1. With Grand Diwali Show, BJP Puts Ayodhya on Front Burner
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath brought Ayodhya to the forefront with a grand, eyeball-grabbing religious-cultural spectacle without mentioning the controversial issue of Ram temple construction in his speech on Wednesday, 18 October.
The elaborate show was organised by the state government. Artistes, including models, arrived from Delhi and Mumbai to recreate Lord Ram's homecoming on the eve of Diwali, as described in ancient epics. At least 380 artistes came from different corners of India and abroad (Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Indonesia) to perform in the 3-km-long Shobha Yatra.
The setting was awash with religious symbolism. Yogi’s speech focused on the town's neglected economy and its civic problems galore. “For 70 years, many have been deprived of food, power connections and (are) without a roof above their heads. The Centre and state government’s efforts at providing them all this is Ram Rajya for them,” said Yogi.
He said: “It was Ravana rajya earlier. Now it is Ram Rajya, where there is no discrimination on the basis of caste and religion.”
(Source: Times of India)
2. Six of Dawood Ibrahim’s Properties Are Up for Grabs
A month after Thane police arrested Dawood Ibrahim’s brother Iqbal Kaskar in a case of alleged extortion, the ministry of finance has issued an auction notice seeking bids for six properties belonging to the underworld don in Mumbai and Aurangabad.
This is part of the government’s continuing efforts to curb Ibrahim’s operations in India.
The properties include flat numbers 18-20, 25, 26 and 28 of the Damarwala Building, and houses 34-40 on Pakmodia Street and Yakub Street, where Iqbal Kaskar and his late sister Haseena Parkar used to reside. The properties are up for auction at a reserve price of Rs 1.55 crore. Another property listed by the government is the Shabnam Guest House, a double-storied building on Yakub Street with a reserve price of Rs 1.21 crore.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
3. Jharkhand Girl ‘Starvation’ Death: Family Stopped Getting Ration 8 Months Ago
The family of the 11-year-old girl who died in Jharkhand’s Simdega district last month, allegedly due to non-availability of ration, had been removed from the state’s public distribution system because their Aadhaar cards were not linked to the new list issued by the government.
At Karimati in Simdega’s Jaldega block, this is the only fact that everyone agrees upon — the family, their neighbours, panchayat members, even local officials.
As The Indian Express found during a visit to the village on Wednesday, every other aspect of the girl’s death is a question of one version versus the other. The girl’s family insists that she died because of lack of food while other residents, the local medical practitioner, and district officials say she died due to malaria.
(Source: Indian Express)
4. Militants Kill J&K Teacher, Leave Note of ‘Revenge’ for Encounter at House
A school teacher was found dead with his throat slit in south Kashmir’s Shopian district on Wednesday, 18 October, a week after three militants were killed in a gunbattle with security forces at his house, police said.
Officials said the body of Aijaz Ahmad of Wathoo village was found in an open field a few kilometres from his house.
According to the police, a hand-written note was found with his belongings that said he was killed “to avenge the death of the three militants in Gattipora’’.
“We cannot say who wrote it. We are investigating all angles,’’ Shopian’s superintendent of police Shriram Dinkar Ambarkar said.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
5. Centre Agrees to CM Kejriwal’s Proposal to Vet Metro Operations
The Centre has agreed to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's suggestion of reviewing the functioning of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation by an expert group. Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri has written a letter to Kejriwal, inviting him for talks on the terms of reference for the review.
Kejriwal had recently written to Puri, asking him to direct his ministry to not obstruct any initiative of the Delhi government to examine matters related to DMRC. Kejriwal had last week asked chief secretary MM Kutty to direct the Dialogue and Development Commission (DDC) to examine issues related to the recent metro fare hike and find out if it could have been avoided.
(Source: Times of India)
6. New Security Headache in J&K: 3-Ft-Tall Jaish-e-Mohammed Militant
A 47-year-old militant, who is only three feet tall, is reported to be behind the recent attacks by the Jaish-e-Mohammed in Kashmir. According to police sources, Noor Mohammad Tantray, a resident of Tral in Pulwama district, has taken over command of the JeM in South Kashmir and is engineering the outfit’s bid to regroup in the Valley.
Tantray, who was arrested in Delhi in 2003 and sentenced to life by a POTA court in 2011, is reported to have jumped parole a few months ago and rejoined militancy.
“Yes, he has joined JeM,” Awantipora SP Muhammad Zahid told The Indian Express.
“Our investigations into the recent attacks have revealed that he (Tantray) is playing a pivotal role in the Jaish,” a senior police officer told The Indian Express. “He and another Jaish commander, Mufti Waqas, have been playing a major role in the recent attacks carried out by the outfit.”
(Source: Indian Express)
7. Fund Crunch: 88% of NREGA Budget Over, Six Months Left
Despite the Centre’s claim that this year’s MGNREGA budget is the highest ever, almost 88 per cent of the funds available for the scheme have already been exhausted, just halfway through the financial year. As of next week, only Rs 6,000 crore of the Rs 48,000 crore budget allocation for 2017-18 will be left for implementation of the scheme over the next six months.
The shortage of funds comes even as the demand for work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is expected to peak from next month, after the harvest of Kharif crops.
The demand-driven social security scheme guarantees 100 days of wage employment in a year to any rural household whose members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. The monsoon months leading up to October are a relatively slack period for MGNREGA as agriculture ensures stable incomes, unless there is rural distress arising out of drought or other factors. The November-March period is when work demand under MGNREGA starts to peak.
(Source: Indian Express)
8. Carry Oxygen Cylinders on All Trains: SC to Railways
The Supreme Court has made it mandatory for the railways to keep oxygen cylinders in all trains to ensure that the life-saving gas could be provided to travellers suffering from respiratory problems in case of emergency.
A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud also directed the railways to take assistance of doctors from AIIMS to explore ways to put in place a system in moving trains to provide medical treatment to travellers if they take ill.
“The railways shall keep oxygen cylinders in trains so that anyone suffering from any respiratory problem can be given aid. If any passenger or his/her companion complains to the ticket collector or the attendant that he has some medical problem and immediate attention is required, it shall be the duty of the said officials to intimate the next railway station so that he/she can be given necessary medical assistance at the next railway station where the hospital is situated,” the bench said.
(Source: Times of India)
9. PMs Don’t Enjoy Absolute Authority in Coalition Govts: Pranab Mukherjee
There is a need for serious public debate on the agendas of regional parties affecting national interests, especially in coalition governments where often the PM's writ does not run fully and he may not have his way even in picking ministers and allotting portfolios, former President Pranab Mukherjee told TOI in the course of an extensive interaction on Wednesday.
Speaking on a range of issues he has dealt with in the course of a long public life, Mukherjee said managing regional interests had been a problem under UPA and remains so even now despite the fact that the BJP has a clear majority in Lok Sabha.
(Source: Times of India)
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