New Delhi, May 28 (PTI) Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy today called on Dr Abin Suri who survived the devastating earthquake in Nepal and is recuperating at AIIMS here.

According to hospital sources, Chandy visited the hospital at 5.30 PM and interacted with Suri for about 15 minutes.

It may be recalled that a pleasure trip to Nepal by three young doctors from Kerala turned tragic with two of them losing their lives in the killer quake and another managing to survive with serious injuries last month.

While Dr Deepak Thomas from Kannur and Dr A S Irshad from Kasaragod were killed in the earthquake, Dr Suri, who was also part of the group, managed to escape with injuries.

The three doctors, working at National Health Rural Mission programme at Mananthavady in Waynad district, had gone to Kathmandu for an excursion in April.

Srinagar, May 28 (PTI) Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan today said it was a ‘worthwhile ambition’ to pursue Make In India campaign but cautioned that the whole effort should not be made towards producing for overseas markets as global slowdown could create problems.

The Reserve Bank chief also underlined the need for creating conducive regulatory atmosphere and infrastructure for promoting manufacturing and services sector.

“It is a worthwhile ambition to make in India, to produce in India. Let us not think too much where do we sell. Let us create the conditions both for manufacturing and service jobs.

We may end up with world class service firms, a few world class manufacturing firms and a few extraordinary domestic firms which are focused on domestic market,” he said.

The RBI governor, who is on a two-day visit to Kashmir, was replying to questions of students from Kashmir University’s Business School at SKICC here.

“The beautiful thing is that you do not have to choose who we produce for. What we need to do is build up the infrastructure, work on simplifying business regulations and build good human capital,” he said.

Rajan, however, added that the Modi government’s flagship scheme should not entirely focus on outside markets.

“By all means we should try our best to produce for the world but if the world is growing slowly, there would not be as much demand as when the world is growing fast,” he added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched Make In India campaign in September last year to make the country a hub of global manufacturing and create jobs for growing population.

New Delhi, May 28 (PTI) Former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi today met Prime Minister Narendra Modi here, further fuelling speculation on a possible tie-up with BJP when he said he will be with a formation that is opposed to incumbent Nitish Kumar post-Assembly polls.

Parrying queries over any pre-poll alliance, he told reporters that he would partner with a formation which did not include Nitish Kumar, his former mentor and now a bitter critic.

Manjhi has launched his own outfit Hindustani Awam Morcha, after an unceremonious exit from the post of Chief Minister and JD(U).

Asked about RJD leader Lalu Prasad’s overtures to him to join a grand alliance, which is likely to include Kumar, against BJP, he said a tie-up between Prasad and Kumar is unlikely to work as RJD voters would not support Kumar while the JD(U) leader has a small voter base.

“If there is a need to ally with any party following the election, I will go with a formation which does not include Nitish Kumar,” he told reporters.

He claimed he met Modi to raise the issue of farmers’ plight in Bihar and demanded a CBI inquiry into alleged irregularities in paddy procurement.

Manjhi, a Mahadalit, is being eyed by the BJP-led NDA as well as Prasad as their new ally as the Mahadalit community has the potential of tilting the scale in favour of whichever major formation he chooses to align with.

Many believe that his populist policies when he was the Chief Minister, besides his sacking from the hot seat by JD(U), has generated some sympathy for him in his community even though he remains an untested commodity in the politically crucial state.

Prasad had recently proposed that Manjhi be included in the grand alliance against BJP, inviting sharp response from Kumar.

New Delhi, May 28 (PTI) In no mood to back down on the issue of jurisdiction over appointments, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is reaching out to non-BJP chief ministers to mount political pressure on the Modi government even as the matter reached court.

Kejriwal is conveying to chief ministers of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal among others that the Centre’s notification, throwing its weight behind Lt Governor Najeeb Jung, was detrimental to India’s federal structure and it may happen to their states as well.

Sources said Kejriwal is sending separate letters to his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Bihar’s Nitish Kumar.

They said AAP may separately approach leaders of major Opposition parties to persuade them to raise the issue during the monsoon session of the Parliament.

On May 25, Banerjee posted a few tweets putting her weight behind Kejriwal.

“Too much interference in the federal structure is unacceptable. The state govt is an elected body. Central govt is also an elected body,” one of her tweets said.

“Every elected body has its own jurisdiction. One must respect the other,” she said in another tweet.

Sources said Banerjee tweeted as Kejriwal called her up for “advice”.

Speaking at the assembly yesterday, Kejriwal had said that the notification conferring more powers on Lt Governor Najeeb Jung was part of an “experiment” to take the country towards “dictatorship”, asserting that it was ready for a long fight on the issue.

In the notification, the Centre had given absolute powers to the LG in appointment of bureaucrats while also clarifying that he need not “consult” the chief minister on subjects like police and public order.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau of the Delhi government, which is probing a number of high-profile case, has also been barred from registering any case against officers and political functionaries of the central government.

However, the Delhi High Court ruled that the ACB has the authority to probe central government officials, including Delhi Police personnel. The Centre has challenged the High Court order in the Supreme Court.

The AAP government also moved the Delhi High Court challenging the Centre’s notification.

The Delhi Assembly yesterday passed a resolution holding the notification “completely unconstitutional, illegal and invalid”.

Bareilly, May 28 (PTI) A 22-year-old student of MBBS at a local medical college here committed suicide in her hostel room here, police said.

When Priyanka Singh, who had taken admission in the MBBS course in SMRS medical college in 2012 , did not turn up for breakfast and lunch today, her friends went to her hostel room where she was found hanging from the ceiling fan, college PRO said.

The body has been sent for post mortem examination and reasons leading to the extreme step were being ascertained, said SP (rural) Brijesh Srivastava.

New Delhi, May 28 (PTI) Delhi Police are expecting to get former union minister Shashi Tharoor’s wife Sunanda Pushkar’s viscera report from US-based Federal Bureau of Investigation in the next 15 to 30 days, which is likely to throw light on the kind of poison that caused her death as concluded by AIIMS panel of doctors.

Police Commissioner B S Bassi said the polygraph test on three key witnesses in the case will be conducted in the next seven to ten days.

The investigators hoped both the viscera report and polygraph test will give a direction to the probe into the high-profile case.

Sunanda’s viscera samples were sent to the FBI lab in Washington in February to determine the type of poison that is suspected to have caused her death. An AIIMS medical board had identified poisoning as the reason behind her death but did not mention the type of the poison.

They had listed some kind of poisons most of which were radioactive isotopes that cannot be detected by labs in India.

Highly-placed sources said that the final viscera report is expected in the next 15 to 30 days.

Bassi rubbished media reports that the viscera report has been received.

“Certain media reports that we have received Sunanda’s viscera sample from FBI are baseless. FBI is aware of our need. There is a laid down procedure and guidelines which are followed in such cases before which the findings cannot be reached upon. We are still waiting for the report,” he told reporters.

Asked when the police would conduct the polygraph test on three witnesses, Bassi said that they have asked experts to give them a date and they hope to get it done in a week or ten days.

When questioned whether police will move court for polygraph test on other witnesses including Shashi Tharoor, Bassi said that he would not like to “speculate” on the issue.

Tharoor has been questioned thrice in this case so far.

Sunanda was found dead in a five-star hotel suite here on January 17 last year, a day after she was involved in a spat with Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar on Twitter over the latter’s alleged affair with Tharoor.

Three suspects in Sunanda Pushkar murder case, two of them employed by Tharoor and the third, a friend, will undergo lie detector test after a Delhi court had on May 20 allowed investigators to conduct it following their consent.

Police have accused the three of concealing “material facts” like a power cut in room no. 345 at Leela Hotel on January 17, 2014 around 7 PM where Sunanda was found dead around 8 PM.

Berlin, May 27 (AFP) German authorities evacuated around 20,000 people from their homes in the western city of Cologne today after a World War II bomb was unearthed during construction work.

The unexploded US-made device, which lay five metres underground and was discovered Friday, was set to be defused later in the day, and river traffic on the nearby Rhine was to be halted during the operation, city officials said.

Residents living within a kilometre of the site have been told to leave their homes, among them around 1,100 people from a large old people’s and care home, they said.

Cologne Zoo, also within the danger zone, was to remain shut for the day.

Hundreds of police, firefighters and other helpers were involved in clearing the site for the city’s largest evacuation since the end of the war.

Seventy years after the end of fighting, parts of Germany remain riddled with unexploded bombs from the Allied campaigns, and construction workers regularly stumble upon them.

Srinagar, May 27 (PTI) An alleged drug peddler was held and over 100 kg of narcotics substance was recovered from his possession in Bandipora district of north Kashmir, police said today.

On a tip off, police arrested the peddler, identified as Lala Sheikh, a resident of Phali Pora village of Hakbara area of Hajin in the district, and recovered 102 kg of Bung and 1.1 kg of charas from his possession, a police spokesperson said.

He said police has registered a case under NDPS Act against him and investigation has been taken up.

Raipur: Ruling out the possibility of deploying Army in anti-Naxal operations, Defence Minister Manohar Parrkar on Wednesday said if demanded, armed forces would extend “logistical support” and “provide training” to police in tackling the menace.

Foreigners are not involved in it (naxal movement). We use army where outside forces are involved. We use army against terrorists in Kashmir,” Parrikar told reporters in response to a query on whether army would be roped against growing naxalism in Chhattisgarh.

The minister, however, added, “We can provide training and logistical support (to the paramilitary and local police) if demanded.”

Parrikar was in the state capital to inaugurate Jankalyan Mela, an exhibition-cum-fair showcasing the achievements of Narendra Modi-led NDA government in the past one year.

Meanwhile, responding to Congress’ criticism that the Centre was not taking a stand on ‘One Rank-One Pension’ policy, Parrikar said his government has made a concrete framework over it and it would be rolled out soon.

“Earlier (during the UPA rule) only assurances were given in this direction. For the first time it’s us, who have made a concrete framework over OPOR scheme. Congress claimed that they had made provision of fund of Rs 500 crore. Then how did it lapse?,” he said.

The Defence Ministry has forwarded a proposal in this direction which is more or less acceptable to everyone and very soon it would be declared, he added.

Reacting to?Congress’ ‘suit-boot ki sarkar’ jibe against the Modi government, Parrikar took a dig at Rahul Gandhi over his 56-days sabbatical.

“A government should not be judged by its clothing, but it should be judged by its activities. He (Rahul) should tell what he was doing for 56 days in Thailand and what clothes he was wearing over there,” he said.

Replying to a question on Rafale fighter jets deal with France, the minister said, “I would not like to comment on it unless everything is finalised.”

On Congress’ opposition to the Land Acquisition Bill, he said, “Congress has been shouting much over the Land Acquisition Bill. If you look at the UPA rule, they gave thousands of acres of farmers’ land in Congress ruled states to private developers at throwaway prices in the name of SEZ (special economic zone).”

“An atmosphere of anger was created (among farmers) after that and to cover that they brought Land Acquisition Bill ahead of the election. It was like ‘sau chuhe kha ke billi haj ko chali’ (after eating hundred rats, a cat goes to pilgrimage),” he said.

Listing out various initiatives taken by the Modi government like Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Beti Bachao Abhiyaan, pension schemes, the Union Minister said this government has laid the country’s foundation in a short span of one year.

He also slammed Congress stating that economy had gone down and development had come to a halt during the ten years of UPA rule.

Meanwhile, he assured Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh that a project under the Defence Ministry would be brought to the state by the end of this year.
PTI