Month: February 2013

A criminal case has been filed against Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde in a court here for his remarks on Hindu terror.

The case was filed in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate D D Ojha on Saturday.

“February 12 (is the date) set by the honourable court for arguments on the maintainability of the complaint,” Saheb Singh Deshavar, counsel for complainant Vijai Bahadur Singh, said on Monday.

Singh, an RSS member, had moved court against the comments of the Home Minister made on January 20 at the Jaipur Chintan Shivir of Congress.

–PTI

The Delhi High Court on Monday sought response from the Congress and the BJP on a plea accusing them of accepting donations from abroad in violation of various laws here.

A division bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Indermeet Kaur issued notice to both the Congress and the BJP and sought their response on a plea seeking direction for a CBI or SIT probe against them for allegedly accepting donations from subsidiaries of Britain-based Vedanta Group.

BJP on Monday welcomed the “belated” decision by a CBI court to frame charges against Congress MP Suresh Kalmadi in the Commonwealth Games scam but demanded that action be taken against those in the Sheila Dikshit government indicted by the Shunglu Committee.

“BJP welcomes the belated chargesheeting of Suresh Kalmadi. But it would like to know if any action will be taken on the report of the Shunglu Committee, which was constituted by the Prime Minister himself, to examine the entire CAG report pertaining to the Commonwealth Games,” party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

In the wake of government bringing an ordinance on crimes against women, a Parliamentary committee examining a similar bill, introduced in Lok Sabha last year, today decided to seek the views of the Rajya Sabha Chairman on whether the legislation was still “alive”.

Members of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Ministry also expressed doubts whether examining the Criminal Law (Amendment) was necessary after the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance was issued on Sunday to deal with similar crimes.

Hitting out at governments for allegedly stopping advertisements to publications over “critical” articles, Press Council chairperson Markandey Katju on Monday said it will not tolerate such behaviour and shall take suitable legal action.

Stopping advertisements or drastically reducing them merely because a critical article has been published, is totally undemocratic and shows pettiness of mind, and is totally unacceptable in a democracy, he said, asserting that such actions infringe on Freedom of Speech.

Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal today tore into the amended Lokpal Bill passed by the Union Cabinet, saying the proposed body would be “toothless” as the CBI will still function under the Government.

Speaking at a public meeting in west Delhi, Kejriwal alleged that the proposed Lokpal will not have “any powers” as the Government has made it a “toothless body”.

“Government does not want to leave the CBI independent because it wants power, it wants the control of CBI. As long as CBI is under the control of politicians, no one can expect anything from Lokpal,” he said.

Observing that Naxalism can be tackled only through development, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh today said the Centre has decided to improve the condition of roads in the naxal-hit regions under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY).

“The road connectivity is a major problem in the left wing extremism areas. In these regions, Naxals prevent construction of roads and also blow up already constructed roads,” Ramesh said during his two-day visit to Bastar region that concluded today.

Amid demand for proper implementation of criminal laws, the Centre has asked state governments not to grant remission in a “wholesale manner” in cases where a death sentence has been commuted to life imprisonment or where life imprisonment is imposed for which death is one of the punishments prescribed by law.

Leader of Opposition in Gujarat Assembly Shankersinh Vaghela today criticised the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and some religious leaders for supporting Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate.

Many religious leaders feel that religion and culture can be protected only under the leadership of Modi, he said while talking to reporters.

“A major section of religious leaders in fact asked RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat to back Modi as BJP’s prime ministerial candidate,” Vaghela said.

Salman Khan lost his cool once again while shooting for an ad film and targeted his archrival Shahrukh Khan after he was requested to redo a scene with a different facial expression.

According to reports, the 47-year-old actor, who was shooting for an ad film in Mumbai, was asked to redo a walk, to which he bluntly replied: “Agar walk karna hai toh kisi model ko bula lete.”

A suicide bomber struck a crowd of anti-Qaida Awakening Council members north of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad on Monday, killing at least two and wounding seven others, a local police source told Xinhua.

The attack occurred around midday when the suicide bomber blew his explosive vest among a crowd of Awakening Council members who were collecting salaries in the town of Taji, some 20 km north of Baghdad, the source said on condition of anonymity.

Iran”s head of supreme national security council Saed Jalili said here Monday that Israel will regret its recent attack on a Syrian military research center.

Speaking at a press conference at the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Jalili said as Israel had regretted previous wars and aggressions, it will also regret the attack on Wednesday, adding that the Syrian government and people are serious in that regard.

Also, Jalili said the solution to the Syrian crisis should be a Syrian one based on national dialogue.

You need more than planning and organisation to win the weight-loss battle.

Nutritionist Susie Burrell”s new book, The Monday to Friday Diet, is offering practical tips on how to plan your week and make your diet work for you.

Each day is allocated a chapter that”s loaded with tips, menus and planning ideas to make your objectives clear, according to News.com.au.

Looking at the week gives you structure and gives you control of your working week and your food, said Burrell.

Reiterating that there was no threat to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government, Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar on Monday excluded confidence of presenting a good budget on February 8.

“I already expressed that there is no threat to the government. I am smoothly running the government. I am confident that nothing will happen and on 8th February I will present the good budget,” he told the media here.

Women with feminine job titles are viewed as less capable than those with masculine sounding roles, according to a new research.

Experts found that the practice of giving women gender specific titles such as chairwoman led to further discrimination against them.

They were likely to be assessed as less impressive professionally than either men or women with male job titles, the Daily Mail reported.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MI&B) on Monday constituted a eight-member committee led by former Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice (Retired) Mukul Mudgal, to review the Cinematograph Act, 1952.

The committee would also examine the role of central government and the powers of the state governments in allowing cinematographic exhibition of films.

Despite Bharatiya Janata Party President Rajnath Singh asking his partymen not to comment on the 2014 prime ministerial candidate, actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha on Monday appeared to be in tune with party veteran Yashwant Sinha on the 2014 prime ministerial candidate, and said it would be better if the party takes a final call on it prior to the Lok Sabha polls.

A day after the fatwa (decree) issued by Grand Mufti of Jammu and Kashmir, Bashiruddin Ahmad, against the girl-band, the associated with the rock-band have decided to call it quits.

Mufti Bashiruddin Ahmad on Sunday had issued a decree terming singing as ‘un-Islamic’ and ‘obscene’.

The band named ‘Pragaash’ (morning light) comprises Huma, the lead vocalist and guitarist, Aneeka who plays base and Farah, who is the drummer.

Tourism Minister Chiranjeevi today met Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi at his residence here and discussed party matters. “It was a courtesy call and both had discussion on many issues including possible steps about the involvement of youth and strengthening the party in Andhra Pradesh,” said a close aide of Chiranjeevi. Chiranjeevi, who returned after a week-long visit to Spain, remained with Rahul for about 30 minutes. The Minister also apprised him about the various steps taken by the Tourism Ministry to promote Indian destinations abroad, the aide said.

A fast track court here today sentenced a 22-year-old man to 10 years rigorous imprisonment for raping a minor girl last year. The Fifth Fast Track Court also slapped a fine of Rs 20,000 on Suresh alias Nalkane. He had raped the girl in the city on January 20, 2012. PTI

Police today arrested a 36-year-old man who in a “drunken” state made hoax calls claiming he had planted bombs inside Andhra Pradesh Assembly and Secretariat. After verifying the call details, investigators traced the anonymous caller to Vaddiyaram village of neighbouring Medak district, who was identified as Navin, a police officer said. The accused, in an inebriated state, had called up the police main control room here on Saturday claiming that bombs had been placed inside the Assembly, the Secretariat and the nearby Birla Temple and that they would explode anytime, he said.

Nominations for the Guntur-Krishna graduates’ constituency which closed today, saw 25 nominations being filed for the biennial elections to the Andhra Pradesh legislative council, which will be held on February 21. According to Guntur District collector Suresh Kumar who is the returning officer, there are 2,19,080 voters in the constituency spred over two districts, who will exercise their franchises in 332 polling stations. PTI

A local court today dismissed the bail petition filed by Surendrababu, the husband of Kannada TV actress Hemashri and prime accused in her murder last year. A Fast Track Court dismissed the bail petition on the ground that the case was under investigation and grant of relief might result in tampering of evidence. Surendrababu was arrested last October in connection with the murder of Hemashri and has been in judicial custody since then. PTI

Leader of Opposition in Gujarat Assembly Shankersinh Vaghela today criticised the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and some religious leaders for supporting Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate. Many religious leaders feel that religion and culture can be protected only under the leadership of Modi, he said while talking to reporters here. “A major section of religious leaders in fact asked RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat to back Modi as BJP’s prime ministerial candidate,” Vaghela said.

Chhattisgarh High Court today turned down BJP leader and former Opposition leader Nand Kumar Sai’s petition seeking action against 12 party MLAs who had quit the party to join Congress in 2001. A single judge bench of Justice Satish Agnihotri dismissed the petition citing that it was irrelevant. “The 12 BJP MLAs had left the BJP and after forming Chhattisgarh Vikas Party, merged it with Congress on December 20, 2001.