Month: March 2020

The BJP on Monday approached the Supreme Court seeking a floor test in the Madhya Pradesh assembly amid the ongoing political crisis in the state, which was sparked off by the exit of Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia.

The petition, filed by former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, sought urgent direction from the apex court to the Speaker to conduct a floor test as the latter had postponed it to March 26.

The matter is likely to come up for hearing before the top court tomorrow.

The petitioners said that they are approaching the apex court as the respondents, Speaker and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, have violated the constitutional principles and have deliberately and willfully defied the directions issued by the Governor on March 14, requiring the Chief Minister to prove his majority on the floor of Madhya Pradesh legislative assembly.

“It is submitted by the petitioners that the leaders of the main opposition party namely the BJP also on March 14 had addressed a letter to the Madhya Pradesh Governor that the government was reduced into minority and attempts of horse-trading were being made,” the petition said.

The petition said that in such a situation, the Governor should exercise his constitutional powers and direct the Chief Minister to prove his majority on the floor of the house.

“Since the government appears to have lost the majority in the House and the Chief Minister had himself expressed willingness to conduct the floor test, the Governor, in the exercise of his constitutional powers directed the Chief Minister to conduct a floor test in the house and prove his majority on March 16, 2020, when the budget session of the assembly begins,” the petition said.

However, despite the clear directions issued by the Governor, the item for seeking the confidence vote has not been included in the business to be transacted on the floor of the House on Monday.

The direction of the Governor is, thus, intentionally and wilfully been defied, the petition stated.

The development comes as the Madhya Pradesh Assembly, which met on Monday morning for the Budget session was adjourned immediately after the Governor’s address till March 26, in view of the coronavirus outbreak.

On Saturday, Madhya Pradesh Governor Lalji Tandon had instructed Kamal Nath to face a trust vote after his address to the state assembly.

Earlier today, the chief minister wrote to Governor Tandon and asked for a postponement — he said some of his MLAs were being held hostage and felt the vote should only be held when everyone is free.

(ANI)

A total of 114 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported in India so far including 13 cured and two reported deaths, Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Union Health Ministry said on Monday.

Addressing a press conference here he said, “Four new cases, one each from Odisha, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and Kerala have been confirmed since the last update. There are now a total of 114 confirmed cases in India as of today, including 13 cured and two reported deaths.”

A fourth batch of 53 evacuates from Iran has arrived on Monday and they are being quarantined at the Army facility in Jaisalmer, informed the official.

“Fourth batch of 53 evacuates from Iran have arrived today and are being quarantined at the Army facility in Jaisalmer. All are reported to be asymptomatic at present and are in quarantine as per protocol,” Aggarwal added.

Equity benchmark indices extended losses in the afternoon session on Monday as the spreading coronavirus pandemic continued to spook global markets.

The number of virus positive cases climbed to 110 in India with fresh reports coming from Maharashtra and Odisha.

The US Federal Reserve cut interest rates to near-zero a day earlier to help shore up the world’s largest economy. But the move rather scared global investors more than cheering them as it reflected fear among US policy makers about the severe impact of the virus.

The BSE S&P Sensex closed 2,713 points or 7.96 per cent lower at 31,390 while the Nifty 50 crashed by 756 points or 7.6 per cent to 9,199.

All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the red with Nifty metal down by 8.9 per cent, private bank by 8.7 per cent, IT and realty by 8.2 per cent each and financial service by 7.9 per cent.

ANI

The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed as withdrawn a petition filed by Mukesh Singh, one of the four death-row convicts in the 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case, seeking action against his former lawyer Vrinda Grover.

A bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra dismissed the petition saying that Mukesh Singh has availed of all remedies and that the petition is not maintainable.

“Your curative petition has been dismissed. How can we pass an order against our own orders?… You have availed all the legal remedies. You have availed the mercy plea. Thereafter warrants have issued. What is your option now? Only curative can be filed,” Justice Mishra observed.

Advocate Manohar Lal Sharma, appearing for Mukesh, said that the court proceeding was based on fraud and added that the former lawyer should have waited for three years to file a curative petition.

Sharma told the apex court that it can’t compel him to file the curative petition and he needs to wait for three years to file it.

“Filing of the review petition is your choice, not remedy,” Justice Mishra responded.

On Friday, Mukesh Singh’s current lawyer had filed a petition in the Supreme Court against his former lawyer Vrinda Grower, alleging that Grover hatched a criminal conspiracy against Mukesh with the Delhi Police.

The petition said that according to law, the former lawyer could have waited to file a curative petition for three years but deliberately filed the curative petition early, to ensure that this petition gets dismissed and Mukesh is hanged.

This comes after a Delhi court on Thursday issued a fresh death warrant for the four convicts — Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Singh Thakur, and Mukesh Singh — for their execution at 5:30 am on March 20.

The case pertains to the gang-rape and brutalising of a 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus on the night of December 16, 2012, by six people including a juvenile in Delhi. The woman had died at a Singapore hospital a few days later.

(ANI)

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday raised a question in Lok Sabha and accused the government of not replying to his question on top 50 wilful bank defaulters but Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur hit back, saying the government will hide nothing and will now allow itself to be blamed for “sins” of others.

He said Modi government has taken a series of steps to recover money from fugitive economic offenders and a list of wilful defaulters is available on the website.

Thakur said the question of member showed his lack of understanding on the subject. “They distributed money, we brought it back,” he said.

Asking a supplementary, Gandhi said the economy was passing through a difficult phase and there had been “hollowing out” of banks.

The Congress leader said he had asked about top 50 wilful defaulters but “the government had not given a reply”.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had talked of bringing to book and bringing back all those who had looted public money but “answer had not been given” to his question.

As Thakur began to respond, Gandhi asked why Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharman, who was in the House, was not responding.

Speaker Om Birla said most replies during question hour by Ministers of State.

Thakur attacked the Congress-led UPA and said people know how defaults happened, why these happened. As Congress members protested, he said they should listen to the reply after having asked the question.

Thakur said that defaults in gross advances by banks had gone down during the rule of NDA government.

“It was 0.64 per cent of gross advances in 2010-14 but came down to 0.18 per cent in 2018-20 and 0.08 per cent in 2019-20,” he said.

Thakur said the government has taken a series of steps to improve the condition of banks including asset capital review and recapatilastion.

He said all those who had wilfully defaulted loans above Rs 25 lakh were available on the website.

“A list of wilful defaulters is available on the website. The government is not going to hide. It will not allow itself to be blamed for sins committed by others. All these people took the money and went away during their (Congress) rule,” he said.

Thakur said names of defaulters of over Rs one crore were also available.

“I am ready to give all the names and lay them on the table of the House,” he said.

Thakur alleged that, fugitive offenders had taken loans during the UPA government.

Thakur said large amounts of loans crores had been recovered and the government had brought Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill and property of offenders had been seized.

He also referred to the sale of a painting of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor through cheque and said he was not making political allegations.

“We did not go there,” he said. (ANI)

The annual rate of inflation based on monthly wholesale price index (WPI) stood at 2.26 per cent in February over the same month last year, data released by the government on Monday showed.

The official WPI for all commodities (base 2011-12=100) for February 2020 declined by 0.6 per cent to 122.2 from 122.9 for the previous month, said a statement issued by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

“The annual rate of inflation based on monthly WPI stood at 2.26 per cent for February 2020 (over February 2019) as compared to 3.1 per cent (provisional) for the previous month and 2.93 per cent during the corresponding month of previous year,” it said.

Build up inflation rate in the financial year so far was 1.92 per cent compared to a build up rate of 2.75 per cent in the corresponding period of previous year.

The index for food articles group declined by 3.7 per cent to 154.9 from 160.8 for the previous month due to lower price of fruits and vegetables (14 per cent), tea (8 per cent), egg and maize (7 per cent each), condiments, spices and bajra (4 per cent each), gram and jowar (2 per cent each), and fish-inland, pork, ragi, wheat, urad and masur (1 per cent each).

However, the price of beef, buffalo meat and fish-marine moved up (5 per cent each), betel leaves (4 per cent), moong and poultry chicken (3 per cent each), mutton (2 per cent) and barley, rajma and arhar (1 per cent each).

However, the index for fuel and power rose by 1.2 per cent to 103.9 from 102.7 for the previous month.

The index for manufactured products rose marginally by 0.2 per cent to 118.7 from 118.5 for the previous month. (ANI)

President Ram Nath Kovind on Monday nominated former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi to the Rajya Sabha.

Gogoi served as the 46th Chief Justice of India from October 3, 2018, to November 17, 2019.

On November 9, 2019, the five-judge bench headed by him had delivered the verdict in the long-pending Ayodhya dispute case.

Before leaving the office, Gogoi had said that the issue of pendency of cases in Indian courts is used extensively to “pull down the institution”.

Gogoi had also left a letter for the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), stating that a part of him would always remain with the Supreme Court of India. (ANI)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday proposed the creation of an emergency fund for the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) nations to combat the coronavirus pandemic and pitched India’s initial offer of USD 10 million for this fund.

“I propose we create a COVID-19 emergency fund. This could be based on voluntary contributions from all of us. India can start with an initial offer of USD 10 million for this fund,” PM Modi said at a video conference with participants from the SAARC nations.

The Prime Minister said the funds could be used by any SAARC nations to meet the cost of immediate actions.

“Our Foreign Secretaries, through our embassies can coordinate quickly to finalise the utilisation of this fund. We are assembling a rapid response team of doctors and specialists in India along with testing kits and other equipment. They will be on the standby to be placed at your disposal if required,” Modi said.

“We can also quickly arrange online training capsules for your emergency response teams. This will be based on the model we have used in our own country to raise the capacity of all our emergency staff,” Modi said.

The Prime Minister said that India could share with the SAARC partners its disease surveillance software which helps trace possible virus carriers and the people they contacted.

“We had set up an integrated disease surveillance portal to better trace possible virus carries and the people they contacted. We could share this disease surveillance software with our SAARC partners and training on using these,” he said.

“Let us also use the existing facilities like the SAARC disaster management centre to pull in the best practices among all of us,” Modi said.

The Prime Minister proposed the creation of a common research platform to coordinate research on controlling epidemic disease within the South Asian region.

“The Indian Council of Medical Research can offer help coordinating certain exercises. We can also ask our experts to brainstorm on the longer-term economic consequences of COVID-19,” Modi said.

PM Modi remarked that the nations can respond best to the pandemic “by coming together and not growing apart.”

“We all agree that we are facing a serious challenge. We do not know what shape the pandemic will take in the coming days. It is clear that we have to work together. We can respond best by coming together and not growing apart. Collaboration, not confusion. Preparation, not panic,” Modi said.

Modi said that the region should evolve common SAARC Pandemic Protocols, which could be applied on all borders as well as within the borders.

“This can help to prevent such infections from spreading across our region, and allow us to keep our internal movements free,” Modi said.

Earlier, Prime Minister Modi on said the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries should “prepare, act and succeed together” against COVID-19.

“As developing nations, all of us have significant challenges in terms of access to heal care facilities. Our people-to-people ties are ancient and our society deeply interconnected. We must all prepare, act and succeed together,” Modi said.

He stressed the importance of vigilance since the region is densely populated. “COVID-19 has recently been classified by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a pandemic. So far, our SAARC region has listed fewer than 150 cases but we need to remain vigilant. SAARC region is home to nearly 1/5 of all humanity. It is densely populated,” said Modi.

Prime Minister Modi briefed the SAARC member countries about India’s experience of combating the spread of coronavirus so far.

“Prepare, but don’t panic has been our guiding mantra. We started screening entry into India from mid-January itself, while also gradually increasing restrictions on travel. The step-by-step approach has helped avoid panic. We have made special efforts to reach out to vulnerable groups,” he said.

The Prime Minister said that “we have worked to quickly ramp up capacity in our system including through training our medical staff across the country. We have also increased diagnostic capabilities. Within two months, we moved from one major facility for pan-India testing.”

Modi said that the country has developed protocols for each stage of managing the pandemic.

ANI

Union Minister of Health and Family Dr Harsh Vardhan on Sunday reviewed the status, actions taken by States, UTs, and their preparedness regarding prevention, containment, and management of COVID-19. Meanwhile the tally of positive cases rose to 107.

The minister was apprised of the emerging international and national status on COVID-19, and the steps by the Central Government and the states/UTs for prevention, containment, and management of COVID-19, according to an official statement.

He reviewed the status and preparedness of the States, UTs in terms of quarantine facilities, isolation wards, adequacy of personal protective equipment (PPE), masks, testing kits, and so on.

The Union Minister also advised States/UTs for maintaining hygiene and cleanliness in the hospitals and adhere to all laid down protocols for the containment and management of COVID-19.

He reviewed the steps taken by various states for social distancing in great detail. The measures taken for avoiding non-essential travel and mass gatherings was also reviewed.

The Union Health Minister discussed further measures to be taken for strengthening capacities of the states, mass awareness among the people for prevention through social distancing, work-from-home, etc. The management of quarantine facilities was discussed in detail at the review meeting.

Outcomes of the discussion of the meeting held today shall be put up to the Group of Ministers (GOM) on COVID-19, at their meeting on March 16.

Dr Harsh Vardhan has directed for scaling up the capacity of the 24×7 Control Room Helpline (011-23978046) by adding more lines and additional human resources to serve the queries on COVID19.

In addition, as part of the efforts of the government to evacuate Indian citizens from COVID-19 affected countries, an Air India flight from Milan, Italy, arrived in Delhi this morning carrying 218 evacuees. These evacuees are quarantined at the ITBP Camp at Chhawla, as per protocol.

In addition, the third batch of 236 evacuees from Iran arrived on Sunday. They are being quarantined at the Army facility in Jaisalmer. They have already been tested prior to their departure from Iran. All are reported to be asymptomatic at present.

Also, a total of 265 passengers coming from COVID-19 affected countries have been quarantined at Trivandrum, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad.

As of now, 23 new cases have been detected since the last update. Of these, 17 are from Maharashtra, two from Telangana, one from Rajasthan and three from Kerala. Both deceased patients had pre-existing co-morbidities. Contract tracing of these cases is being rigorously pursued. So far, this has led to the identification of more than 4,000 contacts who have been put under surveillance. (ANI)

As many as 234 Indians who were among the people stranded in Iran amid the coronavirus outbreak have arrived in India, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said in the wee hours of Sunday.

A Mahan Air flight carrying the Indians onboard landed in Mumbai. Among the 234 people, 131 of them are students and the rest are pilgrims.

Jaishankar thanked the Iranian authorities for facilitating the evacuations of Indians.

“234 Indians stranded in Iran have arrived in India; including 131 students and 103 pilgrims. Thank you Ambassador @dhamugaddam (Dhamu Gaddam) and @India_in_Iran team for your efforts. Thank Iranian authorities,” the External Affairs Minister tweeted.

Iran is among the worst affected country from the coronavirus with 12,729 cases and 611 deaths so far.

In the past few days, India has carried out several evacuations of Indians nationals from Iran.

The first batch consisting of 58 nationals were brought back in a C17 military transport aircraft on Tuesday followed by another evacuation of 44 individuals on Friday.

Meanwhile, 107 positive cases of coronavirus have been reported so far from across India.

(ANI)