Lucknow, August 19: State convenor, Babri Masjid Action Committee (BMAC) Dr Shafeequr Rehman Barq and other office bearers on Wednesday have issued an appeal urging muslims to pray during the holy month of Ramzan so that the verdict in the Babri Masjid/Ram Janam Bhoomi case goes in their favour.
Hyderabad, August 19: Telangana Rashtra Samithi president K Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday demanded that the Government Advisor and Rajya Sabha member KVP Ramachandra Rao be sacked over allegations of his involvement in the APIIC-Emmar Properties deal.
Talking to media persons at Telangana Bhavan, KCR also demanded action against all officials who are accused of being involved in the illegal allotment of land through the deal between the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation and Emmar Properties.
Hyderabad, August 18: Secunderabad Cantonment MLA P Shankar Rao on Wednesday urged the Chief Minister K Rosaiah to expedite the Cabinet reshuffle process since “the administration needs streamlining.”
Talking to media persons at the CLP Media Point on Assembly premises, Mr Shankar Rao appealed to the Chief Minister to revamp the Cabinet to tone up the administration.
Hyderabad, August 19: “I am not responsible for the safety of some else’s babies, nor do I have any information of how many babies went missing from this hospital,” thundered the Superintendent of Niloufer Hospital, a day after a one-month old girl went missing from there.
The Superintendent is understandably a harried man since this is not the first time he had to face questions over a missing baby in January this year when a 3-day-old baby went missing from the hospital.
Hyderabad, August 19: Former minister Konda Surekha on Wednesday lambasted Chief Minister K Rosaiah for allegedly targeting loyalists of Kadapa MP YS Jaganmohan Reddy by scheming the issuance of show-cause notice to her and downscaling her security.
Talking to media persons at CLP media point, Ms Surekha alleged that the government, even after knowing that there is a threat, has downscaled her security. She made it clear that Mr Rosaiah would be responsible if anything untoward happens to her.
New Delhi, August 19: Muslims’ enrolment at secondary level of education is less than that of the scheduled castes, a government survey has indicated.
Giving this information in Rajya Sabha in a written reply, Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said that the report of 64th Round (2007-08) of National Sample Survey (NSS) indicates that Muslims’ enrolment at secondary level is 10.2 per cent of the total enrolments.
The survey said that the same for the scheduled castes (SC) and other backward classes (OBC) is 11.3 per cent and 12.5 per cent respectively.
Berlin, August 19: Iran’s supreme leader called on the US Wednesday to change its approach before asking Iran to resume talks, ISNA news agency reported.
‘Naturally if they (US) step down from the rotten imperialistic ladder and fully clarify their aims, then we would be ready for talks,’ Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a meeting with the country’s officials.
‘But currently they seem to be less after holding talks and more after using force,’ added the ayatollah, who according to the Iranian constitution, has the final say on all state affairs.
New Delhi, August 19: After criticising Home Minister P. Chidambaram over his policy to tackle Maoists, Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh has now found fault with the home ministry’s moves to change the Arms Act.
Singh, who is the chief patron of National Association for Gun Rights India, Wednesday submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh along with leaders of other political parties, saying the home ministry had quietly moved to change aspects of the law that would lead to undermining citizen’s legal right to keep arms.
Agra, August 19: Facing protests, Uttar Pradesh government tonight offered the farmers of Agra district an enhanced compensation package for the land acquired from them for the Yamuna Expressway project. The announcement to this effect was made by Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh after a meeting with farmers” representatives in Agra.
The government had yesterday made a similar offer to protesting farmers of Aligarh. The additional compensation of Rs 121 per square metre will be given to the farmers of affected villages in Agra in form of a special relief, Singh said.
Kadapa, August 19: The Justice B N Srikrishna Committee today said though its recommendations on the contentious issue of separate statehood to Telangana may not satisfy all groups in Andhra Pradesh, it will take care of the interests of every citizen in the state. “It may not be possible to satisfy all the groups.
We are not here to satisfy the groups but we are here to protect the interests of citizens,” Justice Srikrishna, who heads the five-member committee, told a press conference here. The committee recommendations will take care of all regions and citizens in the state, he said.
Hyderabad, August 19: Congress MLC and late Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy”s brother Y S Vivekananda Reddy has written a letter to party president Sonia Gandhi saying that he will forever remain a Congressman. “This letter was written by me last month.
I shall remain a Congressmen forever. My intention is to meet Madam (Sonia) and to see that there is no misunderstanding between the high command and my nephew Y S Jaganmohan Reddy,” he said.
Hyderabad, August 19: An anonymous call was made to Andhra Pradesh’s Chief Minister office at the Andhra Pradesh Secretariat on Wednesday, Aug 18 claiming that a bomb had been planted inside the building.
“The phone call was received by the security wing in the afternoon. The caller claimed that a bomb has been kept in the ‘C’ Block of the Secretariat which houses the CMO,” police said.
Senior police officials and bomb disposal squads swung into action and began searches at the CMO, police said.
Ahmedabad, August 18: A witness in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case has said he had gone underground as he feared that CBI, probing the case, would force him to make more false statements.
One Noor Mohammad Goghari told this to a court hearing the Popular Builder firing case yesterday in which he is an accused.
According to CBI chargesheet, firing at Popular builder in December 2004 was stage managed by some of the accused in fake encounter case with the purpose of lodging FIR against Sohrabuddin in Gujarat.
Mumbai, August 18: Saffron allies BJP and Shiv Sena may not be on as cordial terms in Maharashtra like in the yore but this hasn’t come in the way of top leaders of the parties “exchanging” their publicist.
Sena today announced that Harshal Pradhan, Gadkari’s PR man, will now look after party executive president Uddhav Thackeray’s publicity.
Although reasons for Pradhan’s switch were not known, Sena in a release said Harshal would look after its “media coordination and public relations”.
Hyderabad, August 18: TRS president K Chandrasekhar Rao today demanded that the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister K Rosaiah remove Congress MP K V P Ramachandra Rao as an advisor to the state government for his alleged role in a land scam.
“Ramachandra Rao, a close confidante of late chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, had played a key role in the scam in land transfer from the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) to Emaar Properties,” the TRS president told reporters here.
Lucknow, August 18: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Wednesday seemed unhappy with the style of functioning of the state bureaucracy and the police and urged officials to be responsive to the people.
Mayawati expressed her displeasure at her monthly review meeting of all senior administrative and police officials including divisional commissioners, district magistrates, deputy inspector generals of police and district police chiefs at the Tilak Hall in the state secretariat here.
New Delhi, August 18: Distancing itself from the controversial remarks of Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee about the killing of Maoist leader Cherukuri Rajkumar, alias Azad, the Congress Wednesday said she had made the remarks as the Trinamool Congress chief and not as a minister.
“She is not only a minister of the government of India, she is also the president of a political party. She has said the remarks were made in her capacity of Trinamool Congress chief,” Congress spokesman Shakeel Ahmed told IANS.
Dambulla (Sri Lanka), August 18: Sri Lankan captain Kumar Sangakkara today took full responsibility for the ‘no-ball’ incident during his team’s tri-series match against India and said his Board will take appropriate action if any player is found guilty.
“I regret what happened, we need to take responsibility as a team. The incident is up to the Board to take a decision.
Patna, August 18: NCP today slammed RJD president Lalu Prasad and LJP chief Ramvilas Paswan for entering into “an alliance bereft of ideology and policy” and said it had further exposed the duo before the masses.
“It is an alliance bereft of ideology and policy… the alliance has been sewn up only for the purpose of grabbing power… the two stand exposed before the masses further,” NCP General Secretary Tariq Anwar told reporters here.
Hyderabad, August 18: A local court today directed the CBI to submit “specific material” on its allegations against the former Chairman of Satyam Computers, B Ramalinga Raju, and nine other accused in the multi-crore accounting scam in the IT firm, prior to framing of charges against them.
The XXI Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court, which today began hearing arguments on framing of charges against the accused, asked the CBI counsel to inform it in a specific way on the agency’s allegations against the accused in two main chargesheets, besides a supplementary chargesheet.
New Delhi, August 18: The government today said there was a shortage of about 1,350 IPS officers due to sanctioning of additional posts after the cadre reviews.
Minister of State for Home Ajay Maken said this shortage was having a bearing on filling up of senior policing positions in the states and the Centre.
Mumbai, August 18: After warning multiplex owners over screening of Marathi movies, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray has now trained his guns at taxi and auto drivers who refuse ferry short distance passengers.
Raj today met Joint Transport Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar to complain about the taxi and auto drivers who refuse to take passengers for short distances.
Jamshedpur, August 18: Within hours of killing a Congress activist, CPI (Maoist) ultras set on fire and triggered a blast in a school building at Jiyan in Ghatsila sub-division Tuesday night, police Wednesday said.
A group of Maoists last night set on fire the office of the primary school and triggered the blast, Senior Superintendent of Police Akhilesh Kumar Jha said.
Documents, doors and furniture in the office were damaged, Jha said.
No casualty was reported in the incident, Jha said.
Tirupati, Aug 18: Praja Rajyam Party president K Chiranjeevi on Wednesday struck back at his party’s detractors by saying that some people see him as an obstacle in fulfilling their ambitions and said that he has no immediate thirst for power.
Mr Chiranjeevi told media persons that some leaders were targeting the PRP consistently. He said that the PRP has become their target since they assume that the party would be a hurdle to their aspirations of becoming the Chief Minister of the state.
Tirupati, August 18: Praja Rajyam Party president K Chiranjeevi on Wednesday struck back at his party’s detractors by saying that some people see him as an obstacle in fulfilling their ambitions and said that he has no immediate thirst for power.
Mr Chiranjeevi told media persons that some leaders were targeting the PRP consistently. He said that the PRP has become their target since they assume that the party would be a hurdle to their aspirations of becoming the Chief Minister of the state.