Rave party: NCP claims non-NCB personnel involved in ship raid

In a stunning claim, a senior Nationalist Congress Party leader on Wednesday alleged that two private persons including a Bharatiya Janata Party ‘Vice President’ were involved in the Narcotics Control Bureau raid on a luxury ship Cordelia Cruise on October 2.

NCP national spokesperson and Maharashtra Minorities Affairs Minister Nawab Malik slammed the “fraud” NCB operations,in which BJP leader Manish Bhanushali and “private detective” Kiran P. Gosavi were seen dragging out the accused. including superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan and Arbaaz Merchant.

While a bearded and bespectacled Bhanushali, sporting a maroon shirt, was seen dragging out Merchant, the bald Gosavi was shown pulling Aryan Khan out of the International Cruise Terminal late on Saturday, shocking the country and rattling the entertainment industry.

Malik said that Bhanushali had posted photos with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President J.P. Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Leader of Opposition in Maha Assembly Devendra Fadnavis, plus current and former central and state ministers, and other senior BJP leaders.

“The BJP and the NCB must come clear who are these two persons and why were they seen in the so-called ship raid. Both these persons are fakes and the NCB raid was a fraud intended only for grabbing publicity. What is the BJP’s connections with both of them,” he demanded.

Malik reiterated that since the past one year after the death of Sushant Singh Rajput, the NCB is only targeting high-profile film personalities, raids are carried out with an eye on hogging publicity, defaming the Maha Vikas Aghadi government and instilling fear in the minds of Bollywood people.

In response, BJP’s Leader of Opposition in the Council Pravin Darekar promptly denied Malik’s contentions and said that he was making the allegations out of frustration as his son-in-law Sameer Khan was nabbed by the NCB in January. 2021.

Light two diyas on Diwali: Modi to PM Awas Yojana beneficiaries

Addressing a three-day urban conclave in Uttar Pradesh’s state capital Lucknow on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana to light two ‘diyas’ in their houses on Diwali this year.

“I have learnt that 7.5 lakh diyas will be lit in Ayodhya during ‘Deepotsav’ and if all those people who have benefitted from the PM Awas Yojana light two diyas each outside their houses, we will have 18 lakh diyas because nine lakh people have got their houses under this scheme. Let us compete with the power of light,” Modi said.

“Even Lord Ram will be happy if you do this,” he added.

Speaking at the ‘New Urban India Conclave’, the Prime Minister said his government had not only increased the size of houses under the scheme but also ensured facilities like water and power.

“A house becomes a home when one has basic amenities. The previous state government did not give houses to the poor even though the Central government was providing all the money. After Yogi Adityanath became Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, he has already given nine lakh houses,” Modi added.

He said, “The opposition always wants to know what Modi has done. Today I am telling them that I have made three crore poor people into ‘lakhpatis’ (rich) through just the PM Awas Yojana.”

The Prime Minister stressed that the use of technology cannot only ensure development but also ensure a better and healthier life for the people.

“Lucknow is known for ‘pehle aap, pehle aap’ but this is the time to say ‘pehle aap’ to technology. Whether it is waste management, sewage treatment plants, electric buses or pre-fabricated houses — all this is possible only through technology,” he said.

By introducing LED lights on streets, an amount of Rs one lakh crore had been saved which is now being used in other welfare schemes, Modi added.

The Prime Minister spoke virtually with three women who had been given houses under the PM Awas Yojana and gave the keys of the houses to 75,000 beneficiaries.

He laid the foundation of 75 development schemes worth Rs 4,737 crore to mark 75 years of India’s Independence and dedicated them to the people. Modi also flagged-off 75 electric buses.

Earlier, the Prime Minister saw an exhibition put up for the urban conclave, highlighting the new development schemes.

Telangana CM demands caste census, increase in SC quota

Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday urged the Centre to enhance the reservation quota of Scheduled Castes and also undertake a caste census.

Speaking in the Assembly, he demanded that the Centre should increase the SC quota beyond the existing 15 per cent in view of changed dynamics.

Replying to debate on Dalit Bandhu scheme launched by his government, he said that the population of SCs has increased since the enactment to provide them 15 per cent reservation.

KCR, as Rao is popularly known, pointed out that contrary to general perception that Dalits are only 15 per cent of the total population in Telangana, statistics show that they are 17.53 per cent.

He said in some districts, Dalits are more than 20 per cent of the population. Mancherial district has the highest population of Dalits at 25.64 per cent. He said out of 1.03 crore families in Telangana, nearly 18 lakh are Dalits.

The Chief Minister also urged the Centre to undertake caste census. He announced that the Assembly will pass a resolution in this regard and send it to the Centre.

KCR backed the suggestion of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) leader Akbaruddin Owaisi for caste census and wondered why the Centre was not coming forward to undertake this.

“All kinds of nonsense is spoken in the absence of statistics. Unless you have the facts and figures, you can’t make the proper plans for upliftment of any section,” he said.

KCR also pointed out that unlike other countries, India has no national identity card. “Even our neighbouring country Myanmar has issued identity cards. With great difficulty, we had Aadhaar but for some strange reasons, even this is not accepted as a national identity card,” he said.

The Chief Minister also underlined the need for categorization of SC reservation. He said he raised the issue many times during meetings with the Prime Minister and a resolution was passed in the Assembly and sent to the Centre. He advised BJP leaders of the state to make their government at the Centre accept this demand and offered to accord them warm welcome and felicitate on their return from the national capital.

Priyanka Gandhi remains under detention in Sitapur, UP

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra remains in detention at the PAC guest house in Sitapur even though other leaders like Akhilesh Yadav have been released.

According to sources, Priyanka has said that as soon as she is allowed to go, she will go to Lakhimpur Kheri to meet the families of the victims of Sunday’s violence.

A senior official said that they were waiting for orders from Lucknow before they allow Priyanka to go.

Another source said that officials were wary of allowing Priyanka to move towards Lakhimpur unless the cremation of all the bodies of the victims is done.

The post mortem of the bodies is presently being done and the cremation is likely to take place on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Congress workers from adjoining districts have started collecting outside the PAC guest house.

Congress workers took out a candle march outside the PAC guest house and shouted slogans in support of Priyanka Gandhi.

Stalin seeks support from 12 CMs for abolishing NEET

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has written to 12 counterparts across the country, seeking the support for scrapping the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), an official statement said on Monday.

In the letter written on October 1, he has asked his counterparts of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Delhi, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Telangana, West Bengal, and Goa, to put up a united effort to restore the primacy of state governments in administering the education sector according to the Constitution.

In the letter, Stalin wrote: “Our considered position has always been that the move by the Union government to introduce NEET goes against the spirit of federalism and violates the constitutional balance of power by curbing the rights of state governments to decide on the method of admission in the medical institutions founded, established and run by them. In this regard, we consider that state governments need to assert their constitutional right and position in deciding the method of admission to their higher educational institutions.”

The state government statement also said that a delegation of DMK Parliamentarians will be handing over a translated copy of the Justice A.K. Rajan committee report studying the adverse impact of NEET on medical admissions in Tamil Nadu to the representatives of the state governments in Delhi.

The Tamil Nadu Legislature has recently passed the Tamil Nadu Admission to Undergraduate Medical Degree Courses Act, 2021, based on the recommendations of the Justice Rajan committee, which had studied whether NEET had affected backward students in the past few years.

The committee was also asked to look into the feasibility of implementing alternative admission procedures and the legal steps to be undertaken to implement such fair and equitable methods.

Stalin requested his counterparts in other states to extend support after studying the documents and ensure that students hailing from rural backgrounds and marginalised sections of society are not put to hardships in obtaining admission to higher educational institutions, the statement said.

Congress to protest at all District Collectors office in farmers’ support

The Congress said that it will stage protests at all District Collectors’ offices across the country on Tuesday in support of farmers and to demand action against those responsible for the violence in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday party leader Rajeev Shukla said: “The party stands in support of farmers in the entire nation, and we demand that the Prime Minister and the UP Chief Minister should take strict action against those who have committed this crime and it should not look that government is against the farmers.”

The party also demanded that the government should release party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra who has been detained by the UP Police while on her way to Lakhimpur Kheri, and also allow its two Chief Ministers – Punjab’s Charanjit Singh Channi and Chhattisgarh’s Bhupesh Baghel – to visit the site of incident as they have been denied permission to land in the state capital by the UP administration.

The Tikunia police in Lakhimpur Kheri lodged an FIR against Union Minister of State for Home Ajay Misra’s son Ashish Mishra and 15 others for murder and inciting violence in Lakhimpur Kheri, even as the death toll reached nine on Monday.

The Samyukta Kisan Morcha claimed that Ashish Misra’s vehicle ran over farmers who were protesting against Uttar Pardesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya’s visit to a village in Lakhimpur Kheri.

Ajay Misra and his son, however, claimed that protesters attacked the convoy and killed a driver and three others, including two BJP workers.

Yogi to withdraw cases registered under Epidemic Act in lockdown

The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has decided to withdraw cases registered under the Epidemic Act for violation of pandemic guidelines during the Covid lockdown.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said keeping in view the larger public interest, cases relating to violation of the Act should be withdrawn.

He asked the home department to start proceedings in this regard. He also said tainted policemen would be identified and action taken against them.

It may be recalled that last month, the chief minister had also announced that the state government would withdraw cases filed against farmers for stubble burning.

A home department official said that Uttar Pradesh is the first state in the country to take back cases that were registered for violating Covid-19 protocol.

These cases were registered under the charges of Disaster Management Act, Epidemic Act, disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant for breaking Covid-19 protocol.

The chief minister has directed the officials to withdraw cases if they are not of serious nature, he said.

As per records, overall 91,002 cases were registered for violation of Covid protocol across all the eight police zones and four police commissionerate .

The officer also said that maximum cases were registered in Gorakhpur police zone with 18,585 cases and the least were registered in Varanasi Commissionerate with 251.

The state government has formed two committees to screen corrupt and tainted policemen. First under the chairmanship of Director General, intelligence Devendra Singh Chauhan and the second under Additional DG (law and order) Prashant Kumar.

The first committee will screen the officers in the rank of additional superintendent of police and deputy superintendent of police. The second committee headed by ADG (law and order) will screen policemen of inspector and sub-inspector level.

In this committee, the ADG establishment and home secretary will be the members. These committees will give their report after examining the policemen posted in the same district for three years and if they have any kind of allegations against them.

Priyanka arrested, oppn leaders under house arrest as toll in Lakhimpur Kheri reaches 8

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has been arrested from Hargaon in Uttar Pradesh’s Sitapur district while she was on her way to Lakhimpur Kheri where violence had claimed eight lives on Sunday.

Other opposition leaders are also being stopped from proceeding towards Lakhimpur Kheri after Sunday’s incident, where the death toll has gone up to eight.

Priyanka Gandhi’s convoy was stopped in Lucknow and the police surrounded the Kaul House where she stays during her Lucknow visits.

However, Priyanka managed to hoodwink the cops and walked out of her residence form the side gate and after a short distance, she got into a waiting car and left for Lakhimpur Kheri with Congress leader Deependra Singh Hooda at the wheel.

As soon as Priyanka reached Hargaon in Sitapur district around 6.a.m on Monday, she was stopped. After a minor scuffle with women constable, Priyanka demanded to see her arrest warrant. The police personnel took her into custody and she was taken to the PAC office in the district.

Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, “I am not committing a crime by stepping out of the house. I just want to meet the affected families and share their grief. What wrong am I committing? And if I have done something wrong, then you (UP Police) should have an order, a warrant. You (UP Police) are stopping me, my car, but for what reason?”

Congress leaders who were accompanying Priyanka created a ruckus and staged a dharna to protest against her arrest.

UPCC president Ajay Kumar Lallu said that the arrest of Priyanka proved again that there was no democracy left in the political system.

“We are well within out rights to protest and we are not going to be cowed down by such repressive measures,” he said.

The death toll in Sunday’s violence has gone up to eight and the BJP claimed that the deceased included one driver and three BJP workers.

Bahujan Samaj Party MP Satish Chandra Mishra was not allowed to move out of his house in Lucknow at 3 a.m. when he tried to move towards Lakhimpur Kheri. Mishra demanded a written order which prevents him from moving out of his house.

The BSP general secretary, said, “We want to visit Lakhimpur Kheri. We are not being allowed to move citing law and order disturbance there. We demand written order if they want to house arrest us.”

The Uttar Pradesh police tweeted that the situation in Lakhimpur Kheri was under control and adequate deployment of forces had been done to prevent any ‘untoward incident’.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said in a statement issued late on Sunday night that he was ‘saddened’ by the violence in his state that left eight people, including four farmers, dead.

He promised strict action against those responsible following an investigation and made an appeal to maintain peace.

BKU leader Rakesh Tikait’s convoy was also stopped on its way to Lakhimpur Kheri. He had reached Puranpur in Pilibhit district.

Tikait said that he will hold a press conference later in the day.

He said BKU would stage demonstrations at all district headquarters on Monday to protest against the Sunday’s incidents.

Bhim Army chief Chandra Shekhar Ravan’s convoy was stopped near Khairabad in Sitapur. He has been detained at Sitapur police line.

Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh was stopped in Sitapur on his way to Lakhimpur Kheri on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday. He was stopped during checking of vehicles in Laharpur area of the district.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Chaudhary and former minister, Om Prakash Rajbhar, are scheduled to leave for Lakhimpur Kheri on Monday. A heavy police force has been deployed outside their respective residences.

A senior police official, who spoke to IANS on condition of anonymity, said, “We are not going to allow any political leader to go to Lakhimpur Kheri and worsen the situation. We are trying our best to defuse tension and normalize the situation. We cannot allow some leaders to derive political mileage at the cost of the situation.”

In another major development, union minister of state for home, Ajay Mishra Teni, whose earlier statement apparently triggered off trouble on Sunday, said that his son Ashish Mishra Monu was not present at the site where the violence took place.

The farmers had alleged that Monu had mowed down farmers while driving his SUV.

The police have taken Ashish Mishra to a safe house to ensure his safety and security.

Kamal Nath and Arvinder Lovely meet Sonia Gandhi

Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath and Congress leader Arvinder Singh Lovely met party interim president Sonia Gandhi in separate meetings at 10 Janpath on Friday evening.

According to sources, Kamal Nath apprised Sonia Gandhi to the current political situation in the state.

Kamal Nath also apprised the party president about the Congress’ strategy for the by-elections in the state.

The by-elections in Madhya Pradesh to Khandwa Lok Sabha and three assembly seats are to be held on October 30.

Meanwhile, BJP leader and Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra met Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia in Delhi in view of the upcoming elections.

Earlier on Thursday, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi.

Further, regarding the Arvinder Singh Lovely’s meeting with the Congress chief, it is being speculated that soon he can be given some new responsibility in the party.

Pakistan in talks with banned TTP for reconciliation

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has said the government is in talks with some groups of the banned Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), seeking a reconciliation, the Dawn reported.

“There are different groups which form the TTP and some of them want to talk to our government for peace. So, we are in talks with them. It’s a reconciliation process,” Khan said during an interview with the TRT World.

When asked if the government is asking them to lay down arms, the Prime Minister responded: “Yes, we forgive them and they become normal citizens.”

When asked why the TTP was carrying out attacks on Pakistani security forces when they were in talks with the government, Khan said it was just a “spate of attacks”.

“We might not reach some sort of conclusion or settlement in the end, but we are talking,” he added.

Responding to another query on whether the Afghan Taliban were acting as mediators between the TTP and Pakistan, Khan said: “Since the talks were taking place in Afghanistan, so in that sense, yes,” the report added.