Month: June 2013

Evicted poor prone to human trafficking, says NGO

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Seven months after an alleged forceful eviction that rendered about 380 families homeless, over 1,000 mostly poor people here are living in the open and facing incidents like human trafficking, an NGO said Thursday.

NGO Apne Aap Women Worldwide said that the people, mainly rickshaw pullers and daily wage earners, living in the city’s Park Circus area, were forcefully evicted from the area November last year by some goons. Following their eviction, they have not been rehabilitated.

The NGO, working against sex-trafficking, organised a public hearing on the ‘eviction’ Thursday afternoon.

Direct transfer of LPG subsidy begins in 18 districts

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The direct transfer of cooking gas subsidy into the bank accounts of consumers was rolled out across 18 districts of the country from the beginning of this month, an official said Thursday.

While the direct benefit transfer (DBT) programme was formally launched in Tumkur district of Karnataka, the transfer began in 18 districts simultaneously on the midnight of June 1, an official said.

New counter in Jeddah for newly-designed Indian passports

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Saudi Arabia’s passport department has opened a special counter in Rehab district of Jeddah to accept newly-designed Indian passports.

The move comes after thousands of expatriate Indians in that Gulf nation were stranded ahead of the summer vacations after Saudi passport authorities refused to accept the newly-designed Indian passports saying they were not informed about the changes.

After Indian expatriates submitted their old passports, the Saudi authorities refused to transfer data from the old passports to the new ones, saying they were unaware of the change.

Kiran has no detractors, Danam

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Chief Minister N Kiran Kummar Reddy has another supporter in the form of D Nagender who backed his style of functioning.

“The Chief Minister has no detractors in the cabinet,’ the Labour Minister said while talking to reporters here on Thursday. However, P Shankar Rao and DL Ravindra Reddy were dropped from the cabinet and they have been very critical about his style of functioning. (INN)

Assembly session from June 10.

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Finance Minister Anam Ramnaryana Reddy said that the Assembly session will begin from June 10.

The session will be up to June 21, he told reporters after participating in a local programme and worshipping at the Irukalala Parameswari temple here on Thursday. The members will be discussing and approving the budget in this session, he said.

The governance in the State has been on track and functioning smoothly, he said. (INN)

Guv serious on APPSC scam

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Governor ESL Narasimhan has taken a serious view of the scam in the APPSC.

With media exposing the irregularities at regular intervals, the first citizen said that he will get the detailed report on the incident. He said that appropriate action will be taken after going through the report. (INN)

APPSC is full of scams: KTR

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TRS leader K Tarakarama Rao has said that the State Public Service Commission (APPSC) is full of scams and demanded a review on the appointments.

“The Service Commission is full of scams and the government should order a review on the appointments made for the past 15 years,” he told reporters here on Thursday. The irregularities in APPSC have been serialized by media of late and a television channel has shown some material with proper evidence involving the officials.

The Commission has approached the ACB to order an inquiry into the findings.

YSRCP-TDP workers clash

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A clash broke out between the workers of YSRCP and TDP at Banglapur in V Kot mandal here on Thursday.

The clash occurred when YSRCP MLA Amarnath Reddy was on a “Gadapa gadapaku YSR” programme touring the villages. There was heated argument between the two groups and when tempers ran high there was a clash.

Workers of both parties were injured in the clash. (INN)

Raj Kundra, Shilpa placed bets in IPL matches: Police

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In sensational claims in the IPL spot-fixing scandal, Delhi Police today alleged that Rajasthan Royals owner Raj Kundra placed bets on his team through a bookie-friend and that they were probing whether his actress- wife Shilpa Shetty was also into betting.

Investigators also claimed Kundra (36) told them that he lost around Rs 1 crore in the past three years in betting on IPL matches. However, police said they have no evidence yet to implicate Kundra in fixing matches.

GHMC to home deliver digital birth certificates

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GHMC Mayor Mohammed Majid Hussain and Commissioner MT Krishna Babu on Thursday said that the digital birth certificates will be sent to the parents directly to their houses through courier at free of cost.

The Commissioner said that the GHMC Mayor will launch this programme on 10th June for the convenience of the parents along with the details of the vaccination schedule so as to come up on time. The hospital authorities will also inform the parents a day before on the mobile phone as per the information given by the parents in the hospital.

NDMA to implement emergency management exercise in AP

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National Disaster Management Authority member Dr Muzaffar Ahmad informed that the NDMA was very keen to implement the Model of Emergency Management Exercises (EMEx) in Andhra Pradesh along with Bihar and Assam in the towards Strengthening Emergency Preparedness and Response to meet the challenges of natural and manmade calamities (Cyclone and Bomb Blasts etc).

Pregnant rape victim to be shifted to shelter home

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The city government Thursday told the Delhi High Court that the teenaged rape victim, who is eight months pregnant and has been abandoned by her family, will be transferred to a shelter home for delivering the child and for medical facilities.

Justice Manmohan Singh disposed of the plea after recording the submission of the Delhi government counsel. The victim will be sent to Shelter Home for Pregnant and Lactating Women in Sarai Rohilla in north Delhi for better medical facilities.

Karnataka BJP rebuffs attempts to bring Yeddyurappa back

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The BJP’s Karnataka unit Thursday pulled up a section of its members for making moves to get the party’s former leader B.S. Yeddyurappa back into the fold.

The state unit president Pralhad Joshi warned of action against party members making such attempts. The warning followed reports that party legislator G. Madhusudhan has written to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) central leaders urging them to bring the former chief minister back to the party.

Salman Khan supplied water storage tanks lying unused in Beed

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Around 200 water storage tanks meant for drought relief, which were given by Bollywood actor Salman Khan are still lying unused at the irrigation department’s executive sub-engineer’s office in the city.

Salman Khan’s Being Human Foundation had provided water storage tanks across drought affected Beed district from May 6 onwards, but not all tanks have been distributed to drought affected villages yet.

Aam Aadmi Party too had given 10 water storage tanks to Beed district’s drought-affected area.

Facebook ban on mastectomy photos infuriate cancer survivors

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A group of petitioners have asked Facebook to stop taking down their mastectomy photos, after it emerged that the site’s censors have been removing pictures of women and men who have had mastectomies.

Revealing photos of men and women displaying mastectomy scars are part of the healing and awareness-raising process for some breast cancer survivors, and therefore, a petition on Change.org is asking Facebook to stop censoring the photos, reports New York Daily News.

Truck carrying 6,000 gallons of Scotch catches fire in New Jersey

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A tractor-trailer carrying a tank of 6,000 gallons of Scotch whiskey overturned on a New Jersey road this week and burst into flames, fire officials said.

Fords Fire Company official Frank DellaPietro said a whisky tanker turning over in the middle of a residential neighborhood is uncommon, the New York Post reported.

No one was injured, but the flaming booze did set a Cadillac ablaze before flowing into the gutter, he said.

The Woodbridge Township officials did not know what brand of whiskey suddenly ended up on the rocks.

Cultural differences are no defence for committing sex crimes against girls: UK Minister

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Cultural and religious differences cannot be used as a defence for men from ethnic minorities for carrying out sex crimes against young girls, a British minister has said.

Damian Green, the Police and Criminal Justice Minister, insisted that he was not prepared to accept mitigation that some child abuse would be regarded as acceptable in other parts of the world.

According to the Daily Star, the comments by Green comes after high-profile court cases in Rochdale and Oxford, involving mainly Asian men targeting white girls.

Rain provides relief to residents in steamy Delhi

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Heavy rains lashed national capital New Delhi and other parts of the National Capital region (NCR) on Thursday afternoon, providing huge relief to its residents who have been bearing the brunt of an energy sapping heat wave.

The MeT office had predicted earlier that Delhi could experience spells of rain this week.

Office goers stopped work temporarily to look out of their windows to see the heavy downpour

Externally, traffic started slowing down to a crawl. In some areas of the city, there were reports of trees collapsing due to the rains

Children from SOS Children Village, Faridabad meet Hamid Ansari

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A delegation of children from SOS Children’s Village, Faridabad met Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari here today.

On this occasion, the children presented a self-made portrait of the Vice President signed by all children to Ansari. They also presented him a book of compilation of selected poems written by them.

The Vice President and his wife Salma Ansari interacted with the children and wished them good success in their career and life.

BJP plays safe on whether Modi will head 2014 poll panel

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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday downplayed reports that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will head the campaign committee for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, and said that party chief Rajnath Singh will take a final call on it at an appropriate time.

BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar lauded Modi, saying he is one of the most respected and successful BJP chief ministers.

“Narendra Modi is our most senior and successful chief minister. He is quite popular among the people throughout the country and has become a symbol of corruption-free governance,” said Javadekar.

Formula-feeding in infants could lead to obesity, diabetes during adulthood

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A new study suggests that infants fed formula, rather than breast milk, experience metabolic stress that could play a part in the long-recognized link between formula-feeding and an increased risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes and other conditions in adult life.

Carolyn Slupsky and colleagues explain that past research showed a link between formula-feeding and a higher risk for chronic diseases later in life.

Gaps exist, however, in the scientific understanding of the basis for that link.

$ 82 mln Google airport terminal scheduled to break ground soon

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A new 82 million dollar facility at San Jose International Airport that will support the personal aircraft of Google executives and other Silicon Valley executive fliers is scheduled to break ground soon.

In April, the San Jose City Council voted to grant delegated authority to the airport staff to finalize negotiations and execute a 50-year lease to Signature Flight Support. The company, which operates more than 100 locations in the U.S., Europe, South America, Africa and Asia, is a subsidiary of BBA Aviation, reports ABC News.