Month: July 2014

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson on Wednesday said that the 46 Indian nurses trapped in a building in Iraq’s war-torn Tikrit town were safe and unharmed.

“We can confirm that they are unharmed and safe,” Syed Akbaruddin said while addressing a press conference.

He also made it clear about India’s stand on Iraq where it stood for its internal integrity and unity.

The government had on Tuesday said there was bombing and firing in the vicinity of the building which housed the 46 nurses and they had taken refuge in the basement. (ANI)

Department of Registration and Stamps has made all the arrangements for the implementation of enhanced rates of registration of Urban properties with effect from 1st August 2014. After the formation of Telangana State, this is the first step for the revision of registration fees. The officials told that registration fees will be revised from 20-80% depending up on the location time business importance. In areas where the stamp duty is already high, enhancement will be 20-30%. It is expected that areas which have been developed recently, the value of lands will go up.

Justice A. Rajasekhara Reddy of Hyderabad High Court directed Telangana Govt. to issue legal notice to N Convention Center. He passed these orders on the petition filed by Mr. Nagarjuna day before yesterday. He had informed the court that Municipal Authorities had started dismantling the buildings without issuing any legal notice. Advocate General, Mr. K. Rama krishna Reddy informed the court that the Govt. has not yet fixed FTL. Whenever FTL is fixed by the Govt. legal notice would be issued to the complainant.

–Siasat News

The First meeting of newly elected Municipalities and Panchayats will be held today. Principal Secretary, Dept. of Municipal Administration and Urban Development, Dr. S.K. Joshi informed that the meeting of 22 newly elected Municipalities and Nagar Panchayats will be held today. These are: Prakal, Huzur Nagar, Narasampet, Deverkonda, Mehboob Nagar, Pedda Amberpet, Bhopalpally, Badanpet, Madhira, Ibrahimpatnam, Vemulavada, Gajwel, Peddapalli, Indole, Jogipet, Jammikunta, Nagar Kurnol, Huzurabad, Shadnagar, Husanabad, Leeja, Kodad and Kalwakurti.

–Siasat News

Dr. Siadath Ali, Inspecting Authority of Maulana Azad Educational Foundation, Dept. of Minorities Affairs, New Delhi met Ms. Najma Hepthullah, Cabinet Minister for Minorities Affairs and represented that all the hurdles in Grant-in-Aid procedure should be removed.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao today directed the officials concerned to make fool-proof arrangements for “Bonalu and Ramzan” festivals across Telangana State. The CM instructed the departments concerned to coordinate with each other to provide adequate security to people thronging the temples and mosques.

The Telangana State Government today constituted a committee for effective implementation of Land Acquisition Act. The Government has set up a Cabinet Sub-Committee and issued an order in this regard.
Accordingly, Deputy Chief Minister Mahmood Ali will lead the committee comprising four members, including ministers T Haraish Rao, Etela Rajender, KTR and Jogu Ramanna. The Committee will look into the land acquisition cases, illegal occupation of lands of various types, seizure of encroached lands and address them.

The TRS Government has decided to file a complaint and express discontent with Krishna Management Board and take up the issue to the notice of the Central Water Commission with regard to river water sharing for irrigation, according to sources.
A meeting held by Irrigation Minister T Harish Rao felt pressure should be exerted on the Central Water Commission for Telangana share of waters from the Krishna Water Board. The meeting expressed discontent over the Board calling a meeting without prior intimation.

Legislative Affairs Minister T Harish Rao on Wednesday asserted that the election of Legislative Council chairman was conducted in conformity with the rules and established norms.

Cheteshwar Pujara struck his second successive half-century of the tour as India reached 217 for five at tea on the second day of the practice game against Derbyshire ahead of the five-Test series against England on Wednesday.

Pujara continued his rich form and scored 81 runs off 131 balls with the help of 13 fours before retiring to give other batsmen match practice.

India accumulated their runs in 62 overs. At the post-lunch break, Ravindra Jadeja (14 not out) and Stuart Binny (3 not out) were at the crease with the former having been dropped on zero.

An Indian Mujahideen (IM) terrorist, suspected to be involved in the German Bakery blast of Pune in 2010, was arrested from the city on Wednesday, the police said.

A special team of the Kolkata Police STF arrested Zahid Hussain, a Bangladeshi national, from outside Kolkata rail station under Chitpore police station in the evening.

Hussain, a resident of Mirpur in Bangladesh, is suspected to be one of the main conduits of IM leaders in India, a senior STF official told PTI on condition of anonymity.

A full-scale gas crisis is looming in Ukraine unless Kiev settles its multi-billion-dollar debt to Moscow, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Wednesday.

“Ukraine does not pay for gas. Their debt is enormous. They are taking gas from underground storage facilities,” Medvedev wrote on his Facebook account, warning there will be a full-scale gas crisis by this fall, reports Xinhua.

The foreign ministers of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine Wednesday reconfirmed their commitment to sustainable peace and stability in Ukraine and stressed the necessity of achieving a sustainable ceasefire in the crisis-hit country.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his counterpart Laurent Fabius from France, Sergey Lavrov from Russia and Pavlo Klimkin from Ukraine held a meeting in Berlin Wednesday to discuss ways of calming the situation in Ukraine, Xinhua quoted the German foreign ministry as saying.

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who was placed under formal investigation for influence-peddling, Wednesday said “politics manipulated judicial system” in a corruption probe that may taint the conservative’s political come-back.

In his first interview since losing the presidential election two years ago, the ex-head of state stressed “the judicial system was manipulated”, and “everything is done to show an image that was not conforming to the truth”, Xinhua reported.

The European Union (EU) is “determined” to achieve a final and comprehensive agreement in the new round of Iran’s nuclear talks that started Wednesday in Vienna, EU’s foreign policy spokesperson Michael Mann said.

“We are determined. We hope Iran comes with a positive and realistic attitude,” Xinhua quoted the spokesperson as saying.

EU’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton is chairing the talks on behalf of the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany, known as the 5+1 group.

The Obama administration Wednesday threw its weight behind Ukraine’s decision to end a ceasefire and resume military operations against the insurgents in the country’s east.

White House spokesperson Josh Earnest blamed the armed militants for not observing the truce, saying “it only fueled separatist violence and allowed the separatists to make further advances,” Xinhua reported.

Following President Petro Poroshenko’s decision to end the 10-day truce Tuesday, the Ukrainian military resumed its offensive in the states of Donetsk and Lugansk by launching air raids on rebel targets.

Yemen, reeling from political instability and insecurity from jihadist attacks, is “on the brink of an economic collapse,” a UN humanitarian official said here Wednesday, blaming the mild, but popular, drug khat, for much of the Aden Gulf nation’s woes.

“This is one of (the) largest humanitarian challenges in scale and in scope that we face in the world,” John Ging, operations director for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told reporters here at a briefing, Xinhua reported.

“It is extremely fragile there at the moment,” Ging said.

Myanmar police fired warning shots after an angry mob attacked Muslim property in the central city of Mandalay, authorities said today, in the latest eruption of religious unrest to shake the Buddhist-majority nation.

Around five people were injured as rioters hurled stones at a Muslim teashop and surrounding buildings last night, said Lieutenant Colonel Zaw Min Oo of Mandalay region police.

“We fired three warning shots to control the crowd,” he told AFP, adding that the situation was calm this morning, with an increased security presence in the area.

Crime in Delhi saw an upward trend when it comes to incidents like rape, murder and abduction with over 1,600 rape cases reported in 2013, more than double the previous year.

According to a report of National Crime Records Bureau, 1,636 cases of rape were register in the national capital last year, while 706 cases of rape in 2012.

Among other crime, the national capital registered 3,609 incidents of kidnapping and abduction of women in 2013, 144 of dowry death and 3,033 incidents of cruelty by husband or relatives.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav Wednesday approved the implementation of the ‘UP e-pension system’ for the benefit of lakhs of pensioners in the state.

A state government spokesman said under the system, filling up of pension forms, checking, verification and payment will be done based on an online system.

The mechanism – ‘UP e-pension system’ – has been developed with the help of the National Informatics Centre.

Testifying as a defence witness in the 2G spectrum allocation case, former telecom minister A. Raja told a special court here Wednesday that after holding a meeting with then external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee and solicitor general G.E. Vahanvati, he “apprised” then prime minister Manmohan Singh about various telecom-related issues, including allocation of 2G spectrum.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao expressed his concern over the incident wherein two students belonging to Veda Patashala have reportedly drowned in Sarayu river at Ayodhya. (INN)

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Wednesday said he would retire from politics if BJP gets a majority in Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

“The day BJP gets majority in Jammu and Kashmir (Assembly elections), I will take retirement from active politics and go into hibernation,” Omar told reporters in Doda district.

He was responding queries on BJP’s mission of getting 44+ seats in the state Assembly elections which is expected to be held by year end.

“I do not want to see that day nor will that day come in the future,” Omar said.

On a humanitarian gesture, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu has directed officials to provide full succor to families of construction labour whose several members from the state who were caught in the dastardly building collapse incident in Chennai on Saturday last.

Besides granting an ex gratia of Rs 5 lakh to each of the deceased families and Rs 50, 000 to the injured along with full medical expenses, Chandrababu Naidu has also asked officials to provide Rs.25,000 relief to each family of affected persons to meet wage loss and miscellaneous expenses .

Infosys Ltd will annually pay its new chief executive and managing director Vishal Sikka a whopping $5.08 million (around Rs.30 crore) and stock options (equity shares) equivalent to $2 million, when he joins the company Aug 1.

In a regulatory filing to the stock exchanges Wednesday, the software major said the 47-year-old Sikka will also be on the company’s board as a whole-time director from June 14, 2014 to June 13, 2019.