Man believed to be behind Basirhat riots arrested

NCP leader Dhanjay Munde on Friday claimed in the Legislative Council that gangster and 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Abu Salem was found in possession of mobile phone in the jail premises.

JUST IN: Egyptian official says a train collision in Alexandria has killed 25 people and injured 65 others.

The Supreme Court on Friday constituted a five member team to ensure proper rehabilitation for the Vrindavan widows.

This committee is constituted to suggest steps and measures that could be taken to rehabilitate, compensate and make lives of the widowed women residing in Vrindavan better.

Earlier in July, the top court expressing concern over the plight of widows forced to live a life of destitution asked the Centre to frame scheme to promote their remarriage.

The court said that the Centre must take steps to remove the social stigma faced by the widows after being abandoned by their family, and to rehabilitate them by imparting skills, to make them independent.

Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu today advised the media to shun sensationalism and focus more on constructive debates that take place in the House.

Citing a personal example, the vice president said that several years back as an enthusiastic member of parliament, he had gone in-depth into the issues relating to agriculture in India and gave a nearly hour-long speech. He said several members in the House came to him and complimented him on the exhaustive exposition on the various aspects of the issue.

However, next day, to his surprise, he realised that it had been completely ignored by all the papers, barring one. And that too mentioned just one line that Venkaiah Naidu spoke eloquently on agricultural issues. As members smiled and thumped desks, Naidu said the media was independent but as the Chairman of the House, he would like to convey the widely held feeling among the members that media should focus more on constructive debates.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday said that former Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav has every right to take his own decision as to where his loyalties lie, adding the decision to form an alliance with the BJP was made with the consent of the entire party.


"Sharad Yadav is free to take his own decision. As far as party is concerned, the party has taken its decision. The decision taken is not based on my will only, it had been made with the consent of the entire party. I have made it clear earlier also, but if still he wants to put forward his opinion then he is free to do so," Kumar told media here.


Yadav has rebelled against party president and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for breaking away from the grand alliance to join hands with the BJP last month.


Also, with Sonia Gandhi inviting Sharad Yadav in the Opposition meeting today, the party has come down heavily on the Congress President saying she is trying to create a rift within the Nitish Kumar-led party.

So the verdict on the only Hindi movie release this weekend, Akshay Kumar's Toilet: Ek Prem Katha is out. Here's Sukanya Verma's teaser review for Rediff.com.
 

Toilet: Ek Prem Katha has something pertinent to say about open defecation but isn't cunning enough to venture beyond screaming platitudes to underscore a milieu of antiquated values.


It doesn't help that director Shree Narayan Singh adopts an extremely bombastic tone and in-your-face approach to shove social ideals down the viewer's throat.


At nearly three hours, Toilet drags unevenly between crusade and entertainment but works best when it allows Akshay Kumar and Bhumi Pednekar to use their innate humour and warmth to build a relationship that's real and worth caring for.


The complete review shortly.

After the Shia Waqf Board told the Supreme Court that a mosque can be built at a distance, the court on Friday has commenced the cross-appeals hearing in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case, to look for an amicable settlement of the dispute.

MC Dhingra, the lawyer appearing for Shia Waqf Board in the Ayodhya case, while speaking to ANI, said that the Shia Board has decided to leave the one-third land allotted to them, to avoid problems for both the religious denominations, in regard to their prayers.

"The basic reason is that even if in one-third area the mosque is built, they will use loud speaker, and similarly in the remaining area, temple will also have its loud speaker. Hence, this will create problem for both the religious denominations," he said, adding, "So it is better for the Shia board to bring upon a situation where there is no such kind of disturbance. I am of firm belief that if land is provided elsewhere, in a Muslim dominated area, then there will be no recurrence, at least on this score."

Briefly explaining the Shia Board's stand, Dhingra said that if mosque is built in the one-third area, there will not be any permanent solution to the long-driven dispute.

Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, teaser: The actors are good, the point it makes is valid but it's extremely loud, sanctimonious and loud, says Sukanya Verma.

Wait for the Rediff.com review before you book.

"I live in a privileged city, I have a privileged life, I was in a car. If it can happen here, then there is literally no hope for women in rural India or smaller cities. If more women think we can help ourselves, we can survive, and men would be a lot more hesitant to try something like this."

Varnika Kundu, the young woman, who is spearheading a movement to embolden women to own the streets, speaks on the attempted abduction and the life thereafter, in an interview with Rediff.com. Do read.


Pic: Deejay Varnika Kundu at work. Image kind courtesy: Varnika Kundu

Seven Congress MLAs in Gujarat, who were expelled from the party after they had voted against party candidate Ahmed Patel in the Rajya Sabha polls, have resigned as legislators, Assembly Speaker Ramanlal Vora said today. Cracking down on dissidents in Gujarat, the Congress had on August 9 expelled from the party for six years former Leader of Opposition Shankarsinh Vaghela and the seven MLAs who cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha election on August 8.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti met Prime Minister Narendra Modi today amid reports that she was seeking help against attempts to alter Constitutional provisions that give special status to the state. The chief minister, who arrived in New Delhi yesterday, called on the prime minister at his Parliament office, reports PTI.


Speaking to reporters after the meeting with PM Modi, the J&K CM said of the BJP-PDP alliance, "The PM gave 100 per cent assurance on the agenda of alliance. The situation is normalizing but people think our identity can be in danger so our message that J&K is the crown of India, should be reiterated. Idea of India has to accommodate the idea of Jammu & Kashmir.

"The basis of our agenda of alliance is that status quo of 370 has to be  maintained and none of us can go against that.

"Discussions on 35A have a negative impact on Jammu & Kashmir, it should not happen." 

The meeting comes in the backdrop of the debate on Article 35A of the Constitution that grants special status to the state and is being challenged in the Supreme Court.

The chief minister had met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh yesterday. Details of the meeting were not made public by either the Centre or the state government. Officials in the home ministry had said yesterday that its law officers would be presenting legal aspects related to Article 35A only and would refrain from joining the case.

Mehbooba is keen to build consensus against scrapping the Constitutional provision, which empowers the Jammu and Kashmir legislature to define the state's "permanent residents" and their special rights and privileges, sources said.

Mehbooba had met opposition National Conference (NC) president Farooq Abdullah this week to seek the support of his party on the issue. Abdullah had told her that she should meet the prime minister, all important central ministers and also the BJP leadership to convince the Sangh Parivar against striking down the constitutional provision.

The state BJP, an alliance partner in the state government, had upped the ante with its spokesperson Virendra Gupta saying yesterday that time had come to bid a farewell to Article 370 and Article 35A of the Constitution as they created a "separatist psyche". The controversy erupted in 2014 after an NGO 'We the Citizens' filed a PIL in the Supreme Court seeking that Article 35A be struck down. Article 35A was added to the Constitution by a presidential order in 1954, it said.

While the state government contested the petition, saying the president had the power to incorporate a new provision in the Constitution by way of an order, the Centre, recently, expressed its reservations.

Writing in the Sunday Times of India, Amulya Gopalakrishnan recently brought out the huge Nehru vilification industry that exists across cyberspace. In Rajasthan, India's first prime minister is being wiped out from schools since it is more easy to fiddle with textbooks than write academic tomes based on verifiable facts, footnotes and peer-review. But what would India have been minus Nehru? Read the column here.

Baba Ramdev places injunction against publishing house Juggernaut Books for Godman to Tycoon. Read


Also read: How the Ramdev Book was researched

Achieving the high end of the 6.75-7.5 per cent growth projected previously will be difficult due to appreciation of rupee, farm loan waivers and transitionary challenges from implementing GST, the Economic Survey said today.

For the first time today, the government presented a second or a mid-year economic survey for the year 2016-17 (rpt 2016-17) highlighting the new factors that the economy faces since the last such exercise in February.

It also said that the scope for monetary easing was considerable and this, coupled with reform to address the twin balance sheet challenge, will help the economy achieve its full potential quicker.

"Cyclical conditions suggest that the policy rate should actually be below... the neutral rate. The conclusion is inescapable that the scope for monetary easing is considerable," he said.

The Economic Survey said that a number of indicators-- GDP, IIP, credit, investment and capacity utilisation, point to a deceleration in real activity since first quarter of 2016-17 and a further deceleration since the third quarter.

The first volume of the Survey in February had predicted the range of GDP growth of between 6.75-7.5 per cent, factoring in more buoyant exports, a post-demonetisation catch-up in consumption and a relaxation in monetary conditions consequent upon demonetisation.

File pic.

SBI consolidated net profit jumps to Rs 3,105.35 crore in Q1 FY 2018 against Rs 867.32 crore a year ago. 

"When I first saw Dr Ruth Pfau sitting under an old banyan tree in Manghopir, it reminded me of a childhood story told by my great grandmother, Babi.Babi in her youth was the prettiest girl in her hometown of Banaras, and so was taken away by djins. She was saved by an old woman who sat under a banyan tree along the Ganges, surrounded by the outcast widows, young and old.

"She was Devi Maa, her world revolved around these bald women in white saris, otherwise despised by everyone in town. She was their psychiatrist, their spiritual leader and, above all, their only hope," Babi would narrate.

Read the full story here.

Big ticket meetings in New Delhi today:

Tamil Nadu CM E Palaniswami met PM Modi today.

Then Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti met the PM.

And at 1:30 pm, Bihar CM will meet the PM. 

In another damning evidence in the Chandigarh stalking case, a CCTV footage has been recovered of August 4th which clearly shows accused Vikas Barala purchasing alcohol before chasing down Varnika Kunda at midnight.

In the footage, Barala along with his friend Ashish Kumar were seen buying alcohol from a shop located in Chandigarh sector 9, strengthening the victim's claim that they were allegedly intoxicated on the night when the incident took place.

Earlier on Thursday, a Chandigarh court sent Barala and his friend to two-day police custody.

On August 5, Vikas Barala, Haryana Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Subhash Barala's son, and his friend were arrested on the charges of stalking and harassing an IAS officer's daughter Varnika Kundu in Chandigarh. They were, however, granted bail on the same day.

Following this, a notice was issued to both the accused under 160 Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the case has been filed under Section 354D (stalking), 341 (wrongful restraint), 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 185 MV Act (driving by a drunken person or by a person under the influence of drugs).

Director General of Police Chandigarh Tajender Singh Luthra had said that Vikas and his friend Ashish were slapped with charges of abduction.

Vikas and Ashish appeared in Chandigarh Sector 26 Police Station on Wednesday following which they were arrested.

Sharing the horrifying experience in her Facebook post, Varnika Kundu had accused that the duo was allegedly drunk and were driving recklessly behind her.

On August 9, Luthra informed that both the accused in the Chandigarh stalking case had refused to give their blood and urine sample for the investigation, spurring doubts about them being possibly drunk.

"The duty doctor did want to take the blood and urine sample, but the accused are law graduates, they knew the law very well. Therefore, they refused to give the blood and urine sample," DGP Luthra told the reporter.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday welcomed Venkaiah Naidu as the Rajya Sabha Chairman, saying he is the first Vice President who was born in independent India, adding that the former Union Minister knows the workings of the House very well after being active in it for so long.


Naidu takes over the charge from Hamid Ansari whose second term ended on Thursday.


Praising Naidu for his various rural development schemes, Prime Minister Modi said, "Venkaiah Naidu has gifted the nation with Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana,


"Venkaiah Naidu is a farmer's son and during his tenure as Poverty Alleviation Minister, he has always upheld the interests of the poor, said PM Modi while speaking in Rajya Sabha.


Modi further stated that the presence of a farmer's son in a highly dignified position is a proof of a "matured democracy" in India.


He concluded his speech with an inspiring couplet, "Amal karo aisa sadan mein, jahan se guzre tumhari nazrein, udhar se tumhe salaam aaye."


Naidu was sworn-in as the 13th Vice President of India today, succeeding Hamid Ansari, in a glittering ceremony.


President Ram Nath Kovind administered him the oath of office and secrecy at Rashtrapati Bhavan here.


Following the ceremonial reception Naidu took over as the speaker of the Rajya Sabha in the Parliament.


Earlier in the day, he visited Rajghat to pay floral tribute to the memorial of Mahatma Gandhi.


National Democratic Alliance (NDA) nominee and former union minister Naidu was elected as the 13th Vice President of India with 516 votes.


Opposition nominee Gopalkrishna Gandhi secured 244 votes out of 760 valid votes.


Born at Chavatapalem in the Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh on July 1, 1949, Naidu is the second Vice-president from Andhra Pradesh.


Before joining active politics, Naidu was much of a social worker. After completing his graduation, Naidu pursued law from Andhra University in Visakhapatnam.


Venkaiah Naidu's entry into politics was marked by his active participation in 'Jai Andhra Movement' of 1972. He was a swayamsevak in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in 1973 during his college days.


After the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was formed in 1980, he became Vice president of its youth wing. He was leader of the BJP Legislature Party in Andhra Pradesh, state general secretary and state unit chief.


He won the Andhra Pradesh assembly elections twice in 1978 and 1983 from Udayagiri constituency and was made national president in 2002.


Naidu was elected as a member of the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka in 1998 and was re-elected twice in 2004 and 2010 from Karnataka.

He served as the Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and Information and Broadcasting in Prime Minister Narendra Modi Government before he was nominated for the post of Vice President.

The Reserve Bank of India halved its annual dividend to the government, a move that's likely to put a strain on public finances and imperil Prime Minister Narendra Modi's aim of reining in the fiscal deficit, NDTV reports quoting Bloomberg.


Marking a five-year low, the Reserve Bank of India transferred Rs. 30,660 crore ($4.8 billion), which was more than 50 percent lower than the Rs. 65,876 crore transferred last year. The central bank sends a dividend every year after closing its accounts in June. Bloomberg Quint reported earlier this year the government budgeted an inflow of Rs. 58,000 crore from the RBI, with the dividend being paid out of its surplus generated from market operations and investments.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E Palaniswami has met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi this afternoon.

The two factions of the AIADMK -- E Palaniswami's (Amma faction) and former CM O Panneerselvam's (Puratchi Amma faction) are in New Delhi for the oath-taking ceremony of Venkaiah Naidu as the country's Vice-President.

Both camps of the AIADMK have reportedly been in touch with senior leaders of the BJP ahead of a merger of the both the factions, expected by next week.

Prospects of a merger of the two factions of the AIADMK brightened with the Palaniswami-led Amma camp on Thursday moving against the appointment of V K Sasikala's nephew T T V Dinakaran as deputy general
secretary.

The move by the chief minister's faction was hailed by the rebel camp with its chief O Panneerselvam saying a decision 'reflective' of people's expectations would be taken soon.

A resolution adopted at a meeting of the chief minister's faction said the appointment of Dinakaran was against the party rules and that its cadres have been asked to ignore his directives.

The Panneerselvam faction, which has been demanding ouster of Sasikala, now in jail, and Dinakaran as a pre-condition for merger, termed Thursday's development as an 'awakening'.

Dinakaran, who was in Thanjavur, on his part put up a brave face and asserted he was in control of the party.

An AIADMK Amma meeting chaired by Chief Minister Palaniswami said Dinakaran cannot hold any party post as he was not a member continuously for the past five years.

A resolution adopted at the meeting referred to Dinakaran's expulsion in December 2011 by then party chief Jayalalithaa and subsequent re-admission in February this year by her successor and his aunt V K Sasikala.

File pic.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will present the second volume of Economic Survey 2016-17 in both houses of the Parliament today.The second volume will be presented by Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian and his team and will contain updated macroeconomic data.

Today is the last day of Monsoon session.

A lot of Bills are scheduled to come up for discussion in Rajya Sabha today, that includes The Companies (Amendment) Bill, The Indian Institutes of Management Bill, The Appropriation Bill, The Punjab Municipal Corporation Law (Extension to Chandigarh) Amendment Bill, The Central Goods and Services Tax (Extension to Jammu and Kashmir) Bill and The Integrated Goods and Services Tax (Extension to Jammu and Kashmir) Bill.


The Lok Sabha is scheduled to discuss, The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Second Amendment) Bill, The Repealing and Amending Bill, The Requisitioning and Acquisition of Immovable Property (Amendment) Bill, The Central Road Fund (Amendment) Bill, The Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Amendment Bill and The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (Amendment) Bill, today

The emergence of an aggressive BJP in the state has made the Naveen Patnaik government sit up and establish direct contact with the masses through a slew of grassroots-level programmes.

The purpose of the mass contact programmes is to directly interact with the beneficiaries of various welfare schemes of the state government. Talking about the obvious political import of the programmes, a BJD leader said it would help the party galvanise its rural network using the government platform. Read the full report here.

The BSE Sensex slumped over 336 points and the NSE Nifty slipped below the 9,800-mark in early trade today following global sell-off triggered by mounting geo-political tensions between the US and North Korea. Besides, caution ahead of IIP data for June due later in the day too weighed on the sentiments.

The BSE 30-share barometer tanked 336.46 points, or 1.06 per cent, to 31,194.87. It had tumbled 794.08 points in the previous four sessions hit by sliding global sharers due to stand-off between the US and North Korea, and market regulator Sebi's directive imposing trading restrictions on suspected 331 shell companies.

All sectoral indices led by infrastructure, capital goods, realty, auto, metal and healthcare were in the red. Also, the NSE Nifty was trading down by 115.90 points, or 1.18 per cent, at 9,704.35. Brokers said that apart from continuous selling by investors and sustained foreign fund outflows, deep losses at other bourses and the US markets as investors reacted with dismay to escalating North Korea tensions led to a further slide in the Sensex.

In addition, weakness in the rupee against the American currency too weighed on the sentiment. The rupee fell 19 paise to 64.27 against the dollar in early trade at the forex market.

Major losers that dragged down the key indices were Tata Motors, L&T, Sun Pharma, Cipla, ONGC, Dr Reddy's, Asian Paint, Hero MotoCorp, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, Coal India and Maruti Suzuki, declining up to 2.87 per cent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.59 per cent, while Shanghai Composite Index plunged 1.30 per cent in early trade today. Financial markets in Japan are closed today for a public holiday. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 0.93 per cent in yesterday's trade.

President Ram Nath Kovind congratulates Vice President Venkaiah Naidu.

Naidu will also be the Chairman of the Upper House of Parliament i.e. Rajya Sabha.

More than 25 people fall ill and two children are critical after consuming momos in Delhi's Rajpur Khurd village.

Pakistan has built a 'hardened, secure, underground' complex in a remote mountainous region in the restive Balochistan province that could serve as a storage site for nuclear warheads, an American think tank said on Wednesday.

The Institute for Science and International Security, a nonprofit and non-governmental institution, said its observation is based on satellite imagery and investigation.

It said in a report that the underground complex in the southwestern province 'could serve as a ballistic missile and nuclear warhead storage site'.

The purpose of the complex is not yet available publicly.

But, the report authored by David Albright, Sarah Burkhard, Allison Lach and Frank Pabian, said it could serve as a storage site for strategic reserves and hence a means of protecting a counterforce nuclear strike capability.

Given that Pakistan's preferred delivery vehicle for nuclear weapons is missiles with warheads and given the physical characteristics of the site, this site is an ideal, probable storage site for parts of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, the report noted.

"Although the site is located in the province of Balochistan, which has endured many local insurgencies, Pakistan is likely more focused on having a secure area in a remote mountainous area in the middle of the country, as far as possible from its international borders, including India," it said.

According to the report, the complex has three distinct entrances and a separate support area and the entrances are large and can accommodate even the largest possible vehicles.

As of 2012, the security was relatively modest, with some possible signature suppression (eg no obvious perimetre security).

"Nonetheless, the site did include at least one possible anti-aircraft position with a guard post at that time," the report said.

"In contrast, 2014 DigitalGlobe images show considerably more physical security in the form of added fencing and checkpoints and several new possible antiaircraft positions. This analysis resulted from a 2014 request from a journalist who provided the coordinates of the ballistic missile base and the mountain site. The person requested that they remain anonymous," it said. --  Lalit K Jha/PTI