NEWS
- Uttarakhand Chief Minister Vijay
Bahuguna resigns.
- Delhi Chief Minster Arvind
Kejriwal levels serious charges of corruption against several prominent
politicians; Special session of Delhi Assembly convened from the 13th to 16th
February to pass Janlokpal Bill.
- Supreme Court stays execution of
Khalistani terrorist Devinderpal Singh Bhullar; Agrees to review its previous
judgement on commutation of his death sentence to life term.
- NCP President and Agriculture
Minister Sharad Pawar denies media report about his meeting with BJP Prime
Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.
- First round of talks between
Syrian Government and opposition coalition with UN Special envoy ends without
any result in Geneva.
- India 199 for 8 in 46.2 overs
against New Zealand in fifth and final cricket one dayer at Wellington, when
reports last came in.
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Uttarakhand
Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna has submitted his resignation to the Governor in
Dehradun today. According to party sources, Congress observers Ghulam Nabi Azad
and Janardan Dwiedi and the Party’s Uttarakhand incharge, Ambika Soni are
scheduled to visit Dehradun tomorrow to attend the Congress Legislature Party
meeting in which the new leader will be elected. More from our correspondent:
"Vijay Bahuguna’s resignation comes after Congress
President Sonia Gandhi held a meeting with senior party leaders in Delhi on Wednesday. Union
Minister Harish Rawat is being seen as a front runner for Chief Ministership.
State Cabinet Minister Pritam Singh and Garhwal MP Satpal Maharaj are also
being seen as other contenders for the job. Harish Rawat was given credit for
taking the Congress to victory in the last Assembly elections. It is believed
that the way Bahuguna handle the flash floods and the massive rescue and
rehabilitation work in the State last year brought his leadership skills into
question. Since then delegations of Congress MLAs and other party leaders from
the State have been regularly meeting central party leaders in Delhi to press for Bahuguna’s ouster. Sanjeev
Sundriyal/ AIR News/ Dehradun."
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Delhi
Chief Minster Arvind Kejriwal today appealed to the people to ensure that no
corrupt politician is elected to Parliament in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
Addressing the National Council meeting in New Delhi, Kejriwal said his party's aim is
to remove all corrupt people from Parliament. He leveled serious charges of
corruption against prominent politicians of several parties. Mr Kejriwal
reiterated that corruption has come down considerably in Delhi after his party came to power.
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The
Delhi
government has convened a session of the Delhi Assembly on the 13th of next
month to pass the Janlokpal Bill. The session will continue till the 16th of
February. The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by the Chief
Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Talking to reporters after the meeting, Delhi
Education Minister Manish Sisodia said, the Assembly session on the 16th
February will be held at the Indira Gandhi stadium in which the Lokpal Bill
will be passed. He said, observations made by some departments about the Bill
are yet to be discussed by the Cabinet. Mr Sisodia said, the Bill is expected
to be approved in the next Cabinet meeting on Monday.
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The
Delhi
government today assured the people of the city that there will be no power cut
in the national capital. Talking to reporters in New Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal
termed the media report about power cut as baseless, saying the power
distribution companies are only creating panic. He warned the companies of
strict action against them if they create such panic in future. Mr Kejriwal
also said, the companies should cooperate in the CAG audit ordered by the
government.
"These power companies are viciously trying to create
panic and trying to blackmail. A few days back, they had written a letter and
they were called by the Chief Secretary to discuss the issue. There will be no
power cut. But, I am warning them, if they create such panic in the future,
strict action will be taken against them."
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NCP
President and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar today termed as completely
mischievous, baseless and false a media report about his meeting with BJP Prime
Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in New
Delhi. In a tweet, Mr Pawar said, during state visits
or in Chief Ministers' conferences in Delhi,
he meets them and barring these occasions, he never met Modi in the last one
year. Our Correspondent reports, Mr Pawar's reaction followed a report in a Marathi
newspaper that he is understood to have secretly met Modi in New Delhi on the 17th of this month. NCP
spokesperson D P Tripathi said, Pawar was not even in Delhi on that day. BJP National spokesperson
Captain Abhimanyu said, the party denies any such meeting between Modi and
Pawar.
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Mumbai
Police Commissioner, Dr Satya Pal Singh has submitted his application for
voluntary retirement. He is likely to contest the Lok Sabha election from his
native place in Uttar Pardesh. Police sources informed that Satya Pal Singh has
submitted his resignation letter to the Home Ministry which forwarded it to the
Chief Minister's Office for acceptance. Mr Singh confirmed his resignation and
said that he would like to work for social harmony and world peace. The 1980
batch IPS officer belongs to Meerut
in Uttar Pradesh and there is speculation that he could contest from there
either on a BJP or an Aam Aadami Party ticket. Mr Singh is the first serving
Mumbai Police Commissioner to resign. He was due to retire in 2015.
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In
Tamil Nadu, DMK Member Sivasankar elected from Kunnam Assembly constituency was
suspended for the remaining period of the Assembly Session. Speaker Mr.
Dhanapal after evicting the DMK members, said that Sivasankar's act was totally
unacceptable and set a bad precedence to others. Earlier, commotion began when
the ruling Party member Markandeyan had referred to the issue of DMK Chief
Karunanidhi and his son Alagiri during his speech on the Governor's Address.
The DMK members trooped to the well of the House and demanded that the Speaker
Mr. Dhanapal expunges those remarks and also reiterated that the debate was
only on the Governor's speech.
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The
Supreme Court today stayed the execution of Khalistani terrorist Devinderpal
Singh Bhullar and agreed to review its previous judgement on the commutation of
his death sentence to life term. In its earlier judgement, the apex court had
rejected the 1993 Delhi
bomb blast convict's plea to commute his death sentence to a life term. A
four-judge bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam issued a notice to the
Centre and the Delhi
government on a curative petition filed by Bhullar's wife Navneet Kaur. The
bench also directed the Institute
of Human Behaviour and
Allied Sciences (IHBAS), where Bhullar is being treated, to file a medical
report within a week on the condition of the death convict who is alleged to be
suffering from a mental illness. The court said that it would examine whether
its judgement pertaining to commutation of death sentence to life term on the
ground of delay in deciding the mercy plea, is applicable or not in this case.
Bhullar was convicted and awarded the death penalty for triggering a bomb blast
in New Delhi in
September 1993, which killed nine persons and injured 25 others, including the
then Youth Congress president M S Bitta.
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In
yet another case, the Apex Court
today refused to stay the interim order on the nursery admission process in the
national capital. It further asked the Delhi High Court to expeditiously hear
the pleas against the guidelines by advancing the scheduled hearing. A Bench
headed by Justice H L Dattu said, since the order of the High Court was in the
nature of an interim order, it was not interfering with it. The apex court gave
liberty to the petitioners, Action Committee of Unaided Recognised Private
Schools, Forum for Promotion of Quality Education for All and some parents to
make an application before the single judge of the High Court for advancing the
11th of March hearing. The division bench of the High Court had confirmed the
order passed by the single judge which had refused to stay the December 18th,
2013 guidelines of the Lieutenant Governor.
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The
first round of direct talks between the Syrian Government and the opposition
coalition delegation mediated by the UN Special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi comes to
an end in Geneva
today. The progress has been very slow and both the sides have stuck to their
stand. Talks are likely to resume on February 10th. More from our West Asia Correspondent:
"After weeklong deliberations at the United Nations
headquarters in Geneva, UN special envoy on Syria ,Lakhdar Brahimi said he was very much
disappointed because there was no agreement on allowing an aid convoy to the
besieged city of Homs.
He hoped that in the next round, the two sides would have more structured
discussions. For a change, the talks yesterday were marked by rare gesture of
harmony when the two sides observed a minute’s silence for those killed in the
three yearlong conflict. For the first time, both sides agreed that Geneva 1 communique of
2012 would be the basis of negotiations. Atul K Tiwary ,AIR News,
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Sri Lanka’s Power Minister Ms Pavithra
Wanniarachchi has hit out against a Chinese state-owned company for the
frequent failure of the biggest thermal power plant in the country, saying that
faults in material, design and construction of the plant, are causing a power
crisis in the country.
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The
Agriculture Ministry has issued detailed guidelines and strategy for
implementation of National Mission on Oilseeds and Oil Palm. The scheme aims at
enhancing production of traditional and tree-borne oilseeds. In addition to
raising production, large area is sought to be brought under oil palm
cultivation. An official release said, 3507 crore rupees have been sanctioned
for the Mission
in the 12th Plan. The strategy to implement the Mission includes increasing Seed Replacement
Ratio, irrigation coverage under oilseeds from 26 to 36 per cent.
Diversification of area from low yielding cereal crops to oilseed crops and
inter-cropping of oilseeds with cereals, pulses and sugarcane and use of fallow
land after paddy and potato cultivation are also part of the strategy. The
scheme would be implemented through active involvement of all the stakeholders.
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The
government has approved usage charges for spectrum in the 1800 MHz and 900 MHz bands
to improve bidding in the forthcoming auction. The decision was taken at a
Cabinet meeting in New Delhi.
The spectrum acquired in the current auction will be charged at 5 per cent of
the Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR). In cases of combination of existing spectrum
in these bands and spectrum acquired through the auction, the weighted average
will apply to all the spectrum held by the operator. The licensees sees who do
not acquire spectrum in this auction shall continue to pay usage charges
according to the existing slab rate.
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The
Government is committed to improve the social protection of workers in the
unorganized sector. Addressing the 46th session of the Standing Labour
Committee, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Mr K Suresh said,
the Centre has started a number of schemes for providing death, disability,
sickness and old age cover to vulnerable segments of the population.
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Arunachal
Governor Lt. Gen (Retd) Nirbhay Sharma has appealed to the people of Arunachal
Pradesh and Assam
to maintain peace and harmony and not to fall prey to any provocation or
rumours. Expressing heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families of the
Wednesday incident at Tarasso area, Mr. Sharma said, he is very saddened by the
incident of violence in the border area of two states. Ten people were killed
while scores others injured when miscreants fired at villagers camping inside
the disputed Tarasso area, bordering Papum Pare district of Arunachal Pradesh
and Behali in Sonitpur district in Assam. Chief Minister Nabam Tuki has also
condemned the incident but said, the age old friendly relations between the two
states should be maintained at any cost.
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Slightly
trimming its initial gains, the Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange stood a
modest 32 points, or 0.2 percent in positive territory, at 20,530 in afternoon
trade, a short while ago. Earlier in the morning, the Sensex had gained 55
points, on mild buying by investors. The Sensex had lost 875 points in the
previous five trading sessions.
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The
Rupee trimmed its initial gains but was still quoted higher by 13 paise at 62
rupees, 43 paise against the American currency on selling of dollars by banks
amidst recovery in the equity market.
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India lost the fifth and final cricket
one dayer against New Zealand
by 87 runs at Wellington.
New Zealand had set a target
of 304 runs for India
to win the match. Put into bat, the hosts posted a challenging 303 for 5
against the visitors. With this the hosts have bagged the 5-match ODI series.
With this the hosts have bagged the 5-match ODI series. They had won the first
two games, tied the third and ended as winners in the fourth to claim the
series and also dethrone the Men in Blue from the Number One spot in the ODI
rankings.
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