Jammu and Kashmir

J&K senior Congress leader detained

The Jammu and Kashmir unit of the Congress was on Friday prevented from addressing a press conference as police detained its chief spokesperson and former MLC Ravinder Sharma at the party headquarters in Srinagar.

Mr. Sharma was about to address a press conference at the Shaheedi Chowk party headquarters when a police party appeared on the scene and asked him to accompany him as a senior officer wanted to talk to him.

Mr. Sharma resisted and asked them that he is going to address the waiting media, but he was forcibly taken into the preventive custody and whisked away to a police station in a police vehicle waiting outside the party headquarters.

“The action of the administration is undemocratic and unconstitutional. We were holding a presser to highlight the snatched rights of the people and arrest and house arrest of party leaders (since the abrogation of the provisions of Article 370 on August 5),” Chairman Other Backward Classes (OBC) unit of the party Suresh Kumar Dogra later told reporters.

Karnataka

Yediyurappa meets PM, seeks immediate funds for flood relief

Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi and appealed for release of funds immediately to take up relief works in the flood and rain-ravaged state.

Responding to his appeal, the Prime Minister assured tosend central study team soon to assess the damage due to the floods, the Chief Minister said in the national capital after the meeting.

“State is hit by a calamity that has not taken place in the last 108 years. Fifteen days ago there was drought situation, but today dams are full and because of excess waterreleased from Maharashtra there is damage caused, about all these things we have brought to the notice of the Prime Minister,” Yediyurappa said.

The Karnataka Chief Minister said the Prime Minister “understood every thing” and soon he will be sending a team for assessment.

“We have asked for release of funds as immediate relief. He (PM) said, he will discuss and let us know. I’m confident that he is in know of the situation in the state as he has already gathered information. Let’s wait and see,” he added.

Recently, Yediyurappa had requested the Centre to release ₹3,000 crore as interim relief immediately to take up rehabilitation work.

Hitting out at the BJP-led Central government over the “delay” in announcing relief, despite Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman personally assessing the situation, the opposition parties-both Congress and JD(S) had demanded immediate release of ₹5,000 crore as interim relief.

Asked if there was any assurance from the Prime Minister on ₹3,000 crore as immediate relief, Yediyurappa merely said: “According to an estimate lossis over ₹40,000 crore.”

“They include-(damaged) houses, roads, bridges- we have to find solutions to all these things. We have informed the Prime Minister about all these things,” he added.

According to a release from the Chief Minister’s office, during the 45-minute meeting Chief Minister appraised the Prime Minister about the grave situation of the flood-hit areas in the State and explained that the losses suffered due to floodswas unseen before, and more funds are required to take up relief measures and rebuild the lives of the victims.

Chief Secretary to Government T.M. Vijay Bhaskar, Additional Chief Secretary to Chief Minister P. Ravikumar were present at the meeting, it added.

- PTI

Rajasthan

Pehlu Khan lynching: Priyanka Gandhi hopes for justice under new Rajasthan law

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra expressed shock at the lower court judgment in the Pehlu Khan case and hoped that the new law against lynchings in Rajasthan would set a good example by ensuring justice in the case.

Priyanka Gandhi | Photo Credit: PTI

“The lower court decision in the Pehlu Khan case is shocking. There should be no place for inhumaneness in our country and the murder by a mob is a heinous crime,”she said in a tweet in Hindi.

The Congress leader also lauded the Rajasthan government for bringing a law on mob lynching.

“It is hoped that it will set a good example in getting justice in the Pehlu Khan case,” she said in another tweet.

An Alwar court on Wednesday had acquitted all six accused in the lynching of Pehlu Khan two years ago.

Pehlu Khan (55), his two sons and a few others were transporting cows from Jaipur when they were allegedly stopped and thrashed by a mob near Behror in Alwar district on April 1, 2017.

The Rajasthan legislative assembly had on August 5 passed a bill providing for life imprisonment and a fine up to ₹5 lakh to convicts in cases of mob lynching involving the victim’s death.

- PTI

New Delhi

Chidambaram welcomes PM’s social charter in Independence Day speech

Former Union Minister P. Chidambaram on Friday endorsed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call to have smaller families, respect wealth creators and ban the use of single-use plastic.

File photo: Former Finance Minister and Congress leader P. Chidambaram. | Photo Credit: Rohit Jain Paras

In his first Independence Day speech after being re-elected for a second term, Mr. Modi had spelt out his social charter from the ramparts of the Red Fort.

The former Finance Minister said that while population control and ban on plastic usage should become a people’s movement, he had an advice for the Finance Minister on respecting wealth creators.

“Of the three exhortations, I hope the FM and her legion of tax officials and investigators heard the PM’s second exhortation loud and clear,” he said.

New Delhi

Leaders pay tribute to former PM A.B. Vajpayee

A prayer meeting was held at Sadaiv Atal — the memorial to Atal Bihari Vajpayee — on Friday to mark the first death anniversary of the former Prime Minister.

President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and members of Vajpayee’s family were amongst those who paid tributes to the BJP leader amid the playing of hymns and devotional music.

The memorial was dedicated to the nation in December last year. The central samadhi platform comprises nine square black polished granite stone blocks, capped with a “diya” in the centre.

President Ram Nath Kovind paying homage to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his death anniversary at his memorial, Sadaiv Atal, in New Delhi on Friday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and others are also seen. | Photo Credit: Sandeep Saxena

Mamata's tribute

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday paid her tribute to former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his first death anniversary.

The Trinamool Congress chief, who had served as the Railway Minister in Vajpayee-led cabinet, urged people to bear in mind his principles of ‘insaniyat (humanism), jamhooriyat (democracy) and kashmiriyat (inclusive Kashmiri culture)’

“Tribute to Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji, former Prime Minister, on his first death anniversary. Let us recall his words: ‘The gun can solve no problems. Issues can be guided by the three principles of insaniyat, jamhooriyat and kashmiriyat’,” Ms. Banerjee tweeted.

The former Prime Minister had based his Kashmir policy on these three principles.

Vajpayee died on this day last year at the age of 93.

Amritsar

SAD, BJP team to meet PM

Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on Thursday said a SAD-BJP delegation would soon meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and urge him to provide a piece of land for rebuilding the Guru Ravidas temple which was demolished in Delhi’s Tughlakabad area. The delegation would ask the Prime Minister to assuage the hurt feelings of the Dalit community and find an amicable solution, he told a gathering on the occasion of ‘Rakhar Punia’ here.

Nagpur

Mohan Bhagwat hails PM Modi’s decision on Article 370

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Thursday said Jammu and Kashmir’s special status under Article 370 could be revoked because entire society showed determination, and lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership and “willpower” for taking such a decision.

People say about the Prime Minister that ‘woh hain to mumkin hai’ (if he is there, everything is possible), which is “not wrong”, Mr. Bhagwat said. There is a belief that if people are determined, they “can make the impossible possible,” he said.

Kolkata

People in Kashmir in pain: Mamata

Observing that the revocation of Article 370 in Kashmir was done using “undemocratic means” and “under the shadow of a gun”, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said that people in Kashmir are in a “lot of pain”.

This year, the Trinamool Congress observed the ‘Freedom at Midnight’ programme by hoisting the national flag at various places in the city.