India

Lucknow, Nov 24 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh ministers will travel to 19 cities across 17 countries between December 9 and 19, ahead of the Global Investors' Summit (GIS) scheduled early next year.

The road shows will work in simultaneous mode which means that more than one road show will take place per day.

Sources said the schedule had been verbally approved by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath who may travel separately closer to the event in January. The required paperwork for visa and other things has been initiated by the partner industry bodies.

Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) have been engaged for the event that eyes to attract an investment of over Rs 10 lakh crore to the state.

As per the schedule, state finance minister Suresh Khanna will travel alone between December 9 and 15 and lead roadshows in London, New York and San Francisco.

Cabinet minister for industries and infrastructure development Nand Gopal Gupta 'Nandi' and PWD minister Jitin Prasada will travel between December 9 and 14 to lead roadshows in Frankfurt, Brussels and Stockholm.

On the same dates, Speaker UP Vidhan Sabha and former minister for industrial development Satish Mahana will travel to Canada to hold roadshows in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. He will be accompanied by Dharampal Singh, cabinet minister for animal husbandry, dairy development, political pension, minority welfare, Muslim waqf and haj and civil defence departments.

Canada has extended support to the UP GIS 2023 as a partner country. Dharampal Singh will travel to Los Angeles on December 16 as well.

Minister for tourism Jaiveer Singh would travel to Tokyo and Seoul between December 9 and 16 with Ashish Patel, minister for technical education, consumer protection, weights and measures minister.

The minister for MSME Rakesh Sachan will conduct the roadshow in Dubai and will head to his destination on December 11.

Power minister Arvind Kumar Sharma and Jal Shakti Minister Swatantra Dev Singh would travel to Sydney and Singapore City between December 13 and 16.

Deputy chief ministers Brijesh Pathak and Keshav Prasad Maurya will travel to different directions from December 13 and 16 respectively.

While Pathak would head to Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires with Sanjay Nishad, the minister for fisheries, Maurya would cover Hague and Paris with IT minister Yogendra Upadhyay.

Though the programme for chief minister is yet to be finalised, he may travel in January closer to the event.

Sources said his schedule was also subject to security clearances from Union Ministry of External Affairs.

Senior officials had earlier pointed out that the focus sectors being targeted through the roadshows, include electronics manufacturing, retail, automobile, EV-manufacturing, defence, textile, agro and food processing, chemical, pharmaceuticals, venture capitalists and transport among others.

Meanwhile, domestic roadshows will be led by senior officials from the industries department.

--IANS
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Lucknow, Nov 24 (IANS) An FIR has been lodged against the social media handle of the Samajwadi Party (SP) for promoting enmity between different groups of people.

The FIR was lodged by journalist Manish Pandey.

The social media handle allegedly used derogatory language while tweeting the journalist's post, which had nothing to do with the SP and even posted threatening messages for him.

In his FIR, Pandey said the SP Media Cell posted an inflammatory, controversial and politically motivated tweet on Gorakhnath Mutt from its Twitter handle and he, in turn, tweeted on November 20 appealing that they should refrain from making unsavoury comments on the Gorakhnath Mutt as it was a centre of devotion of crores of Hindus.

"I wrote that they should avoid politicizing the Gorakhnath Mutt and keep themselves limited to 5 Kalidas Marg, BJP headquarters and CM's official residence. Soon after, I started getting abusive and unbecoming comments," the journalist said in the FIR.

Pandey said he ignored the comments initially, but on Tuesday they crossed the limits. "I tweeted saying 'UP ke do anmol ratan, inki muskurahat dekh kar kaiyon ke kaleje me dhuan nikalne lagta hai' (There are two stars of UP whose smile may cause heartburn to many).

In its reply, the SP Media Cell posted abusive and insulting posts against me and their comments made me feel humiliated, he said in the FIR.

Pandey said those who posted abusive tweets against him should be taken to task.

"The Twitter handle of the SP was fanning communal tension and hatred among people when the atmosphere was quiet in UP. They are posting such messages to gain political mileage. So, their act needs police action, which will prevent them from making unbecoming comments against Guru Gorakhnath Mutt and from vitiating the peace and harmony in the society," he said.

DCP Central Zone, Aparna Rajat Kaushik said a case was registered under the charges of 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings), 505 (publishing or circulating any statement, rumour or report with intent to incite) and 66 IT Act.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Nov 24 (IANS) Top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders have started door-to-door public interaction and appeal for people's votes for the upcoming Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections.

Union Minister Smriti Irani interacted with people in Delhi's Rajinder Nagar Assembly constituency which is set to go for polling on Wednesday. She addressed the people at a public rally in the constituency and appealed them to vote in large numbers for the BJP candidates.

She appealed people to vote for BJP candidates -- Umang Bajaj, Mohanlal Dayma and Monika Nischal in all three wards of Rajinder Nagar.

The Union Minister said that all the people must participate enthusiastically in the voting to be held for the MCD polls on December 4 and ensure that all the BJP candidates of Rajendra Nagar win with a huge margin of votes.

When Irani went out to campaign for the BJP candidates of Rajendra Nagar Assembly constituency, Delhi BJP President Adesh Gupta was also present there along with large number of party workers of the constituency.

--IANS
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Lucknow, Nov 24 (IANS) The Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court has turned down the bail plea of a 29-year-old Balrampur resident, accused of killing his wife and disposing her body parts after stuffing it into a suitcase in July 2020.

Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh, in his order, said that considering the 'heinous' nature of offence, and the evidence available on record, there is no good reason to grant bail to the accused Sameer Khan.

As per the prosecution, Sameer was working at a meat shop in Mumbai where he met a girl named Ayesha. The two got romantically inclined to each other and got married in 2017.

As Covid-induced lockdown shut the shop he was working at in 2020, Sameer came to his village in Balrampur without Ayesha as he had not informed his family about his marriage in Mumbai.

In his statement to police, the accused said that he got suspicious of his wife's 'character' because whenever he used to call her on mobile, it was found busy. On June 25, 2020 he called his wife to Lucknow and started living with her in Indira Nagar.

On July 5, 2020, the accused had a quarrel with his wife following which he hit her with a rod which proved fatal. He then chopped her body into six pieces and kept them in a suitcase. Sameer took the suitcase to Safedabad Barabanki on Lucknow-Ayodhya road and disposed it.

Police recovered the suitcase containing the body part on July 7, 2020.

Nearly 40 days after this incident, police were able to identify the body and apprehended Sameer for questioning.

After sustained interrogation, he confessed to his crime and helped police recover the knife and the car used in the crime.

--IANS
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Prayagraj, Nov 24 (IANS) The Allahabad high court has turned down disqualified BJP MLA Vikram Saini's plea to suspend his conviction in 2013 Muzaffarnagar riot case.

Justice Samit Gopal said in his order that the "grounds taken by the appellant do not in any manner appeal to the court. The criminal activities resulting in disqualification are related to various spheres pertaining to the interest of the nation, common citizenry interest, communal harmony, and prevalence of good governance. Merely by pleading that appellant will stand disqualified by the conviction is no ground to suspend it".

The court also said, "The law as is continuously being held, reiterated and referred to is that powers of suspension of conviction should be exercised in rare cases only. The conviction of the appellant is for rioting, rioting armed with deadly weapon, endangering life or personal safety of others, assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharging his duty, intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace and criminal intimidation, which had caused a law-and-order problem and had thrown the peace of the citizens out of gear."

The court pointed out that "Section 8 of the Representation of People's Act, 1951, stipulates the disqualification after conviction in certain offences. The offences under the Indian Penal Code covered by the Act are which have the potentiality to destroy the core values of a healthy democracy, safety of the state, economic stability, national security, and prevalence and sustenance of peace and harmony among citizens and many others".

On November 18, the high court had suspended the sentence awarded to Saini by the MP/MLA Court in the riot case, granted him bail and fixed November 22 for hearing the application seeking suspension of conviction in the same case.

The counsel representing Saini had taken the plea that he (Saini) was implicated in the present case due to political vendetta, as a government headed by a rival party was in power when the Muzaffarnagar riots took place in 2013. Besides, it is a case of no injury and no public witness is available.

It was also contended on behalf of his counsel that as a consequence of conviction, Saini has been declared disqualified as MLA and his assembly constituency -- Khatauli -- had become vacant.

In addition to it, as per Section 8 of the Representation of People's Act, he cannot contest election for a subsequent period of six years, as he has been convicted by a court. Hence, in view of it, his conviction may be suspended in the interest of justice, the counsel further pleaded.

On the other hand, the counsel appearing on behalf of the state government opposed the prayer for suspending the conviction.

Rejecting all the pleas taken by Saini's counsel, the court said: "The grounds as taken do not in any manner appeal to the court. There is a full-fledged trial conducted after which the appellant has been convicted. The trial court has found the evidence to be trustworthy and reliable."

After Saini's disqualification, the bypoll for the Khatauli Assembly constituency is scheduled to be held on December 5.

Special judge, MP/MLA Court, Muzaffarnagar, had on October 11 sentenced Saini, who was an elected MLA from Khatauli in Muzaffarnagar, and 10 others to two years' imprisonment in a case relating to the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.

The court had convicted and sentenced Saini on charges related to Sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of other), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provide breach of peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) and others. The court had dropped the charge of attempt to murder against all of them.

Saini had challenged his conviction and sentence before the high court by filing the present criminal appeal.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Nov 23 (IANS) As soon as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) comes to power in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), work will start at fast pace to solve the parking problem in the national capital.

Delhi BJP President Adesh Gupta said that the party has done the work of making more than 100 modern parking lots in Delhi.

As soon as the BJP comes to power again in the civic body it will end the parking problem in Delhi, he added.

He said, "The way the BJP has started construction of parking lots in Delhi, it can claim that this time with the blessings of the people, we will make a lot of parking lots in Delhi."

He added that the saffron party is constantly receiving praise for the modern parking lots it has made in areas such as Green Park, Chandni Chowk and Karol Bagh.

The BJP has been trying for a long time in the corporation to ensure that people in Delhi can easily park their vehicles in the parking lots and do their work without any hassles, Gupta said.

The Delhi BJP President said that as far as private vehicles are concerned, their number in Delhi is maximum.

"As compared to other cities of the country, there are more than one crore vehicles here. On a daily average 1,200 to 1,400 new vehicles are registered on the roads of Delhi. In such a situation, it is necessary that the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government should improve public transport. But the Delhi government has destroyed the public transport system of Delhi. The number of buses that were to be bought in Delhi were not bought, so the pressure on parking in Delhi has increased."

Gupta added that as soon as the BJP returns to power it will complete some of the projects that were launched but couldn't be started and will also bring many new projects along with them.

BJP is making every possible move to win MCD elections for the fourth time.

--IANS
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By Haresh Jhala
Gandhinagar, Nov 23 (IANS) Nineteen BJP leaders are contesting either as Independents or on the Congress symbol in the Gujarat Assembly elections, after officially an effort was made to convince them to withdraw, but there was no arm-twisting or pressure to make retire from the race.



This raises questions if is this part of the strategy of the ruling party to divide the dominant communities' vote and get benefit for the party candidate, or to take their support, if they are elected, to form the government in a case where there is a hung Assembly.

Senior journalist from Vadodara, Manu Chavda explained why these BJP leaders revolted against the party candidate. Citing the case of Dinubhai Patel, who is contesting against BJP candidate Chaitanyasinh Zala, he said Patel is a former MLA, who was first elected to the Assembly in 2007 as an Independent defeating the BJP candidate, in 2012, contested on the BJP symbol and defeated the Congress candidate, but, in 2017, lost because Zala had contested as an Independent and won by dividing votes. Now, the BJP has fielded Zala.

On Vaghodia seat, BJP's six term MLA Madhu Srivastav has revolted and is contesting as an Independent, and according to Chavda, is definitely going to divide BJP votes, damaging the party candidates' prospect, because of which independent candidate Dharmendrasinh Vaghela or Congress candidate Satyajitsinh Gaikwad are likely to get a benefit.

If Patel and Srivastav get elected, and if the BJP is short of members for majority, these two will definitely support and stand with the BJP.

It can also be a plan B of the BJP, said political analyst Jagdish Mehta. According to his assessment, at least four rebels - Patel, Srivastav, Mavji Desai (Dhanera) and Dhavalsinh Zala (Bayad) have a 50 per cent chance to win. If they get elected and if there is hung Assembly, these are the one who will rejoin BJP or extend support to it.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Nov 23 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed an appeal by Tata Power Company Ltd challenging the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission's (MERC) decision to award a Rs 7,000 crore transmission contract on a nomination basis to Adani Electricity in March last year.

A bench, headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and comprising Justices A.S. Bopanna and J.B. Pardiwala directed the state power regulatory commissions to frame regulations for determination of tariff within three months to effectuate a balance for creating a sustainable model of electricity regulation in the states.

"We direct all state regulatory commissions to frame regulations under Section 181 of the Act on the terms and conditions for determination of tariff within three months from the date of this judgment. While framing these guidelines on determination of tariff, the appropriate commission shall be guided by the principles prescribed in Section 61, which also includes the NEP (National Electricity Policy) and NTP (National Tariff Policy)", said the bench, in its 93-page judgment.

The APTEL, by its judgment dated February 18, 2022, dismissed an appeal under Section 111 of the Act instituted by the Tata Power against a decision of the MERC dated March 21, 2021. Tata Power moved the apex court challenging this decision.

The apex court upheld the Aptel's (Appellate Tribunal for Electricity) February 18 order, which held that the MERC's decision to choose RTM (regulate tariff mode) route under Section 62 of the Electricity Act 2003 to award the transmission contract cannot be termed as "incorrect, perverse or inappropriate".

Chief Justice Chandrachud, who authored the judgment on behalf of the bench, said where the appropriate commission(s) has already framed regulations, they shall be amended to include provisions on the criteria for choosing the modalities to determine the tariff, in case they have not been already included.

The bench said the Electricity Act 2003 provides the states sufficient flexibility to regulate the intra-state transmission systems, wherein the appropriate state commissions possess the power to determine and regulate tariff. "The Electricity Act 2003 seeks to distance the state governments from the determination and regulation of tariff, placing such power completely within the ambit of the appropriate commissions," it added.

The MERC has neither framed regulations nor notified guidelines prescribing the criteria or guidelines for choosing the modalities to determine tariff, the bench said, adding that the MERC shall determine the tariff by exercising its general regulatory powers under Section 86(1)(a) of the Act.

"Even if the HVDC (High Voltage Direct Current) Project were to be considered a 'new project' in terms of the GoM's GR, the same not having been issued in terms of Section 108 as a direction to the state commission, the MERC's decision cannot be challenged for failing to comply with the same as the MERC is an independent body with statutory powers to determine and regulate tariff."

The bench said the commission while being guided by the principles contained in Section 61 shall effectuate a balance that would create a sustainable model of electricity regulation in the states and the regulatory commission shall curate to the specific needs of the state while framing these regulations.

"Further, the regulations framed must be in consonance with the objective of the Electricity Act 2003, which is to enhance the investment of private stakeholders in the electricity regulatory sector so as to create a sustainable and effective system of tariff determination that is cost efficient so that such benefits percolate to the end consumers," it said.

The top court said though the government, both at the Centre and in the States, have framed statutory policies and guidelines regulating the electricity sector, "we have noticed that the regulatory commissions have not framed the necessary regulations to put into effect the principles prescribed under the Act".

Tata Power moved the apex court questioning the MERC's decision on how the transmission license for such a large infrastructure project to build a 1,000-mw HVDC link between 400 KV Kudus and 220 KV Aarey EHV station could be awarded without following the process of Tariff-Based Competitive Bidding (TBCB) route and by "excluding other developers."

On this, the top court said: "The Electricity Act 2003 or the policy framework, particularly NTP 2016 read with the GoM GR dated January 4, 2019, did not make it binding upon the MERC to allot the HVDC project only through the TBCB route. For the reasons mentioned above, the Regulatory Commission's decision to grant the HVDC project under Section 62 was within a reasonable exercise of its powers."

--IANS
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New Delhi, Nov 22 (IANS) The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has moved the Supreme Court against a Bombay High Court order, which granted bail to activist Anand Teltumbde, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta mentioned the matter before a bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud. The top court agreed to hear NIA's appeal on Friday and asked Mehta to serve a copy to advocate Aparna Bhat, who appeared on behalf of Teltumbde on caveat.

Last week, the high court granted conditional bail to Dalit scholar and ex-IIT professor Teltumbde.

A division bench of Justice A.S. Gadkari and Justice Milind Jadhav granted the bail plea of Teltumbde, filed in 2021, challenging an order of the special NIA court rejecting his bail application in July last year.

However, the high court stayed the bail order for a week to allow the NIA appeal against it in the Supreme Court.

Teltumbde (72), the brother-in-law of Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi President Prakash Ambedkar, had surrendered before the NIA in April 2020 following a Supreme Court order.

Granting him bail of Rs 1,00,000 plus two sureties, the division bench noted that prima facie, UAPA sections for offences of unlawful activities, terrorist acts and conspiracy were not made out, though membership and support to a terror group was made out.

The NIA had accused Teltumbde of being the convener of the Elgar Parishad of December 31, 2017, where fiery speeches were made which allegedly resulted in a caste violence at Bhima-Koregaon, Pune, on January 1, 2018, in which one person was killed.

The two incidents sparked a nationwide furore and later the investigations by Pune Police, followed by the NIA, expanded the scope of the probe to an alleged conspiracy to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi and overthrow the Central government.

The NIA charged Teltumbde for being an active member of the banned CPI(Maoist) and deeply involved in "furtherance of its agenda".

Strongly opposing the bail plea, NIA's special public prosecutor Sandesh Patil also accused Teltumbde of inspiring his brother, the late activist Milind Teltumbde, to participate in the movement and shared prohibited literature from international conferences with him.

Reportedly a secretary of the CPI(Maoist) for Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh region, Milind Teltumde - who carried a reward of Rs 50 lakh - was shot dead in an encounter with security forces in Gadchiroli (Maharashtra) along with 25 other dreaded Maoists.

Through his lawyers Mihir Desai and Devyani Kulkarni, Anand Teltumbde argued that he had been a staunch critic of the Maoist ideology and had lost all contacts with his (deceased) brother Milind for some 25 years.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Nov 22 (IANS) Delhi Police has initiated legal action against AAP workers after they thrashed party MLA from Matiala Gulab Singh Yadav during a meeting at Shyam Vihar in the national capital.

The altercation had taken place over distribution of civic polls tickets on Monday.

An information regarding manhandling of MLA Gulab Singh was received around 8 p.m. following which a police team rushed to the spot, a senior police official said on Tuesday.

"There was an altercation over the issue of ticket distribution which resulted in alleged manhandling of Yadav by some party workers. He has been medically examined and no external injury found. Legal action being taken as per the statement," said the official.

A video of the incident was doing the rounds on social media. In the video, the AAP workers are seen grabbing Yadav by collar and hitting him.

Yadav was finally seen running to save himself from the wrath of the angry workers of his own party.

--IANS
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