1. Rajya Sabha Poll Today: BJP Eyes all 3 Seats in Gujarat
The Rajya Sabha election in Gujarat on Tuesday, which will end the fortnight-long political drama around senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel’s candidature, seemed to be going down to the wire.
Patel remained confident of victory, saying on Monday that the “numbers will be surprising” when the results are declared.
Gujarat has three vacancies and the ruling BJP has fielded party chief Amit Shah, Union minister Smriti Irani and Congress turncoat Balwantsinh Rajput. Of them, two are set to win, given the BJP’s strength of 122 lawmakers in the assembly.
For the third seat, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Patel is up against Rajput.
Patel needs the support of 45 MLAs after six Congress lawmakers resigned amid horse-trading charges against the BJP, bringing the party’s strength in the assembly to 51.
Source: Hindustan Times
Catch up on all the live updates of the elections here.
2. Chandigarh Stalking: Police Find CCTV Proof Against Haryana BJP Chief’s Son
The Chandigarh Police late on Monday night said it retrieved CCTV footage that supported a disc jockey’s charge that the Haryana BJP chief’s son and his friend followed her car in a midnight chase. The police had faced criticism earlier in the day after they said the CCTVs along the route were not working.
The Chandigarh Police have retrieved footage of five CCTV cameras on the route, capturing the chase of victim’s vehicle by the alleged vehicle of the accused.Police Official to Hindustan Times
The footage showed the victim’s car being followed by a white SUV, he said. The footage is vital to proving the charge that BJP leader Subhash Barala’s son Vikas and his friend Ashish Kumar followed 29-year-old Varnika Kundu as she was driving home on 4 August at around 12.30 am.
Source: Hindustan Times
3. 25 Percent Increase in Filing of Tax Returns This Year: Government
The Central Board of Direct Taxes on Monday said that there has been a substantial increase of 25 percent in the number of Income Tax Returns (ITRs) filed in the current fiscal year.
The increase is attributed to the initiative of demonetisation and Operation Clean Money, it said.
According to a statement put out by the I-T department, the number of returns filed as on 5 August stands at 2,82,92,955 as against 2,26,97,843 filed during the corresponding period of 2016-2017, registering an increase of 24.7 percent compared to growth rate of 9.9 percent in the previous year.
Source: The Indian Express
4. Sreesanth Eyes Cricket Return After Kerala High Court Lifts Life Ban
The Kerala High Court on Monday revoked the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decision to impose a life ban on former Indian cricket team speedster S Sreesanth. Last year, a special court in Delhi had acquitted him in the 2013 Indian Premier League spot-fixing case.
After the verdict, Sreesanth had approached the BCCI to remove the 2013 ban but his plea was turned down. Later, he approached the Kerala High Court saying that though the court had given him a clean chit, the cricket body continued to harass him. He also pleaded that his sports career was getting ruined because of the ban.
“He was acquitted in the case. Then how can the BCCI impose a ban on him? It is denial of natural justice,” the High Court observed while revoking Sreesanth’s ban.
Source: Hindustan Times
5. Accepting PM Modi’s Invitation, Ivanka Trump Will Head to Hyderabad in November-End
US President Donald Trump’s daughter and advisor, Ivanka Trump, is scheduled to visit Hyderabad in the last week of November, for the Global Entrepreneurship Summit (28 November), South Block sources told The Indian Express.
Sources said Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also attend the summit – started by then US President Barack Obama in 2010, this is the eighth edition of the GES.
At his meeting with President Trump in Washington in June, Modi had invited Ivanka for the GES. Announcing this at the White House Rose Garden joint press statement, Trump had said, “And I believe she has accepted.” Ivanka had nodded in agreement.
Source: The Indian Express
6. J&K Braces For Unrest Over Article 35A
The Hurriyat as well as mainstream opposition parties, including the Congress and CPM, are bracing to oppose any move to scrap or dilute Article 35A of the Constitution.
Though separatist factions and mainly the Hurriyat groups have called for complete shutdown to protest against any “fiddling” with Article 35A by a larger SC bench, the mainstream combine, led by former CM and MP Farooq Abdullah of the National conference, warned the Centre of dangerous consequences if it even tried to dilute the Article.
Article 35A offers special privileges to state subjects of J&K in matters related to employment, acquisition of immovable property, settlements and scholarships in relation to Article 370 of the Constitution.
Source: The Times of India
7. Milked: Cash For Cows
A member of the state-run cow welfare board in BJP-ruled Haryana has been indicted for alleged misappropriation of funds during an earlier stint as head of a chain of bovine shelters run with government support.
The charges against Yogender Arya, member of the Haryana Gau Seva Aayog, go back to 2012 when he headed the Haryana Rajya Gaushala Sangh, run by the Arya Samaj.
The accusations against the Aayog member come a little over a month after at least 35 cows died at a government-run shelter in Kurukshetra, allegedly because of lack of food, water and a shed while being left unattended in a swamp.
Yogender is accused of withdrawing Rs 11.68 lakh from the Gaushala Sangh's account between January and September 2012 and failing to deposit another Rs 1.12 lakh collected as donations for the cow shelters. The organisation runs 225 such shelters in the state.
Source: The Telegraph
8. CISF Personnel Lose Salaries From Accounts, Cops Look For Leads
The cybercrime units of Delhi Police and Central Industrial Security Force are on their toes: several CISF personnel have lost their salaries to hackers who managed to take control of either their salary account or their debit cards, sources told The Times of India.
The salary was credited into the accounts by the CISF on 31 July and was withdrawn through multiple ATM transactions immediately, a source said. The incident was reported to police soon after, but a breakthrough is awaited.
The affected personnel are posted with the CISF unit at the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation office in Shastri Park area in northeast Delhi.
Source: The Times of India
9. TRAI Raps Apple For ‘Colonising Data’ in India
Telecom regulator TRAI has accused iPhone maker Apple of engaging in “data colonisation” in India and being “anti-consumer” by not allowing customers to pass on details about pesky calls and unwanted messages to authorities as well as their mobile operators.
The matter has remained unresolved over the last one year and has now led to an attack on the American electronics giant by RS Sharma, chairman of TRAI.
“While Google's Android supports our Do-Not-Disturb (DND) app, Apple has just been discussing, discussing, and discussing. They have not done anything,” Sharma told The Times of India.
Source: The Times of India
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