THE HEADLINES:-
- Centre opposes mercy plea of Rajiv Gandhi assassins; Supreme Court reserves ruling in the case.
- Cricket Maestro Sachin Tendulkar and eminent scientist Prof. C N R Rao conferred country's highest civilian honour Bharat Ratna.
- Justice A K Mathur to head the 7th Central Pay Commission.
- Kerala police registers fresh case in murder of Revolutionary Marxist Party leader T P Chandrasekheran.
- Saudi King orders jail terms ranging from three to thirty years for Saudi mercenaries fighting outside the country.
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The Supreme Court today reserved its judgment in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. The convicts in the case had sought to commute the death penalty to life sentence due to delay in deciding their mercy plea. The Centre has opposed the plea by arguing that the convicts did not go through torture, agony and de -humanising experience during pendency of the mercy pleas. The Centre told the apex court that there has been a delay in deciding the mercy plea, but it is not unreasonable, and unexplainable to commute the death sentence. The Centre further told the Supreme Court that it is not a fit case for commuting death sentence. Last week, the apex court had said that prisoners convicted in the case deserve the death sentence while refusing to go into the merits of their conviction.
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A delegation of students from North East today met Home Minister Sushil kumar Shinde over the death of a student from Arunachal Pradesh in Delhi. The delegation led by Minister of State for Minority Affairs, Ninong Ering demanded a swift probe and justice to the family of the student, Nido Tania who died after allegedly being beaten in South Delhi last week.
Talking to reporters after the meeting, Mr Ering said, the Home Minister has assured that action will be taken against those responsible for the death of the student.
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India has asked Uganda's High Commission in New Delhi to provide necessary consular services to its three women who were reportedly held hostages by drug mafia in Malviya Nagar area of South Delhi. Official sources in the Ministry of External Affairs today said, Delhi government had approached the Ministry seeking protection to the women. The women had complained that their passports and other important documents had been taken away by what they described as the drug mafia.
Our Correspondent reports, the women live in the same locality where last month, Delhi law Minister Somnath Bharti allegedly led a raid on African nationals who were accused of running a drug and prostitution racket.
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Aam Aadmi Party and BJP workers today protested outside BJP leader Arun Jaitley's residence in New Delhi. While Aam Aadmi Party workers held protest against Mr Jaitley, the BJP workers held the protest against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The protest comes a day after Aam Aadmi Party MLA, Madan Lal alleged that Arun Jaitley and Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi tried to topple Arvind Kejriwal-led government in Delhi, by offering bribe to him.
Our Correspondent reports, Aam Aadmi Party MLA, Madan Lal claimed that he was offered 20 to 30 crore rupees as bribe by a close confidant of Chief Minister of Gujarat, to topple the AAP government in Delhi. He revealed that he was offered the post of Chief Minister in Delhi and the bribe, if he succeeded in securing the support of nine legislators.
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In Kerala, police have registered a fresh case relating to the murder of Revolutionary Marxist Party leader, TP Chandrasekheran. The case was registered at the Edacherry police station in Kozhikode district on a complaint referred by KK Rema, wife of the slain leader, seeking a probe into the conspiracy behind the murder. Rema is currently on an indefinite fast at Thiruvananthapuram, demanding a CBI inquiry into the conspiracy behind the murder. An Additional Sessions Court in Kozhikode had sentenced 11 persons to life imprisonment last week in connection with the murder of Chandrasekharan who was hacked to death on May 4, 2012.
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Minister of Women and Child Development, Krishna Tirath today said, the government is working on setting up a Committee to receive suggestions from public to deal with increasing incidents of women harassment. Addressing a two-day National Consultation on Women and Media in New Delhi, Ms. Tirath appreciated the encouraging participation of women in media but lamented that women were not being treated fairly.
The Minister expressed concern over the growing gender disparity in the country, especially in media. She said, the action plan to deal with women issues is underway and the Centre would try it’s best to pass the Women Reservation Bill in the coming Parliament session.
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Power Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia today said, Centre has no role in the power cut announced by power distributing companies in different areas of national capital. On the sidelines of a function in New Delhi. Mr. Scindia said, this is a matter between the state government, Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission and power generation companies like National Thermal Power Corporation, NTPC, and the Centre has nothing to do with it.
Our Correspondent reports that NTPC today again asked the two BSES companies to make their payments and in the event of failure to do so, it would be forced to regulate supplies to them. NTPC had last week issued notices to BSES Rajdhani and BSES Yamuna for defaulting on payment security mechanism.
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The Border Security Force, BSF, has seized 20 kilograms of Heroin after a brief encounter on Punjab border with Pakistan in Amritsar sector, today. Its cost is said to be about 100 crore rupees in the international market.
Inspector General, BSF, Punjab Frontier, Ajay Kumar Tomar told AIR that the alert troops challenged Pak smugglers on noticing some movement near the fence during the wee hours. A brief encounter was held but the smugglers managed to escape, taking advantage of thick fog.
With this recovery, BSF has successfully recovered a total of over 80 kilogram Heroin in four such instances this year.
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President Pranab Mukherjee today conferred the country's highest civilian honour Bharat Ratna on cricket maestro Sachin Tendulkar and eminent scientist Prof C N R Rao. Mr Mukherjee presented the honours at a function at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi. Prof Rao is the third scientist after C V Raman and former President A P J Abdul Kalam, to be conferred with the honour.
Tendulkar, who retired from international cricket last year, is the first sportsman to be bestowed with the honour. Tendulkar thanked for continued support and also congratulated Prof Rao.
Thanks for affection and support that I have received for number of years. I know my cricket is stopped but I will continue to bat for India and try my best to give the people of India a reason to smile. I would like to congratulate Prof. CNR Rao for Bharat Ratna. I wish him all the happiness and good health.
Our Correspondent reports, Tendulkar and Prof. Rao have joined the select list of 41 eminent personalities who have been conferred with the award that is given in recognition of exceptional service of the highest order since it was instituted in 1954. This year's Bharat Ratna was announced after a gap of four years with Hindustani music doyen Bhimsen Joshi being the last recipient in 2009.
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Former Supreme Court Judge Justice Ashok Kumar Mathur has been appointed as the Chairman of the 7th Pay Commission. Petroleum and Natural Gas Secretary, Vivek Rae will be the full time Member and Director, National Institute of Public Finances and Policy, Dr Rathin Roy will be its part-time Member. Officer on Special Duty in the Department of Expenditure, Ms. Meena Agarwal will be the Secretary of the Pay panel.
The Commission has been mandated to submit its report in two years time and its recommendations would be implemented from 1st of January 2016.
Our Correspondent reports that the government constitutes Pay Commission almost every ten years to revise the pay scales of its employees and often these are adopted by states after some modification. The newly appointed Commission will revise the salaries of over 50 lakh Central government employees and about 30 lakh pensioners.
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In Jammu & Kashmir, fresh avalanche warning has been issued in the hilly areas and Ladakh region during the next 24 hours. The authorities said that following fresh snowfall, there is a medium danger of avalanche in the hilly areas of Sonamarg, Drass, Kargil, and Zojila on the highway connecting the Ladakh region with the rest of the state. There is also avalanche danger in Khilanmarg, Uri, Baramulla, Kupwara, Tangdhar, Keran and Machil in north Kashmir. People living in these avalanche prone areas are advised to be careful.
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The Mumbai International Film Festival, MIFF 2014, which opened in Mumbai yesterday, will screen some of the finest documentaries, short and animation films from all over the world in its national and international competition sections throughout the week.
The 13th Mumbai International Film Festival has a wide range of films to be showcased in various sections today. Films screened in the international section this morning were Hue: A Matter Of Colour from Canada, The Black Novel from India, 9 X 9 from Azerbaijan, Accident from Hong Kong and animation film from India The Vicious Circle. Post-lunch, documentaries The Wheel Chair users from Hong Kong, In Between: Isang Yun in North and South Korea, Indian Wanderers from India and Are You Listening from Bangladesh would be screened. The MIFF prism will screen documentaries on legendary director Vishnupant Damle, The Saroj Khan story, Satyagrah-Truth Force and The Mizo uprising while MIFF zone will show Indian films I am micro, Devil in Black Stone, Humsafar, Shooter and After glow, Norwegian film Liv and Ingmar and Chinese film Accident. SONALI GHADYALPATIL, AIR NEWS, MUMBAI.
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Recovering partially from initial losses, the Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange stood 100 points, or 0.5 percent in negative territory, at 20,109 a short while ago. Earlier, in opening deals, the Sensex had slumped 233 points, to slip below the psychological 20,000-level, at 19,976, amid falling global markets. The Sensex had lost 305 points in yesterday's session.
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The rupee trimmed its initial losses but was quoted still lower by 17 paise, at 62 rupees, 73 paise, on dollar demand from banks and importers despite weakness of the US currency overseas. The rupee had resumed lower at 62 rupees, 81 paise per dollar.
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Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has ordered jail terms ranging from three to thirty years, for Saudi mercenaries who fight outside the country.
Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has cracked the whip against the citizens who go out of the country to fight alongside rebels in Syria and other countries. They can now be jailed for terms ranging from 3- 20 years. The convicted military personnel will have harsher punishment with jail terms ranging from 5-30 years. The Saudi king has formed a committee of members from various government organizations to draft and update a list of illegal groups. The move comes in the wake of reports that a large number of foreign fighters including those from Saudi Arabia are fighting in Syria and other countries. Atul K Tiwary, AIR News, Dubai.
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Bangladesh Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed has urged global buyers and retailers to increase pay-rates for sourcing readymade garments from Bangladesh. He said, this will help the garment sector expedite compliance of workers' safety norms as per International Labour Organisation's standards. He said, the government has recently increased workers' wages by around 77 per cent. Mr.Ahmed said, process of inspection of over 4000 factories was going on, and huge funds would be required for remediation. He was addressing a views-exchange meeting in Dhaka last evening with representatives of European Union backed Alliance of Bangladesh Workers's Safety, and US backed Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety.
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In Uttar Pradesh, Union Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaisawal will flag off the new tri-weekly train between Lucknow and Jaipur from Lucknow Junction today. The Jaipur-Lucknow Express which was announced in last year's Rail budget, will run from Jaipur every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday fromFebruary 7, and from Lucknow, every Monday, Wednesday and Saturdayfrom February 8.
Our Lucknow Correspondent reports that the train will depart from Jaipur at 9.45 pm and reach Lucknow next day at 10.25 am. It will depart from Lucknow at 12.25 noon and reach Jaipur at 1.45 am.
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Today is Basant Panchami. The day is celebrated by worshipping Saraswati - the Goddess of learning, all over the country. The idols of Goddess Saraswati are being worshipped with traditional fervour in educational institutions across the country.
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