Timeline Refresh
"The DJB was asked to plan for its (scheme's) effective implementation in metered areas by ensuring meters remain functional and error-free," a press statement issued by the LG said.
The previous Delhi government led by AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal had launched the scheme to provide 667 litres of free water daily for domestic consumption to each household having a meter. The LG asked the officials to ensure that the scheme reaches its intended beneficiaries and is not misused by "unscrupulous elements".
"It is clear that their agenda was political, their thoughts were political. They are not against terrorism. Had they been against terrorism, today they would have said no terrorists should be released," he said. Asked for his reaction about the Tamil Nadu government's decision to release the convicts, he said, "People of India will have to decide who is for terrorists and who is against terrorists, who is for terrorism, who is against terrorism."
Sibal also took a jibe at BJP for not uttering a word on the issue while it had bayed for Afzal Guru's blood. "They (BJP) were baying for the blood of Afzal Guru and I am surprised that when it comes to other assassins, they don't even utter a word. I think BJP has something to answer to," he told media persons, questioning the silence of the Opposition party over the issue.
BJP today appointed Harsh Vardhan as president of the party's Delhi unit replacing Vijay Goel from the post. Party President Rajnath Singh made the appointment after accepting Goel's resignation who has since been nominated to the Rajya Sabha from Rajasthan.
Harshvardhan was BJP's Chief Ministerial candidate in the previous Delhi assembly elections in which the party failed to get a simple majority by a narrow margin.
The ruling Naga Peoples Front in Nagaland today gave the green signal to Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio to contest the lone Lok Sabha seat in the state in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.
The NPF Search Committee had recommended Rio's name as the party candidate for the single Lok Sabha seat in the state on February 1, NPF secretary general KG Kenye told PTI in Kohima after a party meeting.
Kenye said that Rio's candidature would now be put before a coordination committee meeting of coalition partners of the Democratic Alliance of Nagaland tomorrow. DAN comprised NPF, BJP and JDU.
Renowned economist Amartya Sen today dismissed as mere rumour the media report that he was contemplating to resign from the post of chancellor of Nalanda University.
"There is an entire gossip. I never intend to resign, nor I am going to resign. It is a complete construction (planted story). Why should I resign?" Sen wondered.
Sen, however, conceded that he was having some issues with the government on whether the Nalanda University would follow rules applicable to an international university or a central university.
The Nobel laureate said he preferred the university to come up as an international university because bringing the university under central rules would be a betrayal of its international partners and Indian Parliament.
"It would be a complete betrayal of Asian collegues, betrayal of Indian Parliament and Indian people as we are building up an international university," Sen pointed out.
Upset with party declaring Ashutosh's candidature from Chandani Chowk constituency, AAP volunteers today staged protest outside Arvind Kejriwal's residence today.
Around 50 volunteers from the constituency staged a protest outside Kejriwal's residence on Tilak Lane. The protestors were upset over giving the ticket to an "outsider" and someone who had recently joined the party rather than giving it an AAP volunteer.
The party, however, said that the protestors were not its volunteers. "Our volunteers wanted a strong candidate to be fielded against Kapil Sibal, which is why we decided on Ashutosh. Those who were protesting are not our volunteers," said party's media coordinator Dilip Pandey.
After the party released it first list of 20 candidates, there were some resentment against the party's choice.
The bedlam started as soon as Governor B L Joshi began his address to the joint sitting of the two houses of the state legislature at 11 am.
The session has been called to pass an interim budget for 2014-15. The BSP members climbed on their benches displaying banner and placards, and raised issues from law and order to farmers plight, besides demanding dismissal of the government.
Pic tweeted by the Indian Express
"Whether they did the alleged crime or not only the God knows, there is nothing wrong in releasing them now after they were put behind bars for 23 years," K K Sulaiman, an elderly Congress functionary of Sriperumbudur who was severely wounded with pellet injuries on the fateful May night of 1991 said.
"I am a pious Muslim, I must only speak the truth. This is what I feel. Also, there are strong allegations that the crimes have not been proved conclusively," he said.
"No debate took place on the Bill and it was adopted in the din by a "voice vote". The demand for a discussion made by some opposition parties was denied. All this was done in collusion between the Congress and the BJP," the statement read.
"My father became a martyr. We are against the death penalty. (But) If a Prime Minister's killers are being released, what kind of justice should the common man expect?" Gandhi said, hours after the Jayalalithaa government announced that all the convicts would be freed, a politically significant decision ahead of the national election, due by May. -- NDTV
Dr Singh met BJP's Rajya Sabha leaders Arun Jaitley and Venkaiah Naidu a day after the bill was passed under controversial circumstances in the Lok Sabha, with live telecast cut off.
Mumbai blast convict Sanjay Dutt's parole was extended by 30 days by the Maharashtra Government on Tuesday.
Dutt, convicted in the Mumbai serial blasts case, has been out on parole since December 21. He was scheduled to return to the Yerawada Central Prison on February 21. This is the third extension in his parole since he started his second stint in the jail in May 2013.
Anna says he will campaign for all TMC candidates in the 2014 polls.
Thackeray visited Maria's office at the Police Headquarters in South Mumbai at about 11.15 am, police sources said adding the meeting between the MNS chief and city's top cop lasted for about 30 minutes. "It was a courtesy visit by Thackeray," Deputy Police Commissioner (spokesperson) Mahesh Patil said.
"This is not a quick decision. When I made this opinion [seeking release] in 2011, she did not accept it. However, today, I appreciate her for taking the same stance," Karunanidhi told reporters when asked if the decision could be considered a quick response.
The DMK chief also hoped that the Centre would concur with the state government's decision, saying if that happened "we could be more happy."
The bill was passed in the Lok Sabha yesterday in controversial circumstances, with live telecast cut off. The BJP today moved 20 amendments to the bill, which include a compensatory package for Seemandhra, the non-Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh which fears a smaller share of water, power and revenue from Telangana once the new state is created.
After a two-year long trial, all three accused in the brutal gangrape and murder of the woman were convicted by a fast-track court on Thursday.
Rahul, 26, Ravi and Vinod, both 22, were convicted under section 302 with section 34 (attempt to murder with common intent), section 376 (g) (gangrape), section 363 (kidnapping) and section 201 (destruction of evidence) under the Indian Penal Code.
Read more: No mercy for my daughter's killers, says Delhi gangrape victim's mother
"No formal request has been made by this Ministry to the US government," Minister of State for Home Mullappally Ramachandran informed Rajya Sabha in a written reply.
The government's response came in reply to a question of Shiv Sena member Anil Desai, who asked whether it is a fact that government has made a request to the US government to track down the wanted terrorist.
Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde had recently said that Dawood is in Pakistan and joint efforts with the US were being made to nab him
Only if MPs had shown Parliamentary Skills and not Muscle Power Democracy would have emerged stronger," Digvijaya said in a tweet today.
The Bill to carve out Telangana, the 29th state, by splitting Andhra Pradesh was yesterday passed by the Lok Sabha with Congress and BJP coming together on the issue, amidst din, chaos and an unprecedented black out of television coverage.
That widely-held opinion was backed by Narendra Modi, the man who wants to lead India after the next election, when he told a crowd that as a bachelor, he was best placed to tackle graft. Read
Ramesh had tried to snatch papers from the Secretary General, whose spectacles were dislodged in the scuffle.
The MP would have been suspended for the day but for his apology.
"You can't attack the staff. Very unfortunate," said PJ Kurien, who was presiding over the Rajya Sabha.
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid rubbed in with a touch of triumphalism during his speech at Kandahar on Saturday that after the 'Kandahar hijacking', an Indian minister was returning to the heartland of the Taliban movement. Whether Azhar's return to the arena on Monday could be a Pakistani riposte remains unclear.
Read the full blog by MK Bhadrakumar.
"A decision to create the state of Telangana by dividing Andhra has been taken. He was opposed to it. What other option did he have?," Shinde said.
Reddy today quit the Congress and resigned as Chief Minister and MLA, a day after the Lok Sabha passed the Telangana bill. He had been relentlessly opposing the Centre's decision to carve out a separate state of Telangana.
The court, meanwhile, directed the standing counsel for the Delhi government to seek instructions and file an affidavit indicating the actual position regarding the proposal of then AAP government.
The court passed the order as there was "no clarity" on whether the Delhi cabinet had taken a decision to implement the subsidy as claimed by the petitioner Vivek Sharma.
Congress has been too tolerant in dealing with dissent on Telangana.
I believe Kiran Reddy should have been asked to step down much sooner as Chief Minister.
The Lok Sabha telecast blackout is nothing to do with the government and we should not call it censorship as the press gallery was full and had access to the proceeding.
Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/politics/modi-will-never-be-pm-but-he-can-sell-tea-mani-shankar-aiyar-1345419.html?utm_source=ref_article
Read more at: http://www.firstpost.com/politics/modi-will-never-be-pm-but-he-can-sell-tea-mani-shankar-aiyar-1345419.html?utm_source=ref_article
The blackout was planned and not a technical glitch as has been claimed by the Lok Sabha Secretariat yesterday, the BJP Parliamentary Party said.
The Parliamentary Party meeting, chaired by L K Advani, demanded that the proceedings be shown live when the bill is taken up in Rajya Sabha.
Chief Judicial Magistrate Anuja Prabhudesai ordered the court staff to hand over the copy of the CCTV footage to Tejpal by 5 pm today. Tejpal, who is currently lodged in Sada sub jail in Vasco town, had moved an application, seeking the CCTV footage, one of the crucial evidence produced by the crime branch in the charge sheet.
Tejpal, in a statement issued last night, had accused the crime branch of hiding the crucial CCTV footage which he said could give the accurate version of the events.
On Tuesday, Kiran Kumar Reddy cleared files relating to the promotion of Hyderabad police commissioner Anurag Sharma and senior IPS officer SV Ramana Murthy to the director general rank. He also cleared the file appointing his press secretary A Satya Rao as chairman of the AP Press Academy.
The other three are Robert Pious, Jayakumar and Ravichandran.
A bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam rejected the Centre's submission that there was no unreasonable delay in deciding their mercy plea and the condemned prisoners did not go through agonising experience as they were enjoying life behind the bars.
The bench, also comprising justices Ranjan Gogoi and S K Singh, said they are unable to accept the Centre's view and commuted the death sentence of convicts -- Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan -- to imprisonment for life subject to remission by the government.
The fourth person also set to be released is Nalini. Nalini is serving a life sentence in the Vellore Central Prison.
"These families (of PoK and West Pak refugees) occupied 5,808.25 acres of land and since then they continue to occupy such land," Minister of State for Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation Ajaz Ahmed Khan told the Legislative Council today.
The minister was replying to a clubbed Calling Attention Notice by Congress members Ravinder Kumar Sharma, Naresh Kumar Gupta and B R Kundal.
Read the full story here
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