Press Trust of India

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and his cabinet colleague T. Radhakrishnan visited superstar Mohanlal, smarting under a backlash for the poor performance of his newly formed musical band Lalisom, at his residence here early Saturday.

The purpose of the visit was to pacify the superstar who had Thursday returned to the organisers of the ongoing National Games a cheque for Rs.1.63 crores he got for his musical band’s debut performance at the opening ceremony of the Games, held in the state capital Jan 31.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet project ‘Swachh Bharat’ campaign has inspired Goa Police to dive into the cleaning act.

Police will launch a ‘Best Police Station of the Year’ award in which cleanliness would be a major criteria, along with hardcore policing activities like investigation, crime prevention, quality of behaviour with the public etc., Inspector General of Police Sunil Garg told IANS Saturday on the sidelines of a prize distribution ceremony for policemen.

“Cleanliness of the police station is one of the important parameters,” he said.

In a bid to attract more visitors from Germany, Kerala Tourism conducted two road shows in Dusseldorf and Berlin early this week.

Held on the 3rd and 5th of this month, the two endeavours were Kerala Tourism’s inaugural road shows in Germany this year.

The delegation was led by Tourism Director P.I. Sheikh Pareeth and included leading private players from the industry here.

“This is the second road show we are conducting in these cities to aggressively market the destinations and tap new markets,” said Kerala’s Tourism Minister A.P. Anil Kumar.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis Saturday asked the central government to remove various irritants in the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) to ensure the pending projects are completed on schedule.

“Presently, the JNNURM is over, but many issues pertaining to the scheme remain which the central government must address. Projects taken up under the JNNURM cannot be discarded and need to be completed,” Fadnavis urged at a Consultative Workshop on Urban Governance attended by union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu.

Essel Infraprojects Limited Friday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Rajasthan government for setting up a solar power park of 5,000 MW capacity.

“Managing director of state-owned Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation B.K. Dosi and CEO of Essel Infra Ashok Agarwal signed the MoU in the presence of Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje,” an official statement said.

Essel Group chairman Subhash Chandra was also present on the occasion.

US envoy to India Richard Verma Friday said the recent summit meetings between the two countries converged their interests that were common due to the challenges posed by climate change.

“There has been a convergence of interests and stories about climate change and its impacts on both our countries,” Verma said at the 15th Delhi Sustainable Development Summit here.

“No one is above law,” the Delhi High Court Friday said while observing that Nitish Katara murder convicts’ hospital visits and admissions were “unwarranted” as they have manipulated the system deliberately.

The court Friday sentenced Vikas Yadav and his cousin Vishal Yadav to 30 years in prison for the murder of Katara, a friend of Vikas Yadav’s sister.

The Supreme Court Monday recalled its order declining the plea by former communications minister Dayanidhi Maran and his brother Kalanithi Maran challenging their summoning by the 2G special court after CBI filed a charge sheet against them on their alleged role in Aircel-Maxis deal.

The matter will now be taken up the by the bench headed by the Chief Justice H.L.Dattu, after bench of Justice V.Gopala Gowda and Justice R. Banumathi recalled their order passed earlier in the morning declining the plea by the Maran brothers.

India is a “nearly 100 percent banked country” that offers its citizens universal access to financial services aimed at spurring development, a UN commission heard Thursday.

In the five months since the universal banking access programme, Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, was launched, 100 million people have opened bank accounts, Mayank Joshi, a first secretary in India’s UN Mission told the Commission for Social Development.

Union minister and BJP leader Uma Bharti Friday apologised to the people of the northeast for the party’s Delhi poll Vision Document that described people from the region living in Delhi as “immigrants”.

“I request the people of the region to not have any ill-feelings because we sincerely want the region’s development,” the water resources and river development minister said at the two-day Assam Water Conference 2015 here.

“We will apologise not once, but thousand times. The people of the northeast are very close to the central government,” she said.