Month: November 2012

The City Police have arrested two persons who were allegedly involved in 18 temple burglaries which includes Mahankali Temple at Lal Darwaza and Mahankali Temple at Uppuguda.

With big ticket investments not pouring into West Bengal according to her government’s plans, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Saturday promised creation of a crore jobs in the state over the course of time.

“My target is to create employment for one crore people through self-help groups, cooperatives, non-governmental organisations and various government projects,” Banerjee said after inaugurating the West Bengal State Handicrafts Fair here.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar Saturday promised road link to around 1,000 rural clusters with at least 250 people and claimed 25 million citizens have gained from a law enacted for timely delivery of public services.

“We have decided to launch a new scheme – Mukhyamantri Gram Sampark Yojna – to connect small habitations through roads,” Nitish Kumar told reporters here, releasing his government’s report card on the eve of completing seven years in office.

A group of 25 organisations came together here Saturday to launch a global campaign aimed at stopping violence against women.

The ‘One Billion Rising’ campaign aims to catalyse communities, groups and individuals to raise their voices and take action.

The launch at Jamia Millia Islamia is a lead-up to Feb 14, 2013, where a billion people will rise for the campaign across the globe.

“We are not just battling with silence but with indifference bordering on apathy. Let the campaign resonate in those very spaces which matter,” said Syeda Hameed, member, Planning Commission.

Days after the execution of Pakistani national Ajmal Amir Kasab for the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, the people of Pakistan are in a celebratory mode.

There is a village in Bihar that bears the same name as India’s neighbour, Pakistan, and in that little village, with about 35 households and a total population of about 250, residents are happy that justice has finally been done to a man responsible for so many deaths four years ago.

Arvind Kejriwal named his new political outfit the Aam Admi Party at a meeting here Saturday of around 300 founder members, a supporter said. The Congress objected to the name saying “aam aadmi” was its plank.

The member, who did not wish to be named, said the party’s name was proposed by activist Mayank Gandhi and Chandramohan.

Ahead of the meeting he told reporters outside the venue, Kejriwal said: “This party is for common men, women and children of the country, who are tired of politicians.”

Palestinian officials said Saturday they would exhume the body of their leader Yasser Arafat next week to see if Israel poisoned him with a Russian-produced radioactive isotope.

The controversial announcement came as a group of international experts arrived in the West Bank city of Ramallah to take samples of the remains of the iconic leader’s bones and clothing for further study in European labs.

“The tomb will be opened on (Tuesday) and experts will take samples the same day within a matter of a few hours,” Tawfiq Tirawi told reporters in Ramallah.

IANS) As the poll battle intensifies in Gujarat, the tussle is on for support of the Dalit community, perceived to have moved from the Congress to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) but neglected by both with discrimination continuing as it has for decades.

“The Narendra Modi government has not implemented any schemes for the welfare of the Scheduled Castes (SC) like educational scholarships, employment schemes, financial aid and reservation at the promotional level,” said social activist Father William.

The Haemophilia Federation India (HFI) Saturday submitted a memorandum to President Pranab Mukherjee to include haemophilia and thalassaemia in the category of benchmark disabilities in the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2012.

The bill, which will replace the Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995, has 18 disabilities including haemophilia and thalassaemia. But the two disorders have been excluded from the benchmark disabilities section, which promises the security of a government job.

State Telugu Mahila President Shobha Hymavati has said that the curses of the wives of thieves and plunderers carry no power.

In a statement here on Saturday, Hymavati said though they could sympathize with her tears in view of the incarceration of her being women themselves, they were said that Bharati, wife of the YSR Congress chief Y S Jaganmohan Reddy had so far not realized why he had gone to jail and repented for the follies.

The Indian Pharmacy Graduates’ Association, AP State Branch, in coordination with Indian Pharmaceuticals Association, AP State Branch, All India Drugs Control Officers’ Confederation (AIDCOC), Pharmaceutical Export Promotion Council (PHARMEXCIL) and Organization of Pharmaceutical Manufactures will be organizing 51st National Pharmacy Week Celebrations on November 26 at NIPER, Balanagar here.

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) will be conducting a day’s workshop at Jubilee Hall, Public Gardens, Nampally here on November 26 heralding the beginning of ‘Historic Hyderabad’ a heritage conservation campaigning.

The workshop, which is being held in association with the Word Bank, Cities Alliance and Center for Environment Planning and Technology (CEPT) University, Ahmedabad, would discuss conservation and development of the city’s heritage. (NSS)

Union Tourism Minister K. Chiranjeevi today hailed the Kiran Kumar Reddy Government as a good one.
Speaking to the media at inaugural ceremony of Geetha Arts’ new film program here on Saturday, Chiranjeevi said that he would try to get the VAT reduced on cinema industry with the help of the Chief Minister. (NSS)

Telangana Nagara Samiti leader Nagam Janardana Reddy has said he had decided to undertake pada yatra only to reassure the people of his commitment to the Telangana cause.

Speaking in the meet the press programme organized by the Telangana Jounalists Forum here on Saturday, he said there was need for all the politician to unite to achieve Telangana state. He has alleged that the Telangana ministers were touching the feet of Semandhra leaders and urging them to create Telangana state.

Congress MLC MS Prabhakar on Saturday demanded that the State Government introduce a Sub-Plan for Minorities in the State on the lines of SC, ST Sub-Plan.

Talking to reporters here, Prabhakar thanked Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy for convening a special session of the State Legislative Assembly to legislate the SC, ST Sub-Plan. He said that this would ensure focused development of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the State. Further, he appealed to the Chief Minister to introduce Minorities Sub-Plan to ensure proper implementation of schemes for the welfare of minorities.

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday accused the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance of maligning the institution of Comptroller and General of India.

Addressing a press conference here at State BJP office at Nampally, BJP senior leader M Venkaiah Naidu alleged that the whenever it faces trouble, the Congress party tries to attack, undermine, denigrate, devalue, destabilize and defame institutions. He said the party was attacking the CAG over its estimates of losses of Rs 1.76 lakh crore in the 2G Spectrum issue.

Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy stressed the need for taking some concrete steps to prevent the losses being suffered by the farmers due to seasonal conditions.

Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy will launch the Hyderabad Metro Rail works at Uppal here on Sunday.

More than 5,700 Haj pilgrims of Andhra Pradesh have returned to Hyderabad from the holy pilgrimage through 19 batches.

State Haj Committee chairman Syed Khaleeluddin Ahmed, Executive Officer Abdul Hameed, Member Haj Committee Janab Mahmood Hussain Engineer and other staff members of the Haj Committee received the pilgrims at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Shamsabad. (INN)

Sixteen-year-old Nischal Nadhamuni from Bangalore scored 100 percent in a standard test for admission to colleges in the US, Mallya Aditi International School said Saturday.

“Nischal, who is reading in Class 11 in our school, got 2400 out of 2400 in the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), a standardised test for college admissions in the US, by scoring 800 points each in Mathematics, Critical Reading and Writing subjects,” the school said in a statement here.

India trounced Pakistan 5-2 in their third match of the nine-a-side Lanco International Super Series hockey event here Saturday.

India dominated the play from the beginning to the end in the nine-a-side format match that is played with two halves of 20 minutes each.

Raghu (7th minute), Akashdeep (9th), S.P. Sunil (15th, 33rd), Manpreet (29) all got on the scoresheet for India while Shafaqat Rasool (20th) and Mohammad Rizwan Sr. (36th) were on target for Pakistan.

Firing another salvo at his party, BJP MP Ram Jethmalani, who is also an eminent lawyer, Saturday wrote to BJP chief Nitin Gadkari, questioning his party’s opposition to the appointment of new CBI chief.

“On getting out of bed today, I was astonished to read that the BJP has attacked the prime minister and the Congress party for what the party calls the ‘fast-tracked’ appointment of Mr. Ranjit Sinha as the Director of the CBI,” Jethmalani said in a letter to Gadkari.

Iran is accusing the U.S. Navy of carrying out “illegal and provocative acts” in the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman.

In identical letters to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Security Council, Iran’s U.N. Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee said the Navy repeatedly violated the country’s airspace.

He cited flights over the coastal areas of Bushehr on seven occasions in October and most recently a U.S. drone flight on Nov. 1 which disregarded all radio warnings and penetrated Iranian airspace.

LeT founder Hafiz Mohammad Saeed led a gathering of thousands in offering funeral prayers for Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving terrorist involved in the Mumbai attacks who was hanged earlier this week, a media report said today.

Saeed, mastermind of the 2008 assault on Mumbai, offered ‘ghayabana namaz-e-janaza’ (funeral prayers in absentia) for Kasab at the conclusion of a two-day training session of the Jamaat-ud-Dawah at its headquarters at Muridke near Lahore.

The event was attended by thousands of people, the Urdu newspaper Daily Express reported.

The Delhi High Court has reduced the death penalty to life term of a businessman who killed his wife and two kids, observing that despite the shocking crime it cannot be said that the convict is “irredeemable as a human being”.

A division bench of Justice S. Ravindra Bhat and Justice Pratibha Rani said in recent verdict that the death penalty was not the only sentence fit for Naveen Ahuja’s crime and converted the capital punishment awarded by the trial into life sentence.