19 missing
Page 9
Page 4...
Flight delay controversy:
Briefs
Civil Aviation
Minister says sorry
for ‘inconvenience’
Civil Aviation minister
Ashok Gajapathi Raju
Threats to stall parliament session
‘anti-growth’: Arun Jaitley
New Delhi, July 2 (IANS) Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday brushed aside Congress’s threats to
stall the monsoon session of parliament over the Lalit
Modi controversy, saying it would project the opposition as “anti-growth”.
The Congress was quick to react, saying his comments
showed the BJP-led government’s “zero tolerance for probity and accountability”.
The Congress has been demanding the resignations
of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje from their posts
for helping “fugitive” Lalit Modi, a former chief of the
Indian Premier League. Jaitley told the media after a
cabinet meeting that “the bills (to amend the Land Acquisition Act, and introduce the Goods and Services
Tax) were very crucial for (the country’s) development
and I hope no political party takes anti-growth and antidevelopment position”.
New Delhi, July 2 (PTI) Under
attack over two ministers causing inconvenience to Air India
passengers, Civil Aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju today
tendered an apology while saying that such “indefensible” incidents should never have happened. However, Raju also said
that the incident is “too small”
for the Prime Minister’s Office to
step-in. “Whatever has happened
should not have happened... I
need to get to the truth... as Civil
Aviation minister I apologise (for
the inconvenience caused to the
passengers),” Raju told reporters.
He was responding to a volley
of questions on the twin inci-
dents involving Minister of State
for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju and
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Raju said his
Ministry was getting all the facts
about the two incidents. “I need
to get to the truth, and I will do
my duty,” he added. The Minister
said that the Ministry would submit a report to the PMO, which
has sought details on “delay in
Air India flights on account of
VIP travels in the recent past”.
According to Raju, the incident is “too small” for the
PMO to take note of. The development came after reports
surfaced about inconvenience
caused to passengers of two
flights of Air India since June 24
because of Rijiju and Fadnavis.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief
AAP MLA slams Arvind Kejriwal for
publicity fund
New Delhi: AAP MLA
Pankaj Pushkar, who has
openly criticised the party
leadership on several issues, today trained his
guns on chief minister
Arvind Kejriwal over allocation of Rs 526 crores for
publicity and termed it as
an exercise of “self propogation”.
Terming the employment of AAP workers in
the Delhi government
at “hefty” salaries as an
“abuse of public money”,
the Timarpur MLA also
questioned the appointment of 21 party legislators
as parliamentary secretaries. He said the AAP was in
serious danger of losing its
way and was on a “slippery
mode”.
Speaking about the recent adverstisment by the
Delhi government, Pushkar said, through this the
Delhi government not only
defied the Supreme Court,
which clearly ruled that no
government advertisments
should try to glorify a politician, but also portrayed
women in a regressive way.
Pushkar said he has written to Kejriwal over these
issues, but there has been
“no response from him for
the past one month.”
“Under a false technical garb that Kejriwal’s
pictures were not used,
the Aam Aadmi Party tried
to defend the obnoxious
TV commercial where the
name of Delhi CM was
mentioned 11 times in just
2 minutes,” Pushkar told a
news conference. Incidentally, there was no electricity in the room of the
Vidhan Sabha where the
conference was held. This
led to confusion and delayed the event. The conference continued for a few
minutes, but the electricity
went off later, again to be
resumed in few minutes.
IPL money-laundering case:
ED records statement of
Srinivasan against Lalit Modi
Saharanpur Admission Office :
4407/3, New Bhagat Singh Colony, Behind DM Residence
Bajoria Road, Saharanpur UP-247001
Ph.:0132-6548036, 9045738000, 9045734000
Minister Devendra Fadnavis
stuck to his stand that he did not
delay the Air India flight he took
to the US, dubbing the reports in
this regard as “misleading” and
said that on returning home he
will initiate “criminal defamation” proceedings in the matter.
“Enough is enough. Once I m
back to India I will initiate proceedings of criminal defamation,” Fadnavis, on a week-long
trip to America to woo investment to the state, tweeted.
A media report surfaced yesterday that on June 24, three members of a family, including a child,
were offloaded from Leh-Delhi Air
India flight at Leh to accommodate Rijiju along with Jammu and
Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister
Nirmal Singh and an aide.
Mumbai, July 2 (PTI) The Enforcement Directorate
here on Thursday recorded the statement of former
BCCI president N Shrinivasan in connection with the
money laundering case registered against ex-IPL boss
Lalit Modi. “Srinivasan appeared before us today and
we recorded his statement for close to three hours,”
said an ED official.
The case relates to a 2008 deal between World Sports
Group (WSG) and Multi Screen Media (MSM) for television rights of IPL worth Rs 425 crore.
BCCI filed an FIR in Chennai in 2010 under various provisions of the IPC while two years later the ED registered
a case under Prevention of Money Laundering Act in the
matter. “We have recorded Srinivasan’s statement as he
had filed the police complaint on behalf of BCCI,” the official said. In 2008, the BCCI awarded 10-year media rights
to WSG for USD 918 million. In the same year, WSG entered
into a deal with MSM to make Sony the official broadcaster.
Arvind Kejriwal
A foreign NGO member plays football with under
priviliged children at Brigade Parade Ground in
Kolkata on Thursday. PTI
Debt assigned to YIL
to revive National
Herald: Sonia
New Delhi, July 2 (PTI) Sibal
clarified that the exercise was
carried out to revive AJL, and
neither YIL nor its shareholders have derived any income or
profit out of it. Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday told Delhi High Court that
the party’s Rs. 90 crore loan to
Associated Journals Ltd (AJL),
the publisher of National Herald, was assigned to Young Indian Pvt Ltd (YIL) for Rs. 50 lakh
to revive the publication.
The submission was made
before Justice Sunil Gaur by
senior advocate Kapil Sibal,
representing the Congress
chief, who said AJL will start
running the newspaper as
soon it pays off its debt to
the Congress party. Mr. Sibal
made the argument while
refuting the allegation of BJP
leader Subramanian Swamy
that AJL’s properties would
only be used for deriving rent.
argument was made during hearing of a bunch of
pleas, filed by the Congress
chief, her son Rahul Gandhi
and five others, challenging
Will confront
political issues
in Iran n-talks:
European Union
Vienna, July 2 (IANS)
Two days after the
June 30 deadline, top
negotiators involved in
Iran’s nuclear talks will
attempt to confront
political issues holding
them back from a deal,
European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said
on Thursday.
“We’re moving forward, but we’re not
there yet,” Mogherini
told reporters here.
“Today (Thursday) we
will have the chance of
checking some political issues that are still
open,” she added.
She noted the visit
of Yukiya Amano, director general of the
International Atomic
Energy Agency (IAEA),
to Teheran “is something very important”,
Xinhua news agency
reported
US State Department
deputy spokeswoman
Marie Harf announced
on Tuesday that fresh
rounds of nuclear talks
would take place from
June 30 to July 7.
Iran and the P5+1
group of world powers -- the US, Britain,
France, Russia, China,
plus Germany -- agreed
on a framework of understanding in April,
and set June 30 as the
deadline for concluding a final deal, after
missing two previous
deadlines in June and
November.
Sonia Gandhi
the summons issued against
them on a complaint by Dr.
Swamy alleging cheating and
breach of trust in the acquisition of AJL by YIL, in which
the accused party leaders are
shareholders.
During the heari`ng, Mr.
Sibal asked where the element of cheating or misappropriation or breach of trust
was, as the acquisition process was carried out with the
unanimous support of AJL’s
shareholders. The acquisition
was carried out by assigning
to YIL for Rs. 50 lakh a debt
of Rs. 90 crore that AJL had
to pay to the Congress party,
Mr. Sibal told the court and
added that instead of paying
YIL, shares in the publication
were given to YIL.
Subsidised LPG sales
under DBT down
by 25%: Subramanian
New Delhi, July 2 (PTI)
Arvind Subramanian cautioned that the government
should make sure genuine
beneficiaries are not excluded. Sales of subsidised
LPG cylinders under the
Direct Benefit Transfer
scheme (DBT) have come
down by about 25 per cent
as most “ghost beneficiaries” have been eliminated,
CEA Arvind Subramanian
on Thursday said. “... essentially, what we find is
that on an average, the DBT
scheme has reduced subsidised domestic LPG sales
by about 25 per cent,” Mr.
Subramanian said while
speaking at the UNDP conference call in New Delhi.
On the fiscal impact of
DBT, the Chief Economic
Advisor said, “We estimate that in 2014-15, savings could be as much Rs.
12,700 crore, which is a
lot of money. But savings
will be lower this year at
around Rs. 6,500 crore.”
Mr.
Subramanian,
however, cautioned that
the government should
make sure genuine beneficiaries are not excluded.
“It’s necessary that we
don’t overestimate the gain
and under-recognise possible cost of doing this and
in the case of DBT and Pahal, we have some preliminary evidence to suggest
that a lot of it is elimination
of ghost beneficiaries, but
we can’t rule out that there
could be exclusion of genuine beneficiaries,” he said.
Mr. Subramanian, formerly a senior Fellow at
Peterson Institute for International Economics,
admitted: “We were expecting commercial sales
to go up by a huge number, but actually, this did
not happen... there was
only 6 per cent increase.”
Indian Horizon, Delhi
BJP complains to LG against
Delhi government
Short Takes
Man wanted for murder
in Bihar held in Delhi
peddlers and seized over 30 kg ofganja
from them.The accused, Pramod (45)
and Aneesh (32), both residents of
New Delhi, July 2 (IANS) A man Delhi, were apprehended by a team
from Bihar who committed a murder under the supervision of Nand Nagri
in February and then assumed a new SHO Tarkeshwar Singh.
identity to run an eatery here has ACB chief MK Meena’s
finally been arrested, Delhi Police said
appointment is legal:
on Thursday.Bharat Yadav was taken
into custody on Wednesday from near
Bassi
a Bhairon temple at Pragati Maidan,
not far from the Supreme Court, Joint
New Delhi, June 2 (PTI) Delhi Police
Commissioner of Police Ravindra Yadav Commissioner BS Bassi on Thursday
said.
said that Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB)
Bharat Yadav apparently ran an illicit chief MK Meena`s appointment is legal.
liquor trade in Bhojpur in Bihar. After
“MK Meena is head of ACB, his
his nephew was killed in November appointment as per my understanding
2014, he and his associates murdered a is legal, in case you have any questions
member of the rival gang on February 27, you should direct them to him,” said
the officer said.As police announced a Bassi.
reward of Rs.15,000 for his arrest, Bharat
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)
Yadav fled Bihar and kept changing his Government had filed an interim
hideouts frequently to evade arrest, said application in the Delhi High Court
Ravindra Yadav. Eventually he made it to against the appointment of Joint
Delhi where he began running a ‘dhaba’ Commissioner of Police MK Meena as
in Karol Bagh area. But his luck ran out ACB chief.The application follows the
on Wednesday.
petition filed by the Delhi Government
against the Ministry of Home Affairs
notification.This came after Delhi
Police (retired) inspector Jawahar Lal
had filed a complaint with Kejriwal,
New Delhi, July 2 (IANS) Prime Minister accusing Meena of embezelling Rs 20
Narendra Modi “will have to pay a heavy lakh in a curtain purchase scam during
price in the coming days” for ignoring his tenure as the principal of the Police
rising cases of corruption involving BJP Training College in the national capital.
leaders, the CPI-M warned on Thursday.
Advertisements are
“There should be no surprise at the
to highlight our work
corruption and the rapidity with which
it has surfaced in BJP-led governments,
with people: Sisodia
both at the centre and in the states,” said
an editorial in CPI-M journal “People’s
New Delhi, June 2 (Agencies) Delhi
Democracy”.“Corruption is inbuilt in the Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia
neo-liberal regime which has spawned on Thursday said that the advertisements
a big business-politician-bureaucrat that his government is planning to run on
nexus. Crony capitalism is inherent in the radio will aim to highlight the work
such a set-up,” it said.
done by them for the people of the city.
“In fact, with the more aggressive push
“Our government is running 24 hours.
for neo-liberal policies and privatisation The media instead of focussing on the
the scope for corruption and loot work we are doing, is pointing at other
has increased manifold,” added the things. That is their choice; but I request
Communist Party of India-Marxist.
that the media also look at the work that
“Modi has been wilfully blind to this we are doing. The advertisements are
phenomenon. He will have to pay a heavy to highlight our work with the people,”
price for this in the coming days.”
Sisodia said.
The editorial, titled ‘Spreading Stain of
Corruption’, referring to the allegations
of corruption and impropriety hurled
against
Rajasthan
Chief
Minister
Vasundhara Raje, External Affairs
Minister Sushma Swaraj as well as
New Delhi, July 2 (IANS) Nineteen
Maharashta BJP ministers Pankaja states
on
Thursday
introduced
Munde and Vinod Tawde.The journal online submission of applications for
said the “stain of corruption, nepotism environment clearance, a minister said.
and crony capitalism is enveloping the
Minister of Environment, Forests
Modi government and the BJP state and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar
governments”. It pointed out how Modi launched a web portal that aims to
and the BJP had made the massive bring in transparency in the process
corruption under the UPA government of submission of applications for
their main plank in the Lok Sabha election environment clearance by the State
campaign. “Modi had promised to put Environment
Impact
Assessment
an end to the loot and corruption under Authorities for projects that fall under
Congress rule... “The prime minister Category ‘B’.“The online processes
has doggedly refused to respond to the have raised the levels of transparency
charges against his cabinet colleague and accountability. It will ensure
and both the prime minister and the BJP that monitoring is carried out more
leadership are out to defend and justify effectively and on a real time basis and
her wrongdoing.”
thus, status on the pendency is available
clearly,” Javadekar said.“It will also
speed up clearance processes, while
maintaining the rigours of environment
New Delhi, July 2 (IANS) A man clearance process,” he added.
The minister expressed confidence
wanted in 40 cases of snatching gold
chains and committing other crimes that the remaining states will come on
has been arrested here, police said on board soon.Developmental projects
are classified under Category ‘A’ or ‘B’
Thursday.
Sandeep alias Kalia, 28, who was also depending on their threshold capacity
wanted in cases of robbery, violations and pollution potential. While ‘A’
of the Arms Act, and bootlegging was category projects require environment
arrested here on June 30, a police clearance from the Centre, state
statement said. On a tip-off, Sandeep, governments have the authority to
a resident of Mangolpuri in Delhi, clear projects under category ‘B’.
ministry
secretary
was intercepted and overpowered by Environment
a police team at Haiderpur area of Ashok Lavasa said the ministry had
the city. Two stolen gold chains were conducted workshops and several
rounds of interaction with the 19 states
recovered from him, police said.
During
interrogation,
Sandeep that includes Maharashtra, Punjab,
confessed to have recently snatched 16 West Bengal and Manipur.“Majority
gold chains from different areas in the of environment clearances are done
national capital. “With his arrest, 13 at the state level. So, this (portal) is a
cases registered against him in different significant step forward towards giving
police stations have been solved,” clearances to environment projects,”
Assistant Sub-Inspector Sushil Kumar he said.“Now, the ministry is targeting
to bring all the clearances required and
said.
Hazardous Substances Management
rules online as well,” he added.The
environment ministry had launched
New Delhi, July 2 (IANS) Delhi Police the online application system for
on Thursday apprehended two drug environmental clearance in 2014.
Modi will suffer for
ignoring corruption:
CPI-M
19 states launch
online platform for
green clearances
Chain snatcher
arrested in Delhi
Delhi Police arrests
two drug peddlers
2
City
Friday, July 3, 2015
New Delhi, July 2 (IANS) A BJP delegation on
Thursday called on Delhi Lt. Governor Najeeb
Jung to complain against the city government’s
introduction of the VAT Amendment Bill, increased
expenditure on advertisements and publicity, and
denial of information to RTI activists.
The Bharatiya Janata Party delegation, led by the
party’s Delhi unit chief Satish Upadhyay, submitted
memorandum to Jung and urged him to look into
the complaints.“The Delhi government claims to
have a surplus budget. Then what is the logic of
bringing a proposal to raise VAT (value-added tax)?
It raises suspicion,” Upadhyay said.
The BJP accused the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi
government of using public funds to glorify Chief
Minister Arvind Kejriwal.“The government has
hiked the advertisement budget by 200 percent and
is misusing it for glorification of the chief minister
in violation of the Supreme Court guidelines,”
he said.The delegation also raised the issue of
appointment of a large number of co-terminous
employees in the government, many of whom were
under-qualified.“Do these appointments comply
with the legal necessities,” asked Upadhyay.
Stating that the Delhi government was denying
information to Right to Information activists, the
BJP urged Jung to direct all departments to provide
full information.“The Lt. Governor has assured us
that he would seek information on the issues raised
by us,” Upadhyay said.
Project approved
to curb pollution in
Mula-Mutha river
New Delhi, July 2 (IANS) The environment
ministry on Thursday approved a Rs.990.26 crore
project for controlling pollution at Pune’s MulaMutha river under the National River Conservation
Plan.Environment, Forests and Climate Change
Minister Prakash Javadekar said the cost of the
project would be shared between the central
government and the Pune Municipal Corporation the implementing agency for the project - in a 85:15
ratio respectively.
“The major reasons for pollution of the river are
discharge of untreated domestic waste water into
the river due to inadequate sewerage system and
sewage treatment capacity in town as well as open
defecation on the river banks,” Javadekar told the
media.
“It will have significant impact in terms of
reduction of pollution load in the river and
improvement in its water quality besides collateral
benefits like use of tertiary treated effluent
for irrigation and employment opportunities
particularly in the construction stage.“The project
will also improve the aesthetics and sanitation in
the town,” he said.
AAP govt using state
funds for self promotion:
Congress
New Delhi, June 2 (PTI)
Opposition
Thursday attacked the AAP government for
reportedly hiking allocation for information
and publicity, saying spending public money
on “self publicity” amounted to corruption.
“They (Delhi Government) have set aside
Rs 526 crore just for information and publicity
and last year only Rs 24 crore was spent for
the same.“They have cut budget from various
other infrastructure development works
and they are spending money on their own
party workers and consultants. Is it not a
form of corruption by spending more money
on self publicity?” Delhi Pradesh Congress
Committee (DPCC) chief Ajay Maken said.
Former AAP leader Prashant Bhushan also
criticised government’s move.
He
alleged
that
Arvind
Kejriwal
government’s new FM radio ad was a
contempt of court and the issue would soon
be brought to the notice of the Supreme
Court.“The TV advertisement brought in
by Kejriwal government was in complete
violation of the Supreme Court’s order and
it amounts to contempt of court. To think
that you can do anything by way of radio
advertisements because it doesn’t carry a
photograph would be total misunderstanding
of court’s order.“If the radio advertisement
is used to publicise and promote a party,
government or a political leader, that would
be in violation of Supreme Court’s order and it
will be soon brought to the notice of the court
that this is how political parties are violating
the spirit of court’s order,” Bhushan said.
According to a senior government official, to
connect with people of Delhi, government
has released a 70-second long advertisement
which is being played on FM radio channels.
In the advertisement, Chief Minister Arvind
Kejriwal says that his government has doubled
the budget for education and the allocation
for health has gone up by 45 percent. He
says his government has the intent to spend
money on people’s welfare.
Guardians outside the Bal Bharti Public School in New Delhi on Thursday.
PTI
Shashi Tharoor writes to DU VC seeking
review of weightage policy
New Delhi, June 2 (PTI) Congress
leader and former MoS in Union HRD
ministry Shashi Tharoor has sought
Delhi University Vice Chancellor’s
intervention in reviewing the marks
weightage policy for state board
students seeking admission to its
colleges.The letter to the VC Dinesh
Singh, has come in wake of a student
delegation
approaching
Tharoor
contending that the anomalies
in calculation of weightages have
robbed them off getting admission to
undergraduate programmes.
“Following our conversation I
explained to the students’ delegation
that the marks-weightage policy
applied to students from several
states could not be altered.”“But as
the their representation explains,
there is a problem relating to the
interpretation of the rules and
different calculations of the weightage
differential at different admissions
centres. Please have it reviewed so
that an injustice is not perpetrated,”
Tharoor said in an email to the VC last
week.The students have pointed out
that candidates who have passed out
from Kerala State Education Board
are facing a deduction of 10 per cent
in best of four subjects’ marks.
According
to
the
university
guidelines, all the discipline subjects
must have at least 70 per cent
component of theory in the qualifying
exam for the purpose of being treated
as academic/elective subject.
Hence, students who have passed
from boards, which do not have the
70:30 ratio of practical and theory, will
attract a penalty of 10 per cent.
Even as the varsity had announced
to do away with the additional
eligibility criteria from this year,
the students have also alleged in
their representation that when
they approached different colleges
for admission, their percentage
calculation was different in each of
them.“There is no centralised system
to monitor the admission process
and since multiple admissions are
happening, there is no choice to
select a particular college since at
the same time admission process are
completing in different colleges,” the
representation reads.
However, the university officials
have maintained that the guidelines
have been framed keeping larger
interest for students in mind.
“The university has a cosmopolitan
nature and the guidelines have been
framed as such to provide a level
playing field to students from boards
across the country,” a senior varsity
official said.
There is no centralised system
to monitor the admission process
and since multiple admissions are
happening, there is no choice to
select a particular college since at
the same time admission process are
completing in different colleges,” the
representation reads.
Nasscom Foundation, HP to launch
mobile classrooms
New Delhi, July 2 (IANS) Nasscom
Foundation and HP have joined forces
to propel government of India’s National
Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM) by
donating five mobile container classrooms,
the partners announced on Thursday.
The shipping containers converted
into mobile classrooms will be deployed
in Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, Bengaluru
and Rajasthan with the capacity to train
6,000 beneficiaries on digital literacy and
Hewlett Packard (HP) Learning Initiative for
Entrepreneurs (LIFE), Nasscom Foundation
and HP said in a statement.
“With this partnership, we aim to
support government’s National Digital
Literacy Mission by setting up five centres
across India to empower learners with
digital literacy, entrepreneurial and
vocational skills,” said Neelam Dhawan,
managing director, HP (India).The cloud
enabled and readily deployable shipping
container classrooms will be equipped with
technology, products, internet and HP LIFE
e-learning solutions.“Nasscom Foundation
is attempting to close the digital divide by
helping individuals harness the power of
smart devices like computers and mobile
phones and fully enjoy the benefits that
come along with the Government’s Digital
India initiative,” said Ganesh Natarajan,
chairman, Nasscom Foundation.
The 40 foot X 9 foot container classrooms
come with a host of benefits.
Once the beneficiaries around an area
where the mobile classroom is located
get trained, it can be moved to a new
location to offer these benefits to a new
set of people in need, the statement said.
The financial burden of construction and
real estate associated with a brick and
mortar classroom are done away with in
this portable format.HP will facilitate the
training infrastructure cost, trainer’s cost
and other operational expenses of the
learning centre, the statement added.The
initiative focuses on helping people living
in economically backward areas to become
skilled in availing the benefits offered by
the social media, e-commerce, internet
and others and get business and vocational
training.
People flee the violence-hit Atali village after clashes broke out, near Ballabgarh
in Faridabad on Thursday. PTI
3
Dayanidhi Maran
shares RTI evidence
with CBI
Delhi court dismisses plea of man
unhappy with probe by cops
New Delhi, June 2 (PTI) Plea of
a man seeking action against six
policemen for allegedly delaying
registering an FIR in an assault case,
has been dismissed by a sessions
court which said if a person is not
satisfied with the probe, it does
not mean police officials have
committed an offence.
Additional Sessions Judge Raj
Kumar Tripathi dismissed the
revision plea of Brij Nandan Gupta,
a South Delhi resident, that five
persons who had allegedly injured
him in 2004, had secured bail by
fraud with support of cops who tried
to damage his case by not recording
his statement properly.
“Prima facie, it appears that
revisionist (Gupta) has grievances
against the investigating agency for
not conducting the probe properly
and for dereliction of their duty.
“Metropolitan Magistrate has
rightly observed that if a person is
not satisfied with the investigation,
the same does not mean that the
police officials have committed
offence. Case is yet to be decided
by court of competent jurisdiction,”
the judge said while upholding
the trial court’s order dismissing
his complaint against the cops.
The sessions court noted that the
assault case against the five accused
persons is pending before a trial
court, hence it would be premature
to observe at this stage that the
matter has not been investigated
properly.
“The
court
of
competent
jurisdiction is yet to take a call
regarding merits of the case and
role of police involved in the case at
different stages of investigation,” it
said.
“No palpable error, infirmity,
Indian Horizon, Delhi
City
illegality or impropriety is found in
the impugned order...Accordingly,
revision filed by revisionist is
dismissed,” the court said. (More)
PTI AG SCGupta had approached
the trial court against the cops for
allegedly weakening his case and
securing bail for the accused by
fraud.His complaint was dismissed
by a magisterial court in its order
on July 24, last year after which he
moved sessions court.
Gupta had alleged that five accused
brothers -- Anil, Pradeep, Rajkumar,
Vinod, Naresh -- had inflicted
injuries on him in 2004 after which
he had approached the police to
register an FIR against them under
section 326 (voluntarily causing
grievous hurt) of IPC. He alleged
that the cops did not record his
statement properly, delayed the
registration of FIR and tried to
weaken and damage his case.
He further alleged that the police
officials,
including
two
head
constables, two sub-inspectors and
two constables were hand-in-glove
with the alleged assaulters who had
beaten him up, and said they tried
to suppress the facts and played
fraud upon the system to secure
bail.Gupta had alleged that five
accused brothers -- Anil, Pradeep,
Rajkumar, Vinod, Naresh -- had
inflicted injuries on him in 2004
after which he had approached the
police to register an FIR against
them under section 326 (voluntarily
causing grievous hurt) of IPC. He
alleged that the cops did not record
his statement properly, delayed
the registration of FIR and tried to
weaken and damage his case.
The case of assault against the five
accused is pending before another
sessions court.
Delhi, July 2 (IANS) Former communications
minister Dayanidhi Maran shared some RTI
replies of BSNL and MTNL with the CBI during
questioning on the second day on Thursday in the
case involving the installation of over 700 phone
lines at his Chennai residence.
Maran, who reached the Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI) headquarters around 10.45
a.m., was examined by the Special Task Force (STF)
between 11 a.m. and 6 p.m., an official, speaking on
condition of anonymity, told IANS.
The STF officials had reportedly asked Maran, a
communications minister in the first Congressled United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government
(2004-07), to provide evidence of his innocence,
as he faced them for seven-and-a half hours on
Wednesday.As per instructions of the CBI sleuths,
the minister gave them a bunch of Right To
Information (RTI) replies collected from the BSNL
and MTNL.
Maran accepted that he provided the RTI replies
from MTNL and BSNL in his defence to the CBI
officials during his seven-hour interrogation.
“I was given an opportunity to give some good
evidences which I have collected through RTI
from BSNL and MTNL, which clearly says that
one ISDN PRI connection is only one connection
and not three hundred connections as claimed
earlier,” Dayanidhi Maran told IANS after his
questioning at the CBI headquarters. “Similarly,
I have given much more information which was
all received through RTI,” he added.Maran said
he was cooperating with the CBI officials and was
ready to answer their questions any time. “I also
assure them that in future also I will cooperate and
come any time to answer their questions.”The loss
to the public exchequer is now being put at Rs.1.80
crore rather than the earlier quoted figure of Rs.440
crore.The STF staff of the CBI, who had registered
an FIR in the case on July 23, 2013, on Thursday
again questioned Maran with a new list of over 300
questions.The STF team is probing the installation
of over 700 phone lines, including 323 high data
capacity BSNL lines, being used at his Boat House
residence in Chennai to benefit the Sun TV group,
owned by his elder brother Kalanithi Maran.
Nadda launches National Health
Innovations portal
New Delhi, July 2 (IANS) Union Health Minister
J.P. Nadda on Thursday inaugurated the
National Health Innovations Portal and urged
all the states to give priority to innovations for
better outcomes in the area of healthcare.
He also launched NHP Voice Web, which is a
24X7 toll free helpline (1800-180-1104), where
the caller can get authentic health tips on
various topics ranging from handy health tips,
disease based information and government
health policies, a statement said here..This
advanced system is capable of recognising
user voice input and gives information in five
languages -- English, Hindi, Tamil, Bangla and
Gujarati.
Nadda said the intent of using telephone
technology as a medium to disseminate
information was to reach out to masses
in remote locations, where there was no
internet access, thus overcoming the barrier
of illiteracy.The launch was done during the
inauguration of a three-day national summit
on best practices and innovations in healthcare
in India.“Superior outcomes in health care in
India will be better achieved with innovations
in health practices and products, and I urge
states to give priority to innovations and best
practices,” Nadda said.
On the occasion, he also released guidelines
prepared by the health ministry for the Rogi
Kalyan Samitis functioning in the states and
for disbursal of free drugs in the states.
He also launched NHP Voice Web, which is a
24X7 toll free helpline (1800-180-1104), where
the caller can get authentic health tips on
various topics ranging from handy health tips,
disease based information and government
health policies, a statement said here.
Friday, July 3, 2015
SC declines information on judges’
medical expenses
New Delhi, July 2 (IANS) The Supreme
Court on Thursday dismissed an RTI
activist’s plea for information on the
reimbursement of medical expenses
of the apex court’s sitting and retired
judges and their families in the last
three years.
“We are using the public money
for medical treatment that we are
entitled to,” said the apex court bench,
comprising Chief Justice H.L. Dattu,
Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Amitava
Roy, dismissing the petition by Right to
Information activist Subhash Chandra
Agarwal.
“Where does it stop? You must respect
the privacy of the judges,” Chief Justice
Dattu observed as the petitioner’s
counsel Prashant Bhushan tried to
persuade the court that reimbursement
of medical expenses of judges and
their families are made from the public
exchequer, thus disclosure of this
information is covered under the Right
to Information Act.“The reimbursement
of medical expenses of judges is paid out
of the consolidated fund of India. Can it
be said that it has no relationship with
the public activity and public interest?”
Bhushan said to the court.
Bhushan said there could not be two
yardsticks -- one for judges and other
for public servants - and if the apex
court was to uphold the Delhi High
Court order of April 17, 2015, rejecting
the petitioner’s plea, it would create a
“bad precedent”.
“It would not only create a bad law but
send a wrong message to society.”
“The information sought by the
appellant (Agarwal) includes the details
of the medical facilities availed by the
individual judges. The same being
personal information, we are of the
view that providing such information
would undoubtedly amount to invasion
of privacy,” the Supreme Court bench
said.
Union Minister for Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Drinking Water and
Sanitation, Chaudhary Birender Singh going around after inaugurating the
Indovation-III for Drinking Water and Sanitation Technologies in New Delhi on
Thursday. PTI
Woman, paramour arrested for
stabbing husband to death
New Delhi, June 2 (Agencies) A woman
and her paramour have been arrested
for stabbing her 40-year-old husband to
death in the Delhi Cantonment area a few
days ago, the police said on Wednesday.
The victim was killed for objecting to the
affair between the 35-year-old woman and
her boyfriend Arjun Ekka, who is 10 years
younger to him.
On the night of June 19, the woman
called Arjun to her home and he allegedly
stabbed the victim, Babu Lal, who was in
an inebriated state at that time.
Babu’s body was found next morning on
the roadside, not very far from his home in
Old Nangal.
“Initial investigation revealed that the
body was shifted from the crime scene.
A murder case was registered at the
Delhi Cantonment police station and an
investigation initiated,” said RA Sanjeev,
Deputy Commissioner of Police (SouthWest).It was learnt during the probe
that Arjun frequently visited Babu’s
house. Neighbours told the police that
they suspected him of having an illicit
relationship with Babu’s wife.
“The woman was questioned and she
confessed to her involvement in the
murder with the help of her lover,” said
Mr. Sanjeev.She was arrested last Thursday
and based on information provided by her,
Arjun was nabbed in his hometown in
Odisha a couple of days later.
Arjun and Babu’s wife hail from Sundergarh
in Odisha.
They were in a relationship even before
she came to Delhi in search of a job and got
married to Babu in 2009, said the police.
In 2014, Arjun too came to Delhi looking
for a job and began working as a security
guard.
Gujarat govt’s three-day ‘Chintan Shibir’
from tomorrow
Doctors Split Cadaver Liver to
Save 2 Lives in Delhi
Upcoming metro stations will have
toilets in paid area
Ahmedabad, Jul 2 (PTI) To address some of the key issues concerning the state,
Gujarat government will organise a three-day brainstorming session, called ‘Chintan
Shibir’, for its ministers and key officials from tomorrow.
This will be the 8th edition of ‘Chintan Shibir’. Last such session was organised in
2011 when Narendra Modi was the Chief Minister.All the ministers, parliamentary
secretaries, senior secretaries of various departments, IAS officers, collectors, district
development officers and other key officers will take part in the three-day event,
which will be held in Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar from tomorrow, an official
release said.On the first day, state Chief Minister Anandiben Patel will inaugurate
the event by her address.On July 4 and 5, ministers and officials will take part in
four panel discussions and seven different group discussions, it said.Subjects for
these panel discussions include improvement in the quality of primary education,
issues related to human resources in public health sector, implementation of mobile
governance and steps to eliminate malnutrition in the state.
NEW DELHI, June 2 (PTI) In a rare surgery, doctors at
a city hospital split cadaver liver of a 32-year-old brain
dead patient and gave one lobe each to two persons in
dire need of a liver transplant, thus giving them a fresh
lease of life.The donor had sustained brain haemorrhage
in Dubai in May this year and was operated upon there
but to no avail. He was shifted to Indraprastha Apollo
hospitals in India where neuro-surgeons declared him
brain dead at arrival, said Dr Shaleen Agarwal, senior
consultant at the department of Liver Transplant Surgery
at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals. His family consented to
donate his organs and doctors split his liver and gave one
lobe to a 29-year-old man from Jalandhar who suffered
from chronic alcoholic liver failure and had been on the
transplant list for five months. According to the doctors,
he would not have survived if he hadn’t been operated
upon in next two-three months.
The other half of the liver went to a 42-year-old woman, a
Delhi resident who had a chronic liver failure and was on
the transplant list for a year.
Explaining the uniqueness of the case, Dr Subash Gupta,
Chief Liver Surgeon at the hospital said that as the two
parts of a liver are not equal, surgeons use the right half
for an adult patient and the other half for a small child.
“Cadaveric liver are very rarely split and used for two
adults with advanced liver disease as the left lobe is the
smaller portion and may not be enough to sustain the
person,” said Dr Gupta.In this case the doctors split the
liver into two halves before taking it out.“The surgery
took place on June 3. Before taking out the liver, we split
it into two halves. The natural anatomy of the liver is such
that it has two lobes and we separated them through a
specialised surgery and the right lobe was retrieved as a
conventional modified right lobe graft and transplanted
in the man while the left one went to the woman.
New Delhi, June 2 (Agencies) Ever had to answer a nature’s call during a
metro ride and found it almost impossible to locate a toilet in the station?
Well, the task is now going to get easier as all upcoming metro stations under
the Phase III project will have toilets in the paid area.Besides, the Delhi Metro
Rail Corporation (DMRC) is also going to add 30 new public toilet utilities
(PTUs) in its existing stations apart from renovating 20 others.“All 90 stations
coming up under Phase III will have PTUs in the paid area, that is, inside the
AFC gates. There will be separate toilets for the physically handicapped, male
and female commuters. In the new stations, one would be able to use toilets
quite near to platforms,” said a DMRC spokesperson.
However, the public transporter made it clear that it has no plans to install
free drinking water facilities as “it is not a usual practise anywhere in the
world.” At present such facility is available only in three stations namely,
Patel Chowk, Patel Nagar and Janakpuri East.
Though toilets have been present in all metro stations, commuters have always
complained about it being inaccessible. At present, there are 162 sets of PTUs
in the city’s metro network, but they are mostly located at obscure places in
the unpaid area of the station premises.In several stations like Pragati Maidan
and Jhandewalan Extension, the washrooms are located on the roadside.
Interestingly, the DMRC had never planned PTUs in its initial projects. It was
only later that it had started to convert staff toilets or staff utility rooms into
toilets.
Women and senior citizens are the worst affected by filthy conditions of these
facilities. “Maintenance of these utilities is also extremely poor. Not only are
they unhygienic and dirty, but many have broken seats and flushes which
do not work,” said Zerlene Rahman, a frequent traveller. Another commuter
rued about the lack of signage which mostly compels a person to move helterskelter searching for a toilet. Stations like Khan Market, Patel Chowk, Rajiv
Chowk, Karol Bagh among several others were found to be completely illmaintained.
Facilities in stations like Kashmere Gate, Rajiv Chowk, Kanhaiya Nagar, INA
station, Rajouri Garden, Patel Nagar, Janakpuri East, Pragati Maidan, Noida
Sector – 15, Noida Sector – 16, Noida Sector – 18, Vaishali, Dilshad Garden,
Noida City Centre, Moti Nagar, Race Course, Jhandewalan and Ramesh Nagar
will see a facelift.
People shift to safe places from a flooded village along a river in
Moradabad district on Thursday. PTI
Indian Horizon Delhi
4
Nation
Friday July 3, 2015
Maharashtra move on madrassas
contradicts PM’s vision: Congress
Women click pictures with Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar “Har
Ghar Dastak”, his door to door campaign for the state elections, in
Patna on Thursday. PTI
from Mokama to custody till
July 15 in the case relating to the
murder of one Sanjay Singh in
2008.The JD(U) MLA from Mokama was brought to the CJM
Patna, Jul 2 (PTI) Janata court for production from Beur
Dal(U) MLA Anant Singh was jail in the case which had been
today remanded to judicial cus- lodged with Kotwali police statody by a district court in a sev- tion in 2008.Singh is in jail in a
en-year-old murder case.
case of kidnapping of a builder
Chief Judicial Magistrate of Raju Singh under Bihta police
Patna, Bharat Singh, sent the station of rural Patna district in
‘bahubali’ (muscleman) MLA November last year.
Another case
against Anant
Singh
Mumbai, July 2 (IANS) The Maharashtra government’s alleged move not
to treat madrassas as schools in case
they failed to teach primary subjects
came in for criticism on Thursday from
state party leaders of both the Congress
and the Samajwadi Party.
The move was “diametrically contradictory” to Prime Minister Narendra
Modi’s declared vision to bring Muslim
youths into the national mainstream,
said M. Naseem Khan, a Congress leader and a former minister for minority
affairs.
“In the 2012 Gujarat assembly elections, modernisation of madrassas was
included in the BJP’s election manifesto. Modi spoke about this in parliament.
In the union budget for 2015-2016, the
Centre allocated Rs.100 crore for this
noble cause. Now, the Maharashtra
government is talking like this,” he
said.“The government has not accorded them recognition; so where’s the
question of derecognising them? Such
statements will have no impact and the
good education imparted in madrassas
will continue unhindered,” said Khan
while referring to the alleged move to
“derecognise” approximate 1,900 madrassas across the western Indian state.
The ruling BJP-Shiv Sena government has decided to “derecognise” the
madrassas in the state as formal schools
since they only impart religious education.
Defending the move, state Education
Minister Vinod Tawde said the government wants to bring in modern subjects
in madrassas without interfering with
the religious education.“How is that
anti-Muslim? We want to do this for
AFSPA to be revoked in J&K when
situation is conducive, says Rajnath Singh
Srinagar July 2 (PTI): The controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act
(AFSPA) will be revoked in Jammu and
Kashmir when the situation is conducive, Union Home Minister Rajnath
Singh said on Thursday.
“I want to say that the situation
should be such, and I pray to Almighty,
that AFSPA should not be needed anywhere in the country. We will need cooperation of one and all to achieve this
goal,” Singh told reporters.
The Home Minister, who was
speaking after paying obeisance at the
Amarnath cave shrine in south Kashmir Himalayas, also ruled out talks
with separatists.
Singh’s remarks on AFSPA came a
day after BJP’s alliance partner PDP hit
out at Union Minister Jitendra Singh
for disfavouring withdrawal of the
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh paying obeisance at the Hazratbal
shrine in Srinagar on Thursday. PTI
Act in Jammu and Kashmir, terming
his statement “obnoxious and having
unacceptable and unpardonable undertones”.Jitendra Singh, who is a BJP
Lok Sabha member from Jammu and
Kashmir’s Udhampur constituency,
Nepali man held for raping,
sodomising daughters, son
Panaji, July 2 (IANS) In a shocking incident, A Nepali national was arrested on Thursday by Goa Police
for raping and sodomising his biological daughter, a
stepdaughter and sodomising his stepson, all of them
minors.
Police said the accused 39-year-old casual labourer was arrested after the school in which the three
children were admitted to in South Goa’s Vasco subdistrict, noticed something amiss in their body language whenever they were in the proximity of male
teachers.“We have arrested the accused.
Formal statements of the victims are currently being recorded,” South Goa Superintendent of Police
Shekhar Prabhudesai told IANS.
The Nepali man has been booked for rape, sodomy
and assault under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Goa Children’s Act.The accused’s
daughter is seven years old, stepdaughter is 11, and
stepson is 13 years old, police said.
Police said the Nepali man had travelled to Goa
from Chandigarh, where he was living with his previous wife, with who he had a daughter, the eldest of
the three who have been sexually assaulted.
“He came from Chandigarh to Goa a couple of
years back with his daughter and married another
woman, who already had two children,” a police official said.
“When the school authorities noticed the unusual
body language, they called a counsellor who managed to convince the children to share the story, following which the first information report was filed,”
the official said.
Kashmir, today said the stakeholders
will have to cooperate in order to ensure that the act is revoked.
Revocation of the AFSPA is part of
the ‘Agenda of Alliance’ -- the common minimum programme on which
the PDP formed government with the
BJP in Jammu and Kashmir.“While
both parties have historically held a
different view on the AFSPA and the
need for it in the State at present, as
part of the agenda for governance of
this alliance, the coalition government
will examine the need for de-notifying
‘disturbed areas’.
“This, as a consequence, would enable the Union Government to take a
final view on the continuation of AFSPA in these areas,” the agenda reads.
Asked if the Centre had any plans to
hold talks with separatist groups in
Jammu and Kashmir, Rajnath Singh
said, “We have no proposal to hold
talks with the separatists in Jammu
and Kashmir.
KOLKATA July 2 (PTI): West
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata
Banerjee today visited landslidehit areas in Darjeeling district of
West Bengal, where 38 people
were killed.
“Visited the spot where landslide was worst. Met families
of victims and those affected
in the area. Handed over more
cheques to families. Distributed
relief and visited community
centres where affected families
are,” Ms Banerjee said in a statement. ”The 3 community kitchens are open. Met more people
affected there. The Chief Secretary, Home Secretary, DG Police also visited,” she said.Since
Tuesday night, heavy rain triggered a string of landslides in the
New Delhi, July 2 (IANS) Prime
Minister Narendra Modi “will have to
pay a heavy price in the coming days”
for ignoring rising cases of corruption involving BJP leaders, the CPI-M
warned on Thursday.
“There should be no surprise at
the corruption and the rapidity with
which it has surfaced in BJP-led governments, both at the centre and in
the states,” said an editorial in CPI-M
journal “People’s Democracy”.
“Corruption is inbuilt in the neoliberal regime which has spawned a
big business-politician-bureaucrat
nexus. Crony capitalism is inherent
in such a set-up,” it said. “In fact,
with the more aggressive push for
neo-liberal policies and privatisation
the scope for corruption and loot has
increased manifold,” added the Com-
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee speaks to landslide victims at a relief camp in Mirik in Darjeeling on Thrusday.
PTI
mountainous Darjeeling district
of West Bengal, killing at least
38 people, swamping homes,
washing away highways and
throwing normal life out of gear
in the region famed for aromatic
Punjab adopts Meghalya
model to curb child labour
Chandigarh, Jul 2 (PTI) Punjab government
today adopted the Meghalya model to curb
child labour under which provisions will be of Rs
20,000 as fine and three months imprisonment
to offenders.A meeting under the chairmanship
of Sukesh Kalia, Chairman, Punjab State Com-
Mumbai-Newark service on
Monday.The flight delay took
place when Pravin Pardeshi,
principal secretary in the Chief
Minister’s Office, who was also
travelling in the entourage,
was stopped from boarding as
he was not carrying his passport with a valid US visa.
“If at all any report that has
been submitted states that I
refused to travel without my
delegation, then it is a blatant
lie because passengers sitting
besides and behind me are
witness that I was sitting quietly waiting for departure. Not
even once I asked to offload
me,” Fadnavis tweeted.
Members of SFI and other Left students unions block the
road in front of Calcutta University to protest against the
State Government for allegedly heckling professor and non
teaching staff of the university, in Kolkata on Thursday. PTI
Kolkata, Jul 2 (PTI) A day
after Calcutta University (CU)
professors were heckled by
alleged Trinamool Congress
tea.Ms Banerjee had rushed to
Siliguri from Murshidabad yesterday also and announced a
compensation of Rs. 4 lakh each
to the families of the deceased in
landslides in Darjeeling Hills.
mission for the Protection of Child Rights was
held.It was recommended that a notice containing the provision of Child Labour (Prohibition
and Regulation) Act 1986 that a child below the
age of 14 years indulged in arduous and hazardous jobs or labour is considered a crime, an official said.
“The offenders are liable to a fine of Rs 20,000
and three months imprisonment”, he said.
Professors, teaching staff
take out rally in Kolkata
Chhatra Parishad activists,
the teaching fraternity took to
the streets here today in protest against it.The protesters
New Delhi, July 2 (IANS) Devyani Khobragade, the 1999-batch IFS officer whose
arrest and handcuffing in New York in 2013
over alleged visa fraud led to souring in IndiaUS ties, has been reinstated as director in the
ministry of external affairs, a few months after she was stripped of her duties and placed
on “compulsory wait”.
Khobragade has been made director in
the ministry’s States division since February, said sources.Khobragade was stripped
of her responsibilities with the ministry in
December last year after she gave interviews
to the media in which she termed a vigilance
inquiry against her as unfair.
The vigilance case against Khobragade was
on charges that she failed to disclose that her
husband was a US citizen and that she has
got US passports for her two children.The
then Indian consul general was arrested in
New York in 2013 on charges of ill-treating
her domestic help Sangeeta Richards and
visa fraud.
Modi will suffer for ignoring
corruption: CPI-M
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata
Banerjee Visits Landslide-Affected Areas
Flight delay row: Fadnavis
threatens defamation cases
Mumbai, July 2 (IANS) Irked
by reports that he was allegedly
responsible for delaying an Air
India flight to the US, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday hit
back with threats to file criminal defamation cases.“Enough
is enough. Once I am back to
India I will initiate proceedings
of criminal defamation,” Fadnavis warned in a tweet during his ongoing business tour
of the US.“The allegation that
I forced to delay the flight to
New York is false & misleading.
I totally deny it,” a tweet said
after the controversy erupted
on the 57-minute delay to the
had disfavoured partial withdrawal of
AFSPA in the state and underlined that
the last word on this would come only
from the security agencies and not
from political functionaries.Rajnath
Singh, who was on a two-day visit to
their betterment... Under the Right to
Education, children who aren’t taught
under National School Curriculum are
considered out of school,” Tawde said.
The move -- on which Chief Minister
Devendra Fadnavis has not commented so far -- evoked a sarcastic response
from Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil: “Is it a decision taken
in haste, or a well thought about decision?”
The move could deprive madrassas of funds for improvisation, unless
they get affiliated to a formal board
like the Maharashtra education board,
Indian Certificate of Secondary Education or Central Board of Secondary
Education and include subjects like science, maths and social studies in their
curriculum.“We have never asked for
funds from them (government).
Khobragade reinstated
as director in MEA
also questioned the alleged
silence of Vice-chancellor
Suranjan Das over the assault
on professors in front of him
yesterday.
The professors, who were
joined by the non teaching
staff, took out a rally from
Rajabazar Science College, a
premier institute in the city,
to the famed College Square
about 2 km away, wearing
black masks and carrying
placards denouncing the alleged assault.“We are out on
the streets to protest against
yesterday’s barbaric assault
on teachers by TMCP goons
inside the campus of Calcutta university,” said Shyamal
Chakraborty, a member of
‘Save University - Save Democracy’.
munist Party of India-Marxist. “Modi
has been wilfully blind to this phenomenon. He will have to pay a heavy
price for this in the coming days.”
The editorial, titled ‘Spreading
Stain of Corruption’, referring to the
allegations of corruption and impropriety hurled against Rajasthan Chief
Minister Vasundhara Raje, External
Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj as
well as Maharashta BJP ministers
Pankaja Munde and Vinod Tawde.
The journal said the “stain of corruption, nepotism and crony capitalism is enveloping the Modi government and the BJP state governments”.
It pointed out how Modi and the BJP
had made the massive corruption under the UPA government their main
plank in the Lok Sabha election campaign.
ED attaches land
worth Rs 1,000
crore in US in loan
fraud case
Ahmedabad July 2 (PTI): The
Ahmedabad zonal unit of Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached
1,280 acres of land, worth Rs 1,000
crore, in California, USA, in connection with an alleged bank loan fraud.
For the first time ED had taken such
an action in USA, an official said.
“ED Indore attaches under PMLA
(Prevention of Money Laundering
Act) 1280 acres of land in California,
USA, of Zoom Developers Pvt Ltd
and Vijay Chaudhary in bank fraud
case,” the central agency tweeted
today.Indore falls under the juris-
diction of ED, Ahmedabad, official
said. ED officials said this was one of
the biggest bank loan frauds in the
country.
After suspecting the role played by
some of the banks in granting loans,
the CBI had also initiated a separate
probe, officials said.Zoom Developers, promoted by Vijay Chaudhary,
operates from Indore and Mumbai.
Chaudhary, who is absconding, had
taken loans of Rs 2,200 crore from
various banks for realty projects in
Europe.
However, no project was ever
undertaken and the money was allegedly siphoned off by Chaudhary.
Last month, one of the directors of
the company, Sharad Kabra, was
arrested by the Indore ED. An arrest warrant has been issued against
Chaudhary.
JD(U) launches campaign song
for upcoming Bihar elections
Patna, Jul 2 (PTI) Banking on
catchy tunes and exuberant lyrics,
JD(U) today released its campaign
song ‘Bihar mein bahaar ho, Nitishe Kumar ho’ (Let there be prosperity in Bihar, let there be only
Nitish Kumar) for the forthcoming
Assembly elections in the state.
The song was made public by
state JD(U) president Vashistha
Narayan Singh amid much fanfare
simultaneously with the launch of
‘Har ghar dastak’ campaign of the
party.
Music for the song has been
composed by Sneha Khanwalkar
of ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ and ‘Oye
Lucky Oye’ fame, besides the songwriter Raj Shekhar, known for his
lyrics in Tanu Weds Manu. Neeti
Mohan and Ghunghroo are the vocalists.
JD(U) insiders said the song was
prepared after a research of twoand-a-half months under guidance
of Prashant Kishore, who was formerly associated with innovative
social outreach strategies during
Narendra Modi’s prime ministerial
campaign and now hired by Bihar
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to
spearhead JD(U)’s poll campaign
in the state.The 4.21 minute-long
song has been tailor made to showcase developments made in Bihar
over the last 10 years during which
Kumar was at the helm of affairs.
It uses the word ‘Nitishe’ which in
colloquial language means ‘only
Nitish’.
“The song showcases the developmental efforts by the government, hints at how the downslide
of the state stopped and an upward
movement started. It points at the
way pride has been brought to Bihar and how there is nobody else
like Nitish Kumar,” a leader associated with JD(U) poll campaign said.
By straightaway connecting ‘bahaar’ (prosperity) and development
with Nitish Kumar in the state, the
song tries to stymie the BJP, which
will definitely bank on its slogan for
a change in governance in the coming elections.
As poll campaign songs cannot
leave politics untouched, this one
too goes on to talk about ‘Bhoomi
ka sapoot, bhoomi bachayega’ (the
son of the soil will save land) pointing to the land acquisition bill being
pushed by the BJP-led government
at the Centre.
Indian Horizon, Delhi
Short Takes
2 kgs gold seized
from air passenger
Chennai, Jul 2 (PTI): Two kilos of gold allegedly smuggled
here from Singapore was seized
today and the accused has been
detained, Airport officials said.
Acting on a tip off, Air Intelligence Unit officials detained
Ikander Hayathullah as soon as
he arrived here from Singapore.
During questioning he told
them that he had hidden the
gold behind his seat in the aircraft and it was recovered and
seized. Further inquiries are on,
they said.
64 Star tortoises
seized, man
detained at airport
Chennai, July 2 (PTI): As
many as 64 star tortoises, a
protected wildlife species, was
seized from a man at the airport
here today just before he was to
board a flight to Malaysia, airport officials said.
Naina Mohammed Yasin
was detained by Customs authorities before his departure to
Kuala Lumpur by a Malaysian
Airlines flight after it was found
that he had 64 star tortoises hidden in his baggage.
He would be handed over to
Forest Department officials for
further enquiry and appropriate action, they said.
Duo wearing helments
snatch chain from
old woman
Coimbatore, Jul 2 (PTI): Two
helmet wearing men on a bike
snatched a four and half sovereign gold chain from a septugenerain woman at Peelamedu
today, police said.
The 75-year-old woman was
going to dispose night waste in
a dustbin near her house when
they accosted her, snatched the
chain and fled.
Before she could raise an
alarm and alert neighbours, the
duo managed to escape, they
said. A hunt is on to nab them,
police said.
‘Rope in banks,
industrial houses to
maintain schools’
Puducherry, July 2 (PTI):
Lt Governor of Puducherry Lt
General (retired) A K Singh has
urged education department
officials to associate industrial
houses and banks to strengthen
infrastructure in government
schools by using funds under
`Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) scheme.
Speaking after meeting the
officials at Raj Nivas yesterday to identify needs of the
schools and to evolve plans to
tone teachers’ skills, he said
infrastructure was essential for
schools. He stressed the need to
make available toilets and safe
drinking water. posts of teachers remaining vacant should be
filled at the earliest, he said
A meeting at the level of Chief
Secretary to government should
be held with officials of industrial houses and banks to ensure that they use funds under
CSR to tone up basic infrastructure in schools, he said.
FICCI Workshop on
ZED model on July 8
Kozhikode, Jul 2 (PTI): With
a focus on making the MSME
in Kozhikode and Malabar in
particular aware about the
ZED model, a workshop on
“ZED Model - Zero Defect
Zero Effect” will be here on
July 8 by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce
and Industry (FICCI).
The programme, organised in
association with Quality Council of India (QCI) and Malabar
Chamber of Commerce and
Calicut Chamber of Commerce
and Industry, will be inaugurated by K Sudhir, Additional
Director, Department of Industries and Commerce of the state
government, a press release
from the FICCI state council
said today.
It is intended to give a major
fillip to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision to manufacture products with “zero defect”
in terms of quality and with
“zero effect” in terms of environmental impact under “Make
in India” umbrella, it said.
Stalin accused of
slapping metro
passenger incident
Chennai, Jul 2 (PTI): DMK
leader M K Stalin was in the
midst of a controversy today
after a video showed him allegedly slapping a fellow passenger
on board a metro train here.
“I did not slap him, I only gestured him to move away from
a woman whose feet was being
trampled by the passenger.
My hand (inadvertently)
touched his face while gesturing,” Stalin told PTI when asked
on the issue.
Video footages of Stalin allegedly slapping a passenger in a
metro train yesterday went viral
today with Tamil Nadu Chief
Minister Jayalalithaa condemning the incident.
“This is strongly condemnable, such an uncivilised behaviour is unbecoming of an
MLA,” the AIADMK supremo
said in a statement.
DMK leader Stalin
accuses TN Chief
Electoral Officer
of bias
Chennai, Jul 2 (PTI): DMK
treasurer M K Stalin today accused Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer of being biased in
favour of ruling AIADMK in the
June 27 bypoll in R K Nagar,
from where Chief Minister Jayalalithaa won by a huge margin.
“He is a government official, an IAS officer and was
vested with the responsibility
of working without any party
bias,” he said.
“Sandeep Saxena (Chief
Electoral Officer) however
worked more than AIADMK
ministers and MLAs for the
victory of Chief Minister Jayalalithaa (in RK Nagar constituency),” he alleged.
“He has to soon answer for all
these and that time will come
soon,” he told reporters here.
Six arrested for
murder of Dalit
engineer; hunt on
for 3 more
Namakkal (TN) July 2 (PTI):
Six persons were arrested here
today in connection with the
death of a Dalit engineer, whose
body was found on the railway
track near Pallipallayam in the
district on June 27, police said.
One among the arrested was
a college student, they said,
adding a hunt was on for three
others.
The death of Gokulraj (26)
had triggered protests by his
family here who had gone on an
indefinite fast on June 29, along
with some Dalit outfits, demanding a CBI probe and that
a case of murder be registered,
instead of suspicious death as
initally done by Railway police.
They had alleged that it was
an honour killing as the youth
was in love with a girl of another caste.
5
Nation
Friday, July 3, 2015
Lokayukta corruption Jaya dismisses DMK’s
claims of initiating
row: Oppn mounts
pressure for CBI probe Chennai metro rail
Belagavi, Jul 2 (PTI):
Keeping up pressure for removal of Lokaykuta Bhaskar
Rao and a CBI probe into alleged bribery scandal in the
anti-graft body, Opposition
BJP and JDS members today staged a walkout from
the Legislative Council, accusing the government of
shielding the corrupt.
As the House proceedings began, BJP and JDS
sought to move an adjournment motion on the
scandal that has rocked the
Lokayukta office and demanded removal of Rao, alleging his son was involved
in corruption amounting
to crores of rupees.
In their joint notice for
adjournment motion, both
parties said several social
organisations, legal fraternity and its associations
had expressed their dismay
against the “corrupt” Lokayukta which was weakening
the very institution and he
should be removed.
As BJP leader K S Eshwarappa began speaking, he
was interrupted frequently
by the ruling Congress
members which enraged his
party members who staged
a walkout, followed by their
counterparts in JDS also.
Minister and Leader of
the House S R Patil told reporters it is very unfortunate
that BJP and JD(S) members
walked out only because
some from the ruling bench
interrupted them.
“The government has no
intention of protecting anyone. But government has no
power for removal of Lokayukta as per the Lokayukta
Act 1984,” he said.
Later, Eshwarappa told reporters that the government
should seek opinion from
legal experts on the charges
levelled against Lokayukta.
A situation had arisen
Youth fighting corruption
murdered;BJP demands
debate in Assembly
Belagavi (Karnataka), July 2
(PTI): Opposition BJP today demanded discussion in the assembly on alleged murder of a youth
in Koppal district who spoke
against corruption, charging that
the district in charge Minister was
“shielding those involved.”
Leader of Opposition Jagadish
Shettar raised the issue and requested the chair to allow discussion on it. “Goondagiri is on the
rise in Koppal district, where a
youth named Yellalinga was killed
for speaking against corruption.
We had heard of such killings in
where all officers are
scared of Lokayukta due
to threat from his son, Eshwarappa said. The was
protecting a corrupt Lokayukta, he alleged.
JDS senior member Basavarj Horatti wanted to know
as to why government is
protecting the Lokayukta.
An FIR was filed yesterday against the Lokayukta’s son in connection
with the alleged scandal
on the basis of a complaint
that an executive engineer
was asked to pay Rs 1 crore
bribe to avoid a raid.
Rao, a former High Court
Chief Justice, has rejected
allegations that his son was
involved in the scandal and
said he would resign if the
charge was proved correct.
The case has been handed over to a Special Investigation team by the government on the request by
the Lokayukta.
Bihar earlier, now Koppal is turning into a mini Bihar,” Shettar said.
Alleging a political conspiracy
behind Yellalinga?s killing, Shettar
said “people who are suspected to
be behind his killing are still roaming free. Killers are being shielded by
District in charge Minister (Shivaraj
Tangadagi).” He said police had
earlier declared his death as a case
of suicide, and an FIR was lodged
only after his mother’s demand.
Not agreeing to the opposition?s
demand for immediately taking up
the issue for discussion, Speaker
Kagodu Thimmappa said the debate on demands pertaining to various departments should be taken
up first and the murder issue could
be discussed later.
Chennai, Jul 2 (PTI): Tamil Nadu
Chief Minister Jayalalithaa today
said it was her government which
sowed the seeds for the Chennai
Metro Rail and dismissed claims of
arch rival DMK that it had initiated
the project.
Referring to DMK’s allegations
of delay in execution of the Metro
Project, Jayalalithaa said only three
per cent of the work was completed during 2007-11 by the DMK
regime. “Between 2007 and 2011,
during the DMK regime, only three
per cent of work was done. In the
past four years, 73 per cent of the
work was completed in my government and service between Alandur
and Koyambedu is launched,” she
said in a statement here today.
The feasibility study for the Metro Project was done only in 2003 in
the AIADMK regime, she said.
“It is a pure lie to say that the
plan was devised and executed
expeditiously during the DMK
regime,” she said.
Though DMK was an ally of
the Congress, it could get the
Centre’s nod for the project only
in 2009, she added.
Also, it was only on February
15, 2011 during the fag end of the
DMK tenure that an MoU was
inked among the Centre, State and
Chennai Metro Rail, she said.
While DMK spent only Rs
1,143 crore for the project during its regime, Rs 9,229 had been
spent till date by the AIADMK
government since it assumed
power in 2011, the CM said.
“People will easily understand
that it is the AIADMK regime
which sowed the seeds for Metro Rail Project,” she said adding, DMK leaders M Karunanidhi and Stalin were “confusing”
people to gain political mileage.
She also said that all corridors of
the Metro network would be operational by the end of 2016.
Services between Airport and
Little Mount and from Alandur to
St Thomas Mount will be inaugurated by March next year, she said.
Similarly, services from Koyambedu to Nehru Park would be
operational by June next year,
she added.
RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan addressing a press conference in Chennai on
Thursday. (PTI Photo)
CPI(M) disrupts proceedings of Kerala Assembly once again
Thiruvananthapuram,Jul 2
(PTI): CPI(M) led LDF opposition disrupted proceedings
in the Kerala Assembly today
in protest against alleged delay in distributing textbooks
in
government
schools,
prompting the Speaker to adjourn the House for the day
ahead of the schedule.
The trouble began during
zero hour when the Opposition sought to move an adjournment motion over the
education department’s ‘inefficiency’ in not supplying
the textbooks even a month
after the schools reopened.
LDF also cornered the government over alleged differences between Education
Minister Abdu Rabb and minister in charge of printing K
P Mohanan in finalising the
order of printing of textbooks
to state-run Kerala Books and
Publishing Society.
Replying to the notice,
Rabb assured the House that
the textbooks would be distributed to students by July
20. He also explained the circumstances that led to delay
in completing the printing of
books before June 1, when
schools reopened.
“We tried to use quality papers for printing this year to
make them more attractive.
But scarcity of quality papers
delayed the printing. Besides,
syllabus revision of certain
standards this academic year
also caused the delay,” he said.
He also denied the charge
that printing was purposefully delayed to hand over the
contract to the private sector.
LDF slammed the government, saying it has put the
future of 50 lakh students in
jeopardy by not distributing
textbooks on time.
JD(S) leader Mathew T
Thomas, who moved the notice, said government had
tried to award the printing
contract to a private press
overlooking KBPS.
“It is a clear case of deriliction
of duty on the part of education
and printing departments as
everbody knows that schools
Scorching of plants in coastal
areas due to salt spray: report
Kochi, Jul 2 (PTI): The
scorching of plants reported during this monsoon season from various
parts of Kerala coast is
caused by salt spray, according to a study.
In an interim report,
scientists of Kerala University of Fisheries and
Ocean Studies (KUFOS)
who tested the sea water, soil and plants collected from the affected
areas have ruled out any
chances of heat burst in
Kerala’s coastal belt.
“Environment has low
temperature during the
monsoon season. Heat
bursts are local with a
maximum of three km
stretch and is very rare.
Since this phenomenon
happened all along the
coast of the state, we rule
out the possibilities of heat
burst,” Prof S Suresh Kumar said who is the head
of the committee comprising oceanographers,
geologists, meteorologists,
biologists and chemists.
The report pointed out
that salt nucleus formed
from the salt spray due to
strong wind caused wilting
of plants.
“There is high chance of
salt spray. Aerosols with
high salt content will be
formed by the action of
wind on wave surfing. Intermittent rain and sun
during this monsoon may
have aggravated the situa-
tion,” the report said.
Scientists also observed
that the phenomenon was
a gradual process and people came to know about
this only at a later stage.
Local enquiry confirmed the occurrence of
similar phenomena for
the last several years during
August?September
period, but this year it
happened earlier in June,
claimed the scientists.
“This is more likely to
be an oceanic process
and it should be studied
in detail with reference
to atmospheric, oceanographic and chemical
aspects,” said Dr B Madhusoodana Kurup, Vice
Chancellor of KUFOS.
in Kerala reopen on June 1 after summer vacation and textbooks have to be distributed by
that time,” he said.
He also alleged that the education department had failed
to improve infrastructure of
schools and distribute free uniforms. The minister, however,
maintained that there was no
serious situation in the department that warranted a debate.
Unsatisfied, the opposition
members trooped to the well of
the House and raised slogans.
They continued to protest
sitting on the well, though
Speaker N Sakthan asked
them to return to their seats.
When the protest continued, the Speaker suspended
the proceedings for around
half and hour.
Though he called a meeting of party leaders to end the
stalemate, they failed to arrive at a consensus.
Before announcing the
LDF sit-in protest, Opposition leader V S Achutanandan
said the government had so
far distributed only around
one crore textbooks in place
of five crore.
The Speaker rushed through
other business in the agenda,
including voting on demands
for grants in the budget for the
year 2015-16 for exercise, fisheries, ports, food and stamps
and registration and adjourned
the House.
Burial of dead of Pentecost
Christians: HC disposes petition
Madurai, July 2 (PTI): The Madras High Court today disposed
a petition seeking a direction to
prevent Pentecost faction Christians from ‘burying’ their dead at
the corner of a tank in a village on
the ground that groundwater will
be contaminated.
The bench came down on the
attitude of public in fighting over
even a burial place and said it
could not interfere with the arrangements made by the Dindigul Revenue Divisional officer
to bury Pentecost Christians on
land alloted near a water body at
A.Vellodu village in the district.
“Christianity has no caste system. What is prevalent in Hinduism appears to have percolated
into the Christian religion. Does
the Holy Bible allows this practise? It is left to the conscience of
the practitioners of the religion.”
“Religious belief and customs
may vary in the matter of disposal
of dead bodies. The place of burial
is visited by family members and
friends as a mark of respect and to
pay homage and there should be
no fight there,” the bench, comprising Justices S Manikumar and
G Chockalingam said.
It said considering the ground
reality, the Pentecost faction
could be allowed to bury bodies of their loved ones on a site
allotted above the water tank.
Till a permanent solution was
found, none should raise objections, they said.
Petitioner P.Joseph Raj sought
a direction to restrain officials
from burying the bodies at a corner of the tank as it was the only
water source for the village.
6
BY SUJIT CHAKRABORTY
A
Friday July 3, 2015
Federal constitution with secular
characteristic will provide an ideal
solution to all problems
After long last, there appears to be some light around the proposal in Syria with two fundamental ideas. First idea is to have
a share for each members participating in Syria with a federal
structure building but, Bashar-Al-Assad will have to retire compulsorily and find an exclusive safe refuge for himself. This
is an excellent solution with one difficulty. This will leave untouched the element of promoting sectarianism and there will
be no way to abandon and eradicate the sectarian conflicting
elements in Syrian confederation. Therefore, there must be a
rider to the federal structure that no issue or sectarian element
must be given scope for causing trouble. The sectarian faith
and ideas must be a private convenient provision for individual
happiness, but in the public life of Syria, no issue of any sectarian nature will find expressive importance given to it. In other
fter creating a significant electoral
footprint in Congress-ruled Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur
and Meghalaya, the BJP is inching ahead
in Tripura, the lone Left-ruled state in
the country. The Congress, on the other
hand, is losing its political space in the
northeastern states, once a party stronghold. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
got 7.87 percent of the votes in the May
3 elections to the 30-seat Tripura Tribal
Areas Autonomous District Council.
It secured 23.33 percent votes in bypolls to two Tripura assembly seats, the
highest for the BJP in any election so far
in the state ruled by Communist Party
of India-Marxist-led Left Front. The BJP
bagged 5.7 percent votes in the 2014 Lok
Sabha elections and only 1.54 percent
votes in the 2013 assembly elections in
Tripura. The party managed 115,319
votes in last year’s parliamentary polls
compared with 59,457 votes in the 2009
Lok Sabha elections.
The by-elections to Pratapgarh
and Surma assembly constituencies,
both reserved for candidates from the
scheduled castes, were held on June 27
and results declared on Tuesday. The
by-polls were necessitated by the death
of CPI-M stalwart and former minister
Anil Sarkar (Pratapgarh) and former
minister Sudhir Das (Surma). The CPIM won Pratapgarh for the ninth consecutive time and succeeded in Surma
for the eighth time in a row.
The Left party blamed the Congress,
Trinamool Congress and other non-BJP
parties for BJP’s rise in Tripura. “Congress’ misrule, hypocrisy in fighting
against communal happenings and its
weak political campaign to uphold secu-
words, sectarian part of the confederation or federation will be
positive on the subject of Islamic solidarity with the provision
that any non-Muslim will have their international rights on the
conditions, if they agree to participate in the military service
along with other citizens and then there may be no imposition of Jazia (tax) or any such constitution made compulsory.
Though the idea of Islamic law yet will have no legal sanctity
to make any differences for military services for Muslims and
non-Muslims. In other words, the solution would be based on
Islamic law will be made a part of secular constitution to give
equal rights to all. We will have to again reexamine that no
part of the federation, inspite of being in larger majority will
not prevail on others rights. This will give a new impetus to
take a religious idea to secularize solution in the constitution.
Yet, there may be some other minor elements which can be
overlooked for the moment and the people should be allowed
to frame their own constitution on the principle stated above.
Kashmir enjoys nightlife this Ramzan
BY RUWA SHAH
have started this festival at other places
like Hazratbal and the old city," Akeel told
IANS. The brainchild of the Jammu and
Kashmir ministry of tourism and culture,
the main aim of the food carnival is to celebrate the night culture.
"This festival is a celebration with religious sanctity. Throughout the globe, Ramzan is celebrated with such festivals. So we
decided to bring in the charm to the state,"
Zameer Qadri, a consultant with the ministry, told IANS. "People come in during late
evenings and offer prayers in gatherings.
This way, we are celebrating Ramzan," he
added. As for the citizens, they are thoroughly enjoying the hustle and bustle of the
post-sunset event.
"We have never seen such crowds out during the night. This is amazing," Javid Parsa,
the owner of a local food outlet, told IANS.
Local food outlets also joined the carnival
after witnessing the positive response. Thus,
Parsa also put the stall of his Kathi Junction
outlet in the carnival and said there's a lot
more that can be done. "This is just the beginning. We need to rejoice and celebrate.
Such events and festivals must be organised
in future as well," Parsa said. Apart from
the food, the lights, reverberating religious
songs and mehendi artists for women are
the other attractions. Truly, there is peace
on earth - at least in this little enclave.
IANS
larism in the entire country helped the
BJP to grow,” CPI-M Tripura state committee secretary and party’s central committee member Bijan Dhar told IANS.
Jubilant BJP leaders in Tripura claimed
that they would achieve their goal of electoral victory in the next assembly elections in 2018. “The BJP will be the main
opposition in Tripura now. The party’s
pro-people campaign and struggle, besides Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led
government’s good governance, facilitated the party to steadily go forward in the
northeastern states,” BJP’s national executive member and Tripura unit president
Sudhindra Dasgupta told IANS.
“Since August last, over 15,000 workers
and leaders from different parties, specially the Congress, joined the BJP and
more would join the party soon,” he said.
The Congress, which last ruled Tripura in 1988-1993, admitted the results
were a matter of concern for the party.
“Percentage of votes secured by our
candidates in the by-polls in the two
assembly segments is shocking. We will
introspect our political actions,” Tripura Congress working president Ashis
Kumar Saha said.
The BJP - for the first time - secured
a majority in five gram panchayats and
won 142 seats in several other gram panchayats and panchayat samitis in gram
panchayat elections in July 2014.
Northeast India, considered a stronghold of the Congress as five of the eight
states are currently ruled by the party, is
about to fall into the lap of the BJP and
its allies following the unprecedented
Lok Sabha results in 2014. In the 2014
Lok Sabha polls, of the 25 parliamentary seats in eight northeastern states,
the BJP and its allies got 10 seats and
the Congress eight. In the 2009 polls, the
Congress and its allies secured 14 seats
across the region while the BJP and its
allies managed to win six seats. The BJP
on its own bagged seven seats in Assam,
one seat in Arunachal Pradesh while its
allies -- Naga People’s Front (NPF) in
Nagaland and National People’s Party
(NPP) in Meghalaya got one seat each in
the two northeastern states.
Though the BJP could not win Lok Sabha seats, the party secured record number of votes in Left-ruled Tripura and the
Congress-ruled Manipur and Meghalaya
in the 16th Lok Sabha polls.
The BJP has also won 11 seats in the
60-member Arunachal Pradesh assembly, for which elections were held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls.
“Lack of trustworthy leadership, propeople movement and weak organisational structure is making the Congress irrelevant in northeast India. Central leadership
of the Congress must analyse the party’s
actual base in rural, semi-urban and urban
areas,” political analyst Tapas Dey said.
“The Tripura by-election results appeared
to show a major dent in Congress support
base, with its traditional votes getting divided between the Left Front and a resurgent BJP,” Dey told IANS.
“The writing on the wall had always
been clear because fighting elections
against an organised ruling party like the
CPI-M is always difficult. But Congress
leaders went to Delhi to agitate on flimsy
and backdated issues, leaving the party
candidates in the by-polls in the lurch.
So this was expected,” Dey added. The
Congress faced the ignominy of losing
security deposits in both Tripura assembly seats of Pratapgarh and Surma.
IANS
Europe’s crisis will linger till Euro exists
BY VATSAL SRIVASTAVA
or years, they've tickled the tastebuds
of the national capital's denizens.
Now, for the first time, some of New
Delhi's well-known food outlets have come
together to cheer the people of Kashmir
by serving their delicacies during the holy
month of Ramzan - and that too late into
the night. It's one more sign of peace returning to this troubled land.
From iftaar to sehri - the time during which
Muslims are allowed to eat during Ramzan
- there is much festivity in Kashmir Haat at
Srinagar's Lal Chowk city centre, where food
outlets like Karim's, Khan Chacha, Tunday
Kebab and Hyderabad Sultan Biryani have
put up stalls serving their authentic dishes
to the people of Kashmir.
Surprisingly, the event attracts many patrons even after the sun sets. This is something unusual for the Kashmir Valley as earlier all business outlets were shut down 30
minutes before iftaar.
"We are receiving a huge response. People are coming here even late at night and
that is surprising," Sheikh Samiullah, head
of Loudbeetle - an event management company that has organised the event in collaboration with another company, The Wings,
told IANS. Akeel Hassan, executive director
of The Wings, said the festival has also been
started at other places in Srinagar. "Since
we are receiving very good response, we
Friday July 3, 2015
BJP INCHING AHEAD IN INDIA’S LONE
LEFT BASTION OF TRIPURA
Indian Horizon
F
Indian Horizon Delhi
EDIT
A
great economic experiment began
in 1951 with the formation of the
European Coal and Steel Community. It was an attempt to make war within Europe impossible by establishing
free trade in coal and steel, eliminating
all tariffs and restrictions on cross border
economic shipments.
Ideally, it would ensure that French
steel mills relied on German coal and
vice versa so that any future differences
between the two nations would be extremely destructive economically thereby reducing the possibility of war.
In 1957, the European Economic Community was formed as a customs union
with free trade among its six founding
members -- Belgium, France, Italy, Netherlands, Luxembourg and West Germany. By the mid 1980s, Britain, Ireland,
Denmark, Spain, Portugal and Greece
had joined this group. Free trade from
closer integration undoubtedly led to
economic gains not witnessed for many
decades. But this was more about political integration and European unity.
The idea that a previously war torn
continent can be economically integrated and be a beacon of democracy was
impossible to ignore. European political
leaders were so enthralled by the idea
of a “strong and united Europe” that all
warnings of future asymmetric shocks
and the problems addressing them within a single currency union were ignored.
When the idea of a common currency
was floated, it was politically impossible
to reject. Principles of Economics 101
were abandoned and the Euro was in-
troduced in 1999. This was of course an
economic policy blunder. Consider what
happened after the global housing bubble collapsed starting with the US and
eventually led to housing busts in southern Europe. The housing boom in Spain
was financed by huge inflows of capital from “core Europe” -- most notably
Germany. This boom which eventually
turned out to be a great bubble led to inflation and thus wage increases in Spain.
Wages rose about 30 percent in Spain
compared to only 9 percent in Germany. After the bubble collapsed, Spain
needed to turn its economy away from
construction towards services and manufacturing. But at this point, Spain had
lost its competitive advantage due to the
wide wage differential with Germany
and other neighbours.
Enter the problem of a common currency! With the Euro the only way Spain
could restore competitive advantage was
by cutting wages. But it is almost always
impossible to negotiate lower wages and
workers will always refuse wage cuts and
a lower standard of living. But if Spain
had its own currency, this problem
would have been solved overnight.
The Spanish central bank could have
simply intervened in the foreign exchange markets and devalued its currency versus its competitors in order to
regain competitiveness. The same logic
can be extended to explain the problems
faced by Portugal, Italy, Greece and the
other “non-core” European nations. The
Euro also fails to meet one of the key requisites of an “optimum currency area” -that of labour mobility. Labour does not
move freely within the Eurozone. Even
though Europeans can legally take up
work anywhere in the European Union,
linguistic and cultural divides are are
large enough to put a cap on migration.
How else would one explain 50 percent
youth unemployment in Greece, mass unemployment in Spain and Portugal and
historically low levels of unemployment in
Germany? Such stark contrasts are proof
that the disadvantages of a common currency far outweigh the benefits that have
come Europe’s way by adopting the Euro.
Right now it’s Greece’s problem. But
as we saw at the peak of the debt crisis
(2010-11), it doesn’t take time for much
larger economies such as Spain, Portugal and Italy to be considered close to
junk status. The markets have remained
calm during this “crisis” as they believe
the ECB can limit the contagion from
spreading to other peripheral nations.
But in the long run, the debate won’t be
about the prowess (or the lack) of the IMF’s
economic forecasting models, or the austerity versus fiscal stimulus, of for that matter the ability of the ECB to do “whatever it
takes” or whether the bigger threat to the
Eurozone is inflation or deflation.
European policymakers will soon need
to answer the more fundamental question which is at the heart of Europe’s
problems: How long can the Euro survive? “If the Euro fails, Europe will fail”,
said Angela Merkel in Berlin on Monday.
A Grexit, or a Greek withdrawal, can be
easily absorbed by the financial system.
The great crisis we should prepare for is
the likelihood of a “Euroexit”.
IANS
Facts belie minister's immunisation prediction
BY CHAITANYA MALLAPUR
H
ealth Minister J.P. Nadda sparked
scepticism when he declared on
June 30 that India would reach
the universal immunisation target, or
95 percent of all children, by the end of
2016. The disbelief gets credence because less than four months ago Nadda
told parliament it would take five years to
immunise 90 percent of India’s children.
Only 65 percent of children are now
immunised, the best rate achieved in 38
years since the Universal Immunisation
Programme (UIP), as it is officially called,
was started. It targets 27 million newborn children and 30 million pregnant
women every year.
In India, 500,000 children die of vaccine-preventable diseases because one
in three misses the benefits of full immunisation, according to government
data. “The government has launched
Mission Indradhanush on December
25, 2014 with an aim to cover all those
children who are partially vaccinated or
unvaccinated. The mission focuses on
interventions to rapidly increase full immunisation coverage of children by approximately 5 percent annually, and to
expand full immunisation coverage to at
least 90 percent children in the next five
years,” Nadda said in reply to a question
in the Rajya Sabha on March 10, 2015.
The current rate of immunisation has
risen to 65.2 percent (2013-14) from 35.5
percent in 1992-93. The programme
started in 1978. In 1985, it got its present name and was taken to all districts
by 1989-90. Under UIP, the government
provides free vaccination against nine
preventable diseases: diphtheria, pertussis (whopping cough), tetanus, polio,
measles, a severe form of childhood tuberculosis, hepatitis B, meningitis/pneumonia due to haemophilus influenza B
and Japanese Encephalitis.
Uttarakhand does well, UP lags
Uttarakhand with 79.6 percent coverage is the best-immunised state, according to the Annual Health Survey (AHS)
2012-13 while Uttar Pradesh with 52.7
percent is the worst. Uttarakhand, Chhatisgarh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand,
Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Assam and Uttar Pradesh are high-focus states since
they constitute 50 percent of the country’s population, 60 percent births, 71
pecent infant deaths, 72 percent under-5
deaths and 62 percent maternal deaths.
Even states that do better, such as Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan,
fall short by 20-25 percentage points in
achieving universal immunisation.
Those like Goa (89.1 percent), Sikkim
(85.2 percent) and Kerala (82.5 percent),
which are not high-focus statesand
do better than others, also fall short of
universal coverage. Lack of awareness
among parents about vaccination benefits, fear of side-effects and a shortage
of vaccines or have been cited as reasons
for low immunisation. The government
programme centres on 201 high-focus
districts that account for nearly 50 percent of partially vaccinated or unvaccinated children in India.
The government allocated Rs. 599.87
crore over the last three years to promote
immunisation. Immunisation prevents
approximately 2-3 million deaths globally
every year from diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and measles. In 2013, an estimated
21.8 million infants worldwide were not
reached by routine immunisation; nearly
half live in India, Nigeria and Pakistan, according to the World Health Organisation.
Readers Response and contribution Welcome
IANS
7
OP-ED
Indian Horizon Delhi
Friday July 3, 2015
DECONSTRUCTING
THE ARAB WORLD
Are we on the brink of a full-scale
project that will alter Middle Eastern
borders? Is the partition of several
countries now inevitable?
BY JOSEPH A. KECHICHIAN
A
few days ago, the columnist Michael Young asked in
the Daily Star whether Lebanon would break apart
if Syria succumbed to the proverbial political ax. Although he concluded that Beirut was likely to “weather the
partition of Syria”, Young concluded that “society has to
constantly reaffirm the principles of sectarian coexistence
and avoid using the political system as a means of fulfilling partisan agendas” if it is to survive. Lebanon was safe
for now, Young predicted, even if he added that events in
Damascus would batter Beirut for a while.
For his part, Michael E. O’Hanlon, the Co-Director of Centre for 21st Century Security and Intelligence at the Brookings Institution laid out a devastating proposal to deconstruct Syria into a confederal state, and while he concluded
that the “ascendance of the [self-proclaimed] Islamic State
of Iraq and the Levant (Daesh) as the major element of opposition to the Bashar Al Assad regime may not amount
to an imminent threat to American security,” he stressed
that “[Daesh’s] ... rise does place at much greater risk the
security of Iraq, the future of Syria itself, and the stability of
Lebanon and Jordan”.
A more realistic option, the well-connected O’Hanlon
posited, was one that aimed to create safe zones, which will
lead into a future confederal arrangement.
Are we on the brink of a full-scale deconstruction project that will alter Middle Eastern borders? Is the partition of
several countries now inevitable?
Permanent fragmentations
Beyond the ongoing debate in the Obama administration to determine whether Iraq and Syria are indeed heading towards permanent fragmentations, several Arab commentators have joined the bandwagon that perceived the
rise of independent “statelets”, especially as Iraq and Syria
ran the risk of permanent implosions. Fayez Sarah recently
observed in the pan-Arab Asharq Al Awsat that “there is talk
in political and media circles about the division of Syria as
one of the ways to end the civil war”, an idea first developed
by O’Hanlon and others in Washington, although Sarah
did not rule out a putative role for the Al Assad regime to
achieve it. American versions of Arab deconstruction, at
least as far as it is publicly known, do not foresee any future duties for Al Assad, the Baath Party, or various extremist groups. To be sure, Sarah relied on the post-First World
War French mandate model that foresaw a united Syria but
with autonomous areas, though what was under discussion
in 2015 was something quite different.
Paris once contemplated a Alawite state (Dawlat Jabal Al
Alawiyyin or, as it labelled it, État des Alaouites) alongside
a Jabal Druze — thus creating two separate areas that enjoyed relative autonomy from 1920 to 1946 — that would
not be in a loose association with Damascus.
In 2015, and unlike O’Hanlon who envisaged confederation, Sarah advanced the idea of full secession that, were it
to materialise, would necessitate the formation of several
statelets, including one ruled by the Free Syrian Army in
the south, another controlled by the Al Assad regime either
extending from Damascus to the Latakia coast or just focused on a coastal strip without the capital, a third that encompassed Idlib and Aleppo under Islamist forces, a fourth
mini-state across the East around Raqqa and Hasakeh,
while a fifth entity would be controlled by the Kurds along
the Turkish border.
That was an ideal model for some even if Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan was adamant that Ankara would not
allow the establishment of an independent Kurdish state in
northern Syria for fear of rekindling secessionism at home.
Still, the effective creation of a Kurdish Autonomous Region
in Iraq set a precedent, which was likely to be duplicated
elsewhere. The answer to these dilemmas came from the
erudite George Semaan of Al Hayat, who noted that recent
losses in Daraa province highlighted why the Syria regime
was in dire straits, which imposed inevitable political solutions on Damascus if the latter wished to save what was left
of its authority. Notwithstanding the most recent Russian
pledges made to Foreign Minister Walid Al Mua’llem, Moscow has toyed with the idea of abandoning Al Assad, which
would be an unprecedented development in its own right.
Be that as it may, the consequences of such events on several countries were all too real.
In his elaborate memoirs, Camille Chamoun, the former
Lebanese president, stated that he did not fear for his country to fracture along sectarian lines, until after Iraq fell apart.
Such a scenario, envisaged Chamoun, would doom Lebanese unity even if few contemplated the current Arab deconstruction that, for better or worse, weathered the winds
of change in the post-Second World War era. For no matter
how unpalatable the deeds of extremist groups might be,
the breakdown of Iraq and Syria — and, perhaps, Lebanon
and Jordan — were bound to be even more troubling. Those
who are in the deconstruction business may please one or
more local actors to foster sectarianism, though it is fair to
ask whether blowback is on anyone’s mind.
COURTESY : GULF NEWS
IRAN DEAL ALREADY UNDER ATTACK FROM
DOMESTIC INTERESTS
BY FRANCIS MATTHEW
T
he negotiators on the Iran nuclear deal bust their own deadline
as they continue their talks with
both sides saying that they are close
to a deal. Despite politicians on both
sides making inflammatory speeches
for their domestic markets, it has been
remarkable how little has leaked on the
details of the talks.
Any deal as complicated as this must
involve a delicate structure of giveand-take over a large range of issues
including enrichment capacity, uranium stocks, access to technologies,
verification access, and the timing and
range of sanctions relief, and the snapback mechanisms in case it all goes
wrong in the future.
This means that any comment on
one aspect of the deal should recognise the entirety, but this subtlety may
not survive the imminent public and
parliamentary scrutiny in Iran and the
US as politicians anxious to make their
own arguments will pick on narrow issues. And this debate will continue for a
long time as any implementation of the
deal will not happen quickly. Even if US
Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Zarif
announce an agreement soon, nothing
will happen the next day.
Sanctions relief
Iran will have to implement the actions it will have promised, they will
need to be verified, and only then will
the sanctions start to lift.
Any wide reaching sanctions relief
will take years for Iran’s actions to be
seen and verified and the legal processes to be implemented. All the while, the
Congress in Washington and politicians
in Tehran will continue to comment on
events and some of the arguments are
already becoming clear. In the US, the
Republicans are going to use this deal
as ideal material to hammer the Democrats in the presidential elections, ac-
cusing Obama of a sell-out. Republican
leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell,
wrote a ferocious piece in Politico this
week misrepresenting the talks as seeking “the best deal acceptable to Iran,
rather than actually furthering our goal
of ending Iran’s nuclear programme,”
although neither statement represents
the reality. He then added the jibe that
“establishing an internationally recognised Iranian nuclear programme is
not in the interest of the American people. But it now seems to be the premise
upon which the Obama administration
is approaching these talks”.
McConnell added that that the
Obama administration intends to
muddle into an unacceptable deal
with Iran and the current course would
“grant Iran additional legitimacy as it
seeks to blame the West for anything
short of instantaneous sanctions relief. It would also allow Iran to continue to press for additional concessions
on verification and disclosures on the
possible military dimensions of its
nuclear research. And that Iran would
use funding derived from any sanctions relief to support proxy forces and
advance its stockpile of missiles”.
Public support for deal in US
When Obama goes to Congress to argue against McConnell’s misrepresentation, he will be cheered by a by a 2-to1 margin in favour of a deal amongst
the American public, according to a
NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll
that found that more Americans support the United States and other world
powers pursuing a nuclear deal with
Iran than oppose it. Thirty-six per cent
of respondents backed the deal and 17
per cent opposed it, but an alarming
46 per cent said that they did not know
enough to have an opinion, which may
also mean they do not care very much,
but certainly means that all the noise
and fury over the deal has passed them
by. The arguments in the US have been
Rouhani’s internationalists will need quick gains to
prove to the isolationists that the deal has a point
based solely on security issues and
have largely ignored any other effects.
But Iran sees the deal from a more
economic standpoint as President
Hassan Rouhani’s internationalists try
to overcome their isolationist opponents as they seek an economic revival.
Some of this hoped-for revival has been
looked at by Esfandyar Batmanghelidj
in lobelog.com in an analysis of postsanctions windfall in Iran being domestically driven by private domestic
investment from newly confident Iranian investors, who could transform
Iran’s political economy for the better.
Repairing broken relationship
“A nuclear deal will actually help repair the broken relationship between
consumption, savings, and private investment in Iran,” he said, noting the
2012 sanctions caused Iran’s gross national savings to fall from 45 per cent of
GDP in 2011 to just 33 per cent in 2015,
according to the International Monetary Fund, which has drastically limited
capital available for business to invest
for the future. But Batmanghelidj goes
beyond what Rouhani may be thinking
about when he sees profound social effects emerging from a strong economy.
“The greater the degree to which the
full range of Iranian citizens, who currently inhabit separate political and
economic classes, invest in a marketplace like the Tehran stock exchange,
the less reliant on patronage networks
they become. Instead, everyone from
schoolteachers to Revolutionary Guard
commanders will become shareholders of a more political neutral type of
capital. The segregation within Iran’s
political economy, determined by the
sources from which people earn their
livelihoods and derive their wealth,
will diminish as a prima facie structural reason for political antagonism
between citizens,” said Batmanghelidj.
This may be true, and it would be a
very hopeful development with profound implications for the Middle East,
but this argument will not be part of
Obama’s arguments with McConnell
as they stick to the security issues.
COURTESY : GULF NEWS
Drones kill any chance of peace in Afghanistan
Use of unmanned US drones increases recruitment opportunities for the armed opposition in Afghanistan.
BY AIMAL FAIZI
T
he use of unmanned US drones in Afghanistan
has stepped up since January. With the launch
of the new US counterterrorism mission, Freedom Sentinel, the ongoing and intensifying drone
campaign has reportedly killed around 400 people in
Afghanistan over the last six months. But insurgents
are not the only ones being killed.
Targeted drone attacks kill scores of civilians and
armed opposition forces alike. These strikes violate
Afghan sovereignty and international law, and severely undermine human rights while underscoring
the ongoing threat to civilian lives in Afghanistan. Yet,
the Afghan national unity government remains silent
on the issue. Beyond the civilian casualties caused
by these strikes, drones also fuel terrorism, increase
anti-government sentiment and, as a result, increase
recruitment opportunities for the armed opposition
in Afghanistan.
Extrajudicial killings
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's government must
take seriously the issue of civilian casualties from US
drone strikes and put an end to the extrajudicial killings of Afghans by the unmanned machines of our so
called "strategic partner". Over the past decade, US
drone missions in Afghanistan were unilateral. Unlike
Pakistan, the use of drones lacked the agreement of
the country's leadership. The large number of civilian
casualties in drone and air strikes caused increasing
tensions between Hamid Karzai, the former Afghan
president, and US officials.
So why has Afghanistan become the most heavily
drone-bombed country in the world? What is the legal
justification for the US' drone mission in Afghanistan
when there is no mention of drones in its Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) with the US? Since the establishment of the Afghan national unity government in
Afghanistan, Ghani's government has given "Ameri-
can commanders a freer hand on night raids and air
strikes", according to a recent New York Times report.
Recent attacks show that drone operators are now
authorised by "eased" counterterrorism guidelines,
which permit them to hit a target even without having "the knowledge of the identities of the individuals
marked for death". Despite the US administration's
repeated announcements of the end of its combat
mission, US forces in Afghanistan now have "a more
aggressive range of military operations" - mostly
drone missions and special operations.
Several attacks a week
Focused in the south and east of the country, US
drones are hitting Afghanistan frequently, at a rate of
one to several attacks every week. Nangarhar, Paktia,
Paktika, Kunar, Nuristan, Khost, Farah, Helmand,
and Logar are all provinces that have been targeted
by US drone operations.
According to international and national media
reports and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism,
civilian casualties are involved in most of these incidents, but these go without any acknowledgement
from the current Afghan government.
Some Afghan TV channels report misleading and
misinforming stories on the "effectiveness" and the
"role" of drones in Afghanistan. Early this month, according to Afghan MPs and media reports, a US drone
strike in the Alisher district of Khost province southeast of Afghanistan, killed more than a dozen civilians, reportedly "members of two families".
On the condition of anonymity, a government official in Khost confirmed the killings to Pajhwok, an
Afghan news agency. The media office for foreign
troops in Kabul also confirmed the attack with a routine addition that "reports about civilian casualties
were being investigated". As the Afghan national unity government continues to keep silent and neglects
to send any delegation to investigate the incident,
Afghan MPs and the former Afghan president have
"strongly condemned" the strike in Khost.
Ending the secrecy
It is time to end the secrecy on the matter. The Afghan government should conduct its own investigation and assessment of each drone incident. Now, as
the US "war on terror" in Afghanistan increasingly
becomes an open-ended conflict, reports suggest that
the US will "maintain an aerial capacity beyond 2017
... to conduct air strikes".
More US drone strikes means more civilian deaths
for Afghanistan. These civilian casualties can severely
risk the Afghan national unity government's legitimacy and sustainability. It is imperative that Ghani's
government shows ownership and acts fully in accordance with the national interests of the country by
reconsidering its stance vis-a-vis the US drone war in
Afghanistan.
As soon as possible, the Afghan national security
council must examine all the drone incidents from
the past six months and make its investigation public. Afghans have the right to know how many of their
country's men, women, and children die in these
drone strikes. Their government should bring this
clarity to them. Additionally, the government should
reach out to the families of victims and provide them
with compensation.
As Ann Wright, the former American deputy ambassador in Afghanistan, put it, drone killings, "because
of the number of civilian casualties", are "jeopardising US national security and creating large numbers
of people who despise the United States".
The US administration and the Afghan government should take the advice of former US and NATO
forces commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley
McChrystal, who once rightly said: "For every innocent person you kill, you create 10 new enemies."
COURTESY : GULF NEWS
Villages face hard times after de-allocation of mines
BY MOHD ASIM KHAN
F
or 34-year-old Sadhram Sidar, the
only solace now is the two-odd
acres of farming land he owns. That’s
the only possession he has he can fall
back on in tough times like these, when
he is out of work for months after the
de-allocation of mines on grounds of
irregularities. He is lucky to have that
piece of land, because many others in
his village – Raipara near Tamnar town
in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh,
300 miles from capital Raipur – don’t
even have that much. They only have
whatever little savings they could make
while working at the nearby GarePalma coal mines. But whether Sidar
would be able to sustain his family of
five by cultivating the land will depend
much on the rain god’s mercy. There
is no provision of irrigation and even
drinking water is scarce. These men
– thousands of them in total from all
the nearby villages – have been out of
work since March. How long can their
savings see them through is anybody’s
guess. Nobody has driven these men
out of the mines. They are out of work
because the two mines – earlier with
Jindal Steel and Power Limited (JSPL)
– had been de-allocated, besides 200
other mines, by the Supreme Court last
September. The central government
held auctions for the de-allocated coal
mines in February and March. JSPL
won the bid at Rs.108/tonne but the
government cancelled this, saying the
price was too low and that it suspected
foul play. The matter is sub-judice and
the arguments from both the sides jus-
tifying their respective stands make
for a separate story. Meanwhile, the
mines have been handed over to Coal
India Limited (CIL). However, CIL has
not started the operations as yet in the
mines, with a combined capacity of
6.25 milllion tonnes per annum.
The only thing going on at the site is
fire-fighting - literally, because the fires
have been burning in the region for the
past few months. Coal worth millions
of rupees has turned into ashes in the
absence of proper fire-fighting equipment and lack of workforce. The fire is
more worrisome for the nearby villagers
than it would be for the environmentalists and authorities, because the former
earn their livelihood here. “My elder son
who is four now, goes to an English medium school in (nearby) Talaipara. The
monthly expenses are around Rs.500,”
Shankarlal Yadav told IANS. Yadav, 28,
from Raipara village, had been employed
at the mines as a blaster, earning somewhere around Rs.7,000 per month. That’s
the average monthly income for coal
mine worker here. That’s probably low
by the standards of a metro, but it has
brought unprecedented comfort in the
lives of these people, who otherwise have
very little to call their own. JSPL has also
set up a coal washery of 800 tonnes per
hour capacity beside the mines, which
feeds the 3400 MW Jindal power plant
through a 7-km-long pipe conveyer belt.
The plant is connected with the power
grid through a 258 km, 400 KV Double
Circuit transmission line from the plant
to the PGCIL sub-station at Raipur.
IANS
The views expressed in these columns are the writers’ own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Indian Horizon or its management.-Editor
8
Short Takes
AP seeks info of
staff sacked by
Telangana Govt
Hyderabad, July 2 (INN): The
Andhra Pradesh Government
said that it has been brought
to its notice that certain employees working in Schedule-X
institutions are being relieved
/ terminated by Govt. of Telangana/management of Schedule-X institutions located in
Telangana State on the ground
that they belong to the State of
Andhra Pradesh.
“Such employees are requested to furnish the following information to the email
id given below or post to the
below mentioned address.
Name of the Schedule-X institution, name of the employee,
designation, whether regular /
contract/outsourced employee, mobile number, email-id,
scanned copy of appointment
order and termination order,
district to which the employee
belongs to the mail id: [email protected],” according to a press release.
Not a single
rupee paid to
Dowleswaram
victims: Jagan
Hyderabad, July 2 (NSS):
In a blistering attack on A P
government, YSR Congress
Party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy today alleged that
not a single rupee was paid to
victims’ families of Dowleshwaram tragedy in which 22
persons drowned recently.
Jagan, who was on a tour of
East and West Godavari districts, today visited Achyutapuram in Visakhapatnam. The
tragedy had occurred when a
vehicle in which the victims
were traveling, dived into the
river Godavari from Dowleshwaram bridge killing 22 members, who were returning from
a pilgrimage recently. He also
criticized Chief Minister N
Chandrababu Naidu for not
visiting families of the victims.
But, he said, a minister after
visiting, had announced Rs
two lakh ex-gratia to each family of the deceased. However,
not a single rupee was paid till
now, Jagan wondered.
Indian Horizon, Delhi
Nation
by a flight from Dubai in the
early hours at the airport, had
concealed the gold biscuits in a
table fan, a senior Customs official said.
The passenger, whose name
was not revealed, has been arrested, he said. A probe is on
into the matter.
Forum hails DS
for taking a right
decision
Hyderabad, July 2 (NSS):
The Forum to Support KCR on
Thursday welcomed the decision of senior Congress leader
D. Srinivas to quit the party
and join TRS for making Bangaru Telangana a reality.
Chairman of the Forum
Konda Lakshma Reddy in a
statement said that decision
of DS has come at the right
time when Chief Minister
Chandrasekhar Rao was striving to make a golden state by
initiating numerous welfare
and developmental activities.
While KCR is working hard
and committed to transform
the new born state into prosperous and developed welfare
state, certain forces including
his political adversaries were
hell bent in creating hurdles,
he pointed out and added that
it was the right time for all true
Telanganites to come together
and extend an helping hand to
the Chief Minister in his onerous task.
Revanth’s rally
a mockery of
democracy: TRS
Hyderabad, July 2 (NSS): In
an apparent move to scuttle
the efforts of Telugu Desam
for coming in the way of Telangana development in one way
or other, the TRS leadership
is upping the ante against the
former for its rhetoric against
the Telangana Government.
TRS legislator Jeevan Reddy
today dubbed Telugu Desam
legislator Revanth Reddy as
a liar, cheat and blackmailer.
The TD leader will sure get
back to jail sooner or later in
the-cash-for-vote scam on
which he got only a temporary
bail, he alleged.
Addressing a press conference at TRS party headquarters
Preparations
here, the TRS leader alleged
that Revanth made a mockery
for Godavari
of democracy and its values. Is
Pushkaralu not
the TD leader, who came out
satisfactory: BJP of jail on cash-for-vote scam a
Hyderabad, Jul 2 (PTI): ‘freedom fighter’ to conduct a
Telangana BJP unit today said rally?.
the arrangements and works
undertaken for the upcoming Tummala slams
festival ‘Godavari Pushkaralu’ Naidu on
have been far from satisfacRevanth’s rally
tory.
The ‘Pushkaralu’ (ritual of
Hyderabad, July 2 (NSS):
sacred bath in river) is sched- Telangana Roads & Buildings
uled to begin on July 14, but Minister Tummala Nagaeshthe works and arrangements war Rao here on Thursday said
for the people to take holy dip AP Chief Minister N Chandrabin Godavari are of poor qual- abu Naidu was digging his own
ity, Telangana BJP president ‘political grave’ by encouragand MLA G Kishan Reddy told ing leaders to loot and indulge
a press conference.
in corruption.
The administration need to
Addressing the media here,
expedite the works and make Tummala charged the Teluproper arrangements soon, he gu Desam leadership with
said.
dumping the ideals of its party
A team of BJP workers visited founder and former Chief Minthe places where the pilgrims ister NT Rama Rao, who strugwill visit the ghats for the sa- gled for the cause of Telugu
cred bath and took stock of the pride and welfare. He termed
arrangements, he added.
Revanth Reddy’s rally from
Cherlapally Jail as an affront to
3 kg gold seized democracy. “Naidu is putting
to shame the Telugu pride and
at airport
the people are despising ReHyderabad, Jul 2 (PTI): Cus- vanth Reddy”, he noted.
The minister slammed Retoms officials today seized 3
kgs gold from a passenger who vanth Reddy for behaving like
allegedly tried to smuggle it at a street rowdy and his outthe Rajiv Gandhi International bursts against Chief Minister
K Chandrasekhar Rao and the
Airport.
The passenger, who arrived TRS Government.
Friday, July 3, 2015
Srinivas calls Digvijay
singh ‘a bluffer’
Hyderabad,
July
2
(NSS): Senior Congress
leader D.Srinivas, who had
resigned from Congress
party to join the ruling TRS
party in the Telangana
State on Thursday lambasted AICC General Secretary Digvijay Singh as a
“bluffer” for accusing him
of political opportunism.
During the media conference organized to explain the circumstances
that made him to quit
Congress and join the
pink party, DS was asked
to respond to the charge
of the AICC leader that it
was “political opportunism” the main reason for
jumping the ship. It was
also pointed out him that
he was annoyed with the
Congress leadership at the
Centre for denying him
MLC re-nomination and
instead a much junior was
selected as him himself
has recommended the
woman leader’s name to
Digvijay Singh.
Senior Congress leader D Srinivas showing the
resignation letter to media in Hyderabad on Thursday.
He quit Congress to join TRS party. (PTI Photo)
Losing his cool to the utter surprise of the media,
DS shot back by stating
that “ He ( Digvijay Singh)
is a bluffer “ and went on
to explain that he never
had any discussions with
the Central party leaders
or was he consulted in the
matter. “ Till now I had regard for Digvijay Singh”,
he quipped “ but after his
blatant lies I changed my
mind”. He is a bluffer and
does not what he is taking,
DS fumed.
Getting calm after his
sudden outburst DS explained that he was not
angry or unhappy with
anyone for giving the MLC
ticket to Lalitha ( the one
selected by the High Command instead of DS). I am
happy about her getting
the ticket and my blessing would with her all the
time, he added.
Orientation programme for
fresh MBA batch begins at HBS
Orientation programme for
fresh MBA batch begins at HBS
Hyderabad, July 2 (NSS): “Aim
high. It is our limited thought
that limits our career. With
the power of thought one can
achieve whatever one aspires to”,
said Dr. Vivekananda Suri, Director, Strategy and Operations, Oracle Software India Ltd. He participated in the inauguration of
the MBA Programme 2015-2017
at Hyderabad Business School
(HBS), GITAM University, as the
Chief Guest, and formally began the Orientation Programme
which will be held from 2nd to
4th of July 2015 for the freshly
recruited batch of MBA students.
Advising the newly admitted
students on career planning,
he said, “Career is a set of goals
achieved against a timeframe.
To have a top career, one needs
to plan it. Strong commitment
to the goal is needed to achieve
it. When it comes to one’s goals,
one needs to be selfish so as to
avoid distractions. Only the one
who commits to himself will be
successful.” By citing inspiring
examples of achievement like
Arunima Sinha who is the first
amputee to scale Mt. Everest,
Dr Suri exhorted the students
to realize the power of thought
and the commitment to a goal.
He advised them to break a goal
into manageable chunks, and
never to leave in the middle what
one starts. Dr Vivekananda Suri
debunked the myth that there is
shortage of jobs.
On the other hand, the corporate world is always looking
for good, skilled, committed
workers. On skill development,
he suggested the technique of
‘inch wide and mile deep”, that
is to say, to specialize thoroughly
even in a small area of knowledge. He congratulated the students for their choice of the field
as well as the institution.
Speaking on this occasion,
Dr. N. Siva Prasad, Director,
School of Technology, GITAM
Hyderabad Campus, urged the
students to take advantage of
the intellectual and infrastructural resources of the university
and develop confidence while
on the campus so as to shine in
their careers. As would be managers, they need to cultivate the
attitude of being responsible for
creating wealth by managing human and financial resources.
CCL’s Gopal Singh
recommended for
CMD post in NMDC
Hyderabad, Jul 2 (PTI): Public Enterprises Selection Board
(PSEB) has recommended name
of Central Coalfields (CCL) Chairman-cum-Managing
Director
Gopal Singh for the post of CMD
of NMDC Ltd.
The present CMD of the country’s largest iron ore miner Narendra Kothari will attain superannuation in December.
The recommendation was
made after it had interviewed 13
persons, PSEB said in a statement.
A graduate from Indian School
of Mine, Dhanbad in 1981, Singh
has been working as CCL CMD
since March 2012 and has over 30
years of experience in the industry, according to CCL website.
Those interviewed for the
post includes, four directors of
NMDC (National Mineral Development Corporation), two
directors of SAIL and one director each from RINL, CIL, HCL
apart from the CMD of HSCL
Kishan brings Inter
Students issue to
Smriti Irani
Hyderabad, July 2 (NSS):
Telangana State BJP president G Kishan Reddy has
said he brought the injustice meted out to Telangana Intermediate students in JEE ranks to the
notice of Union Human
Resources Development
Minister Smrithi Irani and
urged her to take a deci-
Moyukh Bhaduri, CCL CMD
Gopal Singh, PGCIL executive
director V Sekar and KIOCL
CMD Malay Chatterjee, it said.
PSEB is responsible for selection and placement of candidates
for board level positions in central
public sector undertakings.
A senior central government official said the recommendations
will be sent to Central Vigilance
Commission, Department of Personal and Training (DoPT).
“Once the name is cleared by
DoPT, the appointment committee of the cabinet will take a final
decision on the appointment,”
the official told PTI.
Two senior officials from two
different PSUs who were in the
race for the post during initial
stages withdrew their candidatures for “unexplained reasons”.
The official on condition of
anonymity said three names were
included in the original list of candidates at a later stage.
sion keeping the future of
the students by consulting
CBSE officials. He said the
Minister assured that she
would resolve the problem
by keeping legal and technical issues in mind. Kishan Reddy said the Centre
responded immediately
on the issue.
In a pressnote, Kishan
Reddy alleged that the
future of 1,188 students
will be in dark due to the
Telangana Intermediate
Police arrest All India Youth Federation (AIYF) activists holding a
demonstration demanding the ban of KFC which they claim are serving
poisonous food in Hyderabad on Thursday. (PTI Photo)
TTD EO reviews
on Maha
Pushkaram 2015
Tirupati, July 2 (NSS):
TTD Executive Officer
Dr D Sambasiva Rao on
Thursday reviewed on the
ongoing arrangements for
Maha Pushkaram 2015 in
Rajamundry.
Board’s inefficiency. He
said the Board has failed to
send marks list of students,
who applied for revaluation, subsequently they
lost ranks in JEE Mains.
In general, the JEE decides the ranks based on
the marks of Intermediate and JEE Mains examination (40:60 percent).
Due to the Intermediate
Board’s inefficiency, the
students lost their entry
into IIT and NIT.
ADVERTISEMENTS INVITED Revanth will
end up in jail,
To Advertise in
says Jupally
INDIAN HORIZON
English Daily
at concessional rates.
Pleasing display,
Wider reach
Please contact:
040-66616611, 66839818,
or Email: [email protected],
[email protected],
Hyderabad, July 2 (NSS):
Ministers Jupally Krishna Rao
and Dr C Lakshma Reddy today lashed out at Telugu Desam
legislator Revanth Reddy for his
remarks against Chief Minister
K Chandrasekhar Rao and his
government. The ministers took
serious exception to Revanth for
his alleged remarks that he will
strive to topple the KCR Government in the days to come.
Addressing a press conference
at Telangana Bhavan here on
Thursday, the ministers said Re-
The review meeting was
held in his chambers’ in
TTD Administrative Building in Tirupati. The EO
called upon the officers
to make the TTD activity
a special attraction during the mega religious
event. “This is going to
be a prestigious event. So
there should not be not
‘Thief’ Revanth
shouldn’t spit on
sky: Pocharam
any compromise in the
arrangements on our behalf”, he maintained.
The EO also said that
there is need to give extensive publicity for the TTD
publications by setting
up book stall as majority
of pilgrim devotees visit
the replica temple during
Maha Pushkaram.
Hyderabad, July 2 (NSS): Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy has alleged that Telangana TDP MLA A. Revanth Reddy
is a “thief” who was caught by the
ACB in cash-for-vote scam case.
Speaking to the media at TRSLP
office here on Thursday, Pocharam
asked Revanth Reddy not to lose
his tongue and behave like a street
rowdy. He said politicians should
behave in a polite manner. He also
said all sections of the people under TRS rule are happy and it was
shame on the part of Revanth Reddy to criticize the TRS government.
Finding fault with the rally taken
by Revanth Reddy on Wednesday
evening, the minister said Revanth
was not a leader, who sacrificed for
the sake of people, to organize such
a huge rally spending Rs 2 crores.
The rally was against rules. The
court gave him conditional bail and
it is better to Revanth Reddy to stay
at Kodangal only, he said.
vanth is not eligible to make such
harsh comments against the chief
minister. They fumed at the TD
leader for swirling moustaches
and throwing a challenge by hitting on his thigh saying that he
has no eligibility to comment on
the Chief Minister.
It is shame on the part of the
TD leadership for celebrating
Revanth’s release by conducting a rally, distributing sweets
and firing crackers, they said.
He sought to know whether Revanth done some rare feat or
achieved something that is impossible to conduct a rally from
the jail to NTR Trust Bhavan.
Though he came out of jail on
bail for time-being, Revanth will
finally end up behind bars, they
stated. There is no comparison
between KCR and Naidu as the
former has championed the
cause of new State and the latter
is indulging corrupt practices,
they said.
They warned the TD leader of
dire consequences if failed to
mend his ways of coming in the
way of Telangana at the behest
of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu.
Playing down the remarks that
KCR got fever as he came out of
jail, the ministers said the people
in his native Kodangal Assembly
segment and elsewhere will remove the flag-posts and banish
Andhra parties from Telangana.
9
Indian Horizon Delhi
International
Friday, July 3 , 2015
Ferry with 173 on board overturns in
Philippines, 36 dead, 19 missing
Britain identifies nationals
killed in Tunisia attack
People gather during a rescue operation, after a bridge
collapse led a train to fall into a canal in Wazirabad, near
Lahore, Pakistan Thursday, July 2, 2015. At least four cars of
a train being used to transport Pakistani soldiers fell into
a canal because of a bridge collapse in the eastern Punjab
province on Thursday, killing at least twelve soldiers,
officials said.AP/ PTI
London, July 2 (IANS) All
30 British nationals killed in
the Tunisian beach attack
have been identified, British
Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said on Thursday.
“By tonight, 17 bodies will
have been brought home to
their loved ones,” Hammond
announced on his Twitter account.
Hammond said he was confident the number was the final death toll.“Tomorrow we
will mark a week from the date
of the attack with a minute’s
remembrance at noon across
the UK and across British embassies and posts around the
world,” he said on national
TV.
A Royal Air Force (RAF)
flight brought back the bodies
of eight of the victims to their
loved ones on Wednesday,
with nine more due to arrive
in Britain on Thursday, Xinhua news agency reported.
Dozens of people, including
foreign tourists, were killed
when at least one gunman
opened fire on a Tunisian
beachside hotel in the popular
resort of Sousse last Friday.
MANILA July 2 (PTI):
A ferry with 173 people
on board overturned
in rough waters in the
central Philippines on
Thursday as rescuers
rushed to the scene, the
coast guard said.
The Kim Nirvana was
heading from the central city of Ormoc to the
island of Camotes when
it capsized, the coast
guard office in Manila
said.36 people have died
and 19 are missing while
118 people have been
Five killed, over 100 injured in In new strategy,
US to deepen
Pakistan train accident
Islamabad, July 2 (IANS) At least he has formed an inquiry comsecurity ties
five people were killed, over 100 mittee to probe the incident, and
others injured and scores went added he himself was on his way
with India
missing when four compartments to the accident site for monitoring
of a train fell into a canal while
crossing a bridge in Pakistan’s
eastern city of Gujranwala on
Thursday afternoon, media and
officials said.
Aaj TV said that the compartments were carrying over 200 passengers when these fell into the
stream.
Railway Minister Khwaja Saad
Rafique said the bridge collapsed
when the train was passing over it
in Janki Chatta area of Gujranwala, a district located in the country’s Punjab province, Xinhua
news agency reported.He said
that the possibility of terrorist attack behind the attack cannot be
ruled out as there was no apparent fault in the train or the bridge.
Rafique said another passenger
train crossed the bridge in the
morning and at that time it was
intact and fully functional.He said
the rescue work.
Railway sources said the train
had 21 cargo wagons and six passenger coaches, of which four fell
into the canal.
Dunya TV said the train was
shifting cargo of the Pakistan army
from Kharian cantonment city to
Pano Aqil city.The report also said
that about 20 to 30 people, including soldiers and their families,
were trapped in a compartment
which could not be opened yet.
Rescue teams from the army
were using cutters and other machines to gain access to the occupants in the compartment, said
the report.The injured passengers have been shifted to military
hospital of the city.The Pakistan
army, residents and government
rescue teams are taking part in the
operation to pull out the people
from the canal.
said chairman of US Joint Chiefs of Staff
General Martin Dempsey while releasing the country’s National Military
Strategy for 2015.The strategy provides
the blueprint for how the military will
use its forces to protect and advance US
national and security interests.
The presence of US military forces
in key locations around the world unWashington, July 2 (IANS) The US will derpins the international order and
deepen its security relations with India, provides opportunities to engage with
Greece crisis: Eurozone chief
warns of consequence of ‘no’ vote
Taiwan pilot shut off engine
before air crash, report says
Taipei July 2 (PTI): The pilot of
a passenger plane that crashed in
Taiwan killing 43 people shut down
the aircraft`s only working engine,
exclaiming: “Wow, pulled back
wrong throttle,” seconds before the
disaster, investigators said Thursday. TransAsia Airways Flight GE235
clipped a bridge and plunged into
a river shortly after take-off from
Taipei`s Songshan airport in February with 53 passengers and five crew
on board. Only 15 people survived.
Disturbing cockpit transcripts released by Taiwan`s Aviation Safety
Council revealed the pilots trying
to deal with an engine that had lost
power, but then reducing the thrust
of the other, functioning engine.
Thursday`s report said the plane
climbed to 1,200 feet (365 metres)
before a warning alarm sounded,
which indicated that the plane`s
second engine had undergone
“flameout at take off”.
Despite the warning signal coming from Engine Two, the pilot at
the controls said: “I will pull back
Engine One throttle.”
Chaos then ensued with both
engines failing as the pilots tried to
restart them in the few seconds before the crash. The last words from
the black box recordings were the
monitoring pilot shouting: “Impact,
impact, brace for impact.”Dramatic
car dashcam images at the time
showed the plane hitting an elevated road as it banked steeply away
from buildings before crashing
into the Keelung River.“As the pilot
pulled back the wrong throttle, for
some time both engines were powerless,” said Thomas Wang, head
Court Overturns
Death Sentences
in Mob Killing of
Afghan Woman:
Judge
men for the lynching and murder
in March of a woman falsely accused of blasphemy in Kabul, a
judge said Thursday.
The woman, Farkhunda, 27,
was savagely beaten and her
body set ablaze in broad dayKABUL July 2 (PTI): An Afghan light, triggering protests around
appeal court has overturned the country and drawing global
death sentences given to four attention to the treatment of Af-
Wikileaks exposes US spying
of ECB, German ministries
Berlin, July 2 (IANS/EFE) The US
National Security Agency (NSA) has
been spying on the European Central Bank (ECB) and several German ministries, and also tapped
telephone calls of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, according to
documents cited on Thursday by
several German media outlets.
The Wikileaks documents indicated that wiretapping on the German federal ministry for economic
affairs and energy and the German
federal ministry of food and agriculture had been going on since
the 1990s, Suddeutsche Zeitung
reported.
Similarly, one of the documents
unveiled wiretapping on Oskar Lafontaine’s telephone line during his
time as finance minister for a few
months between 1998 and 1999,
during the first government under
former chancellor Gerhard Schroder.The telephone line in question
is still in use, and currently belongs
to the German federal ministry of
finance.According to leaked information, the NSA did not only listen
in on the minister’s phone line, but
ment for promoting a ‘no’ vote
with unrealistic expectations.He
said, “The Greek government
is rejecting everything with the
suggestion that if you vote ‘no’
you will get a better or less tough,
or more friendly package. That
suggestion is simply wrong.”
He noted that Greece’s economic situation is only getting
worse in the meantime, making
a rescue program more difficult.
The German president’s office
says Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos has canceled
a previously planned visit to
Germany that was set for next
Athens July 2 (PTI): The head of
the eurozone finance ministers’
group, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, says
it will be “incredibly difficult” to
build a new bailout package for
Greece if the country votes “no”
in Sunday’s referendum.
Speaking Thursday in a parliamentary committee, Dijsselbloem told lawmakers, “If the result is a ‘no,’ what foundation is
there of ownership? And how can
you then accept such a program
if the result is ‘no.’ So it will be
incredibly difficult.” The Dutch
finance minister put the blame
squarely on the Greek govern-
of the aviation council.Wang also
confirmed previous reports that the
pilot had failed a simulator test for
engine failure on take-off last year,
but passed a later retake.
Investigators refused to name the
pilot at the controls but reports at
the time of the crash identified him
as Liao Chien-tsung.Initially Liao
was hailed as a hero for steering the
plane away from houses and into
the river as it came hurtling down.
Liao`s distraught parents defended
their son following the release of the
report.
“At the end of the day, my son
is dead, either as a `hero` or being
blamed (for the incident) is meaningless to us now,” Liao`s father
Liao Hsien-ming, told the United
Evening News.He added that he
still felt proud of his son saying he
had tried to reduce casualties on
the ground in the final seconds before the crash, as the plane dodged
buildings to plunge into the river.
ghan women.Police arrested 49
people in connection with the
attack, including 19 police officers, some of whom were shown
standing by doing nothing to
stop the mob in cellphone videos recorded by bystanders.In
May a court sentenced four men
to death and eight others were
handed 16-year jail terms after a
other countries while positioning forces
to respond to crises, Dempsey said in a
Defense Department statement issued
on Wednesday.
“Therefore, we will press forward
with the rebalance to the Asia Pacific
region, placing our most advanced capabilities and greater capacity in that
vital theatre,” it noted.
For this, the US will strengthen its alliances with Australia, Japan, South Ko-
week.Pavlopoulos was to make
his first visit to Germany since
being elected president on Tuesday, meeting President Joachim
Gauck in Berlin.
Gauck’s office didn’t give a
reason for the cancelation, but
Greece is holding a referendum
on Sunday in which the country’s prime minister has urged
voters to denounce the last deal
offered by creditors for releasing
bailout funds.
Pavlopoulos, a conservative
law professor and veteran politician, was elected as head of state
in February. Spain’s economy
minister says the doors for negotiations will remain open for
Greece regardless of the outcome of Sunday’s referendum.
Egyptian army kills 23
militants in North Sinai
Cairo, July 2 (IANS) At least
23 suspected Islamic State
(IS) militants were killed on
Thursday in Egyptian army
airstrikes on North Sinai, security sources said.
The airstrikes were conducted in the early hours
of Thursday, one day after
clashes between the security forces and militants, the
sources told Xinhua news
agency on condition of anonymity.
According to the army,
17 soldiers and 100 militants were killed in fierce
fighting following a wave of
militant attacks on military
checkpoints on Wednesday.
The sources said Apache
helicopters on Thursday
three-day trial broadcast live on
national television.
“The appeal court decided
to reduce the sentence - three
of them got 20 years in prison
and one 10 years,” judge Nasir
Murid, the head of the Kabul
appeals court, told AFP without
giving any further details.The
appeal was heard behind closed
also other senior officials in the
ministries of finance, economy and
agriculture, which suggests that US
intelligence was interested above
all in Germany’s economic and
trade policies.
As for the ECB, illegal surveillance targeted one of the phone
lines of the bank’s economic development department.Suddeutsche
Zeitung also published an NSA report about a conversation between
Merkel and an unidentified assistant on October 9, 2011, in which
she spoke about the situation in
Greece and the various options
that were shuffling at the time,
while the chancellor showed concern regarding possible debt relief.
Rescuers help passengers from a capsized ferry
boat, right, in Ormoc city on Leyte Island, Philippines, Thursday, July 2, 2015. A ferry capsized
Thursday as it left a central Philippine port in
choppy waters, leaving dozens dead and many
others missing, coast guard officials said. AP/PTI
struck bases of militants
suspected of taking part in
Wednesday’s brazen attacks
on military checkpoints in
southern Shiekh Zuweid
city.Sinai-based Ansar Bayet
al-Maqdis, an IS affiliate in
the peninsula, has claimed
responsibility for the attacks.
The peninsula has been
plagued by a growing militant insurgency following
the ouster of Islamist leader
Mohamed Morsi in 2013 by
the army in response to mass
protests against his rule.
According to an Efe news
agency report earlier in the
day, Egyptian armed forces
on confirmed that the security situation in the area was
calm and under control.
doors and reportedly reached a
verdict on Wednesday, according to local media.Farkhuda’s
brother Mujibullah told AFP the
family had not been told of the
court’s decision or invited to the
session.“We just heard through
media that the appeal court in a
secret session has reversed the
decision. They didn’t inform us.
rescued in Ormoc city
on central Leyte island
after an inter-island ferry capsized there, says
coast guard spokesaman.
Search and rescue
operations were ongoing and it was unclear if
there were any fatalities
or anyone rescued so far,
the coast guard office
said.Poorly-maintained,
loosely-regulated ferries are the backbone of
maritime travel in the
sprawling archipelago.
rea, the Philippines, and Thailand.“We
also will deepen our security relationship with India and build upon our
partnerships with New Zealand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam,
and Bangladesh,” Dempsey added.
Such efforts are essential to maintaining regional peace and building capabilities to provide for missile defense,
cyber security, maritime security, and
disaster relief.
Short Takes
71 journalists killed in first
half of 2015: Report
Geneva, July 2 (IANS) A total of 71 journalists were killed
from January to June of 2015 in 24 countries, a 7 percent
increase over the same period last year, a Press Emblem
Campaign (PEC) report said.
At least 24 journalists were killed in targeted terrorist acts,
mostly in France, Libya and Iraq, and 17 journalists died
covering fighting in Yemen, Libya, Iraq, Syria, South Sudan
and Ukraine.
The other 30 journalists were murdered in criminal acts
outside war zones, especially in Latin America, the Philippines and India, the report said.According to the report, the
Middle East and North Africa are the deadliest regions for
media work with 23 journalists killed, Xinhua reported.“Four
countries in this region are the deadliest: Libya (eight), Yemen
(six), Iraq (six) and Syria (two) and Gaza (one),” the report
said.
Will confront political issues
in Iran n-talks: EU
Vienna, July 2 (IANS) Two days after the June 30 deadline,
top negotiators involved in Iran’s nuclear talks will attempt
to confront political issues holding them back from a deal,
European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said
on Thursday.
“We’re moving forward, but we’re not there yet,” Mogherini told reporters here. “Today (Thursday) we will have the
chance of checking some political issues that are still open,”
she added.She noted the visit of Yukiya Amano, director
general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to
Teheran “is something very important”, Xinhua news agency
reportedUS State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie
Harf announced on Tuesday that fresh rounds of nuclear
talks would take place from June 30 to July 7.
Indian-American pleads guilty
in sex trafficking case
New York, July 2 (IANS) An Indian-American motel owner
has pleaded guilty to financially benefiting from a sex trafficking scheme in the US state of Lousiana.
Kanubhai Patel, 74, pleaded guilty for the network that operated out of Riviera Motel in New Orleans in which multiple
adult women were compelled to engage in prostitution.
This was announced by Vanita Gupta, principal deputy assistant aggorney general and head of the Civil Rights Division,
and Attorney Kenneth Allen Polite Jr. of the Eastern District of
Louisiana. “The Department of Justice will not tolerate those
who traffic in human beings or who benefit financially from
human trafficking,” Gupta said in a statement issued by the
US Federal Bureau of Investigation. “We will continue in our
steadfast determination to bring to justice not only those who
use force and coercion to exploit other human beings but also
those who knowingly profit from these depraved acts.”
Only 49 African-Americans
in Twitter team
Troops move carrying guns walk at the Navy Yard in Washington, Thursday, July 2, 2015. A lockdown is underway on the entire
Washington Navy Yard campus after a report of shots fired. AP/
PTI
New York, July 2 (IANS) Despite its diversity pledges, Twitter employs just 49 black people out of its total US workforce
of 2,910.
The tiny number of African American staff - 35 men and
14 women - represents just 1.7 percent of Twitter’s US staff,
The Guardian reported.Twitter’s Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) report, a legally mandated filing with the US
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, showed that
93.8 percent of employees were white or Asian, with just 180
people out of a total workforce of 2,910 being drawn from
other minorities.
Friday, July 3, 2015
Economy picking up; need more
reforms for strong growth: Rajan
Chennai Jul 2 (PTI): Confident
of economic recovery, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan on Thursday said capital investments are
picking up but a stronger growth
would require more reforms and
clearing bottlenecks for stalled
projects. Rajan, known for critical analysis of macroeconomic
trends, however said that subdued exports, primarily on account of global factors, remain an
area of concern.
Talking to reporters after a
meeting of RBI’s board, the central bank chief said, “I would say
(economy is) picking up. We see
some signs of capital investment
picking up. There is a continuing
need, which the government is trying to address, of putting some of
the stalled projects back on track.”
Stating that the Indian economy
is in the process of a steady recovery, Rajan said, “Would we want
to (grow) faster? Yes, obviously.
But we have to work in the areas
of bottlenecks and areas where
we need reforms to ensure that
growth is strong and sustainable.”
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had
said yesterday that India is not
satisfied with 6-8 percent growth
and “wants to transcend to another level and aim for 8-10 percent
growth”. Replying to questions on
inflation and its implications on
the policy stance of the RBI, Rajan
said: “Inflation is always a matter
of concern. The news on monsoon
front has been good so far. But it is
something that we are watching.
What we have said is policy stance
is contingent on the day, and we
are watching the data. We have to
watch for the progression of data
as we see it.
“...There are variety of projection about what could happen going forward. IMD thinks
things will weaken in next 2-3
months. There are private forecasters who thinks it won’t. Let
us see what happens. Forecasting is a difficult job and its a little
noisy at this point.” The rainfall
so far has been much better than
was originally projected by the
Indian Meteorological Department. It was 28 percent more
than normal in June. IMD had in
its forecast on June 2 predicted
12 percent deficit in rains during the current season. As far
as inflation is concerned, based
on the Consumer Price Index, it
was 5.01 percent in May, while
the Wholesale Price Index inflation was at (-)2.36 percent. On
exports, Rajan said they “are
an area of relative weakness.
But they have been weak across
the various Asian economies,
to the exception of perhaps of
China. The weak state of global
economy is a big factor there.
Confident of economic recovery, RBI Governor Raghuram
Rajan on Thursday said capital
investments are picking up but
a stronger growth would require
more reforms and clearing bottlenecks for stalled projects. Rajan, known for critical analysis of
macroeconomic trends, however
said that subdued exports, primarily on account of global factors, remain an area of concern.
“We need to continue to do the
spade work to create sustainable
growth and we discussed various
plans that the RBI has over the
coming years to do that.” As regards the stalled projects, the RBI
chief said, “economic growth will
help put projects back on track
that are on difficulty. We are doing
everything we can as we work with
banks to put it back on track.”
Will not allow prices of
food items to rise: Govt
New Delhi Jul 2 (PTI): The government
on Thursday said it will not allow prices
of essential food items to increase due to
the impact of possible deficient monsoon
this year. State governments have also
been asked to take measures to prevent
spike in prices of essential commodities,
it added. “We will not allow prices of milk
and for that matter any essential food
items to rise due to impact of below normal rains,” Agriculture Minister Radha
Mohan Singh told reporters.
The Met Department has projected 8
and 10 per cent deficient rains in July and
August respectively. In June, rains were
28 per cent above normal. Stating that
the government is keeping close watch
on food prices, Singh said that measures
are being taken to boost supply of pulses and other items, in which there have
been price increase recently.
“The state governments have also
been asked to take measures to check
prices of essential items,” he said, adding that more steps to check food inflation will be discussed in detail next week
in a meeting of state food ministers, to
be chaired by Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley. The Met Department has projected 8 and 10 per cent deficient rains
in July and August respectively. In June,
rains were 28 per cent above normal.
Stating that the government is keeping close watch on food prices, Singh
said that measures are being taken to
boost supply of pulses and other items,
in which there have been price increase
recently. The government on Thursday
said it will not allow prices of essential
food items to increase due to the impact
of possible deficient monsoon this year.
State governments have also been asked
to take measures to prevent spike in
prices of essential commodities, it added. “We will not allow prices of milk and
for that matter any essential food items
to rise due to impact of below normal
rains,” Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh told reporters.
Singh said the government has a contingency plan for 600- odd districts to
tackle deficient rains in July and August.
There has been more than 60 per cent increase in retail prices of pulses in last one
year. Pulses prices have already breached
Rs 100 per kg market in most markets.
Similarly, onion prices are inching up
in the wake of short supply. At present,
farmers are undertaking sowing of kharif
(summer) crops. Monsoon rains are crucial as more than half of the cultivable
land in the country is rainfed.
Govt clears policy for skill
development, entrepreneurship
New Delhi Jul 2 (PTI): Government
on Thursday said it has approved the
first integrated national policy for developing skills and promoting entrepreneurship at a large scale with speed
and quality. “The policy aims to align
supply with demand, bridging existing
skill gaps, promoting industry engagement, operationalise a quality assurance framework, leveraging technology
and promoting apprenticeship to tackle
the identified issues,” Finance Minister
Arun Jaitley told reporters here.
The government has also approved
common norms for Skill Development
Schemes being implemented by the
Centre as well as an institutional framework for the National Skill Development Mission. The National Policy for
Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015 acknowledges the need for
an effective roadmap for promotion of
entrepreneurship as the key to a successful skills strategy. The vision of the
policy is to create an ecosystem of empowerment by skilling on a large scale
at speed with high standards and to
promote a culture of innovation-based
entrepreneurship which can generate
wealth and employment so as to ensure
sustainable livelihoods for all citizens.
The Policy has four thrust areas, an
tion while 5 lakh hectares will benefit from drip irrigation. That apart,
1,300 watershed projects have been
marked for completion. Currently,
142 million hectares are used for
cultivation, of which only 45 percent farm land is under irrigation.
“The major objective of the
PMKSY is to achieve convergence of
investments in irrigation at the field
level, expand cultivable area under assured irrigation (har khet ko
pani), improve on-farm water use
efficiency to reduce wastage of water, enhance adoption of precisionirrigation and other water-saving
technologies (more crop per drop),”
he said. Besides, the FM said the
scheme is aimed at enhancing recharge of aquifers and introducing sustainable water conservation
practices by exploring feasibility of
re-using treated municipal water
for peri-urban agriculture and attracting greater private investment
in precision irrigation.
“The scheme also aims at bring-
official statement said, adding that it
addresses key obstacles to skilling, including low aspirational value, lack
of integration with formal education,
lack of focus on outcomes, low quality
of training infrastructure and trainers.
Further, it said the policy seeks to align
supply and demand for skills by bridging existing skill gaps, promoting industry engagement, operationalising a
quality assurance framework, leverage
technology and promoting greater opportunities for apprenticeship training.
“Equity is also a focus of the Policy,
which targets skilling opportunities
for socially/geographically marginalised and disadvantaged groups. “Skill
development and entrepreneurship
programmes for women are a specific
focus of the Policy,” it added. In the
entrepreneurship domain, the policy
seeks to educate and equip potential
entrepreneurs, both within and outside
the formal education system.
It also seeks to connect entrepreneurs
to mentors, incubators and credit markets, foster innovation and entrepreneurial culture, improve ease of doing
business and promote a focus on social
entrepreneurship. Jaitely said that last
week the Prime Minister launched programme on smart cities, yesterday on
Digital India and the government has
also similar plans for ‘Skilling India’.
The Union Cabinet approved the institutional framework for the National
Skill Development Mission in keeping with the commitment made in the
Budget 2015-16. The Mission will have
a three-tiered, high powered decision
making structure.
“At its apex, the Mission’s Governing Council, chaired by the Prime
Minister, will provide overall guidance and policy direction. The Steering Committee, chaired by Minister
in Charge of Skill Development, will
review the Mission’s activities in line
with the direction set by the Governing Council,” the official statement said. The Mission Directorate,
with Secretary, Skill Development
as Mission Director, will ensure
implementation, coordination and
convergence of skilling activities
across Central Ministries/Departments and state governments. It will
also run select sub-missions in high
priority areas. Further, the National
Skill Development Agency, the National Skill Development Corporation and the Directorate of Training
will function under the overall guidance of the Mission.
Fitch lowers India’s
Ratan Tata to join Jungle
FY`16 economic growth Ventures as Special Advisor
Mumbai Jul 2 (PTI): The Singa- of companies to help them build catprojections to 7.8%
pore-based Jungle Ventures has an- egory leadership while being ethically
New Delhi Jul 2 (PTI): Global rating agency Fitch has
lowered India’s economic growth projections to 7.8 percent for the current fiscal from 8 percent on pick up in
demand. Fitch, however, said it expects that India’s GDP
growth rate this year to surpass China’s for the first time
since 1999, forecasting an acceleration to 8.1 percent in
2016-17 before settling back to 8.0 percent in 2017-18.
“The implementation of structural reforms and resulting pick-up in investment remain key themes for India’s
growth outlook, and recent data confirm the strengthening demand,” Fitch said. Emerging Asia will continue to
experience relatively high rates of growth over the medium term as economic prospects remain starkly divergent
across emerging markets, according to Fitch Ratings’ latest Global Economic Outlook report. “Growth should improve steadily through to 2017 for emerging Asia excluding China on aggregate. This should occur even as China
continues to experience a gradual structural slowdown,”
it said. While maintaining the expectation for an increase
in growth, Fitch lowered its real GDP growth forecasts for
India to 7.8 percent and 8.1 percent from 8.0 percent and
8.3 percent for FY16 and FY17, respectively. “The extent
and pace at which reforms translate into higher rates of
growth continues to be dependent on implementation,
and there are signs that acceleration may be slower than
previously expected,” it said. Emerging Asia will continue to experience relatively high rates of growth over the
medium term as economic prospects remain starkly divergent across emerging markets, according to Fitch Ratings’ latest Global Economic Outlook report. “
Govt to spend Rs 50,000 crore
under new irrigation scheme
New Delhi Jul 2 (PTI): With an
eye on improving farm productivity, the government will spend
Rs 50,000 crore over the next five
years under the Pradhan Mantri
Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY). “It
has been decided that in 5 years, Rs
50,000 crore from the central Budget would be utilised for the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana.
States’ share will be over and above
this,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said while communicating the
Cabinet decision.
He further said: “This can also be
utilised to help the material component in MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment
Guarantee Act).” The decision was
taken at the meeting of Cabinet
Committee on Economic Affairs
(CCEA) headed by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi yesterday. For the
current fiscal, he said the allocation
is Rs 5,300 crore. The spending this
year is expected to bring an additional 6 lakh hectares under irriga-
10
Business
Indian Horizon Delhi
ing
ministries,
departments,
agencies, research and financial
institutions engaged in creation/recycling/potential recycling of water
under a common platform so that
a comprehensive and holistic view
of the entire “water cycle” is taken
into account and proper water
budgeting is done for all sectors,”
he said. With an eye on improving
farm productivity, the government
will spend Rs 50,000 crore over
the next five years under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana
(PMKSY). “It has been decided that
in 5 years, Rs 50,000 crore from the
central Budget would be utilised for
the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai
Yojana. States’ share will be over
and above this,” Finance Minister
Arun Jaitley said while communicating the Cabinet decision. The
programme architecture of PMKSY
looks at a ‘decentralised state-level
planning and execution’ structure
in order to allow states to draw up
a District Irrigation Plan (DIP) and
a State Irrigation Plan (SIP), he said.
“DIP will have a holistic developmental perspective of the district
outlining medium- to long-term
developmental plans integrating
three components namely, water
sources, distribution network and
water use application of the district
to be prepared at two levels - the
block and the district,” he said.
All structures created under the
schemes will be geo-tagged, he added. The programme will be supervised and monitored at the national
level by an Inter-Ministerial National Steering Committee (NSC) under
the Chairmanship of the Prime Minister with the Union Ministers concerned. A National Executive Committee (NEC) is to be constituted
under the Chairmanship of the ViceChairman, NITI Aayog, to oversee
programme implementation, allocation of resources, inter-ministerial
coordination, monitoring and performance assessment, addressing
administrative issues and the like.
nounced that Ratan Tata, Chairman
Emeritus of Tata Sons, will come on
board as a Special Advisor. Founded by Anurag Srivastava and Amit
Anand, Jungle Ventures is an early
stage venture capital fund focussed
on helping build innovative technology-led companies in Asia-Pacific.
The venture fund said it has already
made investments in 30 leading Asian
start-ups, including Zipdial (recently
acquired by Twitter), LiveSpace, Tradegecko, CrayonData, Fastacash and
travelmob (acquired by Nasdaq listed
HomeAway). In his role as Special Advisor, Tata has formally committed to
spending time with Jungle’s portfolio
impregnable and culturally strong in
Asian and global markets, the venture
fund said in a statement. Jungle Ventures, launched with a USD 10 million seed-to-early stage fund in 2012,
is currently raising a second fund with
a much bigger corpus, it said. “For
Jungle Ventures, Tata believing in our
vision also comes as a validation of
our purpose to spawn and nurture entrepreneurship across the Asia-Pacific
and help build tech category leaders,”
said Srivastava, founding and managing partner, Jungle Ventures. Some of
the other advisors who currently work
with Jungle and their start-ups include
Gokul Rajaram, Product Engineering.
Govt clears policy for
skill development,
entrepreneurship
New Delhi Jul 2 (PTI): Government on
Thursday said it has approved the first
integrated national policy for developing
skills and promoting entrepreneurship
at a large scale with speed and quality.
“The policy aims to align supply with
demand, bridging existing skill gaps,
promoting industry engagement, operationalise a quality assurance framework,
leveraging technology and promoting
apprenticeship to tackle the identified issues,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told
reporters here. The government has also
approved common norms for Skill Development Schemes being implemented
by the Centre as well as an institutional
framework for the National Skill Development Mission. The National Policy for
Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015 acknowledges the need for an
effective roadmap for promotion of entrepreneurship as the key to a successful
skills strategy.
The vision of the policy is to create
an ecosystem of empowerment by
skilling on a large scale at speed with
high standards and to promote a culture of innovation-based entrepreneurship which can generate wealth
and employment so as to ensure sustainable livelihoods for all citizens.
The Policy has four thrust areas, an
official statement said, adding that
it addresses key obstacles to skilling,
including low aspirational value, lack
of integration with formal education, lack of focus on outcomes, low
quality of training infrastructure and
trainers. Further, it said the policy
seeks to align supply and demand for
skills by bridging existing skill gaps,
promoting industry engagement,
operationalising a quality assurance
framework, leverage technology and
promoting greater opportunities for
apprenticeship training. “Equity is
also a focus of the Policy, which targets skilling opportunities for socially/geographically marginalised and
disadvantaged groups.
“Skill development and entrepreneurship programmes for women are a
specific focus of the Policy,” it added.
In the entrepreneurship domain, the
policy seeks to educate and equip potential entrepreneurs, both within and
outside the formal education system.
It also seeks to connect entrepreneurs to mentors, incubators and
credit markets, foster innovation and
entrepreneurial culture, improve ease
of doing business and promote a focus on social entrepreneurship. Jaitely
said that last week the Prime Minister
launched programme on smart cities, yesterday on Digital India and the
government has also similar plans for
‘Skilling India’. The Union Cabinet approved the institutional framework for
the National Skill Development Mission in keeping with the commitment
made in the Budget 2015-16. The Mission will have a three-tiered, high powered decision making structure. “At its
apex, the Mission’s Governing Council,
chaired by the Prime Minister.
11
Business
Commodity takes
Oil prices recover
Select copra
as Iran talks, Greek
weakens on lower
crisis drag on
demand, ample supplies
Singapore, Jul 2 (AFP) Oil prices recovered today after the Iran nuclear
talks were extended until July 7, giving
oversupplied markets a breather despite uncertainty over the Greek financial crisis, analysts said. US benchmark
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for August delivery was up 10 cents at USD
57.06 in late morning Asian trade while
Brent was 23 cents higher at USD 62.24.
“With the deadline now extended into
next week on finding a comprehensive agreement on Tehran’s nuclear
programme, the markets will monitor
closely the outcome of the negotiations
as Iran sits on the fourth-largest oil reserves and second-largest gas reserves
in the world,” said Sanjeev Gupta, head
of the Asia-Pacific Oil and Gas practice
at Ernst and Young. Daniel Ang, investment analyst at Phillip Futures, said
“we continue to focus on the timing
that Iranian crude would flow into the
market for this situation”. Oil futures
prices fell yesterday after the Department of Energy reported an unexpected increase in US stockpiles last week,
further dampening sentiment.Oil prices recovered today after the Iran nuclear talks were extended until July 7,
giving oversupplied markets a breather
despite uncertainty over the Greek financial crisis, analysts said. US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI)
for August delivery was up 10 cents at
USD 57.06 in late morning Asian trade
while Brent was 23 cents higher at USD
62.24.“With prices falling yesterday, we
are seeing that the high volatilities that
we were aiming for could be over. We
suggest taking profit on this position,”
said analyst Ang. Talks between Iran
and major powers towards a nuclear
deal will intensify today with the head
of the UN atomic watchdog due in Tehran, seeking to resolve an impasse over
inspecting suspect military sites. Traders are closely tracking developments
in Europe ahead of Sunday’s crucial
referendum on Greece on whether to
accept creditors’ bailout reform proposals, with European leaders casting
it as a simple in/out vote on Athens’
eurozone future.
Gold at three-month
low, down Rs 210
on global cues
New Delhi, Jul 2 (PTI) Falling for the
third straight day, gold prices slumped
by Rs 210 to trade at over three-month
low of Rs 26,500 per ten grams at the
bullion market in the national capital
today. Further, slackened buying by
jewellers at the spot market weighed
on the precious metal prices. Silver
also remained under selling pressure and traded lower by Rs 300 to
Rs 35,750 per kg. Bullion traders said
a weak trend overseas where gold
tumbled on speculation that US employment data will show further signs
of recovery, boosting the outlook for
higher interest rates, mainly dragged
down the yellow metal prices. Gold
in Singapore, which normally determines price trend on the domestic
front, fell 0.5 per cent to USD 1,162.84
an ounce, the lowest since March 19.
Silver also eased by 0.2 per cent to USD
15.54 an ounce. Silver coins too came
under some pressure and slumped by
Rs 1,000 to Rs 53,000 for buying and
Rs 54,000 for selling of 100 pieces. In
addition, shifting of funds towards domestic equity market, further dampened the sentiments. In Delhi, gold
of 99.9 and 99.5 per cent purity lost
another Rs 210 each to Rs 26,500 and
Rs 26,350 per ten grams respectively.
The precious metal prices have fallen
by Rs 240 in the previous two days.
Sovereign, however, held steady at Rs
23,300 per piece of eight grams. Silver
ready moved down by Rs 300 to Rs
35,750 per kg and weekly-based delivery by Rs 380 to Rs 35,180 per kg. Silver
coins too came under some pressure
and slumped by Rs 1,000 to Rs 53,000
for buying and Rs 54,000 for selling of
100 pieces.
Mumbai, Jul 2 (PTI) Copra edible
Mumbai, copra office Alapuzha and
copra office Kozhikode prices weakened further at the spice market here
today due to poor demand from millers and exporters on the back of ample
supply positions. While, rest all other
spices held steady in the absence of
any largescale buying. Copra edible
Mumbai fell by Rs 200 per quintal to
Rs 10,000 from Wednesday’s closing
level Rs 10,200. Copra office Alapuzha and copra office Kozhikode fell
by Rs 100 per quintal each to Rs 8,200
from Rs 8,000 from overnight level of
Rs 8,300 and Rs 8,100, respectively.
Following are today’s closing rates
(in Rs with previous rates in brackets): Black pepper (per kg) 650/735
(650/735), ginger bleached (per kg)
240 (240), ginger unbleached (per kg)
260 (260), copra office Alapuzha (per
quintal) 8,200 (8,300), copra office
Kozhikode (per quintal) 8,000 (8,100),
copra Rajapur Mumbai (per quintal)
15,500 (15,500), copra edible Mumbai
(per quintal) 10,000 (10,200).
Small sugar
recovers on
renewed demand
Mumbai, Jul 2 (PTI) Small sugar prices recovered slightly at the Vashi wholesale market here today on renewed
demand from stockists and bulk consumers. While, medium sugar weakened further owing to subdued offtake
from stockists and retailers. Small
sugar (S-30) gained by Rs 4 per quintal
to Rs 2,176/2,325 from Wednesday’s
closing level of Rs 2,172/2,325. However, Medium sugar (M-30) dropped
by Rs 30 per quintal to Rs 2,260/2,582
as compared to Rs 2,290/2,582, previously. Following are today’s closing
rates for sugar (per quintal) with the
previous rates given in brackets: Small
sugar (S-30) quality: Rs 2,176/2,325 (Rs
2,172/2,325). Medium sugar (M-30)
quality: Rs 2,260/2,582 (Rs 2,290/2,582).
Groundnutoil
declines on lower
demand
Mumbai, Jul 2 (PTI) Groundnutoil
prices declined at the Vashi oils and
oilseeds wholesale market here today
on lower demand from stockists and
retailers. However, castorseeds bold
and castoroil commercial recovered
slightly following mild demand from
shippers and soap industries. Refined
palmolein and linseedoil ruled stable
in the absence of any worthwhile buying activity. In the edible segment,
groundnutoil eased by Rs 5 per 10kg
to Rs 965 from Wednesday’s closing
level of Rs 970. Refined palmolein
closed unchanged at Rs 505 per 10kg.
Castorseeds bold gained Rs 15 per 100
kg to Rs 3,965 from its overnight level
of Rs 3,950 and castoroil commercial
edged up by Rs 3 per 10kg to Rs 823
from Rs 820. Linseedoil ended unaltered at 780 per 10 kg.
Base metals rise on
industrial demand
Mumbai, Jul 2 (PTI) Tin, Nickel, brass
and select copper prices rose further at
the non-ferrous metal market here today on stockists buying amid sustained
demand from industrial users. Globally,
London copper held its ground in early
trade today after strong US data eclipsed
worries about factory growth in Asia, with
a jobs report later in the session expected
to support the view that the world’s biggest economy is gaining steam. Tin regained by Rs 10 per kg to Rs 1,140 from
Wednesday’s closing level of Rs 1,130.
Nickel climbed by Rs 5 per kg to Rs 945
from Rs 940. Copper sheet cutting and
bras sheet cutting moved up by Rs 2 per
kg each to Rs 420 and Rs 320 from Rs 418
and Rs 318. Copper cable scrap, copper
scrap heavy, copper wire bar and brass
ute nsils scrap inched-up by a Re per kg
each to Rs 439, Rs 434, Rs 459 and Rs 306.
Indian Horizon Delhi
Friday, July 3, 2015
HDFC Bank sees mobile banking
overtaking net banking next year
Mumbai Jul 2 (PTI): Private
sector lender HDFC Bank may
see transactions undertaken on
mobile devices overtake those
on Internet banking from the
next fiscal, a top official said on
Thursday. “Usage of mobiles has
been growing rapidly and outpacing the growth of the Internet
transactions. We feel next year
it will overtake Internet banking,” its head of digital banking
Nitin Chugh told reporters here.
Declining to share specific data
on mobile adoption within the
bank, he said over 70 per cent
of people access the Internet
through the mobile phones at
present and the same will have
to reflect in its usage as well.
This April, the bank had reported 17.46 lakh mobile transactions
worth over Rs 5,686 crore, making
it the market leader in the segment in value terms, while SBI is
the leader by volume at 78.48 lakh.
He said the use of mobiles
and the Internet combined has
also been growing steadily and
it accounts of 63 per cent of total
transactions for the bank today.
Chugh said the same number
was at 44 per cent two years ago
and a low 13 per cent a decade
ago. After announcing that it has
made an application to run on
Apple’s recently launched Watch,
the bank today gave a demonstration of its software which runs on
the i-Watch. Apple is yet to launch
i-Watch, which sells at a minimum of USD 349, in the country.
Chugh said there are 30 banks
globally which have launched iWatch-based applications and
claimed HDFC Bank is
The bank has developed the
wearable device (watch) application only for Apple phones for
now, but will also be launching
similar ones to run on Androidpowered watches made by brands
like Samsung and Motorola shortly. Chugh said HDFC Bank chose
Rupee remains firm against USD;
tops 1-1/2 mth high at 63.51
Mumbai, Jul 2 (PTI)
Strengthening for the
third straight session, the
rupee gained 10 paise
to close at 63.51 against
the US dollar today on
continued
selling
of
the greenback by banks
and exporters. Besides,
smooth supply of dollars
on fresh capital inflows
into equities and debts
predominantly weighed
on trading sentiments,
forex dealers said. Positive comments from the
Reserve Bank Governor
Raghuram Rajan that India will see limited impact
of the debt crisis in Greece
as it has little direct exposure to the European nation also supported the
overall trade. The rupee
resumed weak at 63.64 as
compared to overnight
closing level of 63.61 at
the Interbank Foreign Exchange (FOREX) market
on initial dollar demand
from importers and weakened further to hit fresh
intra-day low of 63.66, despite a firm opening in the
domestic equity markets.
However, the local unit
trimmed initial losses and
staged a smart rebound
following renewed dollar
selling to touch
a high of 63.49
before concluding at 63.51,
showing a gain
of 10 paise, or
0.16 per cent,
a the level not
seen since May
15 this year.
In last three
days, it has
gained 33 paise.
Meanwhile,
foreign investors
bought
shares
worth
Rs 75.03 crore
yesterday, according to provisional data. In overseas
trade, the dollar traded
marginally higher against
a basket of other major
currencies amid concerns
over Greece’s debt woes
and also release of key US
economic data later in the
day. The US dollar index
was up by 0.06 per cent at
96.53. Concurrently, crude
prices firmed up after a
steep drop in the previous
session after data showed
an unexpected increase
in US oil stockpiles last
week. . Veracity Group CEO
Pramit Brahmbhatt said,
“The USD/INR pair traded
range-bound as investors
awaited for the US jobs
data due for the day which
will show the road ahead to
the market.” The trading
range for the Spot USD/
INR pair is expected to be
within 63.20 to 64.80. In the
forward market, the premium for dollar ended lower
on fresh receivings from
exporters. The benchmark
six-month premium payable in December dropped
to 219-221 paise as compared to 226-228 paise
while June, 2016 contract
also finished lower at 440442 paise as against.
Apple for its user interface, design
and also because a ‘good part’ of
its customer base uses i-Phones.
Its rival ICICI Bank also has a
similar offering, but it works on
both Apple and Android systems.
Chugh said there are 30 banks
globally which have launched iWatch-based applications and
claimed HDFC Bank is among the
first three to announce that it will
be developing such an application. A customer can do 10 types of
transactions using the i-Watch, including account information, mobile recharges, sending requests
for cheque books and locationbased services like viewing.
China wants to
combine ‘Make in
India’ with ‘Made
in China’
Beijing Jul 2 (PTI): China said it is making “every
effort” to address India’s concerns on USD 47 billion
trade deficit as it called for combining Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ initiative with its
‘Made in China’ to step up investments.
“We are making every effort to fundamentally solve
the issue. We need to find a new channel, new methodology to break the bottle neck,” said Huang Xilian,
Deputy Director General of the Asian Affairs department of the Foreign Ministry. China is trying to address the issue by promoting mutual investments
to balance the trade. “We have agreed two industrial
parks and encouraging more Chinese investments in
India to promote exports to China,” he said.
“We are ready to buy. This is next five years we are
experted to import commodities from USD 10 trillion.
We hope we could import as much as possible from
India,” he said. “We should try to combine ‘Make in
India’ and ‘Made in China’ strategy together. The key
word in India-China relationship is development,
which is a major factor of our cooperation,” he said.
India’s trade deficit with China averaged around
USD 47 billion in last year’s trade of over USD 70 billion. Huang said China has sent delegation to India
to discuss measures to increase imports. China is importing films from India, he said, referring to recent
success of PK which grossed over USD 16 million.
China is also stepping up imports of Indian pharmaceuticals, Huang said. Punj Lloyd Group is a global
conglomerate offering engineering, procurement
and construction (EPC) services. The shares of the
company closed at Rs 24.75 on BSE, up 1.23 per cent
from its previous close
Mkts turn choppy after 2-day
rally; Sensex drop 75 pts
Mumbai, Jul 2 (PTI) Snapping a
two-session upsurge, the benchmark BSE Sensex dropped by
75 points and closed below the
psychologically significant 28kmark following profit taking at
higher levels during the fag-end
amid ongoing Greece standoff.
Metal, technology, infra, capital
goods and healthcare witnessed
fresh bout of selling pressure.
While, oil&gas, fmcg and banking stocks continued attract good
buying interest. Despite a strong
start against the backdrop of firm
Asian sentiment, market turned
highly volatile amid choppiness
and succumbed to profit-booking
at higher as investors turned cautious after two-day impressive
rally as well as much awaited US
jobs data later in the day, a floor
trader said.
The benchmark had gained
over 375 points in last two sessions to hit a 2-1/2 month high.
The 30-share index opened higher at 28,100.38 and hovered between a high of 28,115.96 and a
low of 27,906.37 before settling at
27,945.80, showing a fall of 75.07
points, or 0.27 per cent over its
last close. The broder Nifty also
ended lower by 8.15 points, or
0.10 per cent at 8,444.90. Elsewhere in the region, barring
China’s Shanghai Composite index, most equities ended higher
tracking strong finish on Wall
Street overnight. While European
indices continued their rallying
momentum with key indices in
Germany, France and the UK are
up 1.34 per cent to 1.87 per cent.
Meanwhile, the global rating agency Fitch lowered India’s
economic growth projections to
7.8 per cent for the current fiscal
from 8 per cent earlier. Foreign
investors reversed a recent trend
and bought shares worth Rs 75.03
crore yesterday, according to provisional data. The benchmark
had gained over 375 points in last
two sessions to hit a 2-1/2 month
high. The 30-share index opened
higher at 28,100.38 and hovered
between a high of 28,115.96 and a
low of 27,906.37 before settling at
27,945.80, showing a fall of 75.07
points, or 0.27 per cent over its
last close. The broder Nifty also
ended lower by 8.15 points, or
0.10 per cent at 8,444.90.
Elsewhere in the region, barring China’s Shanghai Composite
index, most equities ended higher tracking strong finish on Wall
Street overnight. While European
indices continued their rallying
momentum with key indices in
Germany, France and the UK are
up 1.34 per cent to 1.87 per cent.
Pramit Brahmbhatt, Veracity
Group CEO said, not much action
was seen in the local equity market as the unsolved Greek debt
issue continues to dent the movement of indices and traded flat
and looked to consolidated ahead
of the major U.S economic data
due for the day. Out of 30-share
Sensex pack, 20 finished lower
while 10 ended higher. Major losers Tata Motors (1.84 pc), Hindalco (1.72 pc), HDFC Bank (1.33
pc), VEDL (1.08 pc), ONGC (1.07
pc), Cipla (1.06 pc), Dr Reddy
(1.00 pc), Infosys (0.96 pc), Maruti (0.89 pc), GAIL (0.79 pc), HDFC
(0.73) and L&T (0.71 pc). Among
the gainers included Bharati Artel
(2.13 pc), M&M (2.00 pc), Bajaj
Auto (1.67 pc) Axis Bank (0.62 pc)
Heromotoco (0.56 pc) and Wipro
(0.53 pc). The market breadth
continued to show positive trend
as 1,519 stocks advanced, 1251
shares declined and 116 ruled
steady. Total turnover dropped to
Rs 2,710.70 crore from Rs 3,226.25
crore yesterday.
12
CRICKET WORLD CUP 2015
Let s know more about it
12
Indian Horizon Delhi
Indian
Friday, July 3, 2015
Horizon
BCCI mulling performance-based
incentives for Indian team
New Delhi Jul 2 (PTI): Encouraged
by the financial model followed by
Cricket Australia and England and
Wales Cricket Board, the BCCI is
planning to introduce a performancebased incentive for the Indian team
for each and every home and away
series. There was an initial blueprint
that was drawn at the Board’s finance
committee meeting that took place in
the capital here on Wednesday.
While BCCI’s finance committee
has agreed in principle on going the
corporate way where profit sharing
will be directly proportional to the
board’s revenue, the members
discussed the possible ways of doing
it. According to BCCI sources, it
was IPL COO Sundar Raman, who
provided a presentation for the
finance committee members where it
was intimated that Cricket Australia,
ECB and BCCI’s next door neighbours
PCB also follow an incentive-based
model in their respective countries.
“Till now, BCCI normally gave
handsome incentives to cricketers
during triumphs in big tournaments
like 50-over World Cup, World T20
or ICC Champions Trophy. But from
now on, the BCCI is planning to
have incentives for each and every
series played at home and away,”
sources told PTI. For example, if India
wins a Test series at home against a
particular opposition, the cricketers
will be entitled to a specific amount of
incentive from the board apart from
their match fees. Similarly, the amount
will shoot up when they are playing
some other opposition on foreign
soil. Even the best performers during
a particular series will get special
performance-based incentives. The
amount will depend on the nature
of opposition, conditions, home and
away and impact of the performance.
While Raman today gave an initial
presentation, an elaborate blueprint is
likely to be chalked out on July 22, when
the next meeting of the committee
will be held. Meanwhile, the finance
committee today decided that India’s
women cricketers will be divided into
two groups A and B for the gradation
payment system that the BCCI is
planning to introduce. “Till now, BCCI
normally gave handsome incentives
to cricketers during triumphs in big
tournaments like 50-over World Cup,
World T20 or ICC Champions Trophy.
Wimbledon 2015, Day 3: Murray,
Federer, Wozniacki breeze
through as weather cools off
London Jul 2 (PTI): Former champion
Andy Murray breezed into the
Wimbledon third round on Thursday as
the women`s top 10 lost its fourth seeded
player of the week. Third seed Murray,
the 2013 champion, brushed aside
Robin Haase, the world number 78 from
the Netherlands, 6-1, 6-1, 6-4 in just 87
minutes.
The 28-year-old fired 25 winners
past Haase and goes on to face either
experienced Italian Andreas Seppi or
highly-regarded 18-year-old Croatian
Borna Coric. “I started the match off very
well. I started quickly and Robin was
a little bit slower at the beginning and
then he started to come back in it, he
played better tennis,” said Murray after
his fourth win in five matches against his
fellow 28-year-old. “That was the sort of
match I was expecting at the end of the
second and the third set where he was
making it tough. “We were playing some
longer rallies. He has good variety in his
game so there were some fun points.”
Seven-time champion Roger Federer
also reached the Wimbledon third round
today with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 win over Sam
Querrey of the United States. Second
seed Federer will face Australia`s Sam
Groth for a place in the last 16. Later, twotime winner Rafael Nadal will attempt to
follow Murray and Federer into the last
32. However, the women`s draw opened
up even further when Russian eighth seed
Ekaterina Makarova, a quarter-finalist in
2014, went down 6-2, 7-5 to unseeded
Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia.
Before 2015, the world number 65
Rybarikova had never won a match at
Wimbledon in seven years of trying.
Makarova joined third seed Simona
Halep, seventh seed Ana Ivanovic and
Carla Suarez Navarro, seeded nine, in
failing to get beyond the second round.
Rybarikova goes on to face Belarus
qualifier Olga Govortsova who put out
French 25th seed Alize Cornet 7-6 (8/6),
2-6, 6-1. Cornet had knocked Serena
Williams out of Wimbledon last year.
Former world number one Caroline
Wozniacki made it through to the third
round with a 6-1, 7-6 (8/6) win over
Denisa Allertova, the world number 83
from the Czech Republic. Wozniacki,
who has never got beyond the last 16
at Wimbledon, next takes on Italian
31st seed Camila Giorgi. Also going into
the third round was German 18th seed
Sabine Lisicki, the 2013 runner-up, who
fought back to defeat Christina McHale
of the United States 2-6, 7-5, 6-1.
Lisicki next meets French Open semifinalist Timea Bacsinszky, the 15th
seeded Swiss. Federer faces America`s
world number 36 Sam Querrey who has
lost both his previous matches against
the second-seeded 17-time Grand Slam
title winner, failing to win a set. The only
time Federer has lost before the third
round at a Grand Slam in his last 48 major
appearances was at 2013 Wimbledon,
when he was defeated by Sergiy
Stakhovsky in the second round. Also
going into the third round was German
18th seed Sabine Lisicki, the 2013 runnerup, who fought back to defeat Christina
McHale of the United States 2-6, 7-5, 6-1.
Nadal, the two time winner and seeded
10 this year, takes on German qualifier
Dustin Brown. Brown, the dread-locked
world 102, defeated the Spaniard on
grass in Halle last year in what was the
pair`s only previous meeting. Czech sixth
seed Tomas Berdych is also in action
on Thursday when he faces French wild
card Nicolas Mahut. Reigning women`s
champion Petra Kvitova, the second
seed, meets Japan`s Kurumi Nara.
Thursday`s action started late due to rain
which came as a welcome relief to fans
and players who had sweltered.
Recalled Steven
Finn has learnt his
England lessons
But from now on, the BCCI is planning
to have incentives for each and every
series played at home and away,”
sources told PTI. For example, if India
wins a Test series at home against a
particular opposition, the cricketers
will be entitled to a specific amount of
incentive from the board apart from
their match fees. Similarly, the amount
will shoot up when they are playing
some other opposition on foreign soil.
Even the best performers during a
particular series.
London Jul 2 (PTI): England
pace bowler Steven Finn
has learnt his lessons after a
dramatic loss of form and is
ready to make “another debut”
if he is selected for the first test
against Australia next week. The
26-year-old`s last test match was
the 14-run win over Australia
in the first Ashes test at Trent
Bridge in 2013, a series England
went on to win 3-0.
But the Middlesex bowler
struggled with his rhythm and
pace and did not feature in
England`s 5-0 Ashes defeat in
the return series before being
sent home to work on the
technical aspect of his game.
Having regained his line and
length, Finn, who has collected
90 wickets in 23 tests at an
average of 29.4, was included
in England`s 13-man squad for
the first Ashes test in Cardiff
starting on July 8. “If I do play,
it will feel like making another
debut in test match cricket, so
it`s really exciting,” Finn told
reporters on Thursday. “I have
done a lot of learning about
my cricket over the last 18
months to two years and the
way I need to go about things.
“It wasn`t beneficial at the
time but overall, it has been.
“I am now very comfortable
with where I am at and with the
technical side of things and it is
now just about getting batsman
out and putting the ball in
the right area.” England pace
bowler Steven Finn has learnt
his lessons after a dramatic loss
of form and is ready to make
“another debut” if he is selected
for the first test against Australia
next week. The 26-year-old`s last
test match was the 14-run win
over Australia in the first Ashes
test at Trent Bridge in 2013, a
series England went on to win
3-0. The 26-year-old`s last test
match was the 14-run win over
Australia in the first Ashes test
at Trent Bridge in 2013, a series
England went on to win 3-0.
Finn`s return to form has
coincided
with
England
adopting a new attacking
approach that earned plaudits
during the recent drawn test
series against New Zealand.
“The way we have built
momentum over the last eight
weeks or so is really exciting,”
Finn said. “I have confidence
in the way I am bowling and, if
selected, I feel I can do myself
justice.”
Sushil Kumar opts out of World
Championships with shoulder injury
New Delhi Jul 2 (PTI): Twotime Olympic-medallist Sushil
Kumar has opted out of the World
Championships after sustaining
a shoulder injury, thereby taking
the sheen out of the upcoming
selection trials, slated for July 6-7
here. The World championships,
scheduled to be held in Las Vegas
from September 7-12, will also be
the first qualification tournament
for the 2016 Rio Olympics. “Yes,
I have sustained an injury to my
right shoulder while practising.
So I would not be able to take
part in the upcoming selection
trials. So, automatically that rules
me out of the first qualifying
event for next year’s Rio Olympic
Games,” Sushil told PTI. “I have
been advised by the doctors to
take rest. At the moment, I don’t
know exactly how long my injury
will take to heal completely, but I
am taking good care,” he added.
Sushil’s injury has ended what
could have been a enthralling
battle between the veteran
HWL: Indian men
eager to tame attacking
Belgians in semi-final
Antwerp (Belgium) Jul 2(PTI): India will face
one of their toughest tests in defence when they
square off against the marauding Belgians in what
promises to be a robust semifinal clash of the FIH
Hockey World League Semifinals here on Friday.
The encounter will test the ability of India’s
defence to guard against the Belgian strikers,
who have tasted enormous success in the past
couple of years to boost their world ranking to No.
4 -- the highest in their hockey history. Ranked
No. 9 in the world, India faces a formidable side
that has enjoyed a slight edge in their recent
encounters since the 2011 Champions Challenge
final in Johannesburg. The Belgian players have,
in fact, made giant strides in international hockey.
Starting with the victory in the Champions
Challenge that earned Belgium their maiden entry
in the elite Champions Trophy, the Red Lions have
emerged victorious in their fixtures against India
in the 2012 Olympic Games and the 2014 World
Cup. India have managed to overcome the Belgian
challenge in successive Champions Trophy
encounters in Melbourne and Bhubaneswar.
“Playing Belgium suits our game. Belgium play a
structured game and we’re ready for this contest,”
said India coach Paul van Ass.
wrestler and the young Narsingh
Pancham Yadav in the selection
trials slated for July 6-7 for a place
in the World Championships.
After
the
World
Championships,
there
are six more qualification
tournaments, all of which are
scheduled to be held next year,
starting from March 2016. The
32-year-old grappler said that it
would not be wise to aggravate
the injury as there are a number
of qualifying events before the
Olympics. “I am not keen to
take a chance, even though
the injury is not so serious. It
is not good to take part in a
competition half fit. I will be
competing in the qualifying
events next year before the
Rio Olympics and I have been
working hard for it,” insisted the
wrestler from Haryana. Sushil,
who had created history in 2010
by becoming the first Indian
to win a gold at the World
Championships in Moscow.
After turning pro,
Vijender Singh meets Haryana
CM Manohar Lal Khattar
Chandigarh Jun 2 (PTI): Drawing
flak from some quarters for turning
professional, Olympic bronze-medallist
boxer Vijender Singh met Haryana Chief
Minister Manohar Lal Khattar here
today. However, there was no official
word on what transpired in the meeting
which lasted for about 30 minutes at the
CM’s official residence here.
The ace boxer, who also holds the
rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police
(DSP) in Haryana, came in his Sports
Utility Vehicle and avoided the media.
However, it is understood that the CM
had asked the boxer to follow the rules
for turning professional from amateur.
Recently, Haryana police had warned
of taking action against Vijender if he
fails to seek permission from the state
government for turning professional.
Vijender,
the
country’s
most
celebrated boxer, had bid adieu to his
amateur career by turning professional,
ruling himself out of next year’s
Olympics. The first Indian boxer to
win an Olympic medal -- the 29-yearold signed a multi-year agreement
with Queensberry Promotions through
IOS Sports and Entertainment. The
ace boxer, who also holds the rank
of Deputy Superintendent of Police
(DSP) in Haryana, came in his Sports
Utility Vehicle and avoided the media.
However, it is understood that the CM
had asked the boxer to follow the rules
for turning professional from amateur.
Recently, Haryana police had warned
of taking action against Vijender if he
fails to seek permission from the state
government for turning professional.
Vijender was appointed as Deputy
Superintendent of Police (DSP) by
the previous Bhupinder Singh Hooda
government in Haryana for his
outstanding record in boxing at national
and international level. However,
Vijender was currently on probation and
had not yet completed his training.
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