Patna, Having stayed away from the rough and tumble of Bihar politics for more than one-and-a-half years, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad says he will focus on the state to expose the reality behind Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's so-called good governance. "Now I will stay in Bihar and march to villages across the state to expose the real face of Nitish Kumar. I am here to stay," Lalu Prasad, who has been based in New Delhi for a while, told IANS at his residence here. "I have chalked out a strategy to launch an agitation against the failures of Nitish Kumar's government by visiting villages along with RJD workers. I will now be in direct touch with common people," he said. Lalu Prasad said he would undertake a march from Motihari district to Gaya, about 200 km away, to reach out to the 'aam admi' and gauge the people's mood. "I will not sit silent," said the former chief minister. "Anger against Nitish's so-called good governance and development is increasing in Bihar. It was visible with the protests against the chief minister when he visited some districts during his sewa yatra last month and this month," claimed Lalu Prasad. Lalu Prasad also said ...
Read Full Story

Patna, The Karnataka police have arrested a suspected terrorist from Bihar's Darbhanga district, prompting chief minister Nitish Kumar to raise objection against the unilateral police action. The police team from Karnataka arrested Kafil Ahmed from Barasmela village two days ago in connection with the 2010 Chinnaswamy Stadium twin blasts, superintendent of police Garima Malik said. Fifteen people were injured when two low-intensity bombs exploded outside a packed Chinnaswamy cricket stadium on April 17, 2010. "The Karnataka police did not contact the local police nor inform us about the arrest of Ahmed," the SP said, adding that the Darbhanga police came to know about the arrest of the suspected terrorist from his family. In Patna, chief minister Nitish Kumar said, "The Karnakata police has brazenly violated an established law about giving prior information to the local police about arrest of a person from its jurisdiction." The Bihar DGP has lodged a strong protest with his Karnataka counterpart, Kumar told reporters. The chief minister said that he had sought a report from the Darbhanga SP and on the basis of it, a formal protest will be lodged with the ...
Read Full Story

New Delhi, The Lok Sabha was briefly adjourned Tuesday with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seeking a reply from the government on the role of Home Minister P. Chidambaram, who is alleged to have helped his son get financial benefits in a telecom deal when he was the finance minister in 2006. As soon as members assembled in the morning, some BJP frontbenchers rose to protest, demanding suspension of question hour to discuss the issue. Some BJP MPs staged protests near Speaker Meira Kumar's podium and disrupted the crucial question hour. The speaker first tried to restore peace in the house asking protesting MPs to go back to their seats. As the MPs intensified their protests, Meira Kumar adjourned the house till noon. Opposition MPs cited Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy's allegations that Chidambaram had delayed permission for the sale of Aircel to Malaysia-based Maxis in 2006 when he was finance minister so that his son, Karthi, was financially benefited. "The BJP is going to raise the matter very seriously in both the houses. The government is not coming with true facts pertaining to the deliberate delays in the Aircel-Mexis deal because of the interest of ...
Read Full Story

New Delhi, Congress Party on Sunday sounded a critical note over Bihar Chief Nitish Kumar shaking hands with his Gujarat counterpart Narender Modi, saying that various political outfits ought to clarify on their stand with respect to each other. "Whether or not they want to shake hands is a matter between Nitishji (Nitish Kumar) and Narendra Modiji, but it is true that all political parties must be clear about where they stand," said Congress spokesperson Rashid Alvi. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), however, spoke in defence of the meeting, saying both leaders are symbols of governance. "Neither Nitish Kumar nor Narender Modi does politics after taking a certificate from Lalu Prasad Yadav. So, I think, he should get over this wrong impression that a person would take a certificate or permission from him to meet. As far as Nitish and Modi are concerned, both are symbols of governance," said BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. "Without doubt, the development model that both leaders have created in their particular states is a source of inspiration for all states. So, meetings like this cannot be considered a matter of political debate, and neither should it be seen like ...
Read Full Story

New Delhi, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar today directed Ministers to be concise in their answers to the queries raised in the House. The instruction came during the Question Hour when Members were asking supplementaries to the various questions relating to the Ministries of Health and Finance. One of the Members wanted to know whether the Government was going to put a ban on tobacco product gutka in view of its cancer causing effects. Another wanted to know why the Kalazar drugs were so much in shortage in Bihar and other states. Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad though expressed concern over the harmful effect of Gutka and said there should be a ban but could not give a categorical assurance. He rather recounted the various kinds of assistance given to the states for the prevention of tobacco related disease, cardiac diseases and ...
Read Full Story

Patna, Hundreds of Communist Party of India- Marxist-Leninst (CPI-ML) cadres protested against the visit of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to Kaimur district Sunday and rejected his "claims" of development and establishment of law and order in Bihar, officials said. Dozens of CPI-ML activists were arrested for staging the protest. The chief minister has embarked on a visit to Bhabhua, which is the district headquarter of Kaimur as part of his much publicised 'Sewa Yatra' (visit for service). "We took out march to protest Kumar's claims of non-existent development and establishment of law and order. CPI-ML activists were arrested for protesting against chief minister," CPI-ML district leader Vijay Yadav said. Yadav alleged that lakhs of rupees were spent on barricading in the name of security by district authorities to prevent people to voice their angers. Dozens of CPI-ML activists were arrested for staging protest against Kumar's 'Sewa Yatra' in Bhabhua and also stopped others from protesting, police said. Some agitating fixed pay teachers had also protested against the visit of chief minister Saturday, the second day of his 'Sewa Yatra'. Earlier, Samajwadi Party ...
Read Full Story

New Delhi, Team Anna member Kumar Vishwas on Sunday said one of its core committee members Maulana Shamoon Qasmi was expelled for "breach of trust". "He was asked by Team Anna member Shanti Bhushan to keep away from the meetings and not attend it for the time being," Vishwas said. The crucial meeting was held in Sector-43 of Noida and was attended by Hazare and other core members of the team, including Prashant Bhushan, Kiran Bedi and Kumar Vishwas. Qasmi was accused of audio-recording the proceedings of the core committee meetings on his mobile phone and leaking it elsewhere. Qasmi, however, said he quit the team because it had turned 'political' in nature and there was no place in it for him. "I was in the team only because of Anna Hazare," he said, adding, "Arvind Kejriwal has let the movement down. I was the only Muslim member in the core committee and I am out of it now. They have turned communal." Team Anna said discussions were still on in the core committee about the proposed joint rally with Baba Ramdev and details would emerge in the next couple of days. Addressing the media shortly after the meeting, Kiran Bedi and Prashant Bhushan reiterated that Hazare would ...
Read Full Story

Tonga, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, currently on a visit to Tonga, has launched an India-assisted solar project run by two women engineers in the Pacific island nation. The Kolomotu’a project inaugurated Thursday will power in a sustainable way the remote islands in the archipelago nation in south of Pacific. The two women solar engineers - Halatoa Siutiti and Leohau Siale - are hailed as “pioneers” of solar energy in the Pacific region and have been trained as solar engineers in India's Barefoot College in Rajasthan, Meira Kumar said in her speech at the inauguration ceremony. The solar power plant is partly run by a women community group in Tonga. “I commend the Kolomotu’a community and the Women’s Community Group for undertaking to implement this project and wish them success in their laudable endeavour,” Meira Kumar said, according to a press statement from the speaker's camp office here. She hoped that the solar project for which India has provided the necessary equipment would be instrumental in achieving the goals of sustainable rural development and women empowerment. Meira Kumar said Pacific island countries were faced with the challenge of ...
Read Full Story

New Delhi, The UPA narrowly escaped another 'Team Anna moment' at the Prime Minister-chaired National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) meeting on Tuesday, with CMs Nitish Kumar and Akhilesh Yadav coming in handy to counter the agitated civil society representatives, who were demanding immediate closure of hydroelectric projects on tributaries of the Ganges in Uttarakhand. The government did not give in to the demands at the meeting, and managed to avoid a face-off turning into a public relation disaster. The meeting concluded with the decision that a multi-disciplinary group of experts would be set up to assess the fate of the projects based on the reports submitted by IIT-Roorkee and the Wildlife Institute of India. Also, the PM will meet agitating G D Agarwal, who is undergoing treatment at AIIMS, soon. But the decisions came amid high drama, with the members of Team Agarwal and others talking about the ailing activist's absence. The government had agreed to include Prof Agarwal's agenda in the NGRBA meeting after he went on a fast demanding closure of existing projects on the Ganges. Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati, convener of Ganga Seva Abhiyanam and ...
Read Full Story

Patna, RJD chief Lalu Prasad on Monday targetted chief minister Nitish Kumar over the centenary celebrations in Mumbai, saying that the JD(U) leader has "hurt the prestige and sentiments of Bihar" by kneeling down before MNS leader Raj Thackeray. Apparently referring to the chief minister's emissary Devesh Chandra Thakur who conveyed to Thackeray that the programme was purely socio-cultural and politics was not on the agenda, Prasad accused Kumar of "hurting the prestige of Bihar". "Nitish has hurt the prestige and sentiments of Bihar by kneeling down before Thackeray and his conditions on his visit to Mumbai," Prasad told reporters here. "Nitish conceded all the conditions put by Raj Thackerary for attending the Bihar Divas programme in Mumbai yesterday," Prasad claimed. Stating that Bihar is known for its glorious past, the former Bihar chief minister said, "We should not buckle under pressure and kneel before anyone's diktat." He also criticised Devesh Chandra Thakur, a ruling JD(U) MLC, for allegedly 'stage-managing' a truce between Kumar and Thackeray. Prasad alleged that Kumar was celebrating Bihar Divas overlooking poverty and deterioration in law and ...
Read Full Story

Patna, Press Council of India chairman Justice Markandey Katju said on Friday that the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government harassed the media if they wrote against it. Katju said the information he had gathered about the media in Bihar was "not good". He reminded the Nitish Kumar government that its alleged action against the press was a violation of the Constitution. A three-member PCI team will be sent to Bihar soon for an investigation, he added. Katju's statement during an interaction at the Senate Hall of Patna University sparked instant protest by the principal of Patna College, Lalkeshwar Prasad, who left in a huff. It caused disruption in the programme for some time. After the departure of Prasad, Katju said: "I am a thoroughly democratic person. If anybody doesn't agree to whatever I say ... they should not try to disturb ... don't pick up a fight with a man from Allahabad. I know how to set things right." At the start of the interaction, he said: "I have heard that the present government established better law and order in Bihar compared to the erstwhile rule of Lalu Prasad. "The second thing I have heard is that there was freedom of the press during ...
Read Full Story

Shimla, In a bid to pacify rebels in its Himachal Pradesh unit, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday appointed a new president for the state. Satpal Singh Satti, a second-time MLA from Una, has been appointed the state president replacing Khimi Ram, a close confidant of chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal. BJP president Nitin Gadkari cleared Satti's name and accepted Ram's resignation, a senior party leader said here. Ram, a two-time legislator from Banjar in Kullu district, was unanimously elected president in July 2009 after Jairam Thakur, who headed the state unit, was inducted into the state cabinet. In February 2010, Ram was retained as president. Satti, who is also a chief parliamentary secretary, has to resign from that post before assuming the new charge. BJP sources said a minor cabinet reshuffle is also on the cards this month. Party insiders said Gadkari had to step in following two party camps in the state, one led by Dhumal and the other by former Union minister Shanta Kumar having been at loggerheads for quite some time. Shanta loyalists, comprising two ministers and three MLAs, are upset over Dhumal's style of working. Gadkari last week deputed ...
Read Full Story

Washington, As India officially took up the issue of popular TV show host Jay Leno’s objectionable depiction of the Golden Temple in Amritsar, a US based Sikh rights group lodged a complaint with Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Indian Deputy Chief of Mission Arun Kumar Singh met US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Robert Blake Tuesday and conveyed India's objection to Leno passing off a visual of the Golden Temple as Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's vacation home. The Indian mission has also written a "strong letter" to NBC, which broadcast Leno's "The Tonight Show" featuring the joke Thursday. Meanwhile, Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) has lodged a complaint with the broadcasting regulator FCC against Leno’s objectionable depiction of Golden Temple. The SFJ complaint filed with Joel Gurin, bureau chief, Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau at FCC, states that “Jay Leno’s depiction of Golden Temple as the home of the rich is racist, derogatory, defamatory, contrary to the reality, inimical to the principles of Sikhism, and thus hurtful to the sentiments of the Sikh community”. The complaint demands imposition ...
Read Full Story

New Delhi/Kolkata, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and other Parliamentarians on Monday offered floral tributes to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose to celebrate the 115th birth anniversary of the freedom fighter. The brief ceremony was observed in the Central hall of the Parliament, media reports said. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader LK Advani and Congress leader Girija Vyas were present at the event. Netaji is considered to be one of the most prominent leaders in the Indian independence movement. West Bengal on Monday celebrated Netaji's 115th birthday anniversary by paying rich tribute to the leader through a number of cultural programmes orgainised in city and other parts of state. Hosts of leaders cutting across the party line paid homage to Netaji by garlanding his statue at Red road in central Kolkata. Forwad Bloc leader Ashok Ghosh was first to lay the floral wreath on Netaji's statue which was followed by other leaders, including West Bengal Chief Minister Mamanta Banerjee. Besides, various schools of Kolkata organized cultural programmes to mark the birth anniversary of Netaji. Administration of the different districts also observed the day. ...
Read Full Story

Shimla, The Himachal Pradesh government will explore the possibilities of exploiting the hot springs in the state to generate electricity, Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said Friday. "An action plan to know the geothermal potential of the state will be prepared soon," an official statement quoting Dhumal said. Himachal Pradesh falls in the Himalayan geothermal province which ranges from Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir to Assam, covering a vast swathe of geographical area and encloses over 150 thermal manifestations. "Thermal sites in the Parbati and Kullu Valley of the state are known for their high temperatures due to hot springs in the area. Such sites are best suited for developing power projects," he said. Dhumal said with the exploration of the state's geothermal energy potential, every household in local areas would be getting adequate and economical power. "Even large cold storages could also be run by using geothermal energy. This would enable us to adopt clean development mechanisms and reduce dependency on conventional power sources," he added. Praising the research on the state's geothermal energy potential by Vijay Chauhan of the Indian Institute of ...
Read Full Story

Patna, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his cabinet colleagues Monday made public details of their assets. Human Resources Development Minister Prashant Kumar Shahi is the richest of them all with assets worth Rs.4.5 crore. Nitish Kumar declared a house in Sansad Vihar in New Delhi valued at Rs.40 lakh, and moveable assets worth Rs.6.15 lakh, including cash and bank deposits, a 2003 model car, an old TV set, an old air conditioner, a refrigerator, a cooler and cows. This was the second occasion when details of the assets of 29 Bihar ministers were uploaded on the government website as a step towards ending corruption. They had first declared their assets last year. The list of chief minister's assets also included a computer and a treadmill. He also has taken a loan from bank. He also disclosed his only son Nishant's assets, including agricultural land at his ancestral Kalyanbigha village. Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi and other ministers also declared their assets. The richest member in Bihar ministry is Shahi, a lawyer-turned-minister, who declared moveable and immoveable assets worth around Rs.4.5 ...
Read Full Story

New Delhi, A total of seventeen Bills were passed by both the houses of Parliament in the winter session that concluded on Thursday night. Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Water Resources Pawan Kumar Bansal told a press conference here that the winter session, which commenced on November 22, provided 24 sittings spread over a period of 38 days. During the Session, Supplementary Demands for Grants (General and Railways) for 2011-12 and their related Appropriation Bills, were discussed and passed by the Lok Sabha. Thereafter, the Rajya Sabha considered and returned the Appropriation Bills. In Lok Sabha, Adjournment Motion moved on December 14, BJP leader L.K. Advani, on “situation arising out of money deposited illegally in foreign banks and action being taken against the guilty persons” was discussed for about 6 hours. The motion was negatived by voice vote. One Bill replacing the Ordinance, namely, the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Amendment Ordinance, 2011 which was promulgated by the President, was considered and passed by both the Houses of Parliament during the Session. In the Lok Sabha, two short duration discussions under Rule 193 were ...
Read Full Story

New Delhi, The logjam at the Indian Parliament continued on Thursday as both the houses were adjourned for the eighth consecutive day over the FDI issue. The opposition parties and certain section of the key allies of the ruling United progressive Alliance (UPA) government kept protesting against the central government's decision to allow Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in retail, which ultimately stalled the normal proceedings of the house. In the Lok Sabha, some Members of Parliament (MP) of Trinamool Congress came to the Well and started shouting slogans against FDI on Thursday, while the opposition demanded a roll back of FDI. The Lok Sabha was disrupted immediately on Thursday after Speaker Meira Kumar made obituary reference to former member Harish Kumar Gangawar of the Congress Party and read out a message to mark the World AIDS Day. Meanwhile, the government has made their stance clear on the FDI issue that they would not roll back the decision taken by cabinet to allow FDI in retail, media reports said. All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) members from Tamil Nadu also disrupted the Parliament as they demanded for the implementation of the ...
Read Full Story