Bhupesh Baghel expressed deep grief over the demise of Shri Madhav Singh Solanki, former Chief Minister of Gujarat and former Union Minister. Shri Baghel has expressed his condolences to the bereaved family members of Shri Madhav Singh Solanki and prayed to God for the peace of his soul.
Tag: Gujarat
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Gujarat: 11 staffers at secretariat complex test positive for COVID-19
By PTI
AHMEDABAD: Eleven people working in a complex of the state secretariat premises in Gandhinagar have tested positive for coronavirus in the last four days, officials said on Wednesday.Gujarat Chief Minister’s Office is located on the fourth floor of the complex, known as ‘Swarnim Sankul-1’, while offices of the deputy chief minister and other cabinet- rank ministers are on the lower floors.
Out of nearly 70 employees of the four-storey complex, who were tested as part of a drive recently conducted by the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation, 11 were found infected with the coronavirus, the civic body’s health officer, Dr Kalpesh Goswami, said.
“Eleven people, mostly peons and clerks, were found infected with the coronavirus during our testing drive in the last four days. They were referred to hospitals for further treatment,” he said.
The entire complex has been sanitised after the detection of these cases, the official said.
Notably, the daily new COVID-19 cases in Gandhinagar city and the state are on a decline since last month.
On Tuesday, 655 new cases were reported in the state, including 14 from Gandhinagar city, as per official figures.
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Gujarat: Organs of man who died on first day of 2021 donated
By PTI
SURAT: The organs of a Surat-based businessman who died on the first day of the new year were donated with the consent of his kin, giving a new lease of life to several people, the NGO that facilitated the process said on Sunday.Vishnubhai Patel (57) suffered a brain haemorrhage after falling off a motorcycle on December 30 and was declared brain dead by doctors of Mahavir Trauma Hospital on January 1, after which his family consented to donate his heart, kidneys, lung, liver and cornea, a functionary of NGO Donate Life said.
“His heart and lung were transplanted in two patients in Chennai. The organs were transported through a green corridor created between Surat and Chennai, a distance of around 1,618 kilometres,” he said.
“His liver was transplanted in a man from Kheda at Ahmedabad’s Institute of Kidney Diseases and Research Centre (IKDRC). His corneas were donated to Lok Drashti Chakshu Bank,” he added.
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Mulayam, Akhilesh launch SP campaign from Ferozabad
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav along with his father Mulayam Singh Yadav formally kicked off the poll campaign for 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Ferozabad on Friday.
Akhilesh was elected to Lok Sabha from Ferozabad seat in the 2009 general election and at present his cousin and SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav’s son Akshay Yadav represents the constituency.
The launching of poll campaign from Ferozabad is politically significant for Samajwadi Party as Akhilesh’s estranged uncle and bitter rival Shivpal Singh Yadav is likely to contest from the seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha poll.
Shivpal has floated his party — Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia).
Both Akhilesh and Mulayam targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party for its failure to deliver on promises made during the 2014 general election and demonetisation of high value currency notes.
Address a meeting held to launch the SP poll campaign, Mulayam said, “The 2019 general election will decide the destiny of India. The BJP has a lot of fund and you can counter it only by your hard work and sweat. Take a firm resolve to dislodge the BJP in the 2019 polls.”
Making a fervent appeal to the voters for supporting sitting MP Akshay Yadav, the SP patron said, “Akshay Yadav is a bright young man who will serve your interests well. I have never seen such a huge turnout in a poll meeting in Ferozabad and this will definitely send a good message across UP and also in neighbouring states.”
Targeting the welfare schemes launched by the BJP government, Akhilesh said, “The BJP claims to have provided crores of LPG connections to poor people across the state but very few people have the money to refill the empty cylinders.”
The SP chief reminded the gathering that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised to double farmers’ income but there was no let up in the plight of potato growers as they were forced to either go for distress sale or throw the commodity on highways.
In the 2009 general election, Akhilesh Yadav successfully contested from two Lok Sabha seats—Kannauj and Firozabad — but vacated the Ferozabad seat later. His wife Dimple Yadav had contested the by-poll but was defeated by Raj Babbar of Congress.
Cautioning the locals, Akhilesh said, “I had contested election from this seat and Dimple too but some people misled you, so take care this time.”
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CBI court verdict likely on Dec 21
A special CBI court will in all likelihood deliver the verdict in the case of alleged twin fake encounters of notorious criminals Sohrabuddin Shaikh and Tusliram Prajapati and rape-murder of Kausar Bi, on December 21.
Two days after the Prosecution and defence lawyers wrapped up their final arguments, Additional Sessions Judge SJ Sharma — who presides over a special CBI court—noted that he would in all likelihood deliver the judgement on December 21.
“I need around 14 days. I am sure I will finish it by 21st December. If I don’t complete by December 21st, then I will pass the judgement on 24th December…. But I am very sure that I will be able to complete my work by 21st December,” the Judge said.
The alleged fake encounters of notorious gangsters Sohrabuddin and Tulsiram and disappearance of the former’s wife Kausar Bi during 2005-06 had resulted in a major political fallout involving the BJP-ruled Gujarat.
The Prosecution’s case was that Sohrabuddin had connections with Lashkar-e-Taiba and was conspiring to assassinate an “important political leader”, presumably then chief minister and current Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Initially, there were in all 38 accused in the case. Of them, 16 has been discharged — 15 by the special CBI court and one by the Bombay High Court.
The accused discharged in the case include BJP’s current national President and then Gujarat Minister of State for Home Amit Shah, Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chandra Kataria and high-profile Deputy Inspector General DG Vanzara, who headed the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and known for several encounters, Superintendent of Police Dinesh MN and Superintendent of Police Rajkumar Pandian.
All the IPS officers, arrested for the twin encounters, have been discharged.
In all, 22 accused were tried during the trial. They included two Deputy Superintendents of Police, Senior Inspectors, Inspector, Sub-Inspectors, Assistant Sub-Inspectors, Head Constables and Constables of Gujarat and Rajasthan.
During the course of the trial, 210 witnesses were examined, of which 92 turned hostile.
When the court recorded their statement under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, all the accused had claimed innocence and said they were arrested because of the rivalry among top police officials and other factors stemming then prevailing political situation in Gujarat.
On the last day of final arguments in the case, CBI counsel BP Raju admitted that there had been “lacunae” in the Central agency’s investigation as they took over the case five years after the alleged incidents.
“The Sohrabuddin encounter took place in 2005, while the Tulsiram encounter happened in 2006. We came in picture in 2010,” Raju told the court.
So much so that some key witnesses turned hostile during the trial, weakening the CBI’s case.
On his part, the Judge observed: “I don’t blame CID. I don’t blame CBI. There are statements and witnesses. If they come here and say something else, it’s not your fault. You did your job…..both sides did their job well….your work is over, my work starts now.”
The CBI, however, maintained that they have enough material to prove that both the encounters were genuine. However, the defence counsels in the case stated that the Prosecution had failed to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt.
During the last phase of the trial, a prosecution witness Azam Khan, who too is a criminal under custody, told the court that Sohrabuddin might have had a role in the murder of the then Minister of State for Home Haren Pandya, who he claimed had been killed on March 26, 2003, at the instance of Vanzara.
It may be recalled that Sohrabuddin, a “dreaded criminal”, and his wife Kausar Bi were killed in an alleged fake encounter in November 2004 by the Gujarat Police near Gandhinagar in Gujarat. The case assumed considerable public importance owing to the alleged involvement of some of the high-profile politicians and IPS officers in it.
An aide Tulsiram Prajapati, who was the prime witness to the killings, was arrested by the police but was later killed in an encounter in December 2006 after the law-enforcers claimed he tried to escape from custody.
Later, the police had named 33 persons as accused in the case. Shah, who was Gujarat Home Minister at the relevant time in 2005, the then Home Minister of Rajasthan and several Gujarat IPS officers, lower police officials from both states besides Andhra Pradesh, were among the accused.
Several police officers from Gujarat were among the 33 accused in the “fake” encounters of Sohrabuddin Shaikh, Kausar Bi in November 2005 and Prajapati in December 2006.
The alleged Sohrabuddin fake encounter case was transferred to Mumbai in September 2012 at CBI’s request for fair trial. In 2013, the Supreme Court had clubbed Tulsiram Prajapati’s encounter killing case with that of Sohrabuddin.
In December, 2014, Special CBI Judge MB Gosavi in Mumbai discharged Shah and 16 other co-accused, citing either lack of sanction for prosecution or insufficient evidence against them.
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Netaji’s kin demand his statue at India Gate
The kin of Subhas Chandra Bose on Thursday demanded a statue of the leader at India Gate in the national Capital and declaration of his birthday on January 23 as “Liberation Day”.
The demand comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a 182-metre-tall statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, considered to be the tallest in the world, in Gujarat.
The imposing monument — the Statue of Unity — is built near the Sardar Sarovar dam in Gujarat’s Narmada district.
“NDA Government under the leadership of @narendramodi ji kept its commitment by unveiling #SardarVallabhaiPatel’s statue on 31Oct 2018 & celebrating the day as #UnityDay. Demand rising to unveil a statue of the #LiberatorofIndia-on 23 Jan’19 at #IndiaGate Delhi & declare the day as #LiberationDay (sic),” Netaji’s grandnephew Chandra Kumar Bose said in a tweet.
When contacted, Chandra Kumar Bose, who is also a vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) West Bengal unit, told PTI that the statue near India Gate was a demand of several Indian National Army (INA) and Army veterans.
The Prime Minister had, on October 21, hoisted the national flag at the Red Fort and unveiled a plaque to mark the 75th anniversary of the proclamation of the Azad Hind Government by Subhas Chandra Bose.
This was the first time the Prime Minister hoisted the national flag at the ramparts of the historic Red Fort for the second time in a year. Traditionally, the prime minister unfurls the tricolour at the Red Fort on Independence Day.
Modi had also announced a national award in the name of Subhas Chandra Bose, to be given every year to those police personnel who do excellent work in rescue-and-relief operations during any kind of disaster.
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Spreading word on blood donation 1 step at a time
Thirty-three-year-old Kiran Verma has a goal in life: to decrease the number of deaths due to blood shortage to Zero by 2025 . For this, he is voluntarily travelling 15,000 km across India, Nepal, and Bhutan to encourage and spread awareness about blood donation. Verma, who founded ‘Simply Blood’-a blood donation platform- reached the state capital on Wednesday.
Talking to the media, Verma said his journey began from Lal Chowk in Srinagar on Jan 26 this year. Till now, he has travelled more than 8,500-km- which includes 3,000 km by walking- in last 3 months.Verma added that every day more than 12,000 people die in India due to lack of availability of blood and his mission is to encourage at least 10 people every kilometre to take a pledge to donate blood at least once in their life. If this happens, he claimed, then his 15,000-km journey is going to save at least 1,50,000 potential lives through blood donation.
“I started ‘Simply Blood’ when my own blood was sold to a poor family in Delhi. I left my job and took this as my goal- to decrease the number of deaths due to blood shortage to Zero by 2025. My life’s mission is to save 1 million lives through blood donation by 2020 using ‘Simply Blood’ platform,” he said, adding that ‘Simply Blood’ is world’s first virtual blood donation platform and first social media platform, an initiative by Change With One Foundation.
Jain said that he has spread his message among more than 7,00,000 people across Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Chandigarh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Daman, Dadra Nagar Haveli, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh and now in Chhattisgarh. In the coming days, he is planning to visit all states and all union territories.