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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