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Showing posts from July, 2021

RS bulletin to list issues that could not be taken up

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  With continuous disruptions in the conduct of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, the Rajya Sabha Secretariat has made a significant change by deciding to list in the bulletin for “public domain” the matter proposed to be raised by the Parliamentarians either in Zero Hour or Special Mentions. This has been done to send a message across that matters of public interest could not be taken up due to the disruptions.  Earlier only the Business List was made public and transmitted to members as well for public domain. The first Bulletin with complete details of Zero Hour and Special Mentions was transmitted to members on Wednesday and Thursday and will be continued as of now for the entire Monsoon Session. The Rajya Sabha Bulletin — which so far was the sole propriety of the Chairman — tabled during the conduct of the proceedings, will be made available to members and thereafter to the public. Sources said all these matters were admitted by Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu to be raised on both th

Assam-Mizo border war escalates, 6 cops killed

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  In a major flare-up of tension along the Mizoram-Assam border , at least six Assam Police officials were killed and 50 others, including an SP, were injured on Monday. The two Chief Ministers blamed each other’s police for the violence and sought the Centre’s intervention. Union Home Minister Amit Shah spoke to the Chief Ministers of Assam and Mizoram, Himanta Biswa Sarma and Zoramthanga respectively, and urged them to ensure peace along the disputed border and find an amicable settlement. Assam’s Barak Valley districts of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi share a 164 km long border with Mizoram’s three districts of Aizawl, Kolasib and Mamit. This is third time in less than two years that violence has erupted following the territorial dispute. The inter-State border dispute saw violence in August 2020 and February this year also. The Assam Chief Minister announced on Twitter that six personnel of the Assam Police were killed in firing by “miscreants” from Mizoram along the inter-Sta

FIR against IPS officer Param Bir Singh, 5 other cops on charges of extortion

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  Mumbai police have registered an FIR against senior IPS officer Param Bir Singh , five other police personnel and two more persons for allegedly demanding Rs 15 crore from a builder to withdraw cases against him, an official said on Thursday. Based on the builder's complaint, the case was registered at the Marine Drive police station in south Mumbai, he said. The five other cops accused in the case are - DCP (crime branch) Akbar Pathan, inspector Shrikant Shinde, Asha Korke, Nandkumar Gopale and Sanjay Patil, the official said. Two of the builder's partners, Sunil Jain and Sanjay Punamia, have been arrested in the case, he said. According to the complaint, Jain and Punamia had conspired with police officials and demanded Rs 15 crore from the builder to withdraw some cases against him, he said. The builder had named former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh along with others in his complaint, the official said. The case has been registered under Indian Penal Code Sec

After accusing CJI Gogoi of sexual harassment, SC staffer on snoop list as target

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Three phone numbers belonging to the Supreme Court staffer, who had accused former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi of sexual harassment in April 2019, were selected as potential targets for surveillance by an official - but unidentified - Indian agency that is a customer of the Israel-based-NSO Group, The Wire reported. NSO is best known for its Pegasus spyware, which it says it only sells to "vetted governments" and not to private entities, though the company will not confirm which governments it sells its controversial product to. The staffer, whose name is being withheld, was dismissed from service in December 2018, weeks after she said she rebuffed the judge's advances. She recorded her allegations in a sworn affidavit on April 20, 2019 and was marked as a person of interest just days after this, an analysis of a leaked list of phone numbers accessed by French media non-profit Forbidden Stories revealed. The leaked records show that eight other phone numbers belo

Haiti police chief links Venezuelan to assassination plot

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  Haiti's police chief on Wednesday accused a Venezuelan businessman who owns a security company in Florida of travelling to Haiti numerous times as part of a plot to assassinate President Jovenel Moise, who was killed last week. Leon Charles, head of the Haiti's National Police, said Antonio Intriago of CTU Security signed a contract while in Haiti but provided no other details and offered no evidence. “The investigation is very advanced,” Charles said. Intriago could not be immediately reached for comment. Colombia's national police chief has said that CTU Security used its company credit card to buy 19 plane tickets from Bogota to Santo Domingo for the Colombian suspects allegedly involved in the killing. During a news conference Wednesday evening, Charles pleaded with Haitians to help officials track down suspects who remain on the run, including a former senator he described as a key suspect and is accused of providing weapons used in the July 7 attack. Former Sen Joh

Monsoon reaches Jaisalmer, Delhi's periphery but gives national capital a miss

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  Southwest Monsoon rains reached the desert district of Jaisalmer and Ganganagar, its last outposts, on Monday, but gave Delhi and parts of Haryana a miss. It rained in the periphery of Delhi -- Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh and Karnal in Haryana -- but clouds hovered over the national capital, without giving any relief from the heat. The rains also covered west Rajasthan, Punjab and other parts of Haryana. In 2002, monsoon reached Delhi on July 19. This is the most-delayed monsoon in the city since then. The Northern Limit of the Southwest Monsoon (NLM) currently passes through Jaisalmer, Nagaur, Bharatpur, Aligarh, Karnal and Ganganagar, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. The Southwest Monsoon covers Ganganagar and Jaisalmer in Rajasthan after it has covered almost the entire country. "In association with continued prevalence of moist easterly winds from the Bay of Bengal in the lower levels since the past three days, enhanced cloud cover and scattered to fairly widespr

Drone strikes in Jammu airbase was an act of terror: Air Chief Marshal Bhadauria

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The drone strikes in Jammu airbase was an act of terror that was aimed at targeting key military assets, Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria said on Friday asserting that the Indian Air Force is in the process of bolstering its capabilities to deal with such security challenges. The Chief of Air Staff said the IAF has carried out a detailed analysis in terms of implications of drones and other similar capabilities falling into the hands of non-state actors, and taking a series of measures to counter them. "What happened at Jammu was essentially a terrorist act which attempted to target our assets there. The attempt failed of course. The assets were not damaged. Two explosives were used," he said in an interactive session at a think tank. Explosives-laden drones were used to carry out an attack on the Jammu Air Force station on Sunday in the first such instance of suspected Pakistan-based terrorists deploying unmanned aerial vehicles to strike at vital military installations in I