LIVE! 15 MPs agree to sign no-confidence motion against UK PM: Report

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Sun, 23 July 2017

15 MPs agree to sign no-confidence motion against UK PM: Report

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21:24 15 MPs agree to sign no-confidence motion against UK PM: Report

Around 15 Conservative party MPs have agreed to sign a no-confidence motion against British Prime Minister Theresa May as part of a plot to oust her, according to a media report.

Although the letter of no confidence falls short of the 48 names required to trigger a leadership contest, the UK Parliament's summer break could prove critical for May's future as British prime minister, 'The Sunday Times' reported.

"The numbers change from day to day depending on what's happened but there are about 15 who are fairly consistent in their desire for change. If she has a quiet summer and there are no crises and things are not mismanaged then she might be able to cling on beyond conference, but that is still a big if," a former minister was quoted as saying.

The reports come days after a summer party in the House of Commons last week where May pleaded with her MPs to "go away and have a proper break and come back ready for serious business".

"No backbiting, no carping. The choice is me or (Opposition Labour leader) Jeremy Corbyn - and no one wants him," Conservative MPs who were present reported her as saying.

Meanwhile, a Conservative party survey indicates that some Tory grassroots MPs want May to quit by Christmas time this year.

The survey, carried out by the Party Members' Project, comes as Parliament stands down for the summer but with bitter party infighting and behind-the-scenes plotting expected to continue over the recess.

It found 21 per cent of members backed Brexit minister David Davis, 17 per cent preferred foreign minister Boris Johnson, while the third choice was backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg, who has something of a cult following, but was backed by just six per cent of those surveyed.

President Pranab Mukherjee will address the nation tomorrow on the eve of demitting office.

The address will be broadcast from 1930 hrs on the national network of All India Radio and telecast over all channels of Doordarshan in English followed by Hindi versions.

Earlier today, Parliamentarians hosted a farewell ceremony for Mukherjee today.

Raking up a controversy, Bihar's Aurangabad District Magistrate Kanwal Tanuj has said that those who cannot build a toilet for their wives, should sell them.

He was addressing a public gathering on Saturday on a cleanliness drive in Jamhore village of the Aurangabad district.

"Due to lack of toilets, women get raped and harassed. It only costs Rs. 12,000 for the construction of the toilet. Is 12,000 more than anyone's wife's dignity? Who can let her wife get raped in return of Rs. 12000?" Tanuj said.

"If this is your mentality then go and sell your wife. Those who cannot build toilet should sell or auction his wife," he added.

Days after quitting Parliament, BSP chief Mayawati today said her party would launch a state-wide programme from September 18 to protest the "anti-Dalit" stand of the BJP.

She said as she had resigned from the Rajya Sabha on July 18 "not being allowed to speak the on anti-Dalit violence in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur", a conference of workers would be held on the 18th of every month beginning September.

Every month, party workers from two UP divisions would hold programmes in which she would also participate.

The agitational programme, beginning from Meerut, would continue till June next "to expose the BJP".

She announced the programme after holding a strategy session with party MPs, legislators and other leaders in New Delhi.

The September date was decided as the monsoon would be over by then.

BSP supremo Mayawati's resignation from the Rajya Sabha was accepted today by chairman Hamid Ansari, a senior official of the Upper House said.

The 61-year-old had on Wednesday resigned from the RS, accusing the BJP and the Chair of not allowing her to raise the issue of "anti-Dalit violence" in Uttar Pradesh in the House.

V C Arukutty, MLA, among the first to switch over to the O Panneerselvam camp, today joined the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-Amma in the presence of Chief Minister, Edapadi Palanisamy.

Arukutty met Palanisamy in Salem and joined the party.

The MLA said of late AIADMK-Puratchi Thalaivi Amma sidelined him and he has no other option but to join the ruling faction of the party after talking to the people of his constituency Kaundampalayam in Coimbatore.

"It is for the welfare of the constituency, as development projects will not come there if I continue to oppose the Government," he said.

The AIAMDK has two factions, one led by Chief Minister K Palaniswami and the other by Pannerselvam.

One in three Indians surveyed has admitted to having used free public Wi-Fi to watch adult content at places like hotels, airports, libraries and even workplace, says a study by Norton by Symantec.

The global study, which included over 1,000 respondents from India, found "more than one in three Indians admit to using public Wi-Fi to watch adult content".

But Indians are not alone in this behaviour. At a global level, one in six respondents admitted to using public Wi-Fi to watch adult content.

This includes response of people from across countries like Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Brazil, the US and the UK.

Hotels/Airbnb (49 per cent), friend's place (46 per cent), cafe/restaurants (36 per cent) and workplace (44 per cent) were among the top venues with Indian respondents saying they used the public Wi-Fi at these places to access adult content.

Interestingly, 31 per cent respondents said they had watched adult content on streets using public Wi-Fi, while 34 per cent had done so at a bus/train station.

About 24 per cent admitted to have used public Wi-Fi at libraries, while 34 per cent said they had used the service at an airport.

It is also interesting to note that access to Wi-Fi becomes a deciding factor for a significant chunk of Indians when it comes to choosing hotels, airlines and places to eat.

Such is the love for free Wi-Fi that 73 per cent respondents said "they wouldn't think twice about exchanging, sharing or even doing something to get a strong, free signal".

19:04

Earlier, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan presented a book signed by MPs and her speech to President Pranab Mukherjee during his farewell ceremony hosted in Parliament's Central Hall.

18:52 Parliament stands for debate, discussion, dissent: Outgoing Prez

President Pranab Mukherjee today thanked all the Parliamentarians for their support during his tenure and for giving him a warm farewell.

In his final speech at Parliament, Mukherjee said, "If I claim I am the creation of this Parliament, perhaps it will not be treated as immodesty."

Talking about the recent roll-out of Goods and services Tax, Mukherjee said, "The passage of GST speaks volume about the maturity of the Parliament. Recent passage of GST and its launch on July 1 is shining example of cooperative federalism and speaks volumes for maturity of Indias Parliament," he said.

He, however, expressed regret over the repeated adjournments of houses due to protests and walk outs.

"It is unfortunate that parliamentary time devoted to legislations has been declining," said Mukherjee.

"As President, Ive tried to protect, preserve, defend the Constitution, not just in letter but in spirit as well. Ordinance route should only be adopted in compelling circumstances", remarked President Mukherjee.

"Parliament stands for debate, discussion, dissent and disruption hurts opposition more," he added.

Mukherjee also remembered his mentor, former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as a towering personality.

"My career was mentored by Mrs Indira Gandhi who was a towering personality. She had the courage to call a spade a spade," he said.

Mukherjee said, "I will carry with me fond memories of my association with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and remember his warm, courteous behaviour towards me."

18:38 RJD denies rift in grand alliance in Bihar

After Nitish Kumar met Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday amidst growing speculation of a rift between the two parties, the Rashtriya Janata Dal has denied all the allegations that there is an air of tension in the 'Grand Alliance'.

Speaking to ANI, RJD leader Manoj Jha said that the people in the alliance are together.

"Whatever is being said in the media is all speculation and we don't pay much attention to speculation," he said.

Further pointing a finger at the BJP for allegedly using the situation to their advantage, Jha accused the saffron party of trying to manipulate the recent mechanisms.

Recently, the tension between the 'Grand Alliance' of Congress and RJD had grown as the Chief Minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar was facing increasing pressure to oust Deputy Chief minister Tejashwi Yadav from the cabinet after charges of corruption were proved against him. The CBI registered a corruption case against Lalu Yadav, his wife Rabri Devi and son Tejaswi Yadav on allegations of awarding the tender for development, maintenance and operation of hotels in Ranchi and Puri in 2006.

The RJD supremo, however, refuted the allegations against him and called it a political conspiracy hatched by the BJP.

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray today said his party would not shy away from "exposing" the BJP-led Maharashtra government if it fails to execute the loan waiver scheme properly.

Thackeray, whose party is also a part of the ruling coalition in the state, claimed his outfit was the first to demand debt waiver and rued that Maharashtra continues to top in farmer suicides.

"It was the Shiv Sena which first raised its voice for loan waiver for farmers, when Sharad Pawar was the Union agriculture minister.

"Maharashtra was on top in farmer suicides and unfortunately it is still at the top. This was not the area where our state should have been at the top," he said in an interview to his party's mouthpiece 'Saamana'.

"Hence, the farmers should be debt-free was my demand," he said.

"I have even asked the Shiv Sena workers to beat the drums outside the banks (as part of an agitation) and make them display the list of beneficiaries.

"We will not shy away from exposing the state government if it fails to execute the loan waiver scheme properly," Thackeray said.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had on June 24 announced the loan waiver of Rs 34,022 crore after a state-wide agitation by farmers earlier last month.

16:14 Pak violates ceasefire along LoC in Baramulla

Pakistani troops violated ceasefire along the Line of Control in Uri sector in north Kashmir's Baramulla district, but there was no loss of life, police said today.

The ceasefire violation took place near LoC at Manga Kamalkote in Uri last night, a police official said.

He said the shelling by Pakistani forces damaged a cow-shed and a house, both belonging to local.

However, no loss of life was reported, he added.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Sunday reiterated his stand to fully cooperate in the ongoing investigations over the mysterious death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar.

Tharoor, while addressing a press conference in Bengaluru, said that he will participate in the investigations into Sunanda's death, barring the hostile and publicity seeking attempts made by few people.

"No one in this country can be more anxious than me to see the conclusion of this issue. I will cooperate with authorities and not with obstreperous and publicity seeking attempts by others," said Tharoor.

Tharoor's stepson Shiv Menon has moved the Delhi high court challenging the locus standi of BJP leader Subramanian Swamy demanding time-bound court-monitored investigation into his mother's mysterious death.

Swamy said that the court would take the decision in connection with him demanding a court-monitored probe.

"He (Shiv Menon) doesn't want me to proceed with the case. It is for the court to decide whether I am giving important facts or not. The Delhi Police council even said that I come to the court with facts that have heavy weightage," Swamy told ANI.

Menon has alleged that Swamy filed the plea for sake of publicity and not to seek justice for Sunanda.

The next hearing of the matter is likely to take place on Monday.

Tyene Sand and Daenerys Targaryen are most likely to die in the final two seasons of the popular Game of Thrones TV series, scientists have predicted using a mathematical model.

Researchers came up with a ranking model for the characters based on how likely they are to die.

"I am probably not alone in wondering which of my favourite characters are going to meet their ends, and which will live on to the next season," said Milan Janosov, PhD candidate at Central European University in Hungary.

The model finds the probabilities of each living well-known character passing away. Janosov ranked the characters in increasing order of survival according to the final prediction model.

According to the calculations, Tyene Sand -- the illegitimate daughter of Prince Oberyn Martell -- is most likely to die, followed by Daenerys Targaryen, who is hoping to win the Iron Throne.

Grey Worm, commander of Daenerys's Unsullied army, ranks third on the list of characters most likely to die next.

Tyrion Lannister and Jon Snow seem to be relatively safe.

Arya Stark and the Hound, already so close to death many times before, are both in dangerous positions.

Cersei, currently sitting on the Iron Throne, and Petyr Baelish, who is doing his best to get there, seem to be in a much better position.

It seems Jorah Mormont will find the cure for his greyscale disease, and despite all he has been through, Theon Greyjoy will probably survive.

"Game of Thrones is a complex world in which social position and true friends seem to be quite important, so I quantified each character's social interaction patterns using the tools of network science," Janosov.

"I then predict their fate using machine learning methods," he said.

Researchers used the show's subtitles, collected in dialogue format. They constructed the aggregated network of the realm's social system.

In this network each node represents a character of the story, and the weight of the link between each pair of characters indicates the strength of their social interaction.

Researchers considered scenes to be the elementary units of the social interaction - an average episode contains about twenty of them.

This means that everyone who appeared once together in the same scene has a tie with strength of one, and within a scene everyone is connected with everyone.

In other words, scenes are complete graphs, or cliques, increasing the tie strength between all pairs of people present by one.

By calculating these scene-level complete networks and then aggregating them, researchers arrived to the global social network of Westeros, which has almost 400 nodes and more than 3,000 edges.

Using machine learning and data from characters that have already died, researchers predicted who is going to die in the near future.

Introduction of Rs 200 note will fill in the "missing middle" even as the new currency in circulation has already reached 84 per cent of the pre demonetisation level, says a report.

Cash with banks, a CIC component, has however witnessed a decline over November 2016 level, said the State Bank of India Ecowrap report.

The data for June 23, 2017 shows cash in hand with banks declining to 5.4 per cent of the currency in circulation from a high of 23.19 per cent for the fortnight ended November 25 2016, it said.

Going by historical trends, cash in hand with banks is roughly 3.8 per cent of CIC and is currently at 5.4 per cent.

This means at least an additional amount of 1.6 per cent/ Rs 25,000 crore of excess currency may be currently lying in ATMs and herein lies the importance of new Rs 200 notes which could serve as the "missing middle" it said.

The report added that Reserve Bank of India has recently "put orders" for it.

"The cash in hand with banks has been higher compared to the last year, because of demonetisation and the subsequent limits placed on withdrawals for some time. However, now the percentage is showing a decline and reaching pre- demonetisation levels," it added.

The report noted that though there has been a significant move towards relocating distribution of currency towards smaller denominations post demonetisation, there is a mismatch caused by the presence of Rs 2,000 denomination straight after Rs 500 denomination.

Moreover, an ATM machine typically holds 10,000 bills and if these were to comprise say only notes of Rs 100, the number and cost of replenishment goes up significantly.

"Herein lies the paradox. Notes of Rs 2,000 denomination in ATMs may find few takers because of missing middle/Rs 200 note," the report said.

The Reserve Bank is reportedly expected to introduce Rs 200 notes in the coming months to ease pressure on lower-denomination currencies that are in short supply.

The new notes of Rs 200 should be out before the end of 2017 and will greatly help in narrowing the demand and supply gap in smaller-denomination currency bills.

The Reserve Bank will hire 12 currency verification systems for six months to help it segregate fake ones from scrapped notes of Rs 500/1000 denomination.

The central bank is currently engaged in counting huge pile of old Rs 500/1000 notes which were scrapped following demonetisation on November 9, 2016.

Earlier in May, the Reserve Bank had floated a global tender for leasing of 18 'Currency Verification and Processing System'.

However, the tender was later cancelled and now a fresh one has been floated to lease 12 such systems.

As per the tender document, the currency notes of all denominations received at regional office of the RBI would have to be processed at a minimum speed of 30 notes per second.

The term of the lease contract will be of six months, extendable by three blocks of two months each, it added.

RBI Governor Urjit Patel, while appearing before a Parliamentary panel on July 12, had reportedly said the deposited banned notes were still being counted and therefore he was not in a position to give a figure on the scrapped currency that was back in the system.

Patel did not provide any "specific number" on the amount of money that had been deposited post-demonetisation.

According to the finance ministry, as on November 8, the day demonetisation was announced, there were 1,716.50 crore pieces of Rs 500 and 685.80 crore Rs 1,000 notes in circulation.

Ranbir Kapoor says the upcoming biopic on Sanjay Dutt will deal with both the highs and lows of the actor's life.

Ranbir says Dutt has been very gracious in providing insights about his life story in an honest way for the biopic being helmed by Rajkumar Hirani.

"He hasn't been a hypocrite about it (his life). So it's not a propaganda film trying to portray him as god or something.

"We are trying to show a very human side of Sanjay Dutt, his perils, his downfall, his will to fight, his time in jail, terrorism charges, his drug phase, how he handled his mother's death two days before the release of his debut film, his relationship with his father. These were human conflicts in his life," Ranbir told PTI.

Ranbir, who plays Dutt in the movie, says doing the biopic was daunting initially.

"He is such a relevant person even today. He is so much loved even today. He is controversial. But when you have Rajkumar Hirani as the director and Abhijat Joshi as the writer and the character like Sanjay Dutt, you are somewhere cushioned," he says.

From getting into the skin of the character to getting the body language right, the "Jagga Jasoos" star had to put in a lot of hard work to get every aspect of Dutt correct.

"Getting the look right is very superficial, it is easy as you have help from make-up and computer graphics. To show Sanjay Dutt as a human being, as a biopic only works when you show the human side of a person, and not the glories but the downfall as well (was not easy)."

Though Ranbir seems to have got the look right, he is extremely nervous about the film.

"I don't know if I have nailed it or not (referring to the film). I was very inspired (doing this film). We have a few days left now for the film. It's a very new me, so I am excited to see how the audience reacts. It should be out on March 30 next year," he says.

Nationalist Congress Party Kerala unit president Uzhavoor Vijayan died today at a private hospital in Kochi due to liver related ailments, hospital sources said.

He was 60 and is survived by wife and two daughters.

Vijayan had been undergoing treatment at the hospital since July 11.

He had been put on ventilator support for the last two days but died this morning, the hospital spokesman said.

Hailing from Uzhavoor in Kottayam district, Vijayan began his political career during his college days as a leader of the Kerala Students Union, the student wing of the Indian National Congress.

Vijayan was state secretary of the KSU and Youth Congress before parting his association with Congress along with a group of prominent leaders in protest against proclamation of emergency in the country in 1975.

Vijayan, known for his speech containing political wits, later joined the NCP and rose to the rank of its state president.

He also emerged as a key member of the LDF state committee during the Assembly polls held last year.

He had fought Assembly elections in 2001 from Pala in Kottayam district but lost to Kerala Congress veteran K M Mani.

His cremation will be held tomorrow at his village, NCP sources said.

China has opened a modern cinema theatre on Yongxing Island in the disputed South China Sea as part of its plan to establish authority over the area, the state media reported today.

Over 200 residents and soldiers watched the Chinese movie 'The Eternity of Jiao Yulu' yesterday at the Sansha Yinlong Cinema, located in Sansha municipality, China's newest city in the South China Sea.

"The cinema will show at least one film every day, so residents and soldiers on Yongxing Island can enjoy films simultaneously with moviegoers across the country," said Gu Xiaojing, general manager of Hainan Media Croup.

China has been expanding facilities in the islands under its control encouraging population settlements in the disputed area, where Beijing also built artificial islands some with facilities for garrison as well as airstrip reinforcing its control over the area.

Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have counter claims over the South China Sea.

The theatre is equipped with advanced projection equipment, including the latest 4K digital projectors as well as a 3D perforated screen for viewers to indulge in the pleasure of big screen, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Chen Zijian, general manager of Hainan Film Company, which operates the cinema, said they have also purchased two mobile projection units and plan to screen films for free on more islands within the municipality to meet the demands of residents, it added.

The opening of the cinema is part of a plan by local cultural authorities to establish community services on islands under Sansha's jurisdiction.

In April last year, Sansha opened its first public library. It also has a stadium and has organised various cultural activities to enrich the lives of residents.

Sansha municipality was set up in 2012.

Hitting out at Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, National Democratic Alliance vice-presidential nominee M Venkaiah Naidu today asked Pakistan to recall the 1971 war and said that aiding and abetting terror will not help them.

Addressing 'Kargil Parakram Parade' in New Delhi, Naidu said terrorism is the enemy of humanity. It has no religion and it has unfortunately become Pakistan's state policy.

"Our neighbour should understand that aiding and abetting terror will not help them. They should recall what happened in 1971 and should focus on their own country and maintain peace there..Terrorism is the enemy of humanity, it has no religion. Pakistan is mixing terrorism with religion. It has unfortunately become state policy," he added.

He further said that Kashmir is an integral part of India and not an "inch" of it will be allowed to be taken.

"We are a peace loving people, we never attacked any country and this is our specialty. We don't want war, we don't want confrontation, we don't want violence we want to have peace, we also want to have good relation with the neighbours but they should also reciprocate the same. They should remember that Kashmir is an integral part of India and not an inch of even PoK will be allowed to be taken by anybody," the Union Minister said.

He also squarely blamed Pakistan for funding terrorism and influencing the situation in Kashmir.

"Ours is a peace loving country. We never want war. But when this highly coveted peace is denied to us, our brave soldiers respond in a befitting manner..we are too strong to lose our focus to country's development and betterment of the country," he said.

'Indu Sarkar', a film on emergency to be released on Friday, will hurt sentiments of many Congressmen and that is what the "present prime minister wants", veteran Congress leader M Veerappa Moily said.

Indu Sarkar, based on the 1975-77 emergency period, has evoked strong criticism and protest from the Congress party.

The Congress' apprehensions are over the portrayal of its veterans like Indira Gandhi, Sanjay Gandhi and other senior leaders of the party in the film.

Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar, however, had said he would include a disclaimer in 'Indu Sarkar', stating that the film is mostly fictional.

Talking to PTI, Moily said the upcoming film will hurt sentiments of Congressmen.

"It hurts the sentiments of many of the Congressmen and that is what the present prime minister wants. Ultimately, it will (hurt) him (Narendra Modi).

"All these ruinous activities help in exit of BJP. More and more they do it, more the exit door will be opened for BJP," he said.

The film, featuring Kirti Kulhari in lead, has also run into trouble with the Central Board of Film Certification, which has demanded 14 cuts in the movie.

Bhandarkar has been given a security cover by the Maharashtra government in the wake of several protests against the film.

William Shakespeare, whose sexuality has been a long-running debate in academic circles, may have been a gay, a top United Kingdom theatre director has claimed, asserting that it was "no longer acceptable" for performers to conceal the sexual orientation of the Bard's homosexual characters.

Artistic director of Britain's major theatre company 'Royal Shakespeare Company' Greg Doran said he believed it was Shakespeare's sexuality which gave the noted playwright an outsider's insight that had helped his work.

"I guess a growing understanding of Shakespeare as I have worked with him over the many years that I have, makes me realise that his perspective is very possibly that of an outsider," Doran said.

"It allows him to get inside the soul of a black general, a Venetian jew, an Egyptian queen or whatever and that perhaps that outsider perspective has something to do with his sexuality," he told BBC Radio 4.

Doran said the key clues to understanding Shakespeare's sexuality were in his sonnets.

"He wrote a cycle of 154 sonnets, which were published in 1609, and 126 of those sonnets are addressed to a man and not to a woman," Doran said.

He said directors should not hide the sexuality of Shakespeare's gay characters including Antonio in The Merchant of Venice, who is "absolutely clearly in love with the young man Bassanio and sometimes that is kind of toned down".

Doran said their love had instead been depicted as "we chaps are very fond of each other".

"It's not, it's clearly a very particular portrait of a gay man and I think in the 21st century it's no longer acceptable to play that as anything other than a homosexual," he said.

Union Human Resource Development minister Prakash Javadekar has said vernacular question papers for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test will be mere translation of the question paper in English.

"The vernacular question papers for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test -- the all-India entrance examination for entrance to medical colleges -- will just be translation of the question paper in English", he said.

Javadekar was replying to a question about the West Bengal Education minister recently complaining that this year the students appearing for all medical entrance examination in vernacular languages had faced tougher questions than the ones set in English and Hindi.

About 'one nation one test' in engineering he said, "We are yet to take a call on this issue. It is in discussion stage."

Security forces today foiled an infiltration bid along the Line of Control in Machil sector of north Kashmir's Kupwara district.

One terrorist was killed in the operation, which is currently underway.

More details are awaited.

This year, the army has foiled a total of 22 infiltration bids along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir, and 38 armed intruders have been eliminated in such operations.

Massive searches, seizures and surveys by the Income Tax department over the last three years have led to the detection of around Rs 71,941 crore of 'undisclosed income', the Centre has told the Supreme Court.

During the period of demonetisation from November 9 last year to January 10 this year, 'The total undisclosed income admitted was more than Rs 5,400 crore' and the total quantity of gold seized stood at 303.367 kg, the Finance Ministry has said in an affidavit to the apex court.

It gave the details of the unaccounted income for three years from April 1, 2014 to February 28 this year, including the demonetisation period.

The affidavit said that during the three year period, searches were undertaken by the IT department in over 2,027 groups 'which led to the admission of undisclosed income of more than Rs 36,051 crore'.

"This is in addition to the seizure of undisclosed assets worth Rs 2,890 crore," it said.

Similarly between April 1, 2014 to February 28 this year, the IT department conducted more than 15,000 surveys which led to 'the detection of undisclosed income of more than Rs 33,000 crore'.

Highlighting the achievements of the demonetisation period, the affidavit said in about two months from November 9 last year, 'significantly large number of enforcement actions were undertaken by the IT Department'.

"They included 1,100 searches and surveys and more than 5,100 verifications. The total seizure through these actions was of about Rs 610 crore, including cash of Rs 513 crore. The cash seizure included seizures in new currency of more than Rs 110 crore. The total undisclosed income admitted was more than Rs 5,400 crore," it said.

The finance ministry, which recently refused the demand to give more grace period for depositing the scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, said the ministry of home affairs in its July 11 communication has reported that as per intelligence agencies, there were reports of large scale misuse of the window for exchange of the demonetised currency notes.

"Seizure of cash during the month of November and December 2016 was to the tune of Rs 147.9 crore and Rs 306.897 crore and seizure of gold for the month of November and December 2016 was 69.1 kg and 234.267 kg respectively," it said.

It said that over 400 cases were referred to the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) after several instances of manipulation for conversion of unaccounted cash held in specified bank notes into legal tender by various entities was detected during the investigation. -- PTI

The Gorkha Janamukti Morcha is preparing for a prolonged underground armed movement for a separate state and has hired Maoists from neighbouring countries as mercenaries to train its cadres, according to senior West Bengal government officials.

"We have inputs from intelligence agencies that Maoists from neighbouring countries have been hired by the GJM. And it may target government properties and senior police and administrative officials so as to further aggravate the situation," ADG (Law and order) Anuj Sharma told PTI.

The GJM leadership has, however, refuted as 'completely baseless' the allegations that it was taking help from Maoists.

"These are completely baseless statements. These statements are being made to malign us and derail the democratic movement," GJM general secretary Roshan Giri said.

A senior official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the GJM has hired 25-30 Maoists mercenaries to train its cadres.

"The GJM has a huge cache of arms and ammunition. They have stockpiled arms for the last few years. And we have intelligence reports that they are preparing for underground armed movement in the hills," said the official.

Another senior official said the government is 'prepared for any situation and steps are being taken to tackle any sort of armed struggle'.

In the last 38 days of the indefinite shutdown, there has been several instances of attack on police stations and outposts. Arms and ammunition were also looted, a trademark of Maoists movement. -- PTI

08:40 Modi hosts farewell for Prez Mukherjee

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted a farewell in New Delhi for outgoing President Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday night.

The function at Hyderabad House was also attended by President-elect Ram Nath Kovind and Vice President Hamid Ansari.

On the occasion, the prime minister presented a memento to the outgoing president, the PMO said.

Mukherjee also signed the visitors' book. -- PTI

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi presenting a memento to President Pranab Mukherjee. Photograph: @PMOIndia/Twitter

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