India

New Delhi, Feb 16 (IANS) The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday alleged that the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, V.K. Saxena, is continuing to trample upon the mandate of the elected government in the national capital.

AAP leader Atishi alleged that the L-G had illegally and unconstitutionally formed the Haj Committee and also held elections for the post of its Chairman.

Explaining the legal provisions in the matter, Atishi said that the Haj Committee comes under the Revenue Department of Delhi government and therefore just like subjects such as schools, hospitals, electricity and water, it comes under the list of 'Transferred Subjects'.

"The Constitution of India and orders of the Constitution Bench make it very clear that the L-G does not have any independent decision-making power on 'Transferred Subjects'. The L-G does not have any independent decision-making power in this matter, as clearly stated in the Constitution of India, and orders of the Constitution Bench," Atishi said while addressing the media.

"The state government constitutes the Haj Committee, as shown in Section 17 of The Haj Committee Act, 2002. There is no dispute as to the competent authority to constitute the committee, as Constitutional principles, decisions of the Supreme Court, as well as the Haj Committee Act, clearly vest this power on the elected government of State, i.e., the Council of Ministers," she said.

She added that the state government had sent a list of members, who were to be picked as members of the Haj Committee, to the L-G, but he made changes to the list and formed the committee without informing the AAP government.

"After that the LG also got the Haj Committee notified by threatening officials and warning them that they would be sacked if they did not notify the Haj Committee. Further, the L-G on also ordered election for the post of Chairman for the Haj Committee. All the three things here are illegal - the formation of the committee, the order to notify it and also the election to pick the Chairman of the committee," she claimed.

--IANS
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Mumbai, Feb 16 (IANS) Indicating that all is not hunky-dory in the Maharashtra party unit, the Congress has deputed a senior leader, Ramesh Chennithala, to assess the on-ground situation and submit his report, here on Thursday.

The sudden development came a day after the state Congress President Nana Patole and Congress Legislature Party Leader Balasaheb Thorat emerged from the State Executive meeting, grinned and posed for photos, suggesting a patch-up of their recent public and private brawl.

Chennithala is expected to be in Mumbai for at least a couple of days, meet different leaders of the state party and prepare his report before the AICC 85th Plenary Session scheduled in Chhattisgarh between February 24-26.

"The Congress president has deputed Ramesh Chennithala to assess the latest political situation in Maharashtra and report to him, with immediate effect," a statement noted.

The development comes a day after the Congress state executive meeting held in Mumbai signalling that Thorat and Patole had buried the hatchet.

Earlier this month, Thorat had shot off a letter to the Congress high command and quit as the CLP Leader, but after discussions with Maharashtra in-charge H.K. Patil, his resignation was rejected last week.

The political upheavals rocked the state Congress ahead of the MLC elections in January, specifically linked with the Nashik Graduates Constituency, where the official party nominee, Dr. Sudhir Tambe, suddenly stepped down in favour of his son, Satyajeet Tambe.

As the party tried to grapple with the situation, Satyajeet Tambe -- a nephew of Thorat -- contested and won the seat as an Independent, trouncing Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) nominee Shubhangi Patil, creating fissures even among the 3-year-old three-party alliance which includes Nationalist Congress Party and Shiv Sena (UBT).

--IANS
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New Delhi, Feb 16 (IANS) Alarmed at the rising pesky mobile calls and text messages by telemarketers, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Thursday directed all telecom service providers to reverify registered headers and message templates on distributed ledger technologies (DLT) platform and block all unverified headers and message templates within 30 and 60 days, respectively.

In a new directive, the telecom regulator said that the mobile operators need to ensure that temporary headers are deactivated immediately after the time duration for which such headers were created.

TRAI issued the new directions to providers to stop misuse of headers and message templates and curb unauthorised promotions using telecom resources.

The telecom regulator told the mobile operators to remove confusions among recipients of message and prevent their misuse and no look-alike headers (headers which are similar by virtue of combination of small case or large case letters) are to be registered by access providers in names of different principal entities.

"Access providers have been directed to bar all telemarketers, who are not registered on DLT platform from handling the message template scrubbing and delivery of messages to recipients through Access Providers' network," read the TRAI note.

It directed mobile operators to take action against erring telemarketers as per the provisions of the regulations and also initiate actions as per relevant legal laws.

All the telecom service providers have been directed to comply with the above directions within 30 days.

Earlier this week, a survey revealed that two in three Indians get three or more pesky calls every day and 50 per cent of them said such calls originate from personal number of people.

According to LocalCircles which conducted the survey, 45 per cent or people get on average 3-5 pesky calls each day while 16 per cent claimed getting 6-10 such calls per day.

Around 60 per cent received most calls related to "selling financial services", 18 per cent got most calls related to "selling real estate" while 10 per cent received most calls "offering a job/earnings opportunity."

TRAI has called a meeting with mobile phone operators on February 17 to discuss the quality of wireline and wireless services.

The meeting will discuss potential "measures and action plan to improve the quality of service (QoS), review the current QoS standards, QoS for 5G services, and unsolicited commercial communications".

TRAI in 2022 had released a consultation paper on mandatory implementation of Calling Name Presentation (CNAP) in telecommunication networks which is designed to display the name of the caller (even if the receiver has not saved the same on their device/SIM) on the receiver's screen when the call connects.

However, complaints from consumers continued to rise and unsolicited communications is something people have been regularly discussing about, according to LocalCircles.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Feb 16 (IANS) Ahead of the Assembly election at the end of this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit poll-bound Meghalaya on February 24.

According to sources, PM Modi will address a rally in Tura on February 24. The same day, he is scheduled to hold a roadshow as a part of an election campaign in Shillong, where the BJP hopes to secure large vote shares.

"The PM will also address a public rally to give a boost to the election campaign. Meeting with state BJP leaders is also in the schedule", the sources added.

This will be his first visit to Meghalaya this year.

The BJP's election plank has been development and employment in the state with little of either. These, along with corruption, have been the themes in speeches of Union minister and ex-Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal, who campaigned in Meghalaya recently.

He also hinted at the Sangma families' "nepotism", both of which have a number of members in the fray.

BJP President J.P. Nadda on Wednesday released the party's election manifesto for Meghalaya in the state capital Shillong.

The manifesto promises implementation of the 7th Pay Commission and the timely disbursal of salaries of the government employees and many other promises in the favour of the state.

As per the Nagaland BJP sources, the PM will visit Nagaland and hold a mega rally there.

--IANS
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Srinagar, Feb 16 (IANS) The Army on Thursday started online registration for recruitment under the Agniveer scheme in J&K and Ladakh which will continue till March 15.

"All eligible unmarried male candidates born between 01 Oct 2002 to 01 Apr 2006 (both dates inclusive) with requisite educational qualifications from UT of J&K belonging to Srinagar, Anantnag, Baramulla, Pulwama, Badgam, Kupwara, Shopian, Ganderbal, Bandipora and Kulgam districts and UT of Ladakh belonging to Leh and Kargil districts can apply for enrolment under categories of Agniveer General Duty, Agniveer Technical, Agniveer Clerk/Store Keeper Technical and Agniveer Tradesmen," the Army said in a statement.

The recruitment rally by Army Recruiting Office, Srinagar is tentatively scheduled to be conducted in June 2023 at Anantnag High Ground, South Kashmir, UT of J&K.

"Candidates are advised to register online at website www.joinindianarmy.nic.in at the earliest. Indian Army further amplified that this would be the first recruitment under the new procedure introduced with the written examination being scheduled before the physical and medical test," the Army statement said.

"Army Recruiting Office, Srinagar has advised that recruitment is a free service and selection is fair and purely based on merit. No money is required to be paid to anyone. Details can be obtained on Email ID - arosrinagar123@gmail.com and Landline Nos 0194-2311282 and 0194-2310164. Additional information has been made available as videos in Urdu and can be accessed by scanning the barcode in the notice published by ARO Srinagar."

--IANS
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Mumbai, Feb 16 (IANS) Union Home Minister Amit Shah will interact with 50 daughters of martyred Kashmir Police and security personnel during his upcoming three-day visit to Maharashtra starting from Friday, official sources said here on Thursday.

Shah will reach Nagpur from Assam late on Friday (February 17) and on Saturday will visit the RSS headquarters in Reshim Bagh, pay his respects at the holy site of Deekshabhoomi, the samadhis of K.B. Hedgewar and M.S. Golwalkar, and attend the golden jubilee celebrations of the Lokmat Group.

In the afternoon, Shah, who is also the Union Minister for Cooperation, will fly down to Pune to participate in a co-operatives sector event organised by the Sakal Group, interact with 50 daughters of martyred Kashmir police and security officials on behalf of NGO Sarhad, pray at the Omkareshwar Temple and release the Marathi translation of a book on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On Sunday, Shah will attend a programme to mark the 393rd birth anniversary of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, and then depart for Kolhapur for a darshan of the famed Mahalaxmi Temple, garland the statue of Chhatrapati Rajarshi Shahu Maharaj and after completing several other engagements, leave for New Delhi the same evening, the sources said.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Feb 16 (IANS) Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has sent his reply to the breach of privilege notice against him over his February 7 remarks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Lok Sabha secretariat, sources said on Thursday.

According to sources, Gandhi replied to the notice on Wednesday.

He replied on the privilege motion by BJP MP Nishikant Dubey and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi over his speech where he spoke regarding the Hindenburg research report on the Adani group.

As per party sources, Gandhi cited various laws to justify his remarks.

The content of the reply has been kept confidential, however, certain Congress leaders said that Gandhi had responded to all the allegations levelled against him on the basis of facts and precedents.

Joshi had written a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla stating that Rahul Gandhi misled the House by making allegations without any evidence.

--IANS
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Panaji, Feb 16 (IANS) Akshata Murthy, the wife of UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, their two daughters and her parents - Infosys founder Narayan Murthy and author Sudha Murty - were spotted holidaying at Benaulim beach in south Goa, recently.

A local, Francisco Fernandes, known as Pele, feels himself lucky to provide water sports services to Murthy's family at Benaulim beach for two days.

Speaking to IANS, Pele said that Akshata Murthy and her family were so simple and down to earth that he was shocked to notice it.

"My doctor friend and her wife were on the beach when this family was interacting with me. She (doctor's wife) asked me 'Pele do you know whom you are talking to, she is the wife of UK's Prime Minister'. I was shocked as they were very simple and down to earth," Pele said.

"First day they enjoyed the 'Jet Ski' ride and the second day, I took them for a boat ride. I showed them dolphins in the sea. They were very much happy," Pele, who also has a water sports business, said.

"UK Prime Minister's wife asked me, is water sports safe in Goa? I told her, 'Ma'am, it is 100 per cent safe and I will keep you and your family safe if they wish to enjoy water sports," he said.

"I told her that there are many Goans living in the UK and I want her to see that they are safe too. She replied 'done'. I was so happy at that time. She was very down to earth," Pele said.

"I am very much happy on their visit to Benaulim. They are so rich, but down to earth. God bless them and give them good health to protect the people of the UK," Pele said.

--IANS
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Mumbai/Delhi, Feb 14 (IANS) A team of Income Tax Department sleuths carried out a 'survey' at the global media conglomerate BBC's Mumbai studios and office in Delhi on Tuesday.

The BBC studio is situated in a commercial hub near the Bandra Kurla Complex in central Mumbai where offices of several national and multinational companies are also located.

The sleuths are understood to have seized the mobiles, laptops, tablets of the staffers present there, though exact details of the investigations by the central probe agency were not available.

A large number of media persons and photographers, besides many curious onlookers out for the lunch break, converged outside the studio building awaiting the nitty-gritties of the ITD operation inside the BBC studio.

Though no insiders were available for comments, the survey of the Mumbai studio is connected with an ongoing similar operation at the BBC offices in New Delhi, which sparked off a major political furore.

The Income Tax department officials reached the British Broadcasting Service (BBC) office in Delhi's Kasturba Gandhi Marg, said the sources.

The sources also said that the team reached there to verify documents and some of the employees were also asked to leave the office and go home.

"Phones have also been seized," said the sources.

Though the reasons behind the ITD's survey' or what the sleuths were looking for are not clear, it is widely suspected to be a fallout of the recent documentary 'India: The Modi Question' on the 2002 Gujarat riots aired by BBC that rankled the Indian government.

--IANS
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Bengaluru, Feb 14 (IANS) Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday asserted that rich nations have no right to dictate their solutions to nations in need of support.

While participating in the Defence Ministers' Conclave in Bengaluru, Singh stated, "There are nations which are richer, scientifically or technologically and more advanced than others. But, it does not give them the right to dictate their solutions to the nations in need of support."

This top down approach towards solving the problems is not desired in the long run. Often it leads to debt-trap, reaction from the local population, conflict and so on. That is why, the focus should be on providing assistance in terms of building of institutions and capacities so that the bottom of solutions can come up originally in accord with the ethos of the nations being assisted, the Minister stated.

"We offer enhanced defence partnerships to friendly foreign nations which are accommodative of nations' priorities and capacities. We want to build, launch, create and develop with you. We wish to create a symbiotic relationship in which we can learn from each other, grow together and create a win-win situation for one and all," he stated.

Shared prosperity of the world requires greater coordination among all nations in diverse areas of which the domain of defense and security are of most importance. Today, collective security has become sine qua non for prosperity and development.

Terrorism, illegal arms, drugs smuggling, and human trafficking pose significant security threats to the whole world. Though these are not new, their scope and scale are unprecedented. Therefore, to counter these threats, there is a need to devise new strategies, he explained.

India does not believe in dealing with such security issues in old patterns or neo colonial paradigms. "We consider all nations as equal partners. That is why we do not believe in dumping external supra-national solutions to a country's internal problems. We do not believe in sermons or cut and write solutions which do not respect the national values and countries in need of assistance," the Minister insisted.

"It is our endeavour to transcend the hierarchical relationship of buyer and seller to the development and co-production model, whether we are a buyer or seller. "We are a major defence buyer as well as a significant exporter. When we are procuring defence equipment from our valued partner nations, very often they are sharing technical know-how, setting up manufacturing plants in India and working with our local farms or various sub-systems," he said.

He further stated that wherever India is exporting defence equipment, full support is offered towards the capability development.

India has never been a closed country and has always been open to new ideas or thoughts from all over the world. "Our past openness continues to shape the present and future. Untethered to any faction or alliance of one group of nations against another, we have worked ceaselessly for the upliftment of all nations, developing ones in particular, he said. India always stood for a rule based international order," he added.

--IANS
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