LATEST NEWS OF DAY-1-8-2013

1. Questions raised over bravery of police officer who shot 26/11 terrorist:-

Mumbai: Maharshtra police officer Vishwas Nangre-Patil is all set to receive the highest gallantry award- the President Police Medal for Gallantry for his actions during the siege of Taj hotel on the November 26, 2008. Patil is expected to be honoured by the Ministry of Home Affairs for his bravery during the 26/11 Mumbai Terror Attacks.

 

'Patil led ill-equipped and ill-prepared men and shot a terrorist in battle inside the Taj Mahal Hotel. It was an act of exceptional courage, even by the standards of those days', the meeting of Ministry of Home Affairs committee which appraises awardees concluded on Tuesday in New Delhi.

 

However, five years after the most gruesome terrorist attack on Indian soil, questions have been raised over the validity of rewarding Patil with the medal. 

 

An investigative report published in Firstpost points at several discrepancies in the account given by the ministry. It points at possible foul-play and political lobbying by the ruling political party. 

 

On the morning of November 27, 2008 Nangre-Patil was accompanied by Sunil Kudiyadi and men from reserves between hotel's south and north wing. Nangre-Patil, according to High-Level Enquiry Committee quoted in the report “showed remarkable grit and courage in trying to engage the terrorists from a lower level position on the staircase”. The terrorist had taken an advantageous location at hotel's staircase which allowed them to fire and throw grenades with ease. Patil injured one terrorist in the gun battle that ensued at this particular staircase.

 

The report points at several inconsistencies in government’s official account. According to intercepts,between the terrorists and their handlers across the border, not even a single terrorist was killed during the time Patil was inside the hotel, thus raising serious question  

marks over the claim of Patil shooting a terrorist.

 

The report further elaborates that baring one injury incident, located away from the location where Patil and his men were holed up; no other injuries were inflicted on the terrorists. The single incident too was a result of a terrorist shooting his foot accidentally.

 

Later, Patil accompanied by Rajyavardhan Singh, then on deputation to the Intelligence Bureau, and Hemant Nagrale made their way to  the control room. The three were able to track the movements of the terrorists on television screens connected to the CCTV cameras installed inside hotel. Patil was warned that the LeT team was moving towards the control room. Patil and his team decided to leave the control room- 'leaving behind his men to face the attack'- raising further questions to successfully lead his men.

 

This is not the first instance when Patil was considered for the top medal. He was considered for the Police gallantry award in 2009 but the decision was withheld on the basis of concerns over the quality of evidence. It is being alleged that Patil's father-in-law may have played a role in reconsidering Patil's name for the top award. Madhukar Mule, is a prominent Nationalist Congress Party politician.

 

2.  Aam Admi Party to sweep out corruption: Announces broom as its election symbol :-

New Delhi: Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Admi Party will contest the upcoming 2014 elections from Delhi with broom as their party's symbol. The symbol was approved by the Election Commission on Wednesday.

 

"With this, the party has crossed the second milestone (after its registration) on its way to cleaning up the polity of the country," the party said in a statement.

 

With the 'broom' which symbolises dignity of labour, the party hopes to clean the filth which has permeated our government and our legislature. The country needs a clean sweep of its corrupted main stream political parties, it said.

 

AAP said it was happy that the Election Commission has allotted the party a reserved symbol of 'Broom' for all the 70 assembly constituencies of Delhi.

 

A week after its launch in December last year, Arvind Kejriwal led-Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had approached Election Commission for registration.

 

AAP national secretary Pankaj Gupta had submitted the papers regarding registration to the election commission.

 

The party got registration from Election Commission in March this year.

 

AAP would formally launch its election symbol in a public event on August 3.

 

3. Narendra Modi-for-PM’ to be a reality by September? :-

New Delhi: After a long wait Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) may finally announce Narendra Modi as its Prime Minister candidate for the upcoming general elections scheduled to take place in May 2014, by the end of September, this year.

 

According to television reports, the announcement may come as early as by the end of August to give Gujarat Chief Minister a six-month window to work on his poll campaign. The party will like to make the most of Modi's popularity and will announce him for party's top job before the notification of the assembly elections, expected around September 21.

 

BJP and RSS chiefs Rajnath Singh and Mohan Bhagwat are scheduled to meet on Saturday to finalise party's blueprint for the upcoming elections. It is being said that the decision to anoint Modi as an official nominee for the post of Prime Minister may be taken during this meeting. Though a formal announcement may came as late as September. 

 

 

 

LATEST NEWS OF DAY-30-7-2013

1. RBI revises growth figures:-
 Mumbai: As expected, the Reserve Bank of India has key rates unchanged in its monetary policy review. This means that your EMIs don't change. GDP growth figures have been revised marginally.
Weighed down by a weak rupee, the Reserve Bank today chose to keep all key interest rates unchanged and asked the government to take urgent steps to reign in the high current account deficit.
Lowering the GDP growth projection for the current fiscal to 5.5% from 5.7%, the central bank said the external sector is the "biggest threat" to economic stability

 

It also said that the recent liquidity tightening measures, taken to support the rupee, will be rolled back in a calibrated manner as stability is restored to the foreign exchange market, enabling it to revert to the policy of supporting growth with continuing vigil on inflation.

The RBI will endeavour to keep inflation, which is under threat from a depreciating rupee, at 5 per cent by March end.

2. Clamour for smaller states grows, now, RLD bats for Harit Pradesh:-

Amid clear indications that the congress leadership is inclined in favour of carving out a separate Telangana from Andhra Pradesh, union minister Ajit Singh led-Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) has stepped up the demand  for Harit Pradesh.

RLD chief and Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said the western part of the state should be separated from UP and given an independent identity.

"We want smaller states. We also bat for Bundelkhand. A separate state of Bundelkhand should also be carved out from Madhya Pradesh," he told Daily Bhaskar in an exclusive interview on Monday. 

He renewed his demand for the small-state-for-big-development mandate. Singh said, "The demand for Telangana has been heard. We are making a similar demand for Harit Pradesh for the betterment of the people

in these parts," the union minister said.

Since 2004, RLD has taken up the cause of smaller states for better administration and development.

"Uttar Pradesh has a population of over 17 crore. I am certain the administration, if asked, will not even be able to name all districts correctly. The sheer size of the state makes it unmanageable. We are, therefore, all for splitting UP into four parts -- Harit Pradesh, Poorvanchal, Bundelkhand and Madhya Uttar Pradesh," Singh said. 

Raising concerns over the prospects of farmers living in west UP, he said western UP contributes to a large chunk (nearly 72%) of the state's total income. "In turn, what western UP gets is not enough. Just 18% of the state's budget is spent on its development. This anomaly makes the people of this area dissatisfied," Singh added.

The RLD also made fresh demands for the setting up of a Rajya Punargathan Ayoga, an independent body that would be given the charge of catering to such demands emanating from across the country. 

Apart from criticising political parties of vested interests, Singh also alleged that no party was interested in the "genuine'' development of Uttar Pradesh, the main reason why the bifurcation of the state has been delayed for so long."

LATEST NEWS OF DAY-27-7-2013

 1.   Minister Manish Tewari alleges acid attack attempt on him :-
 Chandigarh/New Delhi: While the Punjab and Haryana High Court intended to fast track the all the acid attack cases, Information and Broadcasting Minister alleged on Saturday that there was an acid attack attempt on him. Four bottles of acid were recovered outside his Chandigarh residence on Friday night.
Media reports said that he had gone directly to his Ludhiana residence and that’s what might have saved him from the attack.
Reports say that a probe will be conducted into why the bottles were kept outside his house.
Expressing concern over increasing number of acid attacks, Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday stated that the court intends to fast-track all such cases pending before subordinate courts.

Meanwhile, acid attack cases on women had been increasing in the recent days - Laxmi, Sonali Mukherjee, Preeti Rathi, Arti Shrivastav, Rupa, Tuba Tabassam, Anu Mukherjee, Pragya Singh, Pratima Choudhary, Bhavna Choudhary and Archana Kumari - natives of places ranging from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, 
 It was only after Justice Verma Committee’s Recommendations that acid attacks were made standalone offence. The Supreme Court recently ruled about the raise in compensation and also directed states to devise a policy to control the sale of acids.


2.Minister Manish Tewari alleges acid attack attempt on him:-

Arun Nehru, former union minister and powerful figure during the prime ministership of Rajiv Gandhi who died on Thursday, was cremated on Friday in the national capital.

Nehru, 69, a cousin of Rajiv Gandhi

and minister for internal security in his government, died in a hospital in Gurgaon after a prolonged illness, according to family sources.
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Bharatiya Janata Party leaders LK Advani and Arun Jaitley, Union ministers Sachin Pilot and Anand Sharma were also present at the cremation.

Lucknow-born Nehru was a three-time Lok Sabha member. Nehru had a successful career in the corporate world before joining politics in the early 1980s.

3. Former Chief Justice Altmas Kabir denies 'NEET' judgment was leaked:-
Delhi: Former Chief Justice of India Altmas Kabir has denied that the judgment striking down the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to both MBBS and post-graduate course in medicine was leaked before he pronounced it.

When pointed out by Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN's show Devil’s Advocate that an advocate's online article had given details of the judgement, Kabir said: "It was simply speculation. Even I did not know that Justice AR DAve was going to dissent. Whatever it is a coincidence or a leak, I don't know, but not from here."

He even disagreed with Dave’s contention that there wasn’t enough time to discuss the verdict. “The draft of the final judgment was given to him a week before it was to be pronounced,” he said.

Recently, the bench of Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir, Justices Vikramajeet Sen and Anil Dave gave a split verdict on the issue. Justices Kabir and Sen ruled against the MCI's single entrance exam, Justice Anil Dave was in favour of the examination.

Altamas Kabir on Friday demanded an apology from his successor P Sathasivam if he did indeed criticise the former in the terms attributed to him in a section of the media. Kabir, who left office on July 18, had given an interim order in favour of Jayprakash Associates in a case in which it had been directed to pay Rs. 100 crore as fine by the Himachal Pradesh high court.

A bench comprising Sathasivam and Justice Ranjan Gogoi while hearing the same case on Tuesday had purportedly said the relief order should not have been passed.
“I have been wrongly indicted by the CJI,” he said.

But he added he had spoken to Sathasivam, who denied making the observations.

“I spoke to Chief Justice and he said, I had never said this. I also asked Justice Gogoi, who is a partner on this bench, he said certainly not, we have not said this at all,” Kabir said.

He added he had requested the two judges to put the denial in writing.