Interfaith marriage triggers row
Bikaner, Jan 17: An interfaith marriage here has led the Hindu woman’s family to allege the alliance to be a case of “love jihad”, prompting a Union minister to demand a law in Rajasthan against the alleged practice of marriage for religious conversion. Union Minister of State for Agriculture Kailash Chaudhary demanded the law in the state despite the girl in a video statement on social media and to the police asserting that she married on her own accord and police too rejecting the allegation. The controversy erupted after Bikaner resident Manisha Dudi, 18, married 22-year-old Mukhtiyar Khan last month after a brief love affair, prompting the woman’s family to issue a statement on social media, terming the alliance to be a case of “love jihad”. (PTI)
UP transfers 15 IAS officers
Lucknow, Jan 16: The Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday transferred 15 IAS officers including divisional commissioners and district magistrates. As per official sources, Shiva Kant Dwivedi who was on waiting list has been made Special Secretary Minority Welfare, while Special Secretary, AYUSH Department, Rajkamal Yadav has been made DM Baghpat replacing Shakuntala Gautam, who has been sent as Director, Local Bodies. Similarly, Managing Director of Backward Class Finance Development Vandana Sharma has been made Director, Backward Classes Welfare while Director, Local Bodies, Kajal has been made Special Secretary, Basic Education, they said. (PTI)
CBI arrests senior railway official
New Delhi, Jan 17: The CBI on Sunday arrested the chief administrative officer (construction) of Northeast Frontier Railway and two others for allegedly accepting bribe of Rs 1 crore from a private company to extend it favours in grant of project contracts, officials said. Mahender Singh Chauhan, a 1985-batch Indian Railways Service of Engineer (IRES) officer, was arrested in Maligaon in Guwahati, while the other two were apprehended in Dehradun in Uttarakhand where the alleged bribe amount was being exchanged on his instructions, they said. It is alleged that 58-year-old Chauhan had demanded the bribe to extend favours to the private company in awarding contracts of various projects of the Maligaon-headquartered Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), they said. He had allegedly sought the bribe amount to be delivered to his home in Dehradun, they said. (PTI)