1. ‘Seat Row’ Line Back in Junaid Case
The prime accused in Junaid Khan's murder has denied the train brawl was triggered by "cow-eater" accusations, police sources claimed today, resurrecting the theory that a fight over seats led to the killing.
“No mention of beef has emerged during the interrogation (of Naresh Rakh) so far. He has told us the quarrel started over seats and escalated,” superintendent of railway police Kamal Deep Goyal said. “He has admitted to stabbing Junaid and his brothers.”
Junaid, 15, was stabbed on 22 June by co-passengers who also beat and knifed two of his brothers and thrashed a cousin and a friend while they were returning home to a Haryana village after Id shopping in Delhi.
Haryana police chief B.S. Sandhu had at the time denied any communal angle and blamed a quarrel over seats. But Junaid's brothers Shaqir and Hashim told reporters the attackers had accused their entire community of being "anti-nationals" and "cow-eaters".
(Source: The Telegraph)
2. JD(U) Calls Meet, Pressure Builds on Tejashwi Prasad Yadav to Quit as Deputy CM
The ruling Grand Alliance in Bihar is headed for a turbulent week, with the JD(U) calling for a meeting of its legislators on Tuesday and party sources indicating that they would call upon RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav to resign as Deputy Chief Minister after the CBI registered an FIR against him on corruption charges.
JD(U) sources told The Indian Express that it would be an “ideal situation if Tejashwi himself offers to step down” during a meeting of RJD legislators scheduled on Monday.
The move follows the registration of an FIR by the CBI on corruption charges against Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi and Tejashwi for allegedly accepting a prime plot of land in Patna in exchange for awarding a tender for the maintenance of two railway hotels to two Bihar businessmen when the RJD chief was railway minister in 2006.
(Source: The Indian Express)
3. Nagaland Again: Zeliang Stakes Claim to Form Govt, Says 41 MLAs Backing Him
Less than five months after he was removed from the chief minister’s post and replaced by Shurhozelie Liezietsu, former Nagaland chief minister TR Zeliang has claimed the support of 41 MLAs of the ruling NPF-led alliance and asked Governor PB Acharya to invite him to form a new government.
Liezietsu has hit back by dismissing four of his cabinet ministers and six parliamentary secretaries who have sided with Zeliang. Liezietsu, in his capacity as president of the Naga People’s Front (NPF), has also suspended 10 legislators from the party’s primary membership. These include Home Minister Yanthungo Patton, Power Minister Kipili Sangtam, Forest Minister Imkong L Imchen and Highways and Political Affairs Minister G Kaito Aye.
Zeliang has claimed the support of 34 NPF legislators and seven Independents in a House with an effective strength of 59 (Liezietsu is not an MLA yet).
(Source: The Indian Express)
4. Pak Can Ask Third Country to Enter Kashmir as India Did in Doklam: Chinese Media
A "third country's" Army could enter Kashmir at Pakistan's request, using the "same logic" the Indian Army used to stop the Chinese military from constructing a road in the Doklam area in the Sikkim sector on behalf of Bhutan, an analyst at a Chinese think tank said.
"Even if India were requested to defend Bhutan's territory, this could only be limited to its established territory, not the disputed area," Long Xingchun, Director at the Centre for Indian Studies at China West Normal University, said in the article he wrote in the Global Times.
Otherwise, under India’s logic, if the Pakistani government requests, a third country’s Army can enter the area disputed by India and Pakistan, including India-controlled Kashmir.Article in Global Times
Read the full article on The Quint.
5. Cattle Traders Beaten up in Delhi: ‘We ere Only Six and They were 60-70, We Thought We will Die’
His hand tied with a rope and body pinned to the ground, 25-year-old Shokin Ali begged for two hours to be let off.
But the mob of suspected cow vigilantes were in no mood to relent and kept beating him and five other cattle traders, who were transporting buffalo calves in Jharoda village in southwest Delhi.
“At one point, I felt as if we will all be dead. We were only six and they were 60-70. They tied our hands and beat us with belts, sticks and whatever they could find. After two hours, the police came and rescued us. Some policemen were also roughed up but it is because of them that we are alive today,” he said.
Shokin, along with his 22-year-old brother and a 15-year-old nephew, had bought 17 buffalo calves from Jhajjar, Haryana earlier in the day. They were going to take the cattle to Ghazipur to sell them.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
6. Minus Money, PM 'Model' Loses Sheen
Parliamentarians, even those from the BJP, have been dragging their feet for the second year in a row over adopting villages in their constituencies (or states) under the Pradhan Mantri Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana.
Over a quarter into this fiscal, only 40 of the 788 MPs have identified gram panchayats for adoption under the programme, which mandates them to develop these villages into "model villages" for others to emulate.
The reason the lawmakers cite is the absence of a specific fund allocation, which kept MPs’ participation well below 50 per cent during the last financial year - the second “phase” of the scheme.
While the government wants the MPs to dip into their local area development funds for the purpose, the members are reluctant, highlighting the political costs of giving preferential treatment to one village.
To skirt this problem, the rural development ministry, which oversees the programme, said that all its centrally sponsored schemes would be made available on priority for the selected villages.
(Source: The Telegraph)
7. MGNREGA Wages Less than Minimum Farm Wages in 15 States: Panel
The committee for revision of wages paid under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Generation Act (MGNREGA) has found that minimum agricultural wages are higher than MGNREGA wages in 15 states. An upward revision in MGNREGA wages is estimated to require a Rs 4,500 crore increase in its budget.
Based on these findings, the panel, under Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Rural Development Nagesh Singh, is expected to make its recommendations in another month.
As per data being examined by the committee, the minimum wages paid to agricultural workers are significantly higher than MGNREGA wages in Karnataka, Punjab, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Mizoram, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
(Source: The Indian Express)
8. Haryana’s Attempt to ‘Shrink’ Aravalis Foiled
The Haryana government is still not ready to accept that the hill range in Faridabad and other districts, except Gurgaon and Mewat, is part of the Aravalis, and would like to open up more areas in this eco-sensitive zone for construction activities.
This, even after the National Capital Regional Planning Board (NCRPB), responding to an appeal by Haryana department of town & country planning (DTCP) to the Union urban development ministry last month for reconsideration, rejected this stand, according to sources.
On March 3, DTCP principal secretary Arun Kumar Gupta observed, “Haryana should consider Haryana Aravalis only in Gurgaon as per May 1992 notification,“ while participating in a meeting to take final view on the area categorised as “yet to be decided“ (“gair mumkin pahar“) under the Natural Conservation Zone (NCZ).
(Source: Times of India)
9. Satellites to Watch Out for Land Encroachment in Delhi
Indian satellites could keep a gimlet eye on vacant plots in New Delhi to prevent encroachment and unauthorised constructions.
The Delhi Development Authority proposes to take help of the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), an arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), to monitor the city’s open spaces through satellites. A pilot project is likely to start soon in east Delhi.
DDA estimates suggest it owns around 5,000 vacant acres in the city. But around 30% of the land has been encroached upon.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
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