1. Bengaluru Prepares for Sasikala’s Arrival
Even as the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed AIADMK general secretary VK Sasikala and two of her co-accused to surrender forthwith before the trial court, the Bengaluru police have started preparations for her arrival.
Meanwhile, the administration wing of the city civil and sessions court in Bengaluru is yet to receive an official communication from the SC on the verdict.
From the prisons department to the city police, everyone went into an alert mode once news about the Supreme Court restoring the conviction of VK Sasikala, J Ilavarasi and VN Sudhakaran broke around 10.30 am on Tuesday.
Though they did not get any official orders about her arrival till Tuesday night, they decided to remain prepared.
(Source: The Hindu)
2. BJP Sceptical of Sasikala’s ‘Proxy CM’
Senior ministers of the NDA government came out with a measured response after the Supreme Court upheld the trial court’s conviction of All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) general secretary VK Sasikala, but the BJP was sceptical of the stability of any proxy chief minister propped-up by her.
“After the Supreme Court verdict I am sure the Governor of Tamil Nadu will ensure a stable government for the State, consistent with the aspirations of the people,” Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad tweeted from a party function at Madhya Pradesh.
His Cabinet colleague and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s go-to man for Tamil Nadu, M Venkaiah Naidu, also struck the same measured note.
(Source: The Hindu)
3. As Uttarakhand Votes, Tough Battle Ahead for Top Congress, BJP Leaders
Wooing voters in the assembly elections won’t be easy for top leaders of Congress and BJP in Uttarakhand.
The biggest challenge is for chief minister Harish Rawat, who is contesting from two seats – Kiccha (US Nagar) and Haridwar Rural (Haridwar).
Kiccha is one of the nine seats in US Nagar district. During the last assembly elections, Congress won only two seats – Sitarganj (Shailendra Mohan Singhal) and Jaspur (Vijay Bahuguna) – in the district. The remaining seven seats were claimed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Interestingly, both the Congress candidates, who had won in the district, have ditched the party and joined the BJP. However, Rawat, who isn’t a voter either from Kiccha or from Haridwar Rural, is hopeful of winning the Kiccha seat, dominated by minority community voters. But what goes against him is that local sentiment does not seem in his favour.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
4. UP Polls: Congress-SP Alliance Ask 10 Candidates to Withdraw
In a bid to ensure that their candidates don’t face each other in the Uttar Pradesh assembly election, the Congress and the Samajwadi Party (SP) have asked 10 candidates to withdraw.
A joint list issued by the two parties on Tuesday had the names of five candidates from each party. The two parties asked the district office bearers to ask the candidates to withdraw from the polls.
On Monday too, the Congress had asked four candidates to withdraw from the contest. However, three of them refused to do so, with some hoping that the party will ultimately agree to friendly contests.
Those asked to withdraw include Congress candidate from Lucknow (Central), Maruf Khan, who appears to have turned a rebel.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
5. Imported Wheat May Hit Punjab Farmers Hard in Coming Season
Ahead of wheat procurement season, farmers in Punjab expecting a bumper crop this year fear huge losses because of the Centre’s decision of “zero per cent import duty” on wheat, which may lead to excess supply.
In December last year, the Union government had announced zero import duty on wheat. As a result, around 55 lakh tonnes of wheat from countries like Ukraine and Australia will reach Indian ports in February. Without any import duty, wheat from foreign countries is cheaper than what is available in India.
(Source: The Indian Express)
6. Cops Knew About Nabha Jailbreak, Five Months Before it Happened
Punjab's police officers knew that there might be an attempt to free dreaded gangsters from the high-security Nabha jail a good five months before the jailbreak took place. And it wasn't just a vague intelligence input. This was stated in an FIR registered on 3 June, 2016.
The FIR, registered at the Kotwali police station, clearly states that the jailed gangsters' aides, Harminder Singh Romy and three others, may try to free their associates.
The cops made the observations after spotting Romy in and around Nabha along with three others.
(Source: Times of India)
7. ‘India’s Air Pollution Rivals China’s as World’s Deadliest’
India’s air now rivals China’s as the world’s deadliest, according to a new study published Tuesday amid warnings that efforts to curb pollution from coal will not yield results any time soon. India’s notoriously poor air quality causes nearly 1.1 million premature deaths every year, almost on a par with China, concluded a joint report by two US-based health research institutes.
But whereas deaths linked to air pollution in China have steadied in recent years, the rate has soared in India where smog readings in major cities routinely eclipse safe exposure levels.
India has recorded a nearly 50 percent increase in premature deaths linked to fine airborne particles known as PM2.5 between 1990 and 2015, the report found.
(Source: The Hindu)
8. ‘High Quality’ Fake Rs 2,000 Notes Seized, NIA Sends Them for Forensic Analysis
After the demonetisation, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) made its first recovery of three fake Indian currency notes of Rs 2,000 which investigators say ‘appear’ to be of high quality.
Following the introduction of new currency notes of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500, there have been around half a dozen cases where fake currency notes in the denomination of Rs 2,000 were recovered but their quality of far inferior. Most of them were just scanned copy of the note. But the recovery made on Tuesday by our investigators appear to be of high quality.Senior NIA Official
The agency said it arrested an absconding accused Umar Faruq, a native of Malda in West Bengal, in a two-year-old case of Fake India Currency Smuggling (FICN).
(Source: Hindustan Times)
9. India had the Most Bomb Blasts in the World in 2016, Says Report
India witnessed the maximum bombings in the world last year, even more than war-torn Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a report.
There were 406 such incidents, which include IED and ordnance explosive blasts, in the country. Iraq came second with almost half the number at 221, the report by the National Bomb Data Centre (NBDC) said though it did not mention the casualties.
NBDC functions as the nodal post-blasts investigation department under country’s federal contingency force NSG. The report did sound a word of caution on the global data saying the centre obtained these figures from “open source”.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
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