ALIGARH (UP): Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Friday met here the family members of those who lost their lives in the stampede in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras, according to Congress leaders.
Gandhi left from Delhi on Friday early morning by road for Hathras and was accompanied by state Congress chief Ajay Rai, state Congress in-charge Avinash Pande, party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate and other office bearers.
The senior Congress leader landed in Pilakhna village in Aligarh around 7.15 am after he left by road from Delhi. Later, Gandhi is scheduled to meet families of the stampede victims in Hathras’s Vibhav Nagar area.
State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is preparing for a record third interim chairman as no full-time head of India’s most profitable company has yet been selected in 17 months since the post fell vacant, sources said.
ONGC is without a regular chairman and managing director since April 2021. Subhash Kumar, the senior-most director on the company board and the director for finance, was named officiating head after Shashi Shanker superannuated on March 31, 2021. And when Kumar retired on December 31, 2021, Alka Mittal, Director for Human Resources, was given an additional charge.
Mittal will superannuate at month-end and unless she is given an extension, the next senior-most director, Rajesh Kumar Srivastava, Director (Exploration), is likely to be named as interim head, two officials with knowledge of the matter said.
The third interim chairman – a record for ONGC – is being talked about as the government is yet to even identify a full-time head.
A search-cum-selection committee, which was in February this year tasked to identify suitable candidates, began work only this month after terms of reference were finalised.
The panel has shortlisted nine candidates on the basis of higher eligibility age limit proposed by the oil ministry, which brought most existing directors – who otherwise were ineligible to even apply, in the zone of consideration, they said.
The shortlisted include Mittal and Srivastava as well as three other directors on the ONGC board – Om Prakash Singh, Director (Technology & Field Services); Pankar Kumar, Director (Offshore) and Anurag Sharma, Director (Onshore).
The other shortlisted candidates are outside of ONGC and include heads of oil marketing companies, the officials said.
The panel will interview the candidates and send recommendations to the oil ministry, which will forward it to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) headed by the Prime Minister for final vetting and approval.
The committee shortlisted candidates on the basis of the oil ministry’s revised eligibility criteria that raised the eligibility age.
The ministry proposed that any candidate to be eligible for consideration should not be more than 60 years of age on the date of occurrence of vacancy, according to the ministry’s office memorandum sent to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) on June 17.
The vacancy arose on March 31, 2021.
Prior to this change, the minimum age prescribed for being eligible for the top job is 45 years. Besides, internal candidates needed to have two years of residual service as on the date of vacancy and three years for external candidates.
What the ministry proposed was that any eligible candidate who is not more than 60 years of age at the time of occurrence of vacancy which was April 1, 2021, should be considered eligible. This essentially meant that the current acting chairman, Alka Mittal, who otherwise would retire in August-end and was ineligible, would come under the zone of consideration.
Also, Srivastava, who retires on December 31, and Sharma, who superannuates on February 28 next year, have become eligible.
Previously, only Pankaj Kumar and Om Prakash Singh were eligible.
The ministry also proposed appointment for a period of three years from the date of joining instead of the present five-year term, according to the letter.
The selection will be done through a three-member search-cum-selection committee headed by PESB chairman and composed of oil secretary and former Indian Oil chairman B Ashok (outside expert).
The panel was formed on February 4, 2022 but the terms of reference are being framed recently.
Most board-level appointments at public sector companies are done on the basis of recommendations of the Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB) but the government headhunter in June last year did not find anyone suitable among nine candidates, including two serving IAS officers, to head ONGC.
“Keeping in view the strategic importance and vision for the company and its future, the board did not recommend any candidate and decided to constitute a search committee,” the ministry letter said referring to PESB’s interviews on June 5, 2021.
The panel was constituted after eight months of that recommendation on February 4. The ACC approved “consideration of central government officers, including those of the armed forces of the Union and the all India services for the post on immediate absorption basis.”
“Energy security is critical for the nation. ONGC plays a pivotal role in exploration as India’s National Oil Company (NOC). Its activities need to be scaled significantly and rapidly. As an NOC, it is necessary to have a specially designed ‘sui generis’ job description for ONGC in order to attract the best talent available,” the ministry note had said.
As per the practice, PESB recommends a name for a board-level position at least three months prior to arising of the vacancy. However, in the case of ONGC, PESB advertised and interviewed candidates after the retirement of Shashi Shanker on March 31, 2021.
The committee route for appointment of PSU board members has very sparingly been used in the past. In 2016, current NTPC chairman Gurdeep Singh was appointed through the route. Last appointment using the route was that of Sanjeev Kumar as the chairman of Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL).
PESB on June 5, 2021, interviewed nine out of the 10 candidates who had applied for the post of chairman and managing director of ONGC. Those interviewed included senior bureaucrats Avinash Joshi and Niraj Verma.
This was the second time in one-and-a-half decades that a suitable candidate was not found among those who had applied.
In August 2006, PESB chose R S Sharma to head the company but the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in February 2007 vetoed his appointment as it wanted the selection process to be widened by inviting candidates from the private sector.
In June 2007, PESB again selected Sharma and his candidature was this time endorsed by the ACC.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought responses from the Centre and the Election Commission on a PIL seeking voting rights for non-resident Indians (NRIs) in polls here.
A bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices J K Maheshwari and Hima Kohli took note of the PIL filed by the Kerala Pravasi Association that the NRIs be given the voting rights.
The top court issued notices and ordered the tagging of the PIL with pending ones on the issue.PTI
Switch Mobility, the electric vehicle division of Hinduja group’s flagship Ashok Leyland, unveiled the country’s first electric double-decker air-conditioned bus here on Thursday.
These buses will replace the existing double-decker fleet of the BEST (Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport) undertaking.
As of now, Switch is operating its twin-floor electric AC buses in the United Kingdom.
Switch India has already secured an order of 200 electric double-decker buses in Mumbai and is looking at a dominant space in the electric double-decker segment, across key regions in the country, the company said.
“We already have an order for 200 electric double-decker AC buses in Mumbai. We will deliver 50 of these buses this financial year. Many more cities are discussing with us for these buses,” Mahesh Babu, CEO Switch Mobility India and COO at Switch Mobility Ltd told PTI.
Babu said amid discussions with multiple players, “we are expecting to deliver some 150-250 buses next year.”
In April this year, Switch Mobility announced an investment of 300-million pounds to develop a range of electric buses and light commercial vehicles in India and the UK.
“Ashok Leyland was a pioneer among Indian manufacturers when it first launched the double-decker in 1967 in Mumbai and Switch is carrying forward that legacy.
“With our strong expertise in double-deckers, both in India and UK and with over 100 Switch electric double deckers in service on UK roads, we reinforce our commitment to create this form factor (design) for India and the globe,” said Dheeraj Hinduja Chairman – Switch Mobility.
The electric double-decker AC bus EiV22 is powered by a 231 kWh capacity battery pack with dual gun charging system, which allows the bus to have a range up to 250 kms for intra-city transport, according to the company.
“The Switch EiV 22 is designed and developed to meet Indian conditions. Mumbai and double-deckers are synonymous with public transport, and we are certain that EiV 22 will transform the public transport space in terms of sustainability and footprint,” said Babu.
Bollywood actor Suraj Pancholi used to subject actress Jiah Khan, who allegedly committed suicide here in 2013, to physical and verbal abuse, her mother told a special court here on Wednesday.
Pancholi, who was in a relationship with the 25-year-old actress, has been booked for abetment of suicide in the case probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). He is currently out on bail.
On Wednesday, Jiah Khan’s mother Rabia Khan began recording her testimony in the case before special judge A S Sayyad.
Rabia Khan told the court about the actress’s entry into Bollywood, her career progression and relationship with Pancholi.
Pancholi had approached Jiah Khan through a social media site and insisted on meeting her, she said.
Jiah Khan was initially apprehensive and reluctant , but the duo met for the first time in September 2012, Rabia Khan said.
At that time she sent some pictures .to me it looked like they clicked and had mutual interest However, in September she (Jiah Khan) told me they were just friends, she said.
Rabia Khan said her daughter’s daily routine was “taken over” by Pancholi and by October 2012, the duo had started living at each other’s house.
During her visit to their London home in November that year, the actress looked very happy, she said.
Rabia Khan said Jiah Khan then returned to Mumbai for professional work and was supposed to come back to celebrate Christmas, but did not turn up.
On December 24, 2012, Rabia Khan said she received a message from Pancholi, saying he got angry with Jiah Khan after a fight with a friend and that she (the actress) should forgive him and give another chance.
“At that time, I discovered that the duo had a violent fight,” she said.
Rabia Khan said Jiah Khan decided to give him a second chance and the duo went to Goa.
However, in one of her phone calls Jiah Khan complained about being at a very strange place and not wanting to stay there, she said.
In Goa, he used to put her down in front of other friends and flirt with other women in her presence, Rabia Khan said, citing her conversations with her daughter.
Rabia Khan said Jiah Khan suddenly turned up in London on February 14, 2013, and looked sad.
According to Rabia Khan, Jiah Khan told her that Pancholi abused her verbally and physically, and also called her by “dirty names”.
Jiah Khan’s mother’s testimony will continue on Thursday.
The actress, best known for her performance in Hindi film ‘Nishabd’ starring Amitabh Bachchan, was found hanging at her residence in Mumbai on June 3, 2013, by her mother.
Pancholi, the son of Bollywood couple Aditya Pancholi and Zarina Wahab, is currently out on bail in the case.
The CBI had alleged that a three-page note seized by the Mumbai Police, which first probed the case, on June 10, 2013, was written by Jiah Khan and it narrated her ordeal.
The note narrated Jiah Khan’s “intimate relationship, physical abuse and mental and physical torture” allegedly at the hands of Pancholi which led her to commit suicide, the central agency had said.PTI.
Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday said the boat found with some semi-automatic weapons off the Raigad coast was owned by an Australian woman.
The boat drifted due to the inclement weather and came to the Raigad coast, Fadnavis informed the state Assembly.
The state home minister made the statement after NCP legislator Aditi Tatkare raised the issue in the House.
“The boat found drifted off the Raigad coast is owned by an Australian woman. Some semi-automatic weapons have been found on it,” he said.
“Central agencies and the state police have started an investigation into the matter, he added.
Earlier, a Coast Guard official said there was no security threat.
According to officials, the crew members of this boat had been rescued in June this year near the Oman coast.
It later drifted and grounded ashore, a Coast Guard official said.
Some locals spotted the boat, having no crew member, in Shrivardhan area, located more than 190 km from Mumbai, and alerted security agencies.
Raigad Superintendent of Police Ashok Dudhe and other senior officials rushed the spot and searched the boat.PTI.
The government is ready for a debate in Parliament on price rise once Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recovers from COVID-19, the BJP asserted on Wednesday and targeted Rahul Gandhi, saying he may be “unproductive politically” but should not hurt the legislature’s productivity.
Union ministers Piyush Goyal, Pralhad Joshi and Smriti Irani hit out at opposition parties as both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha saw little transactions for the third straight day due to their protests on the issues of price rise and the imposition of GST on many pre-packaged and labelled food items.
Both Goyal and Joshi noted that it is Sitharaman who will reply to a debate on the matter and asserted that the government is willing for the discussion as demanded by the opposition once she recovers and is back in Parliament.
They refuted the opposition’s charge that the government is running away from a debate and attacked the Congress, the largest opposition party.
“The Congress has a destructive attitude towards democracy. It was exposed from Jairam Ramesh’s tweet that the Congress was successful in not allowing the House to function,” Goyal, who is the Leader of House in Rajya Sabha, told reporters outside parliament.
The government is not running away from any debate, he said.
Joshi said the Congress is not interested in a constructive debate but in “destructive damage”.
He said the opposition should follow the procedure for having the debate. The Rajya Sabha Chairperson and the Lok Sabha Speaker have also expressed their readiness for the discussion but the opposition should follow the norms, he said.
Earlier in the day, Irani launched a sharp attack on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his party members’ vociferous protests in Parliament leading to frequent adjournments in both Houses.
“He may be unproductive politically but he should not dare to continuously curb Parliament’s productivity,” she said, alleging that Rahul Gandhi’s political life has been dotted with a show of disrespect to parliamentary procedures and traditions.
He is now adamant to bring down the productivity of Lok Sabha, she told reporters.
As an Amethi MP between 2004 and 2019, he never posed any questions in Parliament and when he “abandoned” the constituency and became the MP of Wayanad, his attendance in Lok Sabha was less than 40 per cent in the winter session in 2019, Irani said.
He has also never proposed any private member’s bill, she added.
Irani had defeated Gandhi in Amethi in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
The minister also took a dig at him over his frequent foreign visits and said this has become a matter of worry for his own party.
“His political life has been spent disrespecting parliamentary traditions. Now he is dedicating himself to ensuring that parliamentary proceedings and debates do not take place,” she said.
The opposition has demanded the rollback of five per cent GST on pre-packaged and labelled food items such as cereals, pulses and flour weighing less than 25 kg. For a commodity measured in litres like curd and ‘lassi, the limit is 25 litres.
Its members have also highlighted the general rise in prices of different essential commodities. They carried packaged milk, curd, butter and buttermilk during their protests in both Houses besides banners to highlight their demands.
Goyal pointed out that the ministers of the Congress-ruled states were part of the GST council, which gave the nod for the levy.
Citing the results of local elections in Madhya Pradesh and other states in which the BJP has trounced its rivals, Goyal said they show on whose side the people are.
Objecting to the opposition disrupting important proceedings like the Question Hour, Joshi said the one-hour session in which government ministers concerned reply to members’ queries is the “heart” of parliamentary proceedings.
The opposition is depriving MPs of exercising their rights, he alleged, adding, “even Congress MPs are not happy with this.
In a shameful display of negligence the MVA Sarkar seems to have lost control of electricity discom Adani Power as it has repeatedly and maliciously cut power to the Dalit Neighborhood of Siddharth Colony since 17th May. It is appalling that in Mumbai the capital of Maharashtra, the state of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar that Dalits are being subjected to such inhuman cruelty. In a press conference along with the residents of Siddharth Colony the Aam Aadmi Party demanded that Adani Power be charged under the relevant sections of the Prevention of Atrocities Act, power be restored & the discom be dismissed as a power supplier for cutting power to those households who have paid their power bills. If the MVA sarkar fails to take immediate and concrete action the Aam Aadmi Party threatened to take to the streets along with residents.
In a written submission to the Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray by the Aam Aadmi Party it was pointed out that without getting into details of who has paid their bills or not Adani Power has punished the whole of Siddharth Colony for a few defaulters and they have only had the courage to do so as they know the residents who live there are poor Dalit people and will not be able to fight back. Hence this amounts to an offense under the Prevention of Atrocities Act since they have singled out a community and abused their ability to distribute power. The government is well aware that the nearly 3,500 households of Siddharth Colony have a long standing dispute of unpaid power bills with the electricity company. Many politicians including the local MP Rahul Shewale have failed to resolve this issue. There are three kinds of residents in Siddharth Colony. One, who have been paying their bills right from the start. Two, a bulk of the population who have been paying their bills right from 2019. Three, a few who have sporadically paid or not paid their bills.
“Without getting into details of who has paid their bills or not Adani Power has punished the whole of Siddharth Colony for a few defaulters and they have had the courage to do so as they know the residents who live there are poor Dalit people and will not be able to fight back. Hence this amounts to a Dalit atrocity since they have singled out a community and abused their ability to disperse power.” said AAP Mumbai President and National Executive member Preeti Sharma Menon. “We demand that this matter be resolved and be charged with the Dalit Atrocities Act. They should also be dismissed as a power supplier for cutting power to those households who have paid their power bills.” added Menon.
Vuln!! Path it now!!
A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Centre to ascertain the feasibility of enacting a stringent population control law to secure fundamental rights for citizens.
The plea filed by spiritual orator Devkinandan Thakur said there is a need to control the population explosion to secure the basic rights of the citizens as this is the root cause of all the problems.
“The facts constituting the cause of action accrued on December 10, 2020, when the Centre said that it is against the forcing of family planning and won’t take coercion action. Centre passed its obligation though ‘Population Control & Family Planning’ is mentioned in the concurrent list. Hence Centre can make laws and regulation policies to control population explosion, which is the biggest menace to democracy and socio-economic development. It has not even drafted a Bill till date.
“The injury caused to citizens, particularly women, is extremely large. The perils of population explosion on the economy and its ramifications are often discussed. But, the impact that repeated childbearing has on women are seldom highlighted outside the niche areas. Incidence of grand multiparity, which is defined as more than 4 viable births, in developing countries like India is 20 per cent while it is only 2 per cent in developed countries,” the plea filed through advocate Ashutosh Dubey said.
The plea has submitted that the right to clean air, drinking water, health, and livelihood guaranteed under Articles 21-21A, can’t be secured to all citizens without effective population control.
It has also sought directions to the Law Commission of India to examine the population control laws and population control policies of the developed countries and suggest steps in order to secure the fundamental rights.
The Centre in another petition had earlier told the top court that India is unequivocally against forcing family planning on its people and any coercion to have a certain number of children is counter-productive and leads to demographic distortions.
In an affidavit filed in the top court, the health ministry had said that the family welfare programme in the country is voluntary in nature, which enables couples to decide the size of their family and adopt family planning methods best suited to them, according to their choice and without any compulsion.
The submission was made in response to a PIL filed by lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay challenging a Delhi High Court order that dismissed a plea seeking certain steps, including the two-child norm, to control the country’s growing population.
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