Dr Shanker Finds Fault With TTD Members Appointment

The former minister Dr P Shanker Rao has said that it was not proper for the Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy to give the Tirumala Tirupati Devastanam (TTD) Board member posts to the leaders who were criticizing the Congress party.

CPI Narayana Slammed For Derogatory Remarks Against Ministers

Government Whip in the Legislative Assembly E Anil has found fault with the CPI State secretary Dr K Narayana for making derogatory remarks against the Ministers.

Speaking to the media at CLP office here on Thursday, Anil has said that it was not proper for Narayana to say that the Ministers deserved to be put in mental hospital. He said that Narayana might have lost his mental balance, and hence making such irrelevant remarks against the Ministers. He exuded confidence that the Centre will make a positive statement soon on Telangana.

Manda Krishna Expresses Anger At Minister Sunita

MRPS president Manda Krishna Madiga has announced that he would be launching a new political party on December 4.

Speaking to the media here on Thursday, he said the party would fight for social justice.
Manda Krishna has expressed anger at the minister Sunita Lakshma Reddy stating that the government would not enhance the pension for the handicapped persons. He said it was improper for the government to forget its responsibility of giving a humanitarian consideration to the problems of the disabled and make such statements.

Govt Will Take A Clear Stand On Fee Reimbursement: Minister

The TDP on Thursday demanded the state government to fully reimburse the tuition fee to all the eligible SC, ST and BC students.

The TDP delegation led by the party MLA Mothkupalli Narsimhulu met the social welfare minister Pitani Styanarayana and submitted a memorandum to him on the issue. MLAs P Ashok Gajapathi Raju, Tummala Nageshwar Rao, B Gopala Krishna Reddy, P Ramulu, Errabelli Dayakar Rao, Hanumathu Shinde, Satyavathi Rathode, Veera Venkataiah were among those who met the minister.

Caste politics: will it help or destroy the society?

The intensified ‘lure’ to capture the predominant backward classes ‘vote bank’ in Andhra Pradesh is likely to stir the hornet’s nest.

In its bid to bounce back to power, after being rejected by the state electorate in 2004 and 2009, the main Opposition Telugu Desam party has first passed the BCs declaration promising 33 per cent reservation to that community members in all Constitutional bodies, beginning with the Assembly.

Will The Friday Cabinet Meet Resolve Dharmana Issue?

The State Cabinet meeting scheduled for Friday has assumed importance and significance as Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy is expected to bring the curtains down on the continuing suspense over the resignation of Roads and Buildings Minister Dharmana Prasada Rao.

It might be recalled here that the Minister for Roads and Buildings had submitted his resignation on moral grounds following the CBI naming him in the charge-sheet filed in the disproportionate assets (DA) case of Kadapa MP Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy.

Two army officers honey-trapped by foreign operatives: Antony

New Delhi, Two army officers have been honey-trapped by alleged foreign operatives in the recent years, Defence Minister A K Antony has said.

“Two instances have been reported where officers were compromised by alleged foreign operatives,” Antony said in written reply to a question raised yesterday in Rajya Sabha.

He said inquiries were conducted by the army and appropriate action has been initiated in the respective cases.

BKI terrorists plead guilty in twin blast case

News Delhi, Babbar Khalsa International’s terrorist Jagtar Singh Hawara on Thursday pleaded guilty in a Delhi court along with four others of their alleged roles in the 2005 twin blasts at Satyam and Liberty cinema halls here.

With Hawara, the assassin of former Punjab Chief Minister Beant Singh and his four accomplices admitting their guilts, Additional Sessions Judge Rakesh Siddhartha sentenced them to jail terms already undergone by them during adjudication of the twin blast case.

Man acquitted in rape case as police fails to trace victim

A Delhi court has acquitted a man of the charges of raping a girl due to failure of the police to trace the victim to depose in the case.

Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Nivedita Anil Sharma absolved Delhi resident Mahender of rape charges observing
that the court is “completely satisfied” that police has failed to bring home the guilt of the accused.

During the trial of the case, the court had issued summons to the girl through the investigating officer (IO) but it was not executed due to her unavailability at her given address.

Maken to take up Unmukt’s issue with DU & St. Stephen’s

Sports Minister Ajay Maken today stood by India U-19 World Cup winning captain Unmukt Chand,assuring to take up his case with the Delhi University and the St. Stephen’s College authorities.

Unmukt, who played a crucial knock of 111 not out in the final against Australia last Sunday to lead India Under-19 team to the World Cup glory, has been barred from taking the second semester exams because of low attendance and stands to lose a year of college due to low attendance.

“I think, it’s totally unfair. The University and the college authorities instead of disallowing him from exams

PAC for strict monitoring of fund usage in Northeast projects

The Public Accounts Committee of Parliament has asked Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region to improve monitoring of various schemes being implemented in the region so that there are no diversion of funds meant for specific projects.

In its report on Non-Lapsable Central Pool of Resources scheme, the Committee, however, complimented the Ministry for initiating a number of measures to improve implementation of the schemes in the North East region as per its earlier recommendation.

‘Faced pressure to hide rape angle in Aarushi’s postmortem’

A senior police officer and a crucial witness in Aarushi-Hemraj murder case today deposed before a special CBI court here that he faced pressure to suppress the rape angle in the postmortem of the teenager.

Former Noida Superintendent of Police K K Gautam, during chief examination told the court that chairman of Noida Eye Hospital Sushil Chaudhry, a friend of slain teenager Aarushi’s uncle Dinesh Talwar, had called him and requested him to hide the rape angle in the postmortem.

NCP pleads with Speaker to disqualify 12 MLAs

NCP today appealed to the Meghalaya Assembly Speaker to disqualify 12 legislators who deserted the party to join the NPP en bloc last week.

My party has urged Speaker Charles Pyngrope in a letter this afternoon to disqualify the 12 NCP MLAs who have crossed over to NPP,” Robert Kharshiing, NCP NE Observer said.

He said, the move was made following a thorough discussion within the party which felt that the 12 MLAs who
defected the party attract the provision of the anti-defection law.

Iranian, Egyptian presidents discuss NAM objectives, region

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi held talks here on Thursday about the objectives of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and regional developments.

Quoting Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir Abdollahian, the semi-official Mehr news agency said the two presidents held talks in a “friendly atmosphere” and reviewed the objectives of the NAM and their concerns, reported Xinhua.

‘Joker’ to release in India and Pakistan simultaneously

Akshay Kumar starrer ‘Joker’ is the next big Bollywood film to release in Pakistan tomorrow after Salman Khan’s ‘Ek Tha Tiger’ and Saif Ali Khan’s ‘Agent Vinod’ was banned in the country.

Directed by Shirish Kunder and starring Akshay, Sonakshi Sinha, Shreyas Talpade, Minissha Lamba and Chitrangda Singh, the film is releasing simultaneously in India and Pakistan tomorrow.

We are really happy that ‘Joker’ is releasing in India and Pakistan simultaneously. ‘Joker’ is an universal film that we feel will be enjoyed by the entire family.

Assam Media to boycott AAMSU

Media associations in Assam today decided to boycott all news related to All Assam Muslim Students Union (AAMSU) for three months in protest against the attack on scribes by its members during the August 28 bandh called by the organisation.

A meeting of ten media associations held at Guwahati Press Club here also took the unanimous decision to ask AAMSU leadership to tender a public apology.

It also appealed to editors of newspapers and news channels not to entertain any kind of articles or speeches by
AAMSU leaders and members during the period.

Nawazuddin plays a mute character in ‘Dekh Indian Circus’

Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who is on a high post the success of “Gangs Of Wasseypur 2”, will be be essaying a mute character in “Dekh Indian Circus”.

The film has been directed by National award winner Mangesh Hadawle, who said that the 38-year-old actor took the
role so seriously that he refrained from talking to anyone on the sets.

Editors on goodwill mission to Assam’s trouble-torn areas

A delegation of editors of local dailies today left on a two-day goodwill mission to trouble-torn Kokrajhar, Chirang and Dhubri districts.

The delegation aimed to instil a sense of security,oneness amongst the people and spread the message of amity,
harmony and brotherhood, official sources said here.

The delegation will take stock of the ground situation in the relief camps, interact with camp inmates, local peopleand the administration.

Gold imports dip 18.4% to Rs 71,912 cr in Apr-June

India’s gold imports contracted by 18.4 per cent year-on-year to Rs 71,912 crore in the April-June quarter of the current fiscal.

However, it is difficult to attribute specific reasons for decline in import of gold, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya Scindia has said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

Volume of import of any commodity, including gold, depends on many factors which includes domestic demand,
international and domestic prices, exchange rate, duty rates,” he said, adding that the import of gold is free except for monetary purposes.

Modi comes under attack for comment on women

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today came under attack for attributing the high rate of malnutrition in his state to figure conscious young girls with the Congress saying it was an “insult” to all women.

Accusing Modi of being insensitive towards women, Congress also demanded that he withdraw the “childish” remark
while another UPA constituent NCP said the comment does not behove of a chief minister to speak like this. RJD’s Lalu Prasad also condemned the remark.

But BJP’s Prakash Javadekar dismissed this criticism to Congress’ “Modi-phobia”.

Naroda case: Quantum of sentence to be pronounced tomorrow

A special court will pronounce the quantum of punishment for 32 convicts in the 2002 post-Godhra Naroda Patiya riots case here tomorrow.

BJP MLA and former minister in the Narendra Modi government Maya Kodnani and Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi
are among the 32 people convicted by a special court in the Naroda Patiya riots case yesterday, in which, 97 people belonging to the minority community were killed.

Special court judge Jyotsana Yagnik convicted them on charges of conspiracy and murder in the case, even as 29 other accused were acquitted.

Manmohan Singh meets Zardari

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari here Thursday evening on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement Summit.

The meeting lasted 30-35 minutes, an Indian official said.

External Affairs Minister S.M Krishna, National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Pulok Chatterjee and Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai attended the meeting from the Indian side.

Stopped by cops, clicked by media, Punjab girl commits suicide

Stopped and allegedly harassed by police and photographed by the local media, a teenaged girl committed suicide Thursday in this Punjab city.

Police officials said that the girl jumped before a train near Domoria bridge in Jalandhar, 150 km from Chandigarh, after she was clicked by some media persons in a car with a boy, when they were stopped by police following a minor collision with another car.