NEWS
- Court rejects CBI's plea to drop Maharashtra former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan's name as accused in the Adarsh scam case.
- BJP President Rajnath Singh promises to bring the country's economy back on track; Party's National Council meeting underway in Delhi.
- Haryana government recommends CBI probe against IAS officer Ashok Khemka.
- Death toll in Malabar Hill stampede in Mumbai rises to 18.
- A three member team of doctors at AIIMS conducts postmortem on the body of Sunanda Pushkar.
- India to take on Belgium for the fifth position in the Men's Hockey World League Finals in New Delhi.
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A special court today
rejected the application filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)
seeking approval to drop former Maharashtra
chief minister Ashok Chavan's name from the list of accused in Adarsh housing
society scam case. Maharashtra Governor K Sankarnarayanan had refused to
sanction prosecution of Mr. Chavan following which earlier this week special
public Prosecutor Bharat Badami had filed an application before CBI court judge
S G Dighe, requesting him to allow it to remove Mr. Chavan's name from the list
of 13 accused charge-sheeted in the case. The court had reserved its order on
the application for today.A judicial commission of inquiry set up by the state
government had indicted Mr. Chavan along with Mr. Vilasrao Deshmukh and Mr.
Sushilkumar Shinde for blatant violations of statutory provisions in granting
various clearances to the scam-tainted Adarsh housing society.
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BJP President Rajnath
Singh today said that the good governance, development, stability and security
will be BJP's focus if it comes into power. He alleged that UPA government has
failed on all fronts and its economic model is full of loopholes. Addressing
the party's National Council meeting in New
Delhi today, Mr. Singh said, the party will take
onerous responsibility of bringing the country's economy back on track. He
said, BJP will increase the infrastructure sector by doubling the investment
and control the current account deficit and fiscal deficit.
Even when the big
economies of the world imposed sanctions on India, the NDA government did not
let the price of essential commodities rise. But today, we are in a situation
where the Indian economy has lost its credibility.
BJP President charged
the Congress with pushing the common man to helplessness and frustration under
its rule. He said that there is a wave of change in the country and people are
fed up with the UPA government's bad policies which led to poverty, price rise,
corruption and in security.
Reacting to Congress
President's allegation that BJP is playing the communal card, Mr. Singh said it
is Congress that is playing politics of caste and religion and dividing the
country on religious lines. He said UPA government is consistently conspiring
against BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. BJP President also said
that UPA government has passed the Lokpal and Lokayukta Bill under pressure and
its credit goes to social activist Anna Hazare and BJP. The Party's National
Council will give final shape to its roadmap for the next Lok Sabha elections
in its two-day meet. It will discuss and pass two resolutions, one on the
political and the other on the economic situation in the country. The state
units will also present reports on their state of preparedness for the Lok
Sabha polls and formation of booth level committees.
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Congress Vice
President Rahul Gandhi is holding meetings with state party leaders in the
national capital to discuss the issues to strengthen organization in view of
next general elections. Mr. Gandhi is meeting PCC chiefs and other state
leaders separately. The meeting came a day after All India Congress Committee
session and announcement of Mr. Gandhi as the party campaign committee chief
for the Lok Sabha polls. Recently, party
has also reshuffled state presidents in some states giving responsibility to younger faces to
re-energise the party and brush up its strategy for the polls.
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Centre has asked
states to open more procurement centres and assess necessary infrastructure
requirements for increased purchase of foodgrains for implementation of Food
Security law. Meeting of Food Secretaries of states has been convened in the
second week of next month to review the arrangements for procurement of wheat
for the coming marketing season. Estimated marketable surplus ratio of wheat
for each state and estimated procurement of wheat for rabi marketing season
will also be discussed in the meeting. An official release issued in New Delhi said, to
implement the National Food Security Act, about 615 lakh tonnes foodgrains
would be required as against the average procurement of 514 lakh tonnes in last
five years.
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Haryana Government has
recommended CBI probe into an 8 crore
rupee contract awarded by IAS officer Ashok Khemka to a firm of Gujarat. Khemka was the Managing Director of the State
Warehouse Corporation in 2009. Haryana
Government had initiated a probe last year after the government received a
complaint that Mr. Khemka had allegedly changed the terms and conditions of the
contract without approval. The Haryana
government has also charged Ashok Khemka
with illegally canceling the mutation of
a land deal between DLF and Robart Vadra. In October 2012 Mr. Khemka had cancelled
a 57 crore rupee deal between Mr. Vadra
and DLF on the ground that the deal violated the basic guideline to grant wind
fall gain to Mr. Vadra. Meanwhile, Mr. Khemka
alleged that he is being harassed and made victim for challenging Mr. Vadra's
deals.
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In Assam, security
forces have picked up 10 persons in connection with the last night firing
incident in Kokrajhar district. Five passengers were killed and 3 injured when
National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Sangbijit faction) attacked a public bus
at Athiabari Tiniali. Kokrajhar SP, Sunil Kumar said that four deceased have
been identified. More from our Correspondent:
Security forces have
launched operation against the militants involved in the killing of innocent
people. Additional DGP, A P Rout said that police have identified the
particular group of the outfit involved in the incident. The banned outfit
carried out the operation in retaliation of killing a top cadre of the outfit
yesterday in Kokrajhar. Three injured passengers are undergoing treatment in
Bongaigaon. Meanwhile, state Tourism minister Chandan Brahma and Chief
Executive Member of Bodoland Territorial Council Hagrama Mahilary have visited
the incident site and condemned the incident. Mr. Mahilary said that killing of
non-Bodo people will not solve any problems. Manas Pratim
Sarma/Guwahati
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The death toll in the
Malabar hill stampede in South Mumbai has
risen to 18. The incident took place at around 2 am today when thousands of
people had gathered in Malabar hill area to pay their last respects to the
departed spiritual leader of Dawoodi Bohra community, Dr. Syedna Mohammed
Burhanuddin. The 102 year old leader passed away yesterday after suffering a
heart attack at his Malabar hill residence in South Mumbai.
According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation Control room, among the
injured, 46 people were discharged after preliminary treatment while 3 are
still admitted in Saifee and Cumballa hill hospitals. More from our
Correspondent:
Lakhs of grieving
Dawoodi Bohra community people from across country thronged Mumbai to mourn the
demise of their religious leader Dr. Syedna Mohammad Burhanuddin. His son and
successor Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin led the funeral procession of the departed
leader today at Saifee Masjid in Bhendi Bazaar in south Mumbai. The Bohra
community has announced a 10-day mourning period for the departed spiritual
leader. As a mark of respect, shops run by the Bohras will remain closed for
three days. SWEETY KOTHARI, AIR NEWS, MUMBAI.
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Post-mortem on the
body of Sunanda Pushkar is being conducted by a team of doctors at the All
India Institute of Medical Sciences, AIIMS. A three member medical board of
senior doctors has been constituted for the postmortem. The team is chaired by
Head of Forensic Science Department, Dr Sudhir Gupta. Pushkar, wife of Union Minister
Shashi Tharoor was found dead in a Delhi
hotel last night. Continuing investigation, police questioned a number of hotel
staff and checked the CCTV footage of the lobby of the third floor of the
luxury hotel where she was staying. Sources in police said, call details record
as well as Pushkar's tweets were being checked. Pushkar and Tharoor had checked
into the hotel on Thursday as their home was being painted. A number of hotel
staff, including those who had gone to her suite, were being questioned to
corroborate the version of Tharoor and his staff. Pushkar and Tharoor
were at the centre of a raging controversy when reports emerged that she was
upset over reported text and tweet messages between her husband and Mehr Tarar,
a Pakistani journalist.Delhi Police spokesman Rajan Bhagat said, inquest
proceedings have been initiated by the sub-divisional magistrate of the area.
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In Tamil Nadu, more
than hundred fishermen families resorted to protest in front of the
Nagapattinam district Collector office today. They were urging the immediate
release of fishing boats along with the Tamil fishermen lodged in Lankan jails.
More from our Correspondent:
It seems there is no
end to the woes of fishermen in Tamil Nadu. With their livelihood badly
affected some of them attempted to commit suicide today at Nagapattinam and
were timely thwarted by policemen and firefighters. One person has been
admitted to Nagai government hospital. The fishermen families are insisting that
only if the fishing boats are retrieved from Lankan authorities they can pursue
fishing to sustain their lives. Meanwhile news about 111 Tamil fishermen
released from Sri Lankan jail resorting to fasting urging release of their 15
fishing boats has created tension in fishermen villages in Nagapattinam. K Devi
Padmanabhan, AIR NEWS, Tiruchirapalli.
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The 7th Jaipur
Literature Festival is going on in Jaipur.About 240 writers, critics, thinkers
and historians are participating in this 5 day event. Our Correspondent has
filed this report:
Today on the second
day of the festival various sessions are
being organised on issues related with society,language and contemporary
writing. In the morning session famous writer Jerry Pinto shared views about
various tasks of a writer which includes writing,criticism and translation. In
today's other important sessions, subjects related to women writing in Islamic
countries and future of Andmanese language will
also be discussed .In the evening prestigious South Asian Literature
Award of 50 thousand US dollars will be
announced. Six books of South Asian writers Anand Benyamin, Cyrus Mistry,
Mohsin Hamid, Hamish Hamilton, Nadim Aslam and Naomi Munavira have been nominated for this prize. ANURAG,
AIR NEWS, JAIPUR.
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Two death row
prisoners have been indicted in Pakistan
for the murder of Indian national Sarabjit Singh in Lahore jail. The trial held at the Central
Jail in Kot Lakhpat formally charged the two inmates, Amer Sarfraz alias Tamba
and Muddassar Bashir. The court adjourned the hearing till January 20 and
directed the prosecution to produce witnesses. The two accused had brutally
attacked Sarabjit at the Kot Lakhpat Jail in April last year. Sarabjit, who had
sustained severe injuries, including a fractured skull, died on May 2. Sarabjit
was convicted for alleged involvement in a string of bomb attacks in Punjab province in 1990 that killed 14 people. However,
his family said that he was the victim of mistaken identity and had
inadvertently strayed across the border.
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In Himachal Pradesh,
most of the tourists resorts experienced moderate to heavy snowfall last night
and early today. The life remains affected in capital Shimla along with the
tribal districts of the state. It rained heavily in the lower and mid hills as
weather was mainly cloudy in the entire state. Our Correspondent reports, this
spell of snowfall is considered good for the Horticulture and Agriculture while
the severe cold wave more intensified.
This is the heaviest
snowfall of this season in this capital town while all other tourist places
like Narkanda, Manali and Dalhousie have also experienced snowfall cheering the
tourists present there. The National Highway from Shimla to Kinnaur has been
disrupted at several places while power and water supply services has also been
affected.Shishu Sharma Shantal, AIR News Shimla
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Higher reaches of
Garhwal and Kumaoun hills in Uttrakhand have been experiencing heavy snowfall
since yesterday. Valleys and other areas in hills and the plains of the State
were lashed by heavy to moderate rains. Badrinath, Kedarnath, Hamkund,
Gangotri, Yamunotri, Massourie, Nainital and Ranikhet were covered by a thick
layer of snow resulting in the sharp declined in mercury.
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India will take on Belgium in the fifth-sixth position match of the
Men's Hockey World League Final at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium in New Delhi today. The
match will be played at 3:30 PM.The Sardar-Singh led Indian team yesterday
defeated Germany, 5-4, in the cross over match of the fifth to eighth place
classification stage.Meanwhile, New Zealand will clash with the Netherlands in
the final at 8 this evening. In the semi-finals yesterday, while New Zealand beat England,
7-6 in penalties, Netherlands
defeated Australia,
4-3.
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In Australian Open
Tennis tournament, Sania Mirza, Rohan Bopanna and Leander Paes have won their
respective mixed doubles and Men's doubles matches in Melbourne. However, Mahesh Bhupathi's men's
doubles campaign came to an end after a tight defeat.
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