Month: October 2012

President Pranab Mukherjee on friday pitched for “speedy implementation” of the decisions taken by India and Bangaldesh to improve bilateral ties.

Addressing a group of prominent Bangladeshi personalities at the Rashtrapati Bhavan here, Mukherjee also favoured a greater sub-regional cooperation between Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and India especially in improving connectivity and on issue of transit, a Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesperson said in a release here.

The Congress hit out at the BJP chief Nitin Gadkari Friday and demanded a probe into a letter he wrote seeking payment to contractors in a water project in Vidarbha, which is linked to the multi-crore irrigation scam in Maharashtra.

“The letter raises serious doubts and the questions arising out of it should be answered,” Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi told reporters here.

Not specifying what kind of probe should be ordered, Dwivedi said a suitable inquiry should be done in the matter.

Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal Friday blamed the Congress for “intentionally raising the bogey of militancy” in Punjab ahead of the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh polls.

Badal, the Punjab deputy chief minister, said the issue of revival of militancy in Punjab, raised by the Congress after an attack in London on Lt. Gen (retd) K.S. Brar, who led the 1984 Operation Bluestar to flush out militants from the Golden Temple complex, was an attempt to distract attention from scams.

A portion of the false ceiling at the recently inaugurated new terminal of Lucknow’s Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport fell down Friday. No one was hurt in the incident but it caused considerable panic at the airport, officials said.
The affected portion of the false ceiling was just over the boarding area. The airport administration immediately removed the ceiling-debris from the scene of the accident.

The airport was given international status by the union cabinet Thursday (Oct 4). The new terminal at the airport was inaugurated by Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh May 19.

The Supreme Court friday agreed to hear on Monday the Karnataka’s plea to stay its September 28 order to the state to release 9,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu from the Cauvery river basin.

A bench headed by Justice D K Jain directed listing of the Karnataka’s fresh plea for stay of the court’s order in the mentioning list of Monday after senior counsel S S Javali, appearing for the state, sought early hearing of the matter.

BJP on friday questioned the “legal and political intentions” behind allowing 49 per cent FDI in the insurance sector but remained non-committal about its stand in Parliament when the Bill regarding the economic reform comes up for passage.

“We have made it very clear that we are against FDI in multi-brand retail.

As for yesterday’s cabinet decision, the Standing Committee on Finance had opposed more than 26 per cent FDI in insurance. BJP is opposed to the government’s views,” party vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told reporters.

Teacher : Santa yeh batao tense kitne tarah ke hote hai?

Santa : Teen maidam.

Teacher : Teeno ke ek-ek example batao.

Santa : Madam, Maine kal aapki beti ko dekha tha. Aaj mein ussey pyar karta hoon aur kal mein
ussey bhaga kar le jaunga.

RTI activist Anil Galgali on Friday petitioned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh accusing the Maharashtra government of neglecting the State Information Commission (SIC) by not filling various key posts.

“Despite our repeated requests, vacancies to various key posts are not filled by efficient officers, which has severely handicapped the SIC work,” Galgali told a news agency.

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear on Monday the Karnataka’s plea to stay its September 28 order to the state to release 9,000 cusecs of water to Tamil Nadu from the Cauvery river basin.

A bench headed by Justice D.K. Jain directed listing of the Karnataka’s fresh plea for stay of the court’s order in the mentioning list of Monday after senior counsel S.S. Javali, appearing for the state, sought early hearing of the matter.

Facebook ‘likes’ are being added to webpages irrespective of whether users have clicked a like button or not, or even visited the social networking site, the company has acknowledged.

A U.S. security researcher has found that simply sending a web address to a friend using Facebook’s private messaging function adds two likes to the page.

Leaving a comment on a story within a Facebook page also adds to the tally, the ‘BBC news’ reported.

APCC Chief Botcha Satyanarayana has opined that there was lack of understanding of the Justice Srikrishna Committee report on the Telangana issue. Clarifying that the five-member Committee headed by former judge of the Supreme Court would have given a single option if asked, Botcha said the committee had to give several options as per the modalities set for it by the Centre.

Telangana Political JAC Chairman Prof. Kodandaram today lashed out at the Justice Srikrishna Committee for its total failure to include the opinion of the people of the Telangana region in its report. He also slammed the Srikrishna Committee for failing to suggest a solution to the decades’ old Telangana issue by ignoring sentiments of the people of the Telangana region.

Speaking to media persons, the TPJAC leader demanded that Justice Srikrishna explain to the people of the Telangana region as to why the committee recommended 8th chapter in the report.

Following an assassination attempt in London on Lt.Gen. (retd) K.S.Brar for the 1984 Operation Bluestar, the Congress party’s Punjab unit Friday knocked at the door of Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on the “situation” prevailing in the once militancy-hit state.

Sunil Jakhar, Congress legislature party (CLP) leader in Punjab assembly, met Shinde at the home ministry at North Block here earlier in the day and apprised him of the situation in the state.

Telangana Jagruthi president K Kavitha on Friday called on Deputy Chief Minister C Damodar Rajanarsimha and Panchayat Raj Minister K Jana Reddy demanding that the “Bathukamma” be declared an official festival by the State Government.

YSR Congress is contemplating to file a review petition against Supreme Court verdict of dismissing the bail plea of YS Jagan Mohan Reddy and has asked its cadre not to be disappointed but work with renewed vigour to strengthen the Party under the stewardship of YS Vijayamma.

Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) Commissioner MT Krishna Babu on Friday directed the officials to depute female workers also along with the UMS team so that they can take up Anti Larval Operations at the residences as most of the owners are not permitting the male workers into their homes.

A discovery may enable scientists to convert specific cells into neurons or brain cells, opening the way to substantially better therapies for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

“This work aims at converting into neurons cells that are present throughout the brain (pericytes) but themselves are not nerve cells,” said Benedikt Berninger of the Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany.

The Special CBI court on Friday sent Mehfuz Ali Khan, the personal assistant of mining baron and former Karnataka Minister Gali Janardhan Reddy, to judicial custody till October 17 in the Obulapuram Mining Corporation scam.

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets Friday fell 120 points on profit booking, a day after breaching the psychological 19,000-mark. Technology, health care and banking stocks were the worst performers.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 19,115.89 points, closed at 18,938.46 points (provisional), 119.69 points or 0.63 percent down than its previous day’s close at 19,058.15 points.

Telangana Political Joint Action Committee chairman Prof M Kodandaram on Friday threatened that the Telangana Employees JAC might give a call for another general strike, if required.

Debt-ridden Kingfisher Airlines hurtled towards a dead-end Friday as the carrier grounded its fleet for another week and the aviation regulator sought legal opinion on cancelling its flying licence.

Late Thursday night, the airline said it was extending to Oct 12 the lockout declared Oct 1 after negotiations with the striking employees failed amid reports that airline is not in a position to pay the full salaries to its employees since the lenders have refused fresh funding.

The 29th Youth National Basketball Championship will be held Oct 6-13 at the Emerald Heights International School in Indore.

Twenty-four teams, each in boys and girls, from different states will be participating in the week-long event. The format of the Championship will be league-cum-knockout.

The Under-16 tournament will be organised by the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) in collaboration with the Madhya Pradesh Basketball Association (MPBA).

Last year the championship was held in Nagpur where Delhi (Boys) and Kerala (Girls) won.

The IAF has requested the government to ensure that states hit by Left Wing extremism spruce up their infrastructure to ensure safety and security of Air Force helicopters and men deployed in anti-Naxal operations.

Interacting with reporters here, Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal (ACM) N A K Browne also said that Union Home Ministry and Chief Secretaries of these states have been requested to improve facilities as IAF choppers are parked in open during the monsoon season.

BJP leader Sushma Swaraj on friday said economic or professional self-sufficiency was not enough and it was political empowerment that would be the most important step for the upliftment of women.

“As far as political empowerment is concerned, it is the real empowerment because it provides authority. I often say that an IT professional or a professor may not have the same power as that of a female peon of a lady SP,” Swaraj said.

The Congress on Friday said it was hopeful that the government’s decisions on foreign investment in the insurance and pension sectors would be passed in Parliament.

While the Left parties strongly opposed the moves, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is ambivalent in its stance.

Congress spokesperson Raashid Alvi said the party fully supported the decisions to hike foreign investment in insurance and allow it in the pension sector and would approach other parties to convince them that the measures were in the interest of the country.