Uttar Pradesh, which contributed 71 Lok Sabha members to the BJP’s kitty, Tuesday did not get any preferential treatment in the rail budget.
While Varanasi, the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was given a daily express train between the city and New Delhi, and four trains were extended, other parts of the state were given a short shrift.
TRS MP from Nizamabad K Kavitha today demanded that the Centre discuss thoroughly the Bill pertaining to Polavaram Ordiannce in Parliament.
Talking to media persons at Parliament House in New Delhi, Kavitha said the TRS MPs have given a motion to the Treasury benches on the issue. The ruling party can take further action only after eliciting opinion of the TRS and other parties from Telangana, she said. “We will meet President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday night and urge him to do justice to seven mandals of Polavaram. “We will then decide on an action plan”, she said. (NSS)
Corinna, wife of Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher, said that her husband’s health is making slow but good progress.
In her first public appearance since the skiing accident that left her husband in an induced coma last December, Corinna said that Michael’s condition is slowly getting better, reports Efe.
Corinna was smiling and joking while handing out chocolates at a riding event in her native Switzerland.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao today paid a visit to APARD and its auditorium under construction here.
The TRS Government is planning to offer training to political leaders, including MPPs, ZPTCs, MLCs and MLAs there, it is learnt. The Chief Minister’s visit assumes significance as KCR is all set to train the leaders to focus on the TRS Government’s policies.
Earlier, KCR also visited A Madhava Reddy Rural Development Centre and planted saplings. (NSS)
Telangana Agriculture Minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy today said a delegation would soon visit Israel to study agricultural practices and activities there.
Talking to mediapersons after holding a meeting with a team of Israel on Agriculture here, Pocharam said the government exchanged its views on new agricultural practices in Israel. The TRS Government aims at increasing agricultural productivity boosting farmers in a big way. (NSS)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday met Britain Foreign Secretary William Hague who is on a two day trip to India.
The two leaders reportedly discussed bilateral issues concerning both the countries.
Earlier today, William Hague had met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and discussed the bilateral ties.
Hague will also be meeting Defence Minister Arun Jailtey during his visit. (ANI)
Welcoming the thrust on resource mobilisation in this year’s rail budget, India Inc Tuesday welcomed the new government’s maiden exercise as practical and execution-oriented.
“The Minister has presented a practical and execution-oriented Budget, laying emphasis on implementation of on-going projects and focusing on monitoring them for an early closure”, Sumit Mazumder, president designate Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and chairman, CII special task force on Railways told reporters here.
The government is implementing various schemes for protecting and promoting the country’s intangible cultural heritage, Culture and Tourism Minister Shripad Yesso Naik said Tuesday.
In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, he said the schemes do not cover heritage sites that are looked after separately by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
Tamil actor Suriya, who is awaiting the release of Tamil actioner “Anjaan”, Tuesday said he is likey to join soon social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.
“I plan to join Twitter and Facebook to stay connected with my fans,” Suriya told reporters here at an event.
He was speaking at the success meet of “Anjaan” teaser, which has registered one million hits within two days of its release.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) spokesperson Ram Madhav said here today that it has been the Sangh’s practice to depute its workers to the BJP and he was also being deputed to the BJP in the same manner.
“There has been a practice in the RSS to depute its workers to the BJP and I am also being sent there in the same manner. There is nothing new in it. It is not an attempt by the RSS to dominate the affairs of the BJP,” he told reporters after the RSS brainstorming session at Mohankheda in Dhar district concluded.
Political parties Tuesday slammed the Narendra Modi-led NDA government’s first Railway Budget, terming it “pro-rich” and a “cosmetic exercise”.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi described the Railway Budget as “hopeless”.
Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress leader in the Lok Sabha, told media persons outside parliament: “It is a pro-rich budget. The budget has nothing new to offer. There is no new scheme, no new plan and no new railway line.”
Israeli jet fighters Tuesday hit a car in Gaza City, killing four Palestinians, medical sources said.
The sources told Xinhua that four people were killed when their car was struck by at least one missile in Gaza City.
The dead are believed to be members of armed groups that have been firing rockets at Israel in recent weeks.
Early Tuesday, Israel launched a military operation dubbed Operation Protective Edge to stop rocket fire from Gaza.
Tit-for-tat violence between Israel and militants in Gaza has increased in recent weeks as hundreds of projectiles were fired into Israel.
I-League club Mohun Bagan will Thursday play a football match against the Royal University Team of Bhutan as part of their tune-up for the upcoming Kolkata football league premier division engagements.
The match will be staged at the Mohun Bagan ground, the club said in a statement Tuesday.
“The prime objective of the Royal University Team’s visit to the city is to infuse the essence of total development of football into their students not only within Bhutan but also abroad,” the statement said.
(IANS)
The Lok Sabha was disrupted Tuesday with protests over the rail budget forcing repeated adjournments while members of the Trinamool Congress and the BJP got into an ugly spat inside the house.
Trinamool members, who were constantly near the speaker’s podium, shouting slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the NDA government, alleged that some Bharatiya Janata Party MPs abused and threatened them.
India Tuesday said it was monitoring the election developments in Afghanistan.
“We are monitoring the political developments in Kabul pertaining to the elections. Like all of you, we are also aware of the preliminary announcements in this regard,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said.
The Afghanistan Election Commission Monday said former finance minister Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai was leading the preliminary results of June’s presidential runoff polls, but his opponent Abdullah Abdullah’s team termed the declaration “illegitimate”.
Ukrainian authorities warned Tuesday they will not call a new unilateral ceasefire to try to put an end to the separatist conflict in the east of the country between pro-Russian militants and government troops.
Defence Minister Valeri Gueletéi said at a press conference that Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko had firmly decided not to hold ceasefire talks with the separatists and added that there would be no negotiations until the rebels lay down their weapons.
Late June, the warring sides agreed to a 10-day truce which did not prevent hostilities in the east.
In a bid to empower robots on board the International Space Station (ISS), NASA is planning to send Google’s 3D smartphones into space.
The idea is to equip the robots with more functionality and make them smarter.
Once at the ISS, smartphones will use their onboard motion-tracking cameras and infrared depth sensors to safely navigate around the ISS, BBC reported.
The robots are known as ‘Spheres’ (Synchronised Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental satellites).
Brazil President Dilma Rousseff has said she will attend the FIFA World Cup final Sunday and hopes that she hands the trophy to the Brazilian team.
“I will hand the cup on Sunday and I hope that Brazil is the champion,” Roussef posted on Facebook, reports Efe.
Rousseff’s announcement ends speculation whether she will forgo the final to avoid boos and jeers she received in the opening game in Arena Corinthians in Sao Paulo.
(IANS/EFE)
The Supreme Court was moved Tuesday for putting on hold the government’s permission to Reliance Jio Infocomm to provide voice telephony services using BWA (4G) spectrum as this has been commented upon by the CAG as a “rigged auction” in its draft report to the government.
“The government, despite the clear cut findings of the constitutional auditor and the glaring facts, has not thought it fit to keep its permission, granted to Reliance Jio Infocomm for granting voice telephony services, in abeyance,” NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation said in its application.
Railway Minister D. V. Sadananda Gowda in his maiden budget proposed seven new trains for two Telugu-speaking states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
In the first railway budget presented after bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, the central government announced four new trains for Telangana and three for Andhra Pradesh.
The new trains for Telangana are Hyderabad-Chennai semi-bullet train, Nagpur-Secunderabad semi-bullet train, Secunderabad-Nizamuddin premium AC train and, Mumbai-Kazipet weekly express.
Telangana Congress, which failed to prevent its leaders from crossing over to the ruling TRS, today sought intervention of Governor ESL Narasimhan to take action against the erring leaders.
Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee chief Ponnala Lakshmaiah, along with former ministers D K Aruna and Shabbir Ali, today called on the Governor and explained how their leaders were defecting to the ruling TRS.
Bullet trains are set to become a reality in India with the first service between Mumbai and Ahmedabad as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government sought to run Indian Railways – one of the world’s largest – like a “commercial enterprise but serve like a welfare organization”.
In the Railway Budget presented to parliament Tuesday, Railway Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda unveiled many new measures to make Indian Railways, which runs about 20,000 trains and ferries 23 million passengers daily, a modern, efficient and commercially viable utility.
Telangana TDP leader Errabelli Dayakar Rao today flayed the TRS Chief K Chandrashekhar Rao for failing to talk on Polavaram issue in Parliament before bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. Talking to press persons at NTR Trust Bhavan here, Dayakar alleged that KCR is very much aware of the Polavaram project and submergence of seven mandals besides offering special powers to Governor in joint capital of Hyderabad. Though the two issues were raked up by other parties in the Parliament, the TRS Chief kept tight lipped on these two issues, he alleged.
Two allies in the BJP-led NDA in Tamil Nadu — PMK and MDMK — Tuesday termed the rail budget “disappointing”.
However, another ally DMDK welcomed the budget proposals, while stressing that the public sector character of the railways should be maintained.
In a statement issued here, PMK founder S. Ramadoss said Railway Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda disappointed the state as people expected new projects and trains to be announced for Tamil Nadu.
Referring to the five new trains in Tamil Nadu announced by Gowda, Ramadoss said they would not benefit the people.
Following the success of recently released Tamil comedy “Mundasupattia, its makers – Fox Star Studios and C.V. Kumar – are planning to work on a sequel, which will be developed on ideas shared by audiences who’ve watched the first part.
Based on an award-winning short film, “Mundasupatti” is an adventure comedy, set in the 1980s, and has been raved by critics and audiences alike.
The film, which features Vishnu Vishal and Nandita in the lead, has so far minted Rs.10.25 crore at the box-office and continues to run to packed houses.