Category: Articles

We would like to appeal SBI to release Rs 1,500 crore funds for the airline to help it continue operations. We also appeal Prime Minister Narendra Modi to save 20,000 odd jobs at the airline,” National Aviator’s Guild (NAG) vice-president Adim Valiani told reporters at the airline’s headquarter, Siroya Centre, here on Monday.

Earlier, the airline’s pilots, engineers and cabin crew members assembled at the headquarters to show their solidarity.

The airline’s pilots along with engineers and senior staff were last paid for December, 2018. This apart, the airline has also defaulted on the March salary of other categories of employees as well.

The 2019 Lok Sabha results will be announced only on May 23, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi, confident that he will return, has already asked the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Niti Aayog and the Principal Scientific Adviser to prepare the agenda for the first 100 days of the next government, with a focus on double-digit GDP growth in the next five years.

According to three top officials in the Modi government, in the midst of hectic election campaigning, the PM has tasked his office, Vice Chairman Niti Aayog and Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) Prof K Vijayraghavan to chalk out an agenda on the scale of Swacch Bharat with sweeping economic and bureaucratic reforms.

“The focus is on freeing the key sectors — oil and gas, minerals, infrastructure and education — of red tape so that the foundation for India becoming a developed country in 2047 is laid in the coming 100 days. We believe that by removing red tape in core sectors we can easily boost the GDP growth by 2.5%,” said one of the three officials who asked not to be named.

The Election Commission on Monday “censured” UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath & BSP chief Mayawati for their communal remarks during campaigning and barred them from holding any public meetings, road shows, giving interviews and public utterances in media including social media, for 72 hours and 48 hours respectively.The period of their debarment — which as per EC order prohibits them from holding any public meetings, public processions, public rallies, road shows and interviews and public utterances in media (electronic, print, social media) etc in connection with ongoing elections – starts at 6 am on Tuesday (April 16). This means that while Yogi has to stay away from campaigning till 6 am on April 19, Mayawati can resume campaign after 6 am on April 18.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi slammed the opposition today, saying the DMK, Congress and their “mahamilavati” friends cannot accept strides India has made and therefore were “unhappy” with him.

Taking a swipe at the DMK-Congress combine at an election rally in Tamil Nadu, he said those who were “sworn enemies” have joined hands, despite the national party having “humiliated” its southern ally in the past.

“Today India is rapidly making a mark in the world. The Congress, DMK and their mahamilavati friends cannot accept this. That is why they are unhappy with me,” he said at an election rally here.

The prime minister has been describing the opposition “mahagatbandhan” (grand alliance) as “mahamilavati,” meaning ‘majorly adulterated’.

Taking a jibe at DMK president MK Stalin’s proposal naming Congress chief Rahul Gandhi as prime ministerial candidate, PM Modi said there were no takers for this among the opposition “because they are in line to be PM and dream of the post.”

“Some days ago, DMK chief (MK Stalin) projected the naamdar (dynast) as PM (candidate) but no one was ready to accept it, not even their mahamilavati friends, because they are in line to be PM and dream of the post,” he said, without naming anyone.

Despite past “bitterness”, the Congress and DMK have joined hands, he said and recalled that the national party had “humiliated” the southern ally earlier, apparently referring to the dismissal of the DMK government in the past.

Even during the 2G spectrum allocation scam, centered around then Telecom Minster A Raja of DMK, the party’s leaders were criticising the national party, which was leading the ruling UPA, he pointed out.

“In an attempt to mislead the people, all the corrupt have ganged up in an attempt to defeat Modi,” he added.

Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Smriti Irani declared in her nomination affidavit on Thursday that she is not a graduate, PTI reported. Irani is contesting against Congress chief Rahul Gandhi in Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.

In her affidavit form, Irani said she passed secondary school examination in 1991 and senior secondary school examination in 1993. In the category of highest educational qualification, Irani’s form says “Bachelor of Commerce Part-1” from the School of Open Learning (Correspondence) University of Delhi with “three year degree course not completed” in brackets. Reports said that this is the first time Irani has specified that she had “not completed” her three-year degree course.

It’s perhaps time to reassess Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel. A one-term minister in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and a successful Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee president, Baghel was obdurately anti-upper caste, impatient with bureaucracy and slow to warm up to fresh ideas and new people.

Rooted in rustic manners and deriving energy from his native intelligence, Baghel is a steadfast Congressman. He is junior to Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath, his own guru Digvijay Singh and Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot by several years. So what’s driving him to challenge the prime minister in ways that no Congress leader has dared to?

Why is he taking on the prime minister? Will playing David against a Goliath with such cheekiness jog along his politics? Is he seeking attention or is he being led to his hara-kirialtar? Whatever the reasons behind his adrenalin, Baghel has shown unusual spunk for a Congress chief minister. Despite his initial stumbling against a bureaucratic environment, he has managed to cage the main BJP leaders which no one else in the neighbouring states has done or is even attempting to do.

Immediately on his ascension to the post of chief minister, he ordered Special Investigative Teams to probe cases against people close to ex-chief minister Raman Singh, including his son-in-law Dr Puneet Gupta, his principal secretary Aman Singh and ADG Mukesh Gupta.These probes are now coming in handy to put pressure on opponents, similar to the way that the Modi government had done through the ED and CBI. All those named above are either absconding or in court busy defending themselves rather than attacking Baghel or the Congress.

Of the lot, only Aman Singh appears to be in the clear as far as court cases or allegations being probed are concerned. A careful bureaucrat, Aman had been the backbone of the Raman Singh government but was never directly embroiled in any controversy or scam. But the cases and probes always put a brake on life as Kamal Nath and his team are experiencing in Madhya Pradesh.

N Chandrababu Naidu, the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam Party president, is mulling to move the Supreme Court seeking direction to the Election Commission to tally slips from at least 25 per cent Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines with record of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in each assembly constituency in the state.

“I have been advocating the usage of ballot papers instead of EVMs, which can be tampered. But the Election Commission was not bothered. At least now, it should have a rethinking on conducting the polls with ballot papers,” the chief minister said.

There have been reports of malfunctioning of EVMs from almost all the districts in Andhra Pradesh due to technical snags. Polling did not commence till 9 am at several places in Anantapur, Guntur, Kadapa and Kurnool due to EVM troubles.

Naidu said he is planning to file a review petition in the top court, which recently directed the poll body to tally five VVPATs with the votes cast in the EVMs in each constituency. The Election Commission had originally announced to tally one VVPAT record with the EVM in each constituency.

Chief Electoral Officer Gopala Krishna Dwivedi himself could not cast his vote at Christianpeta Municipal High School in Tadepalli town in Guntur district due to malfunctioning of EVM. He pulled up the election officials in the polling station for not taking enough precautions.

According to Dwivedi, reports of only 362 of the 45,000-odd EVMs malfunctioning have come to its noitce.

A day after the EC sought a report on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech in Latur, officials from the state Chief Electoral Office said that a report has been sent to the poll panel.Advertising

Addressing a rally at Ausa in Latur, Modi on Tuesday had appealed to first-time voters to “dedicate” their votes to the “brave soldiers” who carried out the Balakot air strike and to the “braves martyred” in the Pulwama attack.

Following this, EC had asked a report from the state chief electoral officer. “The references are there in the videos and everyone has seen it. We have sent a factual report on the PM’s speech,” said an official.

Phase 1 of Lok Sabha Election 2019 will be held on April 11, Thursday, on 91 seats and voters will be choosing their representatives from nearly 1,300 candidates. Before the first phase of the national election, the Association for Democratic Reform (ADR), a non-governmental organisation that works towards electoral and political reforms, has released a report identifying the richest and poorest candidates.

According to the report, Konda Vishweshwar Reddy or KV Reddy, the Congress party candidate from Telangana’s Chevella Lok Sabha constituency, is the richest candidate in phase 1 elections with family assets of Rs. 895 crore.

Mr Reddy owns movable assets of Rs. 223 crore, while the movable assets of his wife K Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director of Apollo Hospitals stood at Rs. 613 crore. The movable assets of their dependent son were nearly Rs. 20 crore. He also has immovable assets of Rs. 36 crore while the same of his wife are valued at Rs. 1.81 crore.

In 2014 general election, he had declared family assets of over Rs. 528 crore.

The second richest candidate in Phase 1 of Lok Sabha election 2019 is Prasad V Potluri or PVP from YSR Congress Party. Mr Potluri is contesting from Vijayawada.

An industrialist, he owns several business firms in the Telugu states.

23 leaders have declared zero asset, says the report.

The poorest candidate in Phase 1 of Lok Sabha election 2019 are Nalla Prem Kumar contesting on JDU ticket from Telangana’s Chevella Lok Sabha constituency has declared asset of Rs. 500.

Interestingly, the richest and the poorest candidates in the first phase of 2019 Lok Sabha elections are contesting against each other from the same seat in the first phase of general election 2019.

Rajendra Kendruka contesting from Koraput Odisha has declared assets worth Rs. 565. He was a Once a Maoist sympathiser who laid down his arms in 2013 to join the mainstream. The 27-year-old candidate is contesting the election on a CPI- ML ticket.

The ADR report shows that of the 1,266 candidates analysed for the first phase of national election, 401 are crorepatis, which means they have declared assets worth Rs. 1 crore or more.

The Congress has fielded the most crorepati candidates. BJP is a close second for the croreparti candidates. The report shows that 70 crorepati candidates have not declared their income tax returns.

The average asset per candidate contesting in the Lok Sabha Phase 1 election is Rs. 6.63 crore.

The Indian government may have to make a series of major changes at the top of the nation’s civil service if Prime Minister Narendra Modi is re-elected to a second term in May, according to multiple sources in the administration. 

At least eight senior bureaucrats in the prime minister’s office have either sought a transfer to other departments or plan to take premature retirement, three government officials said. The officials, from the prime minister’s office, the home (interior) minis ..