Month: February 2013

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Saturday launched a Rs.1 per kg rice scheme for poor people in Odisha from the Maoist dominated district of Malkangiri, an official said.

According to the scheme, the government will provide 25 kg of rice at Rs.1 per kg every month to every family below the poverty line (BPL) along with some other catagories from state’s backward regions, the official said.

The chief minister distributed the highly subsidised rice to people of primitive Bonda tribe at a ceremony organised by Malkangiri administration, about 600 km from here.

After talks with Muslim groups Saturday, Kamal Haasan has agreed to cut some scenes from his controversial film “Vishwaroopam”.

The film will be released as soon as Tamil Nadu government withdraws its prohibitory order.

“I’ve arrived at a consensus with my Muslim brothers. We’ve agreed to cut some scenes from the film which they found to be objectionable,” Kamal Haasan, who produced the film and acted in it, told reporters here.

“I’ll announce the release date of the film soon. We’ve also withdrawn our written petition and expect the same from the government,” he added.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi hugged the mother of the dead gang-raped woman several times and both women cried, as the UPA chairperson Saturday evening went to “share the sorrow” of the family of the 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist.

Sonia Gandhi along with her son, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, and some MPs went to the house of the woman in south west Delhi on a day a city court framed charges against five of the six rapists.

“Sonia Gandhi and the woman’s mother held hands and both hugged several times and cried,” a source who was present at the meeting told IANS.

A 6.4-magnitude earthquake jolted Japan’s Hokkaido late Saturday, reported Xinhua citing the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).

The quake occurred at around 11.17 p.m local time and no tsunami warnings were issued by the agency. As of now, there were no reports of any damage and casualty.

The epicenter was initially determined at 42.7 degrees north latitude and 143.3 degrees east longitude with a depth of about 120 km.

The quake was marked 5 upper at JMA Seismic Intensity in several places in Hokkaido, while Tokyo also felt tremors.

—IANS

Iran’s supreme national security council chief Saed Jalili stressed Saturday that his country will keep supporting Syria in the face of foreign aggression, reported Xinhua citing the state TV.

Jalili arrived in the Syrian capital Saturday for a three-day visit, during which he will meet Syrian cabinet members and a number of Damascus-based Palestinian factions, and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad Sunday. He will wrap up his visit with a press conference Monday morning, sources told Xinhua.

Israel is said to be considering more attacks in Syria and Lebanon following the air strikes on a weapons convoy this week. Officials stated the risks of military action to prevent Hizbollah getting sophisticated weapons outweighed the threats of a response from both Syria and Iran, the Telegraph reports. A third battery of its Iron Dome protective missile system was moved up to the border with Lebanon to prepare for any retaliation from Hizbollah for Israel”s reported attack on anti-aircraft missiles being supplied to the militant group by Syria, the paper added.

Criticising the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for its decision to boycott Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde over his ‘saffron terror’ remarks, Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh on Saturday said the main opposition party has now become habitual of not letting the Parliament function and boycott central ministers for no reasons.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday declared former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje as the new president of the party’s Rajasthan unit.

Talking to reporters about the decision, BJP national president Rajnath Singh said that Raje will be the new president of the BJP”s Rajasthan unit and she will lead the party in the upcoming state assembly polls.

Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal on Saturday said that more money needs to be pumped into the railways for its maintenance and introducing better facilities, but he refused to comment on immediate fare hike.

Talking to reporters here, Bansal said the railways needs trillion of rupees to finish its projects and improve facilities and provide basic amenities.

Various women’s rights activist on Saturday criticised the government and rejected the ordinance sent to the President by the Union Cabinet for amendments in laws related to sexual assault on women.

The activists lashed out at the government for omitting some crucial issues like marital rape, and reviewing some sections of AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Power Act), saying it had selectively accepted the recommendations of the Justice JS Verma commission.

The government had yesterday approved the ordinance to introduce stringent punishment for crimes against women.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said Saturday that she would crack down heavily on striking trade unions.

“We won’t allow any strike. I am telling everybody – farmers, artists, businessmen, those who have to earn their daily living – that there will be no strike,” Banerjee said at an official programme in Polba in Hooghly district.

BJP president Rajnath Singh Saturday said the Indian government was responsible for the plight of Hindus in Pakistan as it never expressed its resentment against the exploitation of the community by fanatics in that country.

“It is our government which is responsible for the deplorable plight of Pakistani Hindus. It should react strongly to the injustice and cruelty inflicted on them,” Rajnath Singh said at a discussion forum, organised by non-profit research organisation India Policy Foundation, here.

Within nine days of a crime, a Bihar court Saturday awarded the death penalty to a man who raped and murdered a three-year-old girl, a lawyer said.

District and Sessions Court of Bateshwar Nath Pandey based in Katihar, about 160 km from here, handed out death penalty to Sanjay Rishi for the rape-cum-murder of the victim who was related to him, a prosecutor said.

The court described the incident as “rarest of rare” and sent Rishi to the gallows for the Jan 24 incident.

According to police chargesheet, Rishi first raped the victim and then killed her in a village in Katihar.

With the BJP being constantly targeted over Gujarat riots, party president Rajnath Singh on Saturday alleged it was being defamed and maligned continuously under a “planned conspiracy”.

He said BJP did not believe in politics of divide and creating differences among people, and appealed the Muslim community to help removing the “widespread confusion”.

National BJP leader M. Venkaiah Naidu here on Saturday charged the Congress-led UPA government with misusing autonomous bodies like Central Bureau of Investigation, Income Tax Department and Central Vigilance Commission for its petty political ends.

Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member V Hanumanth Rao today visited the Care hospital and consoled Cantonment MLA Dr P Shanker Rao, who was undergoing treatment since Saturday.

Speaking on the occasion, Hanumanth Rao said the government got a bad name with the action of police. He asked the police as who will own responsibility if something happens to Shanker Rao.

TDP leader and Rajya Sabha MP T Devener Goud demanded that the government should prove its majority before the Governor.

“With nine MLAs being suspended, the government is reduced to a minority and it should prove its majority at the Governor,” he said. He did not give credence to other parties asking TDP to move a no confidence motion.

“We need not take the advice from others on this issue,” he said in an obvious reference to YSRCP demand asking TDP to move a No Confidence Motion. (INN)

GHMC Mayor Mohammad Majid Hussain on Saturday clarified that the corporation’s contract with Ramky for the garbage disposal was being honoured following the orders of Andhra Pradesh High Court.

Samaikyandhra JAC has burnt the effigy of union minister Sharad Pawar in protest against his remarks on separate state.

The activists burnt Pawar’s effigy in front of Nagarjuna University on the highway. He has been resorting to cheap tricks to get to the Prime Minister post through back door, they alleged.

Sharad Pawar had said he and his NCP are in favour of a separate state and the union minister had told Prime Minister Mammohan Singh to solve the issue at the earliest. (INN)

GP Birla Observatory and Astronomical Research centre has started a 3-month long Amateur Astronomy Course from January 19. The course will include observation of celestial objects and tours to planetariums. Registration will be on first come first serve basis.

Birla Planetarium has arranged observation of celestial objects. Interested persons can contact on phone nos: 23235081 and 23241067 for further information.

Siasat news

Taking a jibe at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the infighting within its fold on the 2014 Prime Ministerial candidate, Gujarat Congress President Arjun Modhwadia on Saturday said Lal Krishna Advani used to dream about occupying the country”s topmost post and now Narendra Modi is living in the world of same dreams.

India has been accused of failure to curb incidents of sexual violence against women and for restrictions on right to free speech by global rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW), which said the country continues to have “significant human rights problems”.India “has a thriving civil
society, free media, and an independent judiciary”, the city-based rights group said in its assessment of rights abuses in India.

‘Gangor’ actress Priyanka Bose, who will next be seen in Madhuri Dixit starrer ‘Gulab Gang’, believes it is exciting time for women in the film industry.

Priyanka’s powerpacked performance as a tribal woman in Italian director Italo Spinelli’s ‘Gangor’ brought her international fame.

‘Gulab Gang’, directed by Soumik Sen, is inspired by the story of Sampat Pal and her gang of pink saree clad women fighting social injustices but Priyanka says it is not a biopic.

Congress government has been proved anti-Dalit. General secretary Telugu Desam Party Mr. Varla Ramaiah alleged this while speaking to media persons. Strongly condemning the way in which the former state minister Mr. P Shankar Rao was arrested, Mr. Varla Ramaiah told that state government has given police free run to oppress Dalits.

He claimed that government has no concern over rising incidents of attacks on Dalits in Andhra Pradesh; instead government encourages unseemly behaviour against Dalits. Whenever Congress was in power it had targeted weaker sections, said TDP general secretary.

PCC President Botsa Satyanarayana’s statement that nine MLAs were expelled from the party has stirred a hornet’s nest in the State.

The government falls short of simple majority by a whisker, whether or not the opposition wants to cash on the situation or not. The Telangana Rashtra Samithi could be the likely ally this time around, even if the Government has to prove its majority on the floor of the house.

The issue of Congress-TRS merger is in the air for some time now only some issues are coming in way of clinching the deal, sources say.