Mumbai: RPI(A) Leader Ramdas Athavale today demanded that smaller allies of the BJP-Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra should also get a representation in the ministry and coordination committee.
All ‘Mahayuti’ (grand alliance) partners played a key role in defeating the Congress and NCP and installation of the new government. But the smaller allies are now being sidelined, he said.
“The smaller allies should get a place in the ministry and coordination committee as well,” Athavale demanded while addressing reporters here.
All the smaller allies of BJP and Sena are meeting on February 21 to discuss their strategy to stay united.
“Our aim is not to oppose the government, but discuss issues concerning the state and the need to stay united,” he said.
Athavale said that apart from him, Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghthana leaders Raju Shetty and Sadabhau Khot, Shiv Sangram’s Vinayak Mete and Mahadev Jankar of Rashtriya Samaj Paksha will attend the meeting.
Condemning the attack on senior CPI leader Govind Pansare, Athavale expressed concern over the attackers still being at large.
“I will not say the Home department under Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has been a failure, but intelligence network needs to be strengthened,” he said.
When asked about Shiv Sena youth wing President Aditya Thackeray’s proposal for the revival of Mumbai’s night life, the RPI(A) leader said the facilities should be for poor people as well.
“Mumbai’s famed street food joints should be open 24 hours at affordable price in the vicinity of main railway stations,” he suggested.
The issue of Mumbai’s night life should be discussed in the BJP-Sena’s coordination committee as both the allies are not on the same page over the subject, he said.
Stating that earlier railway budgets had ignored Maharashtra’s interests, he said that, “Now there are lot of hopes from (Railway Minister) Suresh Prabhu. There should be a separate track for Express trains in Mumbai,” he demanded.
When asked about the proposed Ambedkar memorial at the Indu mill compound here, Athavale said all formalities have been completed and the Bill in this regard would be tabled during the state Budget session which will begin on March 9.
“I have got an assurance that the foundation stone laying ceremony would be done on April 14, the birth anniversary of Dr Ambedkar,” he added.
PTI
Lakhimpur: In a grim reminder of the infamous Badaun incident, a teenage Dalit girl was raped and her body was later found hanging from a tree in Nighasan area of the district, police said on Thursday.
The body of the 16-year-old girl was found hanging from a tree on Tuesday morning near Taparpurwa village in the district, about 130 km from state capital Lucknow, they said.
The incident triggered an angry outburst from leaders of various political parties, who slammed the Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh, saying that the law and order machinery is “hanging from trees”.
Police said that earlier her parents suspected it to be a case of suicide.
However, post mortem examination report received yesterday confirmed that the girl was raped before her death.
Her father then lodged a complaint with Nighasan police, naming two youths of his village for committing the crime.
“A case of rape and murder has been lodged against the two youths — Manoj and Dharmesh — on the basis of her father’s complaint,” Station Incharge Ram Kumar Yadav said.
“Investigation is in progress and the accused would be arrested soon,” he said.
In a shocking incident in May last year, two cousins were found hanging from a tree in Badaun district and it was alleged that they were hanged after being raped.
However, CBI later filed a closer report in the case saying that the girls had committed suicide.
Reacting to the latest incident, opposition parties attacked the UP government for the “deteriorating” law and order situation.
“The entire state has turned into a jungle raj. People are feeling insecure…Crime graph has shot up. We wanted to raise the issue in the state Assembly, but the government is avoiding a debate on it,” senior BSP leader Swami Prasad Maurya said.
BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said the government made tall promises of security to women, but has failed to fulfil it. All its schemes like 1090 women helpline have failed.
“The law and order machinery is hanging from trees,” he remarked, adding women were not safe in UP.
Pathak demand
Darjeeling: Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) supporters blocked NH-55 near Ghoom station in Darjeeling in protest against the assault on them allegedly by cadre of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), the police said Thursday.
Acknowledging the receipt a complaint against GJM cadre, Superintendent of Police of Darjeeling Akhilesh Chaturvedi said, “There was a confrontation between GNLF and GJM supporters at Ghoom yesterday. We have assured the complainants of arresting those involved in the assault.”
The incident took place around 3:30 pm when GNLF supporters were returning home after attending the death ritual of their party founder Subash Ghisingh, he said.
The police said that the clash broke out when some GNLF supporters allegedly started to abuse GJM president Bimal Gurung who was returning home to Darjeeling from Maneybhanjyang.
Subash Ghisingh died on January 29 in a Delhi hospital and was cremated in his ancestral home in Mirik. As per Buddhist custom, his death ritual was held yesterday at his residence in Darjeeling after 21 days of his death.
PTI
New Delhi: Newly elected Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday held janata darbar at party’s Kaushambi office in Ghaziabad where he heard grievances of people.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief hed a similar kind of darbar on Wednesday.
Unlike last time, when the darbar was marred with problems of mismanagement and over-crowding, this time it was a well-organised affair.
While Kejriwal gave them a patient hearing, the residents participating in the Janata Durbar (public meet) complained of the chief minister giving an audience for just 10-12 people. Others were asked to wait for their turn.
Most complaints were related to police. About half of the visitors had come to greet Kejriwal with bouquets on being the chief minister of Delhi.
Most of them preferred clicking photographs with the new chief minister.
The visitors were attended from 10.00 am to 12.00 pm before Kejriwal left the office for the day.
During his earlier stint as the chief minister, Kejriwal, had held a similar darbar. However, it was marred by chaos as a large number of people had turned up. The security personnel had to take Kejriwal away from darbar venue.
New Delhi: Despite the ongoing political turmoil in Bihar, the JD(U) on Thursday said it was all set to corner the BJP-led NDA government on issues like the Land Acquisition Ordinance, in Parliament.
“We will certainly raise the issue of the Land Acquisition Ordinance and oppose it tooth and nail. Under the new provisions, land of poor farmers can be easily snatched and there would be no place for them to ventilate their grievance.
“This is worse than the law passed by the British Raj in 1852,” JDU president Sharad Yadav told reporters at a news conference here.
On December 29 last year, the government recommended promulgation of an Ordinance making significant changes in the Land Acquisition Act including removal of consent clause for acquiring land for five areas of industrial corridors, PPP projects, rural infrastructure, affordable housing and defence.
JD(U) said it will also attack the government on various other issues during the budget session of Parliament, which starts on February 23.
In the last Parliament session, with the government not having majority in Rajya Sabha, the opposition cornered the Centre on various issues, including the re-conversions and controversial speeches by BJP MPs.
PTI
An audio tape has been recovered where the underworld don is heard discussing money transactions with a person named Iqbal regarding a project in Dubai.
Iqbal is heard asking Dawood to give three lakh Dirham to a person whom they refer to as Yasir. Dawood then tells Iqbal that “Yasir is here in Karachi. I will tell him.”
This proves that the mafia don is very much present in Karachi otherwise why would he say that Yasir is in Karachi.
Following are excerpts from the conversion:
Iqbal – So at this moment there is an requirement of 3 lakhs Dirhams.
Dawood – Yes.
Iqbal – So as of now it would be ok.
Dawood – OK, I will send, whom is it to be given?
Iqbal – To Yasir, provide it to Yasir and I will do the needful.
Dawood – Ok, I will inform, Yasir is here only in Karachi. I will talk to him.
Reports had revealed in July 2013 details about Ibrahim’s addresses in Pakistan.
As per reports, two addresses are in Karachi and one in Islamabad. In Islamabad his address is said to be – House no 29, Street no 22, P-6/2, Margalla Road.
In Karachi, Dawood’s addresses are said to be – Moin Palace near Abdullah Shah Ghazi Dargah in Clifton and 6/A Khyaban Tanzeem Phase V Defence Housing Area.
Reports had earlier surfaced that Dawood had been sent outside Karachi by the Pakistani establishment, which had reportedly asked him to lie low for sometime. It was said that he was hiding at Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
But with the audio tape surfacing now, it seems that Dawood is living in Karachi and has not shifted his base.
Talking exclusively to Zee Media, former RAW official RSN Singh said that he had no doubt that the voice in the audio tape belonged to the underworld don.
Also talking to Zee Media, former CBI director Joginder Sharma opined that in the court of law it has to be proved that the voice in the audio tape is that of Dawood.
Pakistan has been denying over the years that Dawood is living there inspite of India giving proof to them at regular intervals about the underworld don. Dawood had fled India after the 1993 Mumbai blasts, that claimed over 250 lives, to Dubai and is said to have later shifted to Pakistan and has since been living there under the protection of ISI.
Dawood has been designated a global terrorist by the US.
Almost the whole of 2014 Sheetal Mafaftlal was splashed in the news all over for the theft of paintings worth Rs 100 crorer. She accused her three friends – transport magnate Areef Patel, one of his company director’s Farukh Wadia, along with the latter’s friend Yasmin MY – of stealing her paintings worth Rs 100 crore, a total of 41 masterpieces (including 31 reported missing by Sheetal in her complaint) were recovered by the Mumbai Police.
The missing paintings were recovered from a flat which was rented by her own Man Friday and long-time manager, Manoj Shah.
As the paintings were discovered by the police she immediately left the country and went missing till recently. She was compelled to come back for the court hearings. If Sheetal is found guilty she may be sentenced to six months of imprisonment.
With the accuser herself turning out to be the prime suspect, the police have been unsuccessfully chasing her for months for questioning, but Sheetal has neither responded to repeated summons from the Crime Branch, nor attended any court hearings. Sheetal plotted it all, “right from shifting the paintings out of the bungalow till the police seized the originals”, the police said. They said, “Sheetal submitted false documents, including emails, declaring the painting to be gifts to prove that she owned them.”
Vikram, a prime witness in the case, told the cops he thought Sheetal was making copies of her valuable paintings by renowned artists to keep them on display so as not to destroy the originals.
“She did the work quickly. I was not aware of her intention,” he said, adding that he had even referred her to his regular frame-maker and to another photographer when she wanted more paintings copied.
Sheetal Mafatlal had removed 48 paintings from Mafatlal Bungalow in July 2011, without informing anyone. Her step-daughter Marushka filed a complaint with the Gamdevi police of theft against her. Of these 48, Sheetal stored 31 at her friend Yasmin M Y’s two houses in Khar and Bandra, after saying that she had no funds to store them at the art warehouse. The police verified their presence during the probe but allowed them to remain in the flats “for safety”, with instructions that they cannot be removed.
In August 2012, the Bombay high court allowed consent terms to be signed between Sheetal and her husband Atulya and other family members that gave Sheetal ownership to the paintings and dropped cross-complaints.
Sheetal then sought and got an order from a magistrate for possession of the 31 seized paintings. While taking the paintings back from Yasmin’s Bandra flat in October 2012, she declared they were fakes and refused to take possession. They were then kept at the police station.
The police said Sheetal, soon after removing the paintings in 2001 from the bungalow, kept them at a Wadala art warehouse and then sought help from her friend, Arif Patel, to store them elsewhere, as she “had no funds to afford the warehouse”. Patel sought Yasmin’s help as she had two flats. But Sheetal shifted the originals from Yasmin’s house to Crystal Mall, Bandra, made fakes with the help of fashion photographer Vikram Bawa and provided them as originals at Yasmin’s house when the cops came for a panchnama while investigating Marushka’s complaint. The cops seized the fakes, believing them to be genuine. Sheetal then shifted the originals to the office taken on rent at Princess Street. She tried to make the family believe that the originals were forged though they were in her custody, the police said.
She feared that the three may expose her if they came to know and as the paintings’ ownership was not proved, she may lose them, so she hatched a plot to capture the originals, the police said.
‘Goat’, a painting by Manjit Bawa, also nailed Sheetal’s scheme, the cops said. She had sent it and another by Gaitonde, ‘Red’, for restoration to the Pundole art gallery after removing it from the bungalow, but later mentioned it as one of the 31 seized by police during the probe.
With the Bombay High Court having earlier directed a time-bound investigation and closure of the matter, it appears that there is little choice left for Sheetal other than to file a protest petition before the Magistrate at 37 Court Esplanade – popularly known as Qilla Court.
New Delhi, Feb. 9 — American singer-actor Jennifer Lopez will reportedly perform at UK-based billionaire Sanjay Hinduja and designer Anu Mahtani’s wedding, to be held from Feb 10-12, in Udaipur.
Designer Manish Malhotra, who is designing for the wedding, told us, “If JLo does perform, I’d love to meet her and design for her, too.” Actor Akshay Kumar is also expected to perform.
New Delhi, 16 Feb 2015: Calling people ‘Chinese’, ‘Chinki’ or making other derogatory remarks relating to race, culture or physical appearance may land you in jail for up to five years, according to a proposal which the Centre is mulling.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday said his ministry was considering the proposal made by a high-level committee that looked into the attacks on people from North East in Delhi and some other parts of the country.
A bill may be brought for amending the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2013 for safety and security of the people of the Northeast in Delhi and others parts of the country, he said.
“There is no need to bring a standalone law and provisions can be incorporated in the existing statutes through an amendment,” he said.
As per the proposal, the government may add two provisions in the Indian Penal Code by amending the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2013.
The Bezbaruah Committee, in its report, has noted that there was the “most common demand” from people from North Eastern region was to make words like ‘Momos’, ‘Chinkis’, ‘Chinese’, ‘Chichi Chu Chu’ or any other derogatory remarks relating to race, culture, identity or physical appearances to be made punishable”.
It has recommended a provision in Section 153 of the IPC to provide for imprisonment up to five years with a fine to “whoever, by words, either spoken or written or by signs or by visible representations or otherwise attempts or promotes to attempt on the ground of race or place of origin or such other grounds relating to racial features or to racial behaviour and culture or to racial customs or participates in such activity intending to use criminal force or violence…”
The provision for imprisonment will be there even if any person is “likely to cause fear or alarm or a feeling of insecurity amongst the members of that racial groups”. PTI [file photo]
Kanchanpur (North Tripura): Troopers of the 30th battalion of Assam Rifles have arrested an alleged arms peddler from the Tripura-Mizoram border, based on specific intelligence information.
The arrested person has been identified as Bualmanga who was hiding in the Naisingpara refugee camp of Mizoram displaced people under Kanchanpur sub-division in North Tripura district.
An M16 rifle has been found from his possession.
The troops later handed over Bualmanga to the police for further interrogation.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had last week visited Kanchanpur and interacted with the representatives of Bru migrants living in relief camps at Kanchanpur.
During his visit, Rajnath Singh had discussed with the BSF officials the issue of fast completion of the border fencing with Bangladesh to stop smuggling, infiltration and the movement of militants.
He also met the Chief Minister of Tripura, Manik Sarkar and reviewed the security situation in the state.
ANI
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