NEWS
- Andhra Pradesh Assembly rejects the State Reorganisation Bill to create a separate Telangana.
- Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal says Janlokpal Bill will be tabled in the State Assembly within a fortnight.
- Supreme Court refuses to discharge Jayalalita in a case of income tax; directs lower court to complete proceedings in four months.
- A Bangladesh Court gives death penalty to 14 persons in the country's biggest ever weapons haul case linked to ULFA.
- Yet another batch of 38 Tamil fishermen arrested by Srilankan Navy today.
- Sensex looses over 200 points in afternoon trade.
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"Amidst pandemonium, Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy moved a
resolution seeking rejection of the bill while the Endowment Minister C
Ramachandraiah moved it in the Council. Members including Ministers from
Telangana region across party lines thronged the Well of the House while
members who support united Andhra Pradesh strategically stood in guard for the
speaker and the Chief Minister. Acrimonious scenes took place when members push
each other and when some of the Telangana supporters climbed the tables of the
secretarial staff in their attempts to stop the proceedings. Lakshmi, Air News,
Hyderabad."
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Delhi Chief Minister
Arvind Kejriwal today said the Janlokpal Bill will be discussed and approved by
his Cabinet probably tomorrow. Addressing a press conference on completion of
one month of his government in the national capital, Mr Kejriwal said the bill
will be brought before the Assembly in the next ten to fifteen days for its
passage.
Most Probably, the Janlokpal Bill will be brought before the cabinet
tomorrow. And there should be a session of the assembly in the next 10 to 15
days in which this bill should be passed .
On corruption, he
claimed the government's anti-corruption help-line has received a huge response
and corruption has declined to a considerable extent. On the probe by the SIT
into the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, the Chief Minister said, it has been a major
demand of the Sikh community. He said the Delhi Cabinet will soon approve it
and send it to the Lt. Governor. He said the BJP has been in power at the
Centre as well as in Delhi
but it failed to take any steps to order a probe into the riots.
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The Supreme Court today
refused to discharge Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and her associate
S Sasikalaa from three cases against them for
not filing income tax returns from 1991-94 and set a time limit of four months
to complete the trial. A bench headed by Justice K S Radhakrishnan dismissed
the petition filed by them challenging the Madras High Court's order which had
refused to quash the proceedings against them. Giving green signal to the trial
court to proceed against them, the apex court also vacated the stay order on
the trial and directed the lower court to complete the proceedings within four
months.The Income Tax department had in 1996-97 launched criminal proceedings
against Jayalalithaa, Sasikalaa and Sasi Enterprises, of which both were
partners, for not filing returns for the assessment years of 1991-92, 1992-93
and 1993-94. The trial court had dismissed their discharge pleas and the Madras
High Court had upheld the same in 2006.
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The owner of tourist
ferry MV Aqua marine, which capsized leaving 21 tourists dead in the Andamans,
has been remanded to judicial custody after her arrest. Jaya was arrested after
prolonged interrogation and produced in court which remanded her to judicial
custody for a day yesterday. The ferry disaster on Jan 26, would be
investigated by a team of officials led by Deputy Superintendent of Police N
Rasheed. The statements of several witnesses have been taken. Underwater
photography of the sunken ferry has been done by experts.
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In Assam, several
organizations have protested against the killing of 10 persons by miscreants
from Arunachal Pradesh at Chauldhua in Sonitpur district yesterday. Political
parties and civil society organizations have condemned the incident. Eight
injured persons in the firing incident are undergoing treatment. Locals
demanded immediate arrest of the culprits behind the killing. Assam Home
Secretary Mukti Gogoi is going to Behali to take stock of the situation. He
said the Assam
government has talked to the Arunachal Pradesh government on this issue. As
reported, over 100 miscreants from
Arunachal Pradesh attacked people at
Chauldhua village under the Bihali forest area. The incident occurred
reportedly due to a boundary related conflict between people from Assam and
Arunachali people bordering the Sonitpur district.
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The Sri Lankan Navy
apprehended 38 Tamil fishermen and their six boats when they were fishing in
international waters today. This has created anguish in fishermen villages.
More from our correspondent:
"There is no
end to the travails of Tamil fishermen even after talks between fishermen
representatives of India and
Sri Lanka.
Tension prevails in fishermen villages of Ramanathapuram district as Sri Lankan
Navy apprehended 38 fellow fishermen and their fishing boats today. The
fishermen are urging the government to take concrete steps to prevent attacks
by Lankan Navy. It has been a mixed day for them as 69 Tamil fishermen from
Pudukottai and Ramanathapuram district released from Sri Lankan jails along
with their 16 boats were brought to Karaikkal by Indian Coast
Guard today morning. K Devi Padmanabhan,Air News, Tiruchirapalli."
Meanwhile, Speaking to
All India Radio, Sri Lankan Navy Spokesman Kosala Warnakulasurya said in Colombo that the arrested
fishermen have been taken to Kankesanthurai port and will be handed over to the
Fisheries authorities. They will be produced before a magistrate’s court later
today.
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A grateful nation pays
homage to the father of nation Mahatma Gandhi on his 66th death anniversary
today. President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President Mohammed Hamid Ansari, Prime
Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, Defence Minister A K Antony and prominent leaders
from various political parties and other dignitaries paid floral tributes at
his Samadhi at Rajghat in the national capital.
An all religion prayer meeting is being organised at the Samadhi and his
favourite Bhajans were recited.The day is observed as martyrs' day. On this day
in 1948, Mahatma Gandhi, fell to an assassin's bullet.
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In Bangladesh, the
Chittagong Metropolitan Special Tribunal
delivered the verdict in the sensational 10 trucks-loads of arms haul today, sentencing ULFA Chief Paresh
Barua, Jamaat Chief and former
Industries Minister Nizami, and former BNP Minister of State for Home
Lutfouzzaman Babar to death. The
Tribunal also sentenced 11 others including former DG(NSI) Brig. Abdur Rahim
and former Director(DGFI) Brig. Rezzakul Chowdhury to death taking the death sentences to 14
person. Of the 52 accused, 11 were produced in court today, while 29 are on
bail and 12 including ULFA leader Paresh Barua are absconding. A report:
In a judgement
significant for both Bangladesh
and India, Chittagong Metropolitan Special Tribunal
sentenced 14 people including 2 former Ministers of the BNP Government and high
officers of National Security Intelligence to death for illegal smuggling of
arms. Absconding Military Wing chief of Assam's ULFA Paresh Baura is among
those sentenced to death. The case acquired importance because of the sheer
size and sophistication of the weapons hauled, and because police investigation
had confirmed that the arms were for India's separatist outfit ULFA.
Involvement of Bangladesh
state machinery also gave critical significance for the case. Melinda Dias for
AIR News, Dhaka."
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India and Saudi Arabia have decided to enhance bilateral
trade and economic co-operation along the lines of the Delhi
declaration and the Riyadh
declaration. The bilateral trade between the two countries stands at 43 billion
dollar which they intend to double over the next five
years. The views emerged at the 10th India-Saudi Arabia Joint Commission
Meeting , JCM in Riyadh
during January 27-28. The meeting of the JCM was co chaired by the finance
minister Mr.P .Chidambaram and the Commerce & Industry Minister of Saudi Arabia. More from our
correspondent:
"Finance
Minister P. Chidambaram said that India-Saudi Arabia
bilateral trade stands at $43 billion and the target is to double it over the
next five years. He met the captains of industry in Saudi
Arabia and urged them to invest in India in projects such as Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor project and
the petrochemical and refinery sector projects. It was decided at the JCM to
form a Joint technical team to promote cooperation in the field of oil, gas and
minerals. The JCM called for participation of Indian pharmaceutical firms in Saudi Arabia
and finding the ways to make Indian companies eligible for Saudi projects.
Enhanced cooperation in all security fields and exchange of information,
especially in organized crimes, money laundering and drug smuggling have been
agreed to. Atul K Tiwary, AIR News, Dubai."
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The Finance Ministry
today said both the government and the Reserve Bank of India will
continue to remain vigilant over the US Fed tapering. The US Federal Reserve
yesterday decided to cut its bond purchase by another 10 billion dollars. It
will now purchase 65 billion dollars per month of mortgage-backed securities
and longer-term treasury securities as against 75 billion dollars. The Finance
Ministry in a statement issued in New
Delhi, said, the government and the RBI will take
steps which are necessary to ensure stability in financial markets. It said the
decision was expected and should in no way surprise or affect the country's
markets. However, the statement noted that 65 billion dollars is not a small
sum and will continue to infuse a large amount of liquidity into the world
markets.
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Tracking falling global markets,
the Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange remained weak in afternoon trade, and
stood 240 points, or 1.2 percent in negative territory, at 20,407 a short while
ago. Earlier in the morning, the Sensex had fallen 196 points, on sustained
selling by funds, after the US Federal Reserve, or central bank, decided to
further taper its monetary stimulus programme. The Sensex had lost over 725
points in the previous four trading sessions.
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The third and most
important bathing festival of Mauni Amavasya is taking place today at world the
famous Magh Mela at Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh. The Mela administration has
said about 35 lakh pilgrims have already taken a holy dip on this occasion in
the at Rivers Ganga, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati. Bathing is going on
peacefully under tight security. Movement of motor boats is restricted in the
river Yamuna and only country made boats are allowed to ferry devotees. AIR
Allahabad Correspondent reports that several renowned religious and political
leaders are included who have taken a holy dip at Sangam on the occasion.
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Kargil, in the frontier
Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir, recorded the lowest night temperature this
season as the mercury settled more than 21 degrees below the freezing point.
The MeT Department has predicted fresh snowfall in the region.
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The four-day Kila
Raipur Rural Sports Festival begins at village Kila Raipur in Punjab’s Ludhiana
district, today. Popularly known as the Rural Olympics, this annual event has
been is on since the 1940’s.AIR correspondent reports that this one of its kind
rural sports extravaganza in the world is a heady mix of Olympic and
traditional sports events and a display of bizarre physical exploits. The
events include bullock cart racing, tug-of-war, kabbadi, dog race, tractor
race, tent pegging, athletics, hockey matches, cycle races, wrestling etc.
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UPA chairperson and
Congress president Sonia Gandhi will lay the foundation stone of Aligarh Muslim
University's (AMU) Centre in Bihar's Kishanganj
district today. Union HRD Minister M Pallam Raju and Bihar Chief Minister
Nitish Kumar will also be present on the occasion.
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In Madhya Pradesh,
train traffic has been affected on the Bhopal-Nagpur rail route due to
derailment of a goods train near Amla under Nagpur rail division. Railway
Sources said trains in both directions are being diverted via Khandwa and
Ballarshah.
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