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Centre recommends
dissolution of AP House, extension of Prez Rule
New Delhi:
The
Centre Government today recommended dissolution of Andhra Pradesh
Assembly and extension of President's Rule there beyond April
30, circumventing the need for convening a special session of
Parliament to ratify the Central rule in the state.
The Union Cabinet at its meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh, recommended to the President the dissolution of the Assembly and
extension of the Central rule, official sources said.
The decision came following a report of Andhra Pradesh Governor ESL
Narasimhan, who apprised the Centre of the prevailing situation in the
state.
The move could help the Central Government gain two more months before
approaching the Parliament for the mandatory ratification of President's
Rule in Andhra Pradesh.
Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh are being held along with the Lok
Sabha polls.
Official sources said since three more phases of polling in the
nine-phased Lok Sabha elections were yet to be completed, it was
difficult to convene Parliament just for the ratification of the
President's Rule as most of the MPs were busy in electioneering.
Any proclamation under Article 356 imposing Central rule needs to be
ratified by the Parliament within two months. A provision in the
Constitution says, "any such Proclamation may be revoked or varied
by a subsequent Proclamation".
President's Rule was imposed in Andhra Pradesh on March
1 this year after
N Kiran Kumar Reddy resigned as Chief Minister following Parliament's
nod for bifurcation of the state to create the newTelangana state. PTI
Rajiv assassins to stay in jail, SC refers case
to Constitution Bench
NEW DELHI: Supreme Court today referred the matter on remission of life imprisonment of seven convicts in
the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case to a Constitution Bench and said its interim order staying the Tamil Nadu government's decision to free them will continue.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice P. Sathasivam said the petition filed by the Centre, challenging the Tamil Nadu government's decision to remit the sentences, will be decided by the Constitution Bench and framed seven questions to be decided by it.
It said that the Constitution Bench, which will take up the matter within three months, will also decide whether the sentence of a prisoner, whose death penalty has been commuted to life, can be remitted by the government.
The court had on February 20 stayed the decision to release of three
convicts — Murugan, Santhan and Arivu — whose death sentence was commuted to life term by it on February 18 in the case, saying there had been procedural lapses on the part of the state government on the decision to release them.
The apex court later on had also stayed the release of convicts Nalini, Robert Pious, Jayakumar and Ravichandran in the case.
The Jayalalithaa government had on February 19 decided to set free all the seven convicts in the assassination case.
Santhan, Murugan and Arivu are currently lodged in the Central Prison,
Vellore, and they are in jail since 1991.
The other four are also undergoing life sentence for their role in Gandhi's assassination on May 21, 1991, in
Sriperumbudur.
— PTI
HPCA
row: Dhumal, Anurag chargesheeted
Shimla/Dharamsala:
Former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and his Lok
Sabha member son Anurag Thakur were formally
charged in a trial court in Dharamsala today with alleged wrongdoing in
allotment of land to the state's cricket association for constructing a
residential complex for players near its stadium in Dharamsala.
The filing of the chargesheet came barely hours after Himachal Pradesh
High Court acting Chief Justice Mansoor Ahmad Mir in Shimla dismissed
the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association's (HPCA) petition seeking
quashing of a First Information Report (FIR) against them under the
Prevention of Corruption Act.
Official sources said the chargesheet named 16 people as the government
was yet to get prosecution sanction for two IAS officers Deepak Sanan
and Ajay Sharma. Sanan was posted in the revenue department when the
land was allotted to the HPCA and Sharma was the state director of youth
services and sports department.
The state government on April 2 got sanction to initiate proceedings
against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Dhumal for allotment of land
to the HPCA led by his son, who is also the Board of Control for Cricket
in India (BCCI) joint secretary, during his regime as Chief Minister
(2008-12).
Thakur, who is re-contesting the Parliamentary election from Hamirpur,
said in a statement that the case was politically motivated.
The state Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau had filed a case in
August 2013 against the HPCA under Sections 406, 420 and 120-B of the
Indian Penal Code and Section 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act
of 1988.
Justice Mir reserved the order on April 7 after hearing the arguments of
both parties - HPCA and the state. The former pleaded that the FIR was
vague, malicious and a result of political vendetta.
The high court will now hear the petition on April
29. IANS
PM's
brother joins BJP in Amritsar
Amritsar: Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh's half-brother Daljeet Singh Kohli today joined
the BJP in the presence of party's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra
Modi.
Kohli, a businessman based here, joined the party when Modi came here to
address a rally in favour of senior party leader Arun Jaitley, who is
contesting from the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat.
At the rally held here, Kohli shared the dais with Modi and other senior
BJP and Shiromani Akali Dal leaders.
"Today, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's brother Daljeet Singh has
joined the BJP. This will further strengthen us. We are not a membership
party. We form blood relations," Modi said while welcoming Kohli
into the BJP fold.
Kohli was also welcomed by Jaitley and congratulated by Punjab Chief
Minister Parkash Singh Badal.
Kohli had remained apolitical even after his elder brother Manmohan
Singh became Prime Minister in 2004 and got a second term in 2009. IANS
2G scam: ED files chargesheet against Raja, Kanimozhi
NEW DELHI: Former Telecom Minister A. Raja, DMK MP Kanimozhi and 17 others were on Friday charged in a special court by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with a money laundering case relating to the 2G spectrum allocation scam.
The ED in its chargesheet also named DMK chief M. Karunanidhi’s wife Dayalu
Ammal, Swan Telecom Pvt. Ltd. (STPL) promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka as accused in the case in which it alleged that
Rs 200 crore was paid by STPL promoters to DMK-run Kalaignar TV.
The final report names 10 individuals and nine companies as accused in the case and the ED has chargesheeted them for the offence of money laundering under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act
(PMLA).
Directors of Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables Pvt. Ltd., Asif Balwa and Rajiv
Aggarwal, Bollywood producer Karim Morani and Kalaignar TV Managing Director Sharad Kumar have also been named as accused in the case.
Raja, Kanimozhi, Shahid Balwa, Vinod Goenka, Asif Balwa, Rajiv Aggarwal, Karim Morani and Sharad Kumar are also facing trial in the 2G scam case in which CBI had earlier filed charge sheets.
The ED’s chargesheet was filed before Special CBI Judge O.P. Saini by Special Public Prosecutor Naveen Kumar Matta who said that the agency has investigated the “flow of funds” and they have found that money was laundered by these accused persons.
The judge fixed the chargesheet for consideration on cognizance for April 30.
ED claimed to have found evidence with regard to the channelling of Rs 200 crore to Kalaignar TV through a circuitous route.
Dayalu Ammal was holding 60 per cent stake in Kalaignar TV while Kanimozhi and Sharad Kumar each were holding 20 per cent stake.
Raja and Kanimozhi were earlier questioned by the agency in the case.
The ED had earlier also scrutinised documents related to both the DMK MPs incomes, properties and personal investments.
It had also initiated attachment proceedings under PMLA against other individuals and certain telecom firms involved in the case. — PTI
Modi gave away land to friends at throwaway prices: Priyanka
RAE BARELI: Priyanka Gandhi on Friday tore into the Gujarat model of development in which “thousands of acres” of land has been given to “friends” of Chief Minister Narendra Modi at “throwaway prices” and accused him of treating the country as a “classroom”.
Campaigning for her mother Congress President Sonia Gandhi here, she also took a dig at him for his
"ABCD" and "RSVP" jibes and said he should instead tell people what he planned to do for them.
Priyanka said that people possess an unmatched understanding and they knew about Modi’s Gujarat model of development “where you
(Modi) gave thousands of acres of land to your friends.”
Modi should tell people what is the situation of farmers and workers under his model or what had he done for women, she said.
Addressing the people, she said that they must have seen the huge campaigns on TV.
“Kabhi ABCD, kabhi RSVP. Aur kabhi da se desh aur ka se kouva. Ba se band bhi to
kariye. (Sometimes ABCD, sometimes RSVP. Other time 'D' for desh (country) and
'C' for crow. Now please stop it).
“You are not addressing a primary school but people of the country,” she said, apparently referring to the jibes that Modi had directed at the UPA and Gandhi family in the past.
Modi had recently described UPA’s governance as “RSVP model” in which a person was able to multiply his earnings from Rs one lakh to Rs 400 crore in five years.
Giving his own meaning to RSVP, he said it stood for “Rahul, Sonia, Vadra and
Priyanka”.
He had also attacked Congress saying "ABCD" has become a symbol of corruption by Congress party with ‘A’ referring to Aadarsh scam and ‘B’ denoting
Bofors.
Priyanka said any leader whether from her own party or from any other should speak about what they would do for the people.
She said Congress ideology had always respected the country’s unity and tradition of generosity. — PTI
Threat to schoolteachers: EC lets off Mulayam with warning
NEW DELHI: The Election Commission on Friday let off Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav with a "warning" for threatening schoolteachers appointed on contract by
the Uttar Pradesh government to either vote for his party in the Lok Sabha
poll or risk losing permanent status.
The EC's decision came after Yadav assured it that he will not make any reference to shiksha mitras (contractual government primary school teachers) in his election campaign.
The Commission said it is convinced that Yadav made the remarks and violated provisions of the model code of conduct.
"Now, therefore, the Commission, hereby warns him to be careful in future and expects that he shall not make any statement during election campaigning which may constitute a violation of the model code of conduct," the order read.
In his reply to the show-cause notice, Yadav had said the decision to
regularise the shiksha mitras was taken by the UP government before the election was announced. He also said that being a president of a party he had no power to amend or modify the decision.
He also denied threatening to withdraw the decision to regularise the teachers if they do not support the SP in elections.
According to the EC's show-cause notice, addressing an election rally in Bulandshahr in UP on April 3, Yadav had threatened shiksha mitras to vote for SP or else their
regularisation will be withdrawn.
"As far as shiksha mitras are concerned, we have done it (made them permanent) ... we have done it, now give your vote. If you do not vote, we'll withdraw it," EC quoted Yadav as saying.
The Commission also reminded him of the provision in the model code which bars the party in power, whether at the Centre or in the state, to use its official position for the purposes of its election campaign.
Mulayam's son Akhilesh is the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister.
Shiksha mitras are ad hoc teachers at government primary schools in UP. — PTI
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