India

Kurnool (Andhra Pradesh), Oct 21 (IANS) Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday completed Andhra Pradesh leg of his 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' with the reiteration that his party remains committed to grant special category status to the state and develop a single capital at Amaravati.

On the fourth and final day of the Yatra in the state, Rahul Gandhi along with party leaders and scores of party workers resumed the Yatra Friday morning from Mantralayam in Kurnool district.

After a four-hour walk, the Yatra re-entered neighbouring Karnataka. It halted at Gillesugur in Raichur district. It will resume in the evening from Kerebudur village.

Rahul Gandhi thanked the people of Andhra Pradesh for their overwhelming support and encouragement. It has truly been a memorable experience, he said.

Opposing the Centre's move to privatise Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, the Congress MP said his party supports the continued public sector statue of the plant as an asset of the Indian people.

In a statement issued at the end of the journey in Andhra Pradesh, he recalled the commitment made in and by the Parliament to the people of Andhra Pradesh. "We are determined to ensure that these commitments are met -fully and speedily. Both the central and state governments have failed in this regard," he said.

Rahul Gandhi noted that the Congress party is aware of the challenges it faced in Andhra Pradesh. "The state has been a bastion of the Congress party in the past, and has produced outstanding statesmen for India. We are determined to do all we can to ensure that the Congress party returns to its pre-eminent position in the hearts and minds of the Andhra people'

Rahul believes that the Bharat Jodo Yatra will serve as a first step forward in this journey. "The Yatra has given us an unique opportunity to listen to people's voices and gain an in-depth understanding of the daily challenges of the people of our great nation. There is a continuing effort on a daily basis to pit Indians against each other on the lines of caste, religion, language, food and dress. The unparalleled economic distress caused by skyrocketing prices and record unemployment, as well as the increasing concentration of political and economic power in a few hands are all matters of grave concern," he said

He alleged that the state government systematically undermined the Panchayati Raj system in the state. He said the Congress party strongly opposed this assault on the democratic institutions. "We will also continue to amplify the voices of farmers, youth, women, workers and many other stakeholders whom we interacted with over the last three days."

--IANS
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Rudraprayag, Oct 21 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday offered prayers at Kedarnath temple in Uttarakhand's Rudraprayag district donning a tradition Himachali attire gifted to him by a Chamba woman.

The Prime Minister was gifted the attire on his recent visit to Himachal Pradesh and he had promised her to wear it during a special occasion.

When the Prime Minister inaugurated the Kedarnath ropeway, entire temple premises reverberated with Lord Shiva's devotional songs.

Uttarakhand Governor Lt General (Retd) Gurmeet Singh, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, state Cabinet Minister Prem Chandra Agarwal, among others, were present on the occasion.

India's last village Mana is all set to welcome the Prime Minister. After offering prayers at Badrinath, he is scheduled to review the construction work underway under the Master Plan.

After inaugurating a ropeway for Hemkund Sahib, he will also lay foundation stone for double-laning of roads in Mana.

He will also address villagers of Mana,

--IANS
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Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 21 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Friday cancelled the appointment of M.S. Rajasree as Vice-Chancellor of the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University in Kerala.

Rajasree was appointed in 2019 for a period of four years and this shock exit comes at a time when there were only a few months left for her to retire.

The apex court ruled her appointment as invalid as crucial UGC norms for appointments were not followed as was raised in a petition filed by P.S. Sreejith, whose plea to the same was dismissed by the Kerala High Court in 2021.

Speaking to the media, Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan said this is what they have been pointing out all the while.

"There is absolutely no system in place when it comes to appointments as we often point out and this is the same with various universities," said Satheesan.

Friday's development has come as a jolt to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan as the Kerala High Court and the Chancellor of Universities, state Governor Arif Mohammed Khan have stopped the appointment of Priya Varghese, wife of the private secretary to Vijayan in a teaching post at the Kannur University.

Even the re-appointment of the Kannur University's Vice-Chancellor AGopinath Raveendran has emerged as a hotly-debated topic in the state.

--IANS
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Kolkata, Oct 21 (IANS) The Detective Department (DD) of Kolkata Police on Friday arrested Sailesh Pande, the prime accused in the loan-cum-forex embezzlement scam in the city, as well as three others from Odisha and Gujarat.

Of the three other persons, two are Sailish Pande's brothers Arvind and Rohit, who were earlier absconding

A city police source said that the legal process has started to bring them back to Kolkata in transit remand and in all probability, they will be here by Friday afternoon.

Meanwhile, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also started a parallel probe in the scam especially on the foreign exchange angle involved in the matter.

Earlier this week, the Kolkata Police conducted raid and search operations at the residences of Sailesh and Arvind Pande in Shipbur and seized cash worth around Rs 8 crore along with a huge amount of gold and diamond jewellery.

At the same time, the city police also froze deposits worth Rs 20 crore from two bank accounts held by Sailesh Pande.

Sailesh Pande, who claimed to be a chartered accountant, was involved in defrauding people by promising them to clear loan proposals.

--IANS
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Mumbai, Oct 21 (IANS) Bollywood actor Ayushmann Khurrana has been burning the midnight oil as he is juggling between shooting for 'An Action Hero', 'Dream Girl 2' and his brand commitments.

The actor has been working double shifts to ensure he finishes everything on his platter before he travels to his hometown, Chandigarh to celebrate Diwali with his parents.

It will be a two-day trip that Ayushmann is looking forward to.

Talking about the same, Ayushmann shared: "Diwali is one of my favourite festivals and I truly look forward to it. I have been in a hectic shooting schedule for Dream Girl 2 and An Action Hero but I have somehow managed to get 2 days off during which I am planning a quick trip to my hometown, Chandigarh."

He further said: "I am looking forward to relishing food cooked by my mother, all the mithais and spending time with my whole family."

He thoroughly enjoys this time of the year and likes going back to the house he grew up in. He basks in all the festivities and spends quality time with his loved ones.


--IANS
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Dehradun, Oct 21 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday morning offered prayers at Kedarnath temple in Uttarakhand's Rudraprayag district.

The Prime Minister, accompanied by Minister of State for Defence and Tourism Ajay Bhatt and Uttarakhand Governor L-G Gurmeet Singh, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and Chief secretary S S Sandhu, left Dehradun airport and reached Kedarnath temple at 08.30 a.m.

Prime Minister Modi offered prayers for around half an hour, post which he laid the foundation stone for Gaurikund-Kedarnath ropeway.

The Prime Minister is scheduled to reach Badrinath at 11.30 a.m.

Dhami posted on Twitter in Hindi, "Ardent devotee of Lord Shiva, world's most popular leader and charismatic Prime Minister of the country, Shri @narendramodiJi did Rudrabhishek after having darshan of Baba Kedarnath".

"On this occasion, the Prime Minister laid the foundation stone for Gaurikund-Kedarnath ropeway to be constructed at a cost of Rs 1,267 crore and interacted with the workers who made valuable contribution in the reconstruction of Kedarnath.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Oct 21 (IANS) A 42-year-old man was shot at by his neighbour allegedly over the parking issue in Outer Delhi's Vikas Nagar area, said police on Friday.

The accused, Ashish, 22, a resident of Vikas Nagar, has been arrested by the police.

According to Sameer Sharma, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Outer district, on October 17, a police control room (PCR) call regarding the firing incident was received at the Ranhola police station.

"Police team reached the spot and found that the injured, Sher Singh, was taken to Ashirwad Nursing Hospital. He was admitted to the hospital with a gunshot injury in his head and after the treatment he was said to be out of danger," said the DCP.

"In his statement, Singh said that his neighbour Ashish, shot him at about 7 p.m. on Monday, when he was sitting in front of his property shop. A case under section 307 of the Indian Penal Code and 27 Arms Act was registered and the manhunt was initiated to nab the accused," said the DCP.

"The team managed to apprehend Ashish from Ganda Nala within 24 hours after the incident," said the DCP.

"During interrogation, he disclosed that there was a dispute with the victim over a parking issue. He further alleged that Sher Singh had done some black magic on his family and wanted to take revenge," said the DCP.

"He had bought the country-made pistol, which was used in the commission of crime, from one of his friends," said the DCP adding that further investigation of the case was in progress and efforts were being made to arrest the supplier of firearms.

--IANS
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Lucknow, Oct 21 (IANS) Over 7,000 unrecognised madrasas have been identified in Uttar Pradesh in a recent survey carried out by the state government. The survey is being done to provide recognition to unrecognised madrasas once they meet the government mandated requirements.

The final list of unrecognised madrasas will be released only after the district magistrates submit their reports by November 15.

Iftikhar Ahmed Javed, Chairman, Uttar Pradesh Board of Madrassa Education said that the process to identify the actual numbers will still take time, but we have estimated around 7,500 such madrassas which were surveyed by teams in 75 districts by Thursday evening.

"In Uttar Pradesh, there are 16,513 recognised madrassas, out of which 560 are given government grants (salary to employees, including teaching and non-teaching ones). There are 350 madrassas with less than 15 students. The teaching staff of 560 madrassas have pay scales similar to those in central government-run secondary schools...," he said.

Under the madrasa modernisation scheme, 744 madrassas are given grants for shiksha mitra, and a scholarship is given to meritorious students of all registered madrasas.

The unrecognised madrasas will now be recognised by the Board of Madrassa Education once they meet government mandated requirements such as providing basic facilities for running madrassas, such as a classroom, table, bench, chairs for students, proper lights fans, toilets, and others.

Further, they can also apply for wages for teaching and non-teaching employees.

According to a government spokesman, there are 150 unofficial madrassas in Gorakhpur, 100 in Lucknow, Azamgarh, Varanasi, and Mau, while Aligarh has 90, Kanpur (85), Prayagraj (70), and Agra (35).

--IANS
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New Delhi, Oct 21 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has frozen Bitcoins worth Rs 7.12 crore and seized Rs 1.65 crore in cash as part of its probe in the E-nuggets gaming app case, officials said.

The agency recently carried out search operations at two premises in Kolkata, leading to seizure of Rs 1.65 crore in cash and freezing of 44.5 Bitcoin (equivalent to Rs 7.12 crore as per exchange rate) and other incriminating documents under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The instant case was registered on the basis of the FIR filed by the Kolkata police against Aamir Khan and others. The FIR filed was based on a complaint filed by Federal Bank authorities in a city court.

Khan, launched a mobile gaming application namely E-Nuggets, which was designed for the purpose of defrauding public. Further, after collecting handsome amount from the public, all of the sudden, the withdrawal from the said app, was stopped, on one or the other pretext. Thereafter, all data including profile information was wiped off from the app servers.

It was revealed that multiple accounts (more than 300) were used to launder the money, officials said.

Earlier during search operation against Khan, an amount of Rs 17.32 crore was seized from his residence and Bitcoins worth Rs 13.56 crore and other crypto currencies worth Rs 47.64 lakh were traced and freezed. Apart from this, Rs 5.47 crore found in the bank account of Khan and his accomplice was also freezed by the agency.

During investigations conducted under PMLA, an amount of Rs 51.16 crore has been seized so far in total in the case.

Further investigation in the matter is on.

--IANS
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Bengaluru, Oct 20 (IANS) The Basavaraj Bommai-led Karnataka government is making all preparations to make 'Invest Karnataka 2022-Global Investors Meet' -- which is just 10 days away from now -- a successful one, officials said on Thursday.

The event would be virtually inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 2. "It would be attended by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Ministers Smiriti Irani, Bhagwanth Khuba and Nitin Gadkari," Karnataka's Minister for Large & Medium Industries, Murugesh R. Nirani said at a press conference here on Thursday.

The Global Investors Meet will be a platform to join industry leaders, innovators, and policymakers from all over the globe to explore new growth possibilities. This year's meet will focus on getting intellectuals, political leaders, and business leaders to carve out the development agenda.

"The Global Investors Meet will showcase the robust industrial-friendly ecosystem, attract investments from global players, and spread industrialization across the state. The state is expecting over Rs 5 lakh crore in investments and the generation of 5 lakh jobs through the event," Nirani said.

The minister said that the state was looking at forging partnerships with various business houses across India and the globe.

"With the key themes of resilience, innovation, sustainability, and equity, we are committed to setting Karnataka's development agenda in line with global best practices and showcasing our strong ability to 'Build for the World'.

"We have recently completed international roadshows in Japan, South Korea, the US, and Europe and domestic roadshows in Delhi, Hyderabad, and Mumbai. Our aim is not only to get investments but to bring the industry giants under one platform. We are expecting around 5,000+ global delegates to attend the Meet. The GIM with contemporary themes will be an opportunity to connect, collaborate and network with global leaders," he added.

For the Global Investors Meet, a total of 50,000 acres of land -- 20,000 acres in Bengaluru and 30,000 acres across the state has been earmarked.

--IANS
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