NEWS

• Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his cabinet colleagues hold dharna in New Delhi to seek action against some Delhi police personnel.

• Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde says Kejriwal should wait till the judicial inquiry ordered by Delhi Lt. Governor is complete.

• Delhi High Court dismisses the plea of private schools bodies seeking stay on city government's nursery admission guidelines that included scrapping of 20 per cent management quota.
   
• Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh reviews progress of infrastructure and development projects in the northeast.

• India  successfully test-fires nuclear-capable surface-to-surface Agni-IV missile with a range of about 4,000 km from Odisha coast.

• Sensex gains over 60 points in afternoon trade; Rupee down by 5 paise at 61 rupees 59 paise against the dollar.

• Sania Mirza in women's double and Rohan Bopanna in mixed Doubles entered Quarterfinals with their respective partners;  Maria Sharapova crashes out. 

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Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his cabinet colleagues are holding a dharna near Rail Bhavan in New Delhi after they were denied permission to proceed towards Home Ministry at North Block. They wanted to sit on a dharna in front of Home Ministry seeking action against some Delhi police personnel. However, the police has imposed prohibitory orders in the area to maintain law and order. Addressing his supporters and media at the protest venue, Mr. Kejriwal said Delhi Police has to be held responsible for growing incidents of rape in the capital. He sought action against the guilty police personnel who reportedly refused to take action ordered by Delhi Law Minister Somnath Bharati against the alleged sex and drug racket in a south Delhi locality. He alleged that a few Delhi police personnel are in collusion with the perpetrators of illegal activities in the city.

We asked for the suspension of the SHO and the two ACPs who refused to work, but some BJP and Congress people and also some media persons started saying that Somnath Bharti, who is the Law Minister,  shouldn't have gone with the people at night hours.

Kejriwal said he is ready to sit on a ten-day dharna to press for his demands. He reiterated that the Central Government will be responsible for any constitutional crisis in the capital. Kejriwal appealed to his supporters to maintain peace during the dharna.

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Home Minister Sushil kumar Shinde told media that Mr Kejriwal should wait till the judicial inquiry ordered by Delhi Lt. Governor is complete.

Being CM, he should trust the LG who has assured him of a judicial enquiry and he should co-operate.

Mr Shinde said that Aam Aadmi Party leaders can hold protest at Jantar Mantar. Replying to a question, he made it clear that Delhi Police cannot be brought under the control of Delhi government.                                             

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Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari has termed as  reprehensible the treatment meted out by the Aam Aadmi Party Minister to African ladies. In a tweet, Mr Tewari said, Indians should show the same sensitivity as they expect from other nations. He said, Indo-African Relationship are rooted in common struggle against colonialism and racism.

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The Delhi High Court today dismissed the plea of private school bodies seeking stay on city government's nursery admission guidelines that included scrapping of 20 per cent management quota. A bench, comprising Chief Justice NV Ramana and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw, said that the appellants have not shown any immediate injury due to the guidelines.The bench cautioned the media against running unverified reports pertaining to its judgement on the issue.The court also made it clear that its observations have no bearing on the final outcome of the petition pending before a single judge bench. The private school bodies had moved the larger bench of the High Court against the order of its single judge, who had refused to grant them interim relief or stay the notification. The plea was filed challenging the nursery admission guidelines issued by the Lieutenant Governor, which included weightage to neighbourhood kids and abolition of 20 per cent management quota. It had sought setting aside of the 2014-15 guidelines on the ground that the Lieutenant Governor's office lacked the power to frame them. The Central government, the Directorate of Education and the office of LG were made party in the plea.

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Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh today reviewed progress of  infrastructure and development projects in the northeast at a meeting of Chief Minister of the region in New Delhi. Dr. Manmohan Singh said infrastructural development is critical element of development and growth in the North East.

Special importance in infrastructure development in the North-east region.  This is a critical element of the strategy to accelerate development and growth in the north-east and increase connectivity with rest of the country.

A number of projects  in the northeast are facing environmental hurdles while progress of some are slow due to insurgency problems. The Centre has already decided to set up a new railway line between Tripura capital Agartala and Akhaurah in Bangladesh and construct a bridge over river Feni to get access to Chittagong international port, 72 km away from Tripura's border town Sabroom, 135 km south of Agartala.Our correspondent reports, Chief Ministers of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and Sikkim attended the meeting. Union Ministers including Kapil Sibal, Ajit Singh and Oscar Fernandes were also present in the meeting besides Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

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In Assam, a bandh called by several organizations protesting the recent killing of eight persons by militants, evoked mixed response. IGP, L R Bishnoi said that strict vigil is being maintained at Bodoland Territorial Area Districts, BTAD area in the wake of bandh. Road traffic has been affected and business establishments and educational institutions are closed in some areas of the state. Normal life remains  unaffected in Guwahati city. Train movement has also not been affected in Lower Assam. No untoward incident has been reported during last 24 hours as operation has been intensified against militant groups.

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India today successfully test-fired nuclear-capable surface-to-surface Agni-IV missile with a range of about 4,000 km from the Wheeler Island in Dhamra off Odisha coast. The missile was test-fired at 10.52 this morning from launch complex number 4 of Integrated Test Range (ITR) of Wheeler Island. More from our correspondent:

Agni-IV is the fourth in the Agni series of missiles which was earlier known as Agni-II prime. This missile is one of its kind and represents a quantum leap in terms of missile technology. The missile is lighter in weight and has two stages of solid propulsion and a payload with re-entry heat shield.  The missile has already been tested thrice earlier. The two-stage missile weighs 17 tonnes and is 20 metres long and can carry a pay load of one tonne. While the Army has already deployed Agni-I, II and III missiles, all of which are strategic missiles carrying nuclear warheads, Agni-IV and Agni-V have not been inducted into the Army yet. The DRDO has achieved two consecutive successes including its debut flight with Agni-V, which can carry a nuclear warhead weighing one tonne over a distance of 5,000 km. The DRDO will fire Agni-V from a canister in the next two or three months. Prakash Dash. For AIR News, Bhubaneswar.

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Efforts are on to resolve the deadlock over cross LOC trade via Muzaffarabad road in Kashmir valley after recent seizure of 114 kg of narcotics from a goods truck coming from POK. Our Correspondent reports the seizure has threatened the biggest cross LOC confidence building measure.

The deadlock is over instance of Pak administration that the vehicle from which narcotics were recovered should be released first. Deputy commissioner Baramulla says district administration has not seized 48 vehicles coming from across the line of control but authorities across the line have detained 27 Kashmiri trucks that had crossed common post to deliver goods at chakoti post. Pak authorities say as per agreement Indian authorities are to handover the driver of vehicle from which narcotics were recovered to them for action as per law.  Meanwhile state home department is sending a communication to external affairs ministry to intervene and get matter resolved. Mushtaq Tantary/SRINAGAR.

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In Madhya Pradesh, the Anti Terrorist Squad-ATS has announced a reward of fifteen thousand rupees each on the arrest of three absconding members of the Students Islamic Movement of India-SIMI. Gulrez, Majid and Sajid, who hail from Indore and Ujjain districts, are wanted in connection with the case pertaining to recovery of explosives during a recent raid in Ujjain.

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West Bengal Governor and former National Security Advisor, M K Narayanan today said terrorism poses a  grave threat to peace and security in the world despit the demise of Al-Qaida Chief. Delivering a lecture on National Security- Expanding Terrorist Dynamics, on the occasion of first National Investigation Agency day in New Delhi, he said, fundamentalist and extremist groups are resurging in several parts of world.Mr Narayanan said new patterns of conflict are emerging involving religion and ethnicity. He said, terrorist groups in Pakistan and  Afghanistan are posing threat to India.

In Afghanistan and Pakistan a combination of state weakness and presence of myriad terrorist groups in both countries constitute a direct threat.  Taliban extremism in both countries shows no signs of muting itself.

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In Uttar Pradesh, about 1,700 families have filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking verification of their present status by a court-appointed independent commission. They have submitted the photocopies of their ration cards to the court. The petitioners have said that more than 4,000 families are still staying in over two dozen relief camps being run by social organizations and Madarsas in Muzaffarnagar and Shamli districts, while only four camps are being run officially by Shamli district administration at present. Our Correspondent quoting activist and lawyer Asad Hayaat reports that the submitted  1,700 ration cards belong to families which were living in the villages, the government had declared as riot affected.

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Recovering from initial losses, the Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange rose 66 points, or 0.3 percent, to 21,130 in afternoon trade, a short while ago. But earlier in the morning, the Sensex had dropped 45 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 21,018 on sustained selling by funds and retail investors. The 30-share Sensex had lost over 225 points in the previous two trading sessions.

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The rupee trimmed its initial losses, but was still trading down by 5 paise at 61 rupees 59 paise against the dollar in late morning deals today. This was attributed to demand for the green currency on the back of higher dollar overseas.

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Sania Mirza and her Zimbabwean team-mate Cara Black today progressed into the quarterfinals of the Australian Open Tennis tournament at Melbourne. The sixth seeded Indo-Zimbabwean duo defeated the Canadian-Russian team of Eugenie Bouchard and Vera Dushevina, 6-4, 6-3. For a place in the semi-finals, Sania and Cara will take on top seeded Italian pair of Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci. In the Mixed Doubles, second seeds Rohan Bopanna and his Slovakian partner Katarina Srebotnik defeated the Aussie pair of John Peers and Ashleigh Barty, 7-6, 7-5, to book a quarterfinal berth. In the second round today, the Indo-Slovakian pair of Leander Paes and Daniela Hantuchova will clash with the pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Russia's Elena Vesnina, while Sania Mirza and her Romanian team-mate Horia Tecau will meet the Aussie-British combination of Anastasia Rodionova and Colin Fleming. Earlier today, World Number Three Maria Sharapova made a shock exit from the first Grand Slam of the season. Sharapova lost to Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova, 6-3, 4-6, 1-6. This is the second major upset of the tournament. World Number One Serena Williams had yesterday crashed out in the fourth round, after losing to Serbia's Ana Ivanovic. World Number Two Victoria Azarenka of Belarus today made it to the last-eight stage.

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China's economy, the world's second-largest, grew at its slowest pace in 14 years in 2013, latest figures show. Its gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 7.7 percent from a year ago, the slowest pace of growth since 1999.

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