CBI to file first chargesheet in
coal scam today; To submit status report in the Supreme Court on progress
in the case.
- Communist Party of India
declares names of 39 candidates for the Lok Sabha polls; Gurudas Dasgupta
not to contest.
- Vietnam spots debris that
appears to be one of the doors of the missing Malaysian plane.
- Maldives Supreme Court sacks all
four Election Commissioners for contempt of court.
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The CBI will submit to the Supreme Court today a status report about the
progress made in the coal scam probe and on the filing of a charge sheet in one
of the cases registered by it in 2012. Official sources in the
investigating agency said that a charge sheet will be filed before a designated
court and the Apex Court
would be apprised about it. The Supreme Court had asked
the CBI, during the last hearing on the 11th of
February to submit a status report about filing of charge sheets in six
of the cases finalised by the agency. The Apex court had also
directed the probe agency to file charge sheets in all the cases finalised by
it by the first week of March but the agency had moved a petition on the 4th of
March seeking more time to file the charge sheets in the cases.
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The Communist Party of India
has declared names of 39 candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. Probodh
Panda and Atul Kumar Anjaan are among the 39 candidates announced by the CPI.
The party said that it would fight on 60 seats in 24 states. Gurudas Dasgupta
would not contest the election as he had announced earlier.Probodh Panda is the sitting
MLA from Medinipur in West Bengal. The other
two names announced from West Bengal are
former MLA Santosh Rana from Ghatal and Nurul Huda from Bashirhat. Another prominent name in the list is Atul
Kumar Anjaan who would contest from Ghosi in Uttar Pradesh.In a statement released in
the national capital, the party said that the CPI National Council has decided
to continue efforts to have poll adjustments with secular democratic parties.
The party also hoped that a non-Congress non-BJP formation would come to power
at the Centre.
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The Samajwadi Party has
announced 17 more candidates for different Lok Sabha constituencies in Andhra
Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Assam.
The Party has also announced its 9 candidates for Andhra Pradesh Assembly
elections.
Quoting party sources AIR Allahabad correspondent reports that the ruling party in
Uttar Pradesh has announced its nominees from Tirupati, Machhalipattanam, Warangal, Aarakku and
Narasapuram Lok Sabha seats in Andhra Pradesh.
In Madhya Pradesh, candidates have been announced for Khajuraho,
Vidisha, Rewa, Shahadol and Bhind seats.The Party has announced its
nominees from Karimganj, Dhubari, Silchar, Barpeta, Jorhat and Mangaldoi seats
in Assam.
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In Uttar Pradesh, Chief
Minister Akhilesh Yadav has sacked two of his ministers from the cabinet. One
of the sacked Ministers, Anand Singh, was the agriculture minister of cabinet
rank, and MLA from Gaura in Gonda district. His son Kirti Vardhan Singh, a
former MP from Gonda, joined the BJP recently, and is likely to be fielded as a
BJP candidate. The other ousted minister, Manoj Paras, was Minister of State
for Stamp and Registration. Paras is an MLA from Nagina in Bijnor district. Our
correspondent has filed this report
Even as the government
preferred not to divulge the exact reasons for the action, it is learnt that
both the ministers have paid the price for working against the interests of the
ruling Samajwadi Party. The party was red faced recently when cabinet minister
Anand Singh's son Keertivardhan Singh, not only joined its arch rival BJP but
also severely denounced Mulayam Singh Yadav and CM Akhilesh Yadav. The other
minister Manoj Paras, was dethroned because he was allegedly campaigning
against the fielded party candidate for Lok sabha from Bijnor Shahnawaz Rana. Merajuddin, AIR News, Lucknow.
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In Andhra Pradesh, Congress
MP from Anantapur, Venkatarami Reddy has joined the Y S Jaganmohan Reddy-led
party in Hyderabad.Venkatarami is the latest
among Congress leaders from Seemandhra who have joined either the Telugu Desam
Party or the YSR Congress in recent times against the division of Andhra
Pradesh.Two Congress ministers in the
former Kiran Kumar Reddy government joined the TDP yesterday. T G Venkatesh and
E Pratap Reddy, both belonging to Kurnool
district in the Rayalaseema region, joined the TDP in the presence of its chief
N Chandrababu Naidu.
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Union Finance Minister P.
Chidambaram has claimed that the Tamil Nadu government has failed to attract
foreign investments to the state in the last two years. Unveiling the statue of
late Congress leader and former Chief Minister K Kamaraj in Kanyakumari
yesterday, Mr. Chidambaram said that due
to lack of investments, there are no job opportunities in the state and it
remained backward in attracting industries. He said,people of the state should
identify which party would be able to attract investments and vote for them.
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Chief
Minister Jayalalithaa, addressing a rally at Nagercoil, continued her pitch for
an AIADMK inclusive government at the Centre after the Lok Sabha polls. She
promised that her party would put the country on a development trajectory.
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A Vietnamese aircraft is said
to have spotted what it suspects to be
one of the doors of the Boeing 777, Malaysia Airlines plane that
suddenly disappeared from the radar with 239 people on board. The plane lost
contact with ground controllers somewhere between Malaysia
and Vietnam.
Searchers in a low-flying Vietnamese plane spotted an object that appeared to
be one of the plane's doors. The state-run Thanh Nien newspaper reported this
citing the deputy chief of staff of Vietnam's army.
Meanwhile, authorities were
checking on the identities of the two passengers who boarded the plane with
stolen passports. The theft of the two passports, one belonging to Austrian
Christian Kozel and the other to Luigi Maraldi of Italy,
were entered into Interpol's database after they were stolen in Thailand in
2012. India
is closely following the developments regarding the missing flight in which
five Indian nationals were also travelling from Kuala
Lumpur to Beijing
and has assured their families of all assistance and support.External Affairs Minister
Salman Khursheed has said that the Indian High Commission in Kuala Lumpur was in constant contact with
Malaysian authorities in this regard.
We have sent condolence message and our
Ambassador is in constant touch with the Malaysian authorities. We will provide
any information or help if needed.
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The Maldives Supreme Court
sacked all the four Election Commissioners of the country including the
Commission President Fuwad Thowfeek last evening and gave them a suspended jail
sentence for disobedience of a court order.
The sentence stripped the Commissioners of
their membership in the commission and sentenced all four Commissioners to six
months in jail. The jail sentence will
be implemented after three years and would be suspended if they do not commit
further offences. Former President
Mohamed Nasheed has reacted to the court's decision by calling it the saddest
day in the history of Maldives'
constitutional life. More from our correspondent
Fuwad Thowfeek, the Chief of
Election Commission in Maldives, and his team had drawn wide appreciation from
international observers, for the way they had conducted the Presidential
elections last year. But the Election officials had come into repeated conflict
with the Supreme Court during the process. In the elections where the polls
were annulled once and postponed twice by the court, Abdulla Yameen had finally
overcome the challenge by former President Mohamed Nasheed. Now with the sacking
and suspension of all four Election Commissioners in the country, court has
ordered the appointment of a new team within a week since crucial Parliamentary
elections are to be held on the 22nd of this month. WITH ABHISHEK DAYAL FROM COLOMBO, THIS IS KONA
MADHUSUDAN RAO, FOR AIR NEWS.
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The US will not recognise the annexation of Crimea
by Russia if residents of
the region vote to leave Ukraine
in a referendum next week. This was stated by the White House Deputy National
Security Advisor Tony Blinken in a press interview yesterday. He said, Crimea's
regional pro-Moscow government will hold a referendum on joining Russia on March
16, which could lead to a formal annexation of the territory.
German Chancellor Angela
Merkel has told Russian President Vladimir Putin that she considered the
referendum illegal. Recounting the phone
call between the two leaders, Ms
Merkel's spokesman said, the chancellor asserted the German position
forcefully that the so-called March 16 referendum on Crimea
is illegal. Meanwhile, Russian President
Vladimir Putin defended the separatist drive in the disputed Crimean Peninsula
as in keeping with international law. However, Ukraine's Prime Minister vowed not
to relinquish "a single centimeter" of his country's territory.
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Afghanistan's first Vice-president Field
Marshal Mohammad Qasim Fahim has died from a brief illness in Kabul. 57-year old Fahim was suffering from
diabetes for some time. He was a Tajik commander who along with Northern Alliance
Commander Ahmad Shah Massud had fought against the Soviet
Union and the Taliban. Vice President Mohammad Hamid
Ansari and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have condoled the passing away of
Marshal Fahim. Expressing his condolence, the Vice President said that India shall
always remember Marshal Fahim for his tireless efforts to strengthen the
India-Afghanistan strategic partnership. Dr. Manmohan Singh in his condolence
message also recalled Marshal Fahim’s contribution in promoting the strategic
partnership between India
and Afghanistan.
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There will be no ceiling on
carrying legitimate cash by the public in view of the security and anti-black
money measures initiated by the Election Commission, EC, for Lok Sabha polls.
However, surveillance squads will have the power to intercept any suspicious
transportation of cash.The EC has issued a number of
measures for the Chief Electoral Officers of all States and Union Territories
with regard to curbing blackmoney and illegal money power during polls.
The EC decided to ease its
norms and directives on cash transportation as it received a number of
representations from public groups and trader bodies over the alleged
harassment while they were carrying big cash sums for the conduct of business
deals or social functions.
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The News Services Division of
All India Radio in its weekly Live Phone-in programme “PUBLIC SPEAK” tonight
will bring you a discussion on "Violence in Politics and responsibility of
political parties." This can be heard on the FM
Gold Channel and additional frequencies from 9.30 to 10.05 p.m. Listeners can pose questions to the experts
sitting in our Studio on telephone number: 011: 2331-4444. This programme is also available on Doordarshan DTH.
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The Fifth seeded pair of
Sania Mirza and Cara Black have reached the quarterfinals of the WTA Paribas
Open in Indian Wells, USA. The Indo-Zimbabwean pair defeated the American duo
of Racquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears 6-3, 6-4. Sania and Cara had not gone
beyond the quarterfinals in four tournaments they had played this season.
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NEWSPAPER
HEADLINES
- Speculation about a terror
angle in the disappearance of the Malaysia Airlines plane on its way to Beijing
from Kuala Lumpur grabs front page attention in all the papers.
- Murli Manohar Joshi's assertion that there was
no poster war between his and Narendra Modi's supporters regarding candidature
for the Varanasi Lok Sabha seat is prominently noticed on the front pages. The
Hindu quotes Mr. Joshi as saying "Ready to make way for Modi if party
asks".
- In a special front page
story, the Indian Express reports that the CAG has detected a 25,000 crore
rupee land scam in Jammu and Kashmir. The paper writes that the CAG in its
report has alleged irregularities in the sale of encroached government land for
a mere 76 crore rupees when according to the government's own estimates it was
meant to have raised nearly 25,000 crore rupees.
- An interesting twist in the
bribery scandal involving British firm Rolls Royce's supply of aircraft engines
to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, is highlighted in the press. "Rolls
Royce offers to return 18 crore rupees it gave to agents" reports the
Tribune.
- The Hindustan Times carries a
front page exclusive which says that the Indian government will probe concerns
that mobile service provider Vodafone may have shared details of phone calls
and e-mails of its subscribers worldwide with British security agency
Government Communications Headquarters.
- The World Health Organisation
appointing Dr Poonam Khetrapal as its South East Asia head is prominently
noticed in the Mail Today. The paper says she is the first Indian woman to
occupy this position.
- And finally, news about a
very unique invention. The Asian Age, the Pioneer and the Times of India report
that a new machine has been developed that can turn water into wine in just
three days by simply adding a few other ingredients. Did we hear someone say
"Hic!"?
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The police in Mumbai’s
neighbouring Thane district would conduct sessions in schools and colleges to
educate the students and their parents about the benefits and hazards of the
social media. Along with the children, their parents will also be educated and
warned of the ill-effects of the misuse or excessive use of social networking
sites. Thane Joint Commissioner of
Police V V Laxminarayana said the program would be designed to make aware the
people especially the students and their parents, about the ill effects of
excessive use of social media.
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