Corruption biggest cause of price rise, says BJP
NEW DELHI:The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Wednesday mounted an attack on the government over rising prices of essential commodities, and said corruption was the biggest cause of inflation.Initiating the debate on price rise in the Lok Sabha, BJP member Yashwant Sinha said the key to checking price rise was containing food inflation and checking corruption.”Corruption is the biggest cause of price rise,” Sinha said.The former finance minister said the government had huge stocks of food grain but it was not being given to the poor. The food grain are rotting in warehouses, he said.”Why it is not being given to the poor?” the BJP member asked.He said the government should bring 25 million tonnes of its stock of food grain to the market which will help bring down food prices.Sinha said once food prices come down, it will also have an impact on prices of other commodities.(IANS)
Mayawati denies Big B permission to hold debate
LUCKNOW: The district administration has denied permission to an interactive session between Bollywood mega star Amitabh Bachchan and students here, citing law and order problem.Bachchan along with director Prakash Jha was slated to hold discussion with students to promote the upcoming film ‘Aarakshan’ in the city on Thursday. They were also planning to hold a press conference but both events have now been cancelled.The administration in a letter has stated that keeping in view the protests by some political parties on the subject of the movie, there is possibility of adverse effect on law and order situation in the city, local event coordinator Arun Srivastava said.Besides Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone and Manoj Bajpai were also slated to participate in the interaction with students of undergraduate and post graduate courses.While interactive session was to be organised at CMS auditorium at Gomti Nagar, the press conference was scheduled at Lineage hotel. (PTI)
Congress hits back on Gurgaon land issue
NEW DELHI: The Congress Wednesday denied that land had been acquired for the Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust and termed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) attack over the issue as “irresponsible politics”.”It’s tilting at windmills on non-existent facts,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporters.”First of all no land has been acquired by the trust… the trust is not the owner of the land,” Singhvi said.The trust, which is managed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her son and party general secretary Rahul Gandhi and daughter Priyanka Vadra, has been accused of unlawfully acquiring land in Ullawas village of Gurgaon.The opposition has alleged that the land which was the collective property of the village was given to the trust and H.R. Sachdeva, a dentist alleged to be close to the Gandhi family.Seeking to clear the air on the issue, Singhvi said that only 5.3 acres of land was taken on lease for 33 years by the trust fully in accordance with law.”The land has been taken on lease. The trust applied for lease and it got the lease according to the rule,” he said.(IANS)
Delhi Police mulling arming traffic cops
NEW DELHI: Delhi Police is considering a suggestion to arm its traffic personnel with small firearms on a need basis as they are sometimes at the receiving end of criminals in the city.Satyendra Garg, joint commissioner of police (traffic), said if need arises, the force may think of arming constables and head constables in the Traffic Wing with small firearms.”We can think about arming them. But we have to look at the availability and functional requirement,” he told reporters.His comments came against the backdrop of an unarmed Delhi traffic constable arresting a criminal who fired at him from an automatic pistol on Tuesday in Raja Garden area.”Traffic Police are doing traffic management on the roads of Delhi. From time to time, traffic Police officials show exceptional bravery in apprehending desperate criminals. Head constable Mahesh Kumar of Rajouri Garden circle caught a bad character Sunil yesterday,” Garg said.(IANS)
Baba rapes teenaged girl, held
NEW DELHI: A 26-year-old ‘baba’ was arrested here for allegedly raping a teenaged girl who had approached him for counselling as she was repeatedly sexually abused by her previous employer, police said on Wednesday.Baba Wam Dev Ram alias Bam Dev, who also goes by the name Ramji Maharaj, was apprehended from Punjabi Bagh on Tuesday, ACP (West) V Renganathan said.”Ramji, who hails from Heala Ranchi in Jharkhand, is wanted in a gang rape case lodged in Rani Bagh police station. He was also arrested in a kidnapping case in 2006 in Simdega of Jharkhand,” he said.
The 18-year-old victim had approached police in May claiming that she was raped by the “baba” who was asked to counsel her as she was a rape victim.”She told us that she was repeatedly raped by one man while she was working in Amritsar. In April 2011, a woman brought her to Delhi. She told her about the incident of rape in Amritsar. (PTI)
Telangana shutdown postponed
HYDERABAD:The Telangana students’ Joint Action Committee (JAC) has postponed the Telangana shutdown to Aug 8 to demand deletion of clause 14(F) from Presidential Order.JAC, which is spearheading the movement for a Telangana state, Wednesday called the shutdown Aug 8 instead of Aug 5 as announced earlier.JAC is demanding the government not to conduct exam for recruitment of sub-inspectors of police till clause 14(F) is deleted from the Presidential Order of 1975 which treats Hyderabad as a free zone for police recruitment.JAC leaders said they would hold a round table Aug 5 and submit a memorandum to Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy.They said if the government failed to respond positively to their demand, they would give a call for Telangana shutdown on Aug 8.The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and other groups fighting for separate state want clause 14(F) to go so to ensure that only people from Hyderabad and five other Telangana districts are eligible for police recruitment.The Andhra Pradesh assembly last year passed a resolution, urging the central government to delete the controversial clause. (IANS)