Guwahati- In the wake of Manipur violence, Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit to Assam scheduled on May 11 has been postponed, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Monday.
Shah was supposed to attend a grand celebration of two years of completion of the Sarma-led government in Assam on Thursday.
However, the visit has been rescheduled to May 26, said Sarma.
Addressing media persons here, he said, “Union Home Minister called me up in the morning and informed about the change in his schedule due to ongoing violence in Manipur.”
In the run-up to the 2021 Assam Assembly election, Sarma promised that if BJP returns to power in the state, 1 lakh jobs would be given to unemployed youths of the state within a year.
Though the state government has already provided around 50, 000 jobs in the last two years, the target of 1 lakh jobs is yet to be completed.
Sarma said that recruitment procedures for another 45, 000 posts are completed and the appointment letters will be distributed by Amit Shah on May 26.
New Delhi : The Delhi government will launch a campaign next week to curb dust pollution, one of the major reasons behind air pollution in the national capital in the summer season, Environment Minister Gopal Rai said on Thursday.
He said officials have been asked to inspect construction sites and take action against those violating anti-dust pollution norms.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had on Monday launched an action plan to combat air pollution during the summer months with a focus on controlling dust pollution.
The Delhi government already has an action plan to combat air pollution in the winter months. The winter plan focuses on stubble burning, firecracker pollution, and industrial and vehicular emissions.
The summer plan involves the participation of 30 government departments.
The government has procured 84 mechanical road sweeping machines, 609 water sprinklers and 185 mobile anti-smog guns to suppress dust.
Additionally, 70 integrated road sweeping machines and 250 integrated water sprinklers are being procured to further improve the situation.
Patrolling teams have been constituted to check dust pollution, open burning of garbage and dumping of waste in industrial areas.
The government will deploy 225 and 159 teams during the daytime and at night, respectively, to monitor dust pollution in the city.
Real-time source apportionment studies will be conducted at 13 air pollution hotspots and a mobile air lab deployed at each of these locations. Such studies help identify factors responsible for increase in air pollution at any spot such as vehicles, dust, biomass burning, and industrial emissions so that preventive measures can be taken accordingly.
Construction sites larger than 500 square metres will be closely monitored to check dust pollution, according to the summer action plan.
In a fresh encounter that broke out in the woods of Rajouri district in Jammu, one militant has been killed while another is suspected to have been injured.
This follows the killing of five army personnel on Friday morning in the Kandi forest area of the district .
The Indian Army, in coordination with JKP & CRPF, had launched a joint operation to track down the militants.
“In the ongoing joint operation in Kandi Forest, Rajouri sector by Indian Army in coordination with JKP & CRPF, at 7:am hours the cordon while closing in spotted and pinned down the terrorists,” Defence spokesman Lt. Colonel Devender Anand said. “In the ensuing gunbattle, one terrorist has been neutralized and one terrorist is likely to be injured”
The operation has so far resulted in huge recoveries, including one AK56, four magazines of AK, 56 rounds of AK, 1 x 9mm pistol with a mag, three grenades one ammunition pouch.
The identity of the neutralized militant is yet to be ascertained.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, along with Army Chief General Manoj Pandey, is expected to visit Rajouri to assess the ground situation.
The officials said that he is likely to chair a high-level security meeting in Jammu before flying back to Delhi.
In the meantime, Northern Army Commander Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi has reached Rajouri to review the ongoing operation. He was briefed by ground commanders on all aspects of the operation, which has been ongoing for the past two weeks.
Srinagar: An encounter broke out between security forces and terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district on Friday morning, officials said.
According to sources, the exchange of fire was going on at Doke in the Banyari Hills of Rajouri district.
Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Jammu Zone, Mukesh Singh confirmed that the encounter has begun in the Kandi forest belt.
The terrorists hiding in the area opened fire on the security forces who retaliated, leading to a gunfight.
A heavy exchange of gunfire was on when this report was being filed. On April 21, five Army soldiers were killed Thursday afternoon in the neighbouring district of Poonch of J&K when their vehicle was fired upon by terrorists
Debt-ridden Sri Lanka’s foreign currency reserves improved to $2.69 billion in March 2023 from a mere $50 million in May last year, giving indications of marginal improvement of the island nation’s economy, data from the Central Bank said on Friday.
Sri Lanka has been in financial turmoil and its total debt is $83.6 billion, of which foreign debt amounts to $42.6 billion externally and domestic debt amounts to $42 billion.
In April 2022, Sri Lanka declared its first-ever debt default, the worst economic crisis since its independence from Britain in 1948, triggered by forex shortages that sparked public protests.
According to Central Bank of Sri Lanka data, the island’s foreign currency reserves had improved to 2.69 billion dollars in March 2023, an improvement from under 50 million in May last year.
Analysts said that the $2.69 billion, includes a 1.4 billion US dollar currency swap from China with conditions attached to its usage.
Therefore the usable reserves would be just 1.6 billion dollars, the analysts say.
By May last year, the country was deeply plunged into its worst-ever economic crisis since 1948.
Reserves not sufficient to pay for imports led to shortages of essentials and power cuts.
Sri Lanka was then thrown a lifeline with an Indian line of credit worth $4 billion which paid for the imports of essentials and fuel.
This triggered public protests which culminated in the resignation of the then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout which was released mid-March amounts to nearly 3 billion dollars to be disbursed over 4 years.
The $2.69 billion dollar boost at the end of March was including the first tranche of over 300 million dollars released by the IMF.
“One of the key objectives of our IMF programme is to rebuild our foreign currency reserves. The IMF program and our reform agenda will work together to balance the economy and keep the external sector in check,” the central bank statement which shows the data said.
The government is under political pressure for introducing tough reforms on IMF diktat as they have begun to restructure debt both external and internal.The plan to restructure local debt is to be announced this month, officials said.
New Delhi-The Delhi High Court on Thursday adjourned the hearing on former Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia’s interim bail plea in the 2021-22 excise policy case being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to May 10.
Appearing for the probe agency, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) S.V. Raju submitted before the bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma that “the change from 5 per cent to 12 per cent in the interest rate was made to get the kickback money. He (Sisodia) made the policy in such a way that guaranteed return in form of kickbacks came”.
“Sisodia concealed legal experts’ opinion given by eminent personalities as well. He hadn’t mentioned it anywhere. It was ignored completely. They (members of AAP) did not include it in the policy, ” the ASG added.
He also said that there was a draft note prepared by a person named Rahul Singh on the instance of Manish Sisodia, which can be proved from their WhatsApp chats.
“The original is missing. Only a part of the draft has been retrieved from the phones, ” he said.
Taking note of the submission, the judge adjourned the matter for further submissions to May 10.
Notably, Sisodia had moved the high court on Wednesday seeking interim bail in the case on the ground of his wife’s illness.
Earlier on Thursday, the high court had sought the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) response on Sisodia’s bail plea in the same case.
Last week, Special Judge M.K. Nagpal of the Rouse Avenue Court had extended Sisodia’s judicial custody till May 12.
The court had also directed the CBI to supply an e-copy of the supplementary charge sheet to Sisodia.
Congress wrests Shimla civic body from BJP, gets absolute majority
Shimla- The less than five-month-old Congress government in Himachal Pradesh on Thursday wrested control of one of India’s oldest civic bodies, the Shimla Municipal Corporation, from the BJP, winning 24 out of 34 wards and reducing the opposition councilors to nine from the previous 17.
Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh, who started his political career as a councillor from Shimla, aggressively campaigned for the civic body that was won by the BJP for the first time in 2017 in 32 years.
“I thank the people of Himachal for their historical mandate to the Congress in the Shimla Municipal Corporation where elections were held on the party symbol after 10 years. This mandate affirms the trust of people of Himachal Pradesh in our government and developmental politics, ” he said.
Amidst a bipolar contest between the archrivals, the Congress and the BJP, the CPI-M won a lone seat. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) failed to open an account.
The CPI-M won the Summer Hill ward, the stronghold of its student wing the Students’ Federation of India (SFI). The CPI-M had won the seat last time as well, but the candidate had joined the BJP towards the fag end of the term.
State Congress chief Pratibha Singh expressed gratitude to the voters for the party’s decisive victory. She said the party would maintain the victory momentum in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections too.
The Congress was out of power in the municipal corporation from 2012 to 2017 as the CPI-M had its Mayor and Deputy and from 2017 to 2022, it was the BJP.
Fifty-nine per cent voter turnout was registered when the civic body went for polling on May 2.
The BJP had fielded women candidates from 23 wards, while the Congress from 18. Both parties were contesting from all 34 wards. The AAP and the CPI-M had fielded candidates from 21 and four seats, respectively.
While the Congress had promised to introduce policies for a uniform tax regime for both old and merged areas, the BJP promised to provide 40, 000 litres of free water to every household a month, besides a 50 per cent garbage bill waiver.
The five-year term of the Municipal Corporation ended in June 2022 but the election could not be held due to a court case which challenged delimitation of wards.
The previous BJP government had increased the number of wards from 34 to 41.
After coming to power, the Congress government in December abolished the seven new wards.
New Delhi- Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday congratulated Ajay Banga, the former Indian-American head of Mastercard, on becoming the World Bank president.
“Hearty congratulations Ajay Banga on being selected as the President of @WorldBank. I am confident that you’ll bring your wide experience in the corporate world for meeting the goals of the bank, ” she said in a tweet.
Banga, who was selected as the new World Bank president on Wednesday, had most recently served as vice chairman at General Atlantic.
In a statement, the World Bank said that its “board looks forward to working with Banga on the World Bank Group Evolution process, as discussed at the April 2023 Spring Meetings, and on all the World Bank Group’s ambitions and efforts aimed at tackling the toughest development challenges facing developing countries”.
The president of the World Bank Group is also the Chair of the Board of the Executive Directors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). The president is also the ex-officio chair of the Board of Directors of the International Development Association (IDA), International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and of the Administrative Council of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
Two terrorists belonging to the proscribed terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba were killed in an encounter with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir’s Baramulla district.
The encounter broke out in the early hours of Thursday after security forces launched a cordon and search operation acting on specific input about the presence of militants.
The terrorists fired upon a search party of the forces, who retaliated, and incriminating materials, arms and ammunition, including an AK 47 rifle and a pistol, were recovered from them, police said.
Kashmir Zone Police tweeted: “#BaramullaEncounterUpdate: Two #terrorists neutralised. Identification being ascertained. #Incriminating materials, arms & ammunition including 01 AK 47 rifle and one pistol recovered.”
The terrorists were identified as Shakir Majid Najar and Hanan Ahmad Seh from Shopian district.
This comes a day after two terrorists were killed in an encounter with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara district.
The security personnel launched an operation based on inputs provided by Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Kupwara, who alerted that one of the terrorist launch pads is likely infiltrating from across the Line of Control (LOC) towards Machhil sector.
New Delhi : In a major crackdown on criminals, the Dwarka District Police on Wednesday launched raid and search operations at over 20 locations in Delhi and Haryana.
An official said that the operation was aimed at targetting individuals, gangsters and associates involved in criminal activities.
During the raids, the police recovered a cache of weapons, cash and illegal substances from various locations.
“About Rs 20 lakh was recovered from a place in Delhi, and weapons seized from Jhajjar and other places in Haryana. Some people have been detained for questioning, ” a senior police official said.
The raids were carried out based on specific intelligence inputs and details about the recoveries from other places are still being collected, he added. More details are awaited.
