Month: September 2012

The Communist Party of India (CPI) today demanded that the government announce a special package from the state budget for welfare of the handicapped, old aged and widows in the state. Addressing a press conference here, CPI State Secretary Dr K Narayana said on humanitarian grounds, the government should allocate a special finance package in the state budget for the Handicapped, old aged and widow people. He demanded that the government enhance pension to Rs 2,500 for the handicapped persons and Rs 2,000 for the old aged and widows in the state.

Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi thursday said governments of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry should convene all party meetings and simultaneously call for a one day bandh to highlight their rights in Cauvery water system.

Speaking to reporters here, VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan criticised Karnataka’s plan to observe a bandh in that state on October 6 to protest Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s directive at the Cauvery River Authority meet in Delhi on Septmber 19 to release 9,000 water to Tamil nadu.

Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi has expressed his displeasure at some states like Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand not delegating power to panchayats and pledged that he will fight for empowerment of the rural bodies.

“Panchayat elections were held in Jammu and Kashmir, but power has not been delegated to the rural bodies. And in Jharkhand also panchayats have not got power,” he said at a meeting or Jharkhand Pradesh Youth Congress meeting in Bokaro on wednesday.

China has completed a cultural project aimed at building at least one reading room for people in every village in the country.

At the end of August, China had invested over 18 billion yuan (around $2.8 billion) in the construction of 600,449 upto-standard reading rooms in rural areas, Xinhua reported.

The rooms have 940 million books, 540 million copies of newspapers and 120 million copies of audio and video products, according to a government document.

Some of the reading rooms have been equipped with film projectors.

A married couple died of suffocation after an unidentified suspect set a passenger bus on fire in downtown Moscow Thursday, the investigation committee said in a statement.

“According to witnesses, an unidentified man who later fled the scene was sitting in the back of the bus and set on fire two plastic canisters with gasoline,” the statement said.

The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in West Bengal Thursday decided to stake its claim to the post of leader of opposition in the assembly but sought party president Sonia Gandhi’ nod on the issue first.

CLP leader Mohammad Sohrab said the meeting held at the assembly premises decided that the party should approach Speaker Biman Banerjee with its claim.

Suspended IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt on Thursday moved the Gujarat High Court with a prayer to direct the Justice G T Nanavati Commission probing the riots cases to summon Chief Minister Narendra Modi before it.

In a PIL filed along with People’s Union of Civil Liberty, Bhatt has also demanded that the probe panel should be directed to submit its final report, not to the chief minister of the state but to the office of the state governor.

The hearing on the PIL commenced today before the division bench of Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J B Pardiwala.

A headmaster of a state-run high school in neighboring Ranga Reddy district was on Thursday suspended on the charge of giving corporal punishment to a standard 7th student, leading to injury.

Paniraju, headmaster of Zilla Parishad High School at Rampally allegedly shoved the student against the class room wall this morning for not doing homework. The student’s head hit the wall.

Angry relatives and locals demonstrated in front of the school afterwards.

Ranga Reddy District Education Officer suspended the headmaster, pending further inquiry.

The Supreme Court will on Friday hear the bail plea of YSR Congress chief Jagan Mohan Reddy in the alleged multi-crore disproportionate assets scam being probed by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate.

The CBI, meanwhile, is expected to oppose Jagan’s bail plea.

During the last hearing, a bench of justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Prakash Desai had directed the CBI to place before it the application moved before a special court in Hyderabad for purportedly summoning key witness, Y Suryanarayana Reddy, in the alleged scam.

A court on Thursday ordered police to register a criminal case against the chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority and the heads of Google and YouTube over the anti-Islam film ‘Innocence of Muslims’.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Abdus Sattar Langa further directed officials of Islampura police station in Lahore to book the producer, director and actors of the film.

The judge directed the police station chief to report within 10 days after registering the case.

The judge directed the police station chief to report within 10 days after registering the case.

The UN’s refugee agency has warned that around 700,000 people could flee Syria by the end of the year, BBC reported Thursday.

Around 294,000 refugees have already left Syria, and the UNHCR is appealing for $490 million to deal with the crisis.

Most of the refugees are housed in camps in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.

A Britain-based activist group said that Wednesday was the bloodiest day in the 18-month-old conflict so far, with at least 305 people being killed.

The West Bengal assembly Thursday passed a resolution moved by the ruling Trinamool Congress opposing FDI and monopolistic indigenous capital in retail, with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expressing the hope that other state legislatures would follow suit, putting pressure on the central government.

The resolution tabled by state Industries Minister Partha Chatterjee was adopted by 155-17 votes, with the Congress members opposing it.

Urvashi Rautela, who was crowned Miss Universe India 2012 recently, said that she is proud of her journey from a middle class family in Uttarakhand to being a national beauty pageant winner.

Urvashi won the I Am She Miss Universe India 2012 on September 21. She was crowned by her predecessor, Vasuki Sunkavalli.

The 18-year-old model, who will represent India at the Miss Universe 2012 pageant, was at her home town Kotdwara for few hours before leaving for Mumbai.

Due to 100 percent tax exemption on their incomes, six major political parties saved Rs.510.02 crore between 2006-09, activists said Thursday, and demanded these be declared as “public authority” and brought under the RTI Act.

Activists said as political parties in the country are indirectly funded by tax payers’ money, they should be brought under the Right to Information Act (RTI).

More than 200 prisoners escaped from an Iraqi jail housing Al Qaeda men after dozens of inmates seized weapons from guards Thursday and killed five policemen, said security officials.

The incident occurred in Tikrit city, 170 km north of the capital Baghdad, after dozens of prisoners snatched weapons from guards and soon took the building under their control, Xinhua quoted a police source as saying.

The riot, believed to be organised by Al Qaeda linked prisoners, also wounded two others including the prison director, Brigadier Leith Alskmana, the source added.

As many as 19 people, comprising 16 tourists and three crew members, were killed and three others badly injured in an air crash in Nepal’s capital city of Kathmandu Friday morning, Xinhua reported.

With barely two days left for the Telangana march, pro-Telangana groups and the Andhra Pradesh government are heading for a confrontation.

After refusing permission for the Sep 30 march, police have started rounding up pro-Telangana activists in the region. Those arrested Thursday include a Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) legislator in Nizamabad district.

Police have also stepped up security in the city and checking of vehicles entering the state capital. Students and other activists were being prevented from entering the city.

Filmmaker Yash Chopra, who teamed up with Shah Rukh Khan for over half-a-dozen films in the past two decades, on Thursday said the actor never sought to know the story or the fees he would be paid, when offered a role by the veteran film-maker.

Yash Raj banner and Shah Rukh came together in Darr (1993) for the first time. After Darr, Shahrukh worked with Chopras in the superhit Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), Dil To Pagal Hai (1997), Mohabbatein (2000), Veer Zaara (2004) and Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008).

Dancing diva Madhuri Dixit says among all her co-stars, she found it toughest to groove with Jackie Shroff. And it wasn’t so because he had two left feet.

During the shooting of the forthcoming grand finale of dance reality show “Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 5”, judge Karan Johar made co-judge Madhuri, and special guest Sridevi, go through a rapid fire round, said a source.

He asked them: “Which co-star was the most difficult to dance with – Sanjay Dutt, Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff or Sunny Deol?”

Actress Huma Qureshi, who made her debut with Anurag Kashyap’s two-part revenge drama ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’, says it is purely coincidental that all her films are multi-starrers.

In her debut film ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’, Huma shared screen space with Manoj Bajpai, Richa Chadda, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and others.

She would be seen in Vishal Bhardwaj’s supernatural psychological thriller ‘Ek Thi Daayan’ with Emraan Hashmi, Konkona Sen Sharma, Kalki Koechlin and in Nikhil Advani’s action adventure.

A 46-year-man in the US state of Wisconsin has been arrested for having sex in a street with a sofa, a media report said.

Gerard Streator was spotted bending over an abandoned yellow settee with his trousers round his ankles in Waukesha city, The Sun reported Thursday.

The hotel worker was seen by an off-duty police officer at 11 p.m. “thrusting his hips” against the sofa, which was in full view next to the kerb. No one was seen on the sofa.

As the police officer yelled at him, the man fled to a nearby apartment block.

National spokesman of JD(U) Shivanand Tiwary today said Congress would go to grave if RJD supremo Lalu Prasad was inducted in the ministry at the Centre. Mr Tiwary told media persons here that the popularity graph of Congress was fast decreasing throughout the country and under the given circumstances it would be last nail on the coffin if the Congress decided to induct Mr Prasad in UPA government at the Centre.

Andhra Pradesh Government has declared a holiday on September 29 on account of Ganesh idol immersions in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, and Ranga Reddy district. Consequently, October 13 (second Saturday) would be a working day for Government Offices, Schools and College in the twin cities and Ranga Reddy District.

This was announced in an official press release today.

UNI

Accusing the Congress-led UPA of crossing all “Laxman Rekhas” by taking “anti-people decisions”, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Thursday warned the central government that her party would not be cowed by any browbeating tactics.

Participating in a discussion on FDI in retail trade in the West Bengal assembly, Banerjee hit hard at the Congress-led centre, saying, “Because of their policies, people now have their back to the wall”.

Karimnagar MP Ponnam Prabhakar has demanded that the State government grant permission to the Telangana Political JAC sponsored ‘Telangana March’ on September 30.