NEW DELHI : The AAP on Monday blamed the BJP and the central government for the charges hurled by sacked Delhi minister Kapil Mishra against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, saying this is part of a larger conspiracy to “finish off” the party and to “silence” the opposition.
  Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari on Monday asked Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to either resign or go to jail after a sacked minister hurled corruption charges at him.
Tiwari referred to the Aam Aadmi Party leader’s May 10, 2013 tweet: “Should people just resign for corruption or should they be sent to jail for corruption?”
The BJP leader asked Kejriwal to decide his fate. “Either (go to) jail or resign. Please decide Arvind Kejriwalji as being (the) CM of Delhi you can decide for people of Delhi. Only you said it.”
 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh told the media that the kind of allegations Mishra had made made it clear that he was being used to harass Kejriwal and other ministers in the Delhi government.  “Mishra is now speaking the language of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress. He is saying the same thing the two parties had been saying for months. This makes it clear who is behind all this,” Sanjay Singh said.   A day after he was sacked, Mishra alleged that he saw Kejriwal taking Rs 2 crore from Health Minister Satyendar Jain.   Mocking the claim, Sanjay Singh wondered if Kejriwal invited Mishra to witness the so-called bribe-taking or to count the currency notes.  “Party’s Political Affairs Committee (PAC) will sit today (Monday) and discuss about the action against Kapil Mishra,” Singh said responding to a question about possible action against the sacked Delhi minister.  Mishra also alleged that Jain had facilitated a land deal worth Rs 50 crore for a Kejriwal relative.  “Making such serious allegations, Mishra did not even feel it important to clarify when the deal was conducted and which relative of Kejriwal was involved,” Singh said.   On Monday, Mishra filed a complaint regarding what is known as the Water Tanker Scam with the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB), saying Kejriwal delayed action in the case.  Sanjay Singh said it was Mishra who had repeatedly said that Kejriwal “had nothing to do with the scam” and the ACB was under pressure to “frame him by any possible means”.   “The ACB is under the central government which is ruled by the BJP. It is the BJP which is behind all this.”  Sanjay Singh said that at a time when the country was facing serious internal and external security threats, the only priority for the BJP and the central government was to finish off the AAP.  “Our only fault is that we are fighting for the rights of the poor and the marginalised and are raising our voice against the politics of hate. They want to silence our voice.”  Kejriwal had “zero tolerance for corruption”, the AAP leader added.  “Corruption allegations were levelled against Manish Sisodia, Arvind Kejriwal and Kumar Vishwas during the anti-corruption movement led by Anna Hazare, but nothing came of it,” Singh said.  Rejecting the BJP’s demand for Kejriwal’s resignation, Singh said that “severe” allegations of corruption were made against Finance Minister Arun Jaitley by suspended BJP member Kirti Azad, but nothing happened.  “Despite serious allegations of corruption against Jaitley, he is still holding the post of Finance Minister. So, we do not need to learn the lessons of morality and principles from the BJP and the Congress,” Singh said. 

(With Inputs from IANS)

New Delhi: Stressing upon the need for choking of the financial resources of the Left Wing Extremism (LWE) cadres and groups, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday preferred the use of modern technology like UAVs, GPS tracking, thermal imaging, radar and satellite images to counter the Naxal violence. 
Rooting for a specific action plan for each theatre with clearly defined short term, medium term and long term strategies to tackle LWE violence, Mr. Singh said:  “Today, we need to consider whether to react only after the occurrence of any incident or we should be more proactive. LWE cadres are constantly trying to inflict losses on security forces to boost the morale of their cadres.’’
Presiding over a review meeting in the wake of the recent killing of 25 CRPF jawans in Sukma in Chhattisgarh, he said the martyrdom of the security forces will not go in vain. “The day is not far when this mindless violence will end,’’ he said. 
The meeting was called to work out an integrated strategy of security and by giving impetus to development in the 35 worst affected districts so that the LWE influence can be eliminated. Accusing the LWE of weakening the democracy in the country, Mr. Singh reminded them that India is the largest democracy in the world and efforts to suppress democracy through the influence of the gun will never succeed. 
The Home Minister said that Unified Coordination and Command was needed on the LWE front. Smart leadership full of self-confidence with a solid vision should prepare the teams in a mission mode, he said. 
Mr. Singh offered the idea of SAMADHAN or solution to counter the LWE menace which means S- Smart Leadership,  A- Aggressive Strategy,  M- Motivation and Training,  A- Actionable Intelligence, D – Dashboard Based Key Performance Indicators and Key Result Areas,  H- Harnessing Technology,  A- Action plan for each Theatre, N- No access to Financing. 
In what seemed like a forward-looking, tech-based mutli-pronged strategy,  Mr. Singh argued in favour of pressing technologies pertaining to space, IT and communication on a greater scale to counter LWE problem.  At the same time, he said, shadow intelligence officers should also be deputed to track prominent targets associated with LWE. 
Pointing out that security forces must adhere to the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), Mr. Singh said their residential camps should be well equipped with power and water supply and have better connectivity.  
“The forces on the ground level should not lack leadership. Unity of purpose and unity of action are essential for the success of operations. We must ensure that States take the ownership of LWE operations with the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) actively cooperating with them,’’ he said.         The Home Minister, however, also said only ”silver bullets” were not a solution to the issue.    “We have to work on imaginative thinking on the whole situation so that we can “Out Think” and “Out Manoeuvre”  the LWE,’’ he added.
”There was need of coordination and command at all levels to tackle the Naxal violence,” Mr Singh said while chairing a meeting of Chief Ministers of 10 LWE-affected states. He said the presence of forces should instil fear in the Left Wing Extremists and a sense of confidence among the local people and tribals – ‘Let your action speak for itself’’.
 He said that 12000 citizens have lost their lives in violent activities of the Left Wing Extremists over the past two decades and out of these 2700 are jawans of the security forces and the remaining 9300 are innocent and common people. 
Dubbing LWE as “anti-development’’, he said their cadres not only target the security forces but also public property like roads, culverts, railway tracks, electricity and telephone towers, hospitals, schools, anganwadi and panchayat bhawans.
 “It is evident from the destruction caused by the Left Wing Extremists that they do not want people to get facilities and access to the development, in the remote and inaccessible areas, because these facilities provide the path of economic and social progress, to the local people. It also joins them to the mainstream of the nation. The cancer of LWE flourishes in poverty or backwardness. Therefore, the LWE strategy is to ensure that the people of this area stay without electricity, without road, without education, so that the vested interest of the LWE continues unabated,’’ he told the high-level meeting.   Top officials from various Central ministries, NSA and Director of theIntelligence Bureau, Chief Secretaries and Police Chiefs also attended the review meeting. Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and West Bengal were invited to attend the meeting.

NEW DELHI : Refusing to compare her case with the Nirbhaya gang-rape case where the apex court upheld death penalty for the convicts, Gujarat gang-rape survivor Bilkis Bano on Monday said she was content with the Bombay High Court rejecting the death penalty plea in her case.
  In one of the most horrifying incidents during the 2002 Gujarat riots, Bano, then 19 and pregnant, was brutalised by a gang of men and many of her family members killed in front of her eyes.   While upholding a trial court sentence of life term to 11 convicts, the Bombay High Court on May 4 rejected a CBI plea which sought death sentence for three of the convicts.    Interacting with media persons in the national capital, Bano said she was happy with the court’s verdict in her case.   “I am very happy with the court’s verdict. The horrors I suffered deserve the maximum punishment, but at the same time I do not want any one else to die in my name. I want justice, not revenge,” said Bano.   She said the five policemen whose acquittal has been set aside by the high court, deserve harsher punishment.      Charged with tampering of evidence by fudging documents, the men had been acquitted by a trial court in 2008.  While setting aside their acquittal, the high court had observed: “The omissions on the part of the police accused are so grave and so obvious that their malafides and intentions are very apparent. The investigation is not only faulty but it is downright tainted.”  While welcoming the court’s verdict against the policemen, National Award-winning filmmaker Shonali Bose demanded punishment for the “masterminds of the cover up” in the Gujarat riots.   “These five policemen were mere foot soldiers in the cover up. Their indictment by the court is indeed a message but justice will be done when the masterminds of the cover up of the 2002 riots are brought to justice,” she said.   Speaking on the occasion, former bureaucrat N.C. Saxena said police have prejudices against the minority community in cases of communal violence.      “Police almost always functions with strong prejudices against minorities during riots,” he said, citing several administrative and judicial reports where policemen have been indicted for their role in communal violence.     On May 5, a Supreme Court bench upheld the death sentences of all four convicts in the Nirbhaya case in which a 23-year-old paramedical student was gang-raped inside a moving bus on December 16, 2012 in Delhi. The savage assault led to her death due to internal injuries 13 days later in a Singapore hospital. 

(With Inputs from IANS)

NEW DELHI : Delhi Metro on Monday hiked its fare by up to 66 per cent, with the maximum fare going up to Rs 50 from the earlier Rs 30.
  Delhi Metro Rail Corp (DMRC) spokesperson Anuj Dayal told the media that the minimum fare – applicable for a distance of up to two kilometres – had been raised from Rs 8 to Rs 10.The new fare structure has been divided into six slabs:
Rs 10 (0-2 km), Rs 15 (2-5 km), Rs 20 (5-12 km), Rs 30 (12-21 km), Rs 40 (21-32 km) and Rs 50 (beyond 32 km).   “This is the first phase of fare hike to be implemented from May 10,” Dayal said. “The second phase will be implemented from October.”                          DMRC Director K.K. Saberwal said the revision was necessary on account of increase in the input cost – staff salaries, cost of energy, repair and maintenance.  Dayal added that special discounts would be given to commuters on Sundays and national holidays.        Apart from that, 10 percent discount during non-peak hours would also be given. “This is to ensure that load during peak hours and non-peak hours is even.” 

NEW DELHI : In a setback for RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, the Supreme Court on Monday set aside a Ranchi High Court ruling and ordered that he be tried in all the remaining five fodder scam cases.
 The Rashtriya Janata Dal chief has already been convicted in one of the fodder scam cases and his appeal against this is pending in the Supreme Court.   Setting aside the High Court order which said that since Lalu Prasad has already been convicted in one fodder scam case there was no need to try him in the other cases, a bench of Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Amitava Roy held that the trial would take place in all the cases on all the charges.  The bench also directed that the trials be completed in nine months.  The apex court wondered how could the same judge on the same facts of the case take one view in respect of one accused and a contrary view in case of Lalu Prasad.   The bench also took exception to delay by the Central Bureau of Investigation in filing the appeal against the High Court order.  It ordered CBI Director to hold an enquiry and fix responsibility for the delay.

(With Inputs from IANS)

PARIS : Pro-EU Emmanuel Macron on Sunday became France’s youngest President with a landslide victory over far-right rival Marine Le Pen, a result hailed by European Union leaders.

 Wild celebrations broke out in Paris and across France as Macron, 39, bagged an overwhelming 66.06 per cent or 20.7 per cent of all votes in a closely and bitterly fought battle.

 Thousands of jubilant Macron supporters waving blue, white and red tricolour flags danced and cheered outside the iconic Paris Louvre museum. 

 A civil servant who became a millionaire investment banker and then a government minister, Macron founded the ‘En Marche!’ movement and went on to become the President despite not having a constituency of his own and without the backing of any major party.

 Anti-EU Le Pen, 48, got about 10.6 million votes in the Presidential election’s crucial runoff (33.94 per cent). This was almost double of what her more rabid father Jean-Marie won in 2002, the last time a far-right candidate made it to the runoff.  

 She told her National Front supporters that the new divide in France was between “globalists and patriots”. She continued to criticise Macron as an establishment candidate.

 In a speech to jubilant supporters, Macron said: “Tonight you won, France won. Everyone told us it was impossible. But they don’t know France.” 

 The new President vowed to fight “the forces of division that undermine France”, media reports said.

 He tweeted earlier: “As of this evening and for the coming five years, I am going to serve with humility, with dedication, with determination, in your name.”

 Macron acknowledged the anger of many voters and pledged to protect the weakest members of the society.

 “I will work to renew the links between Europe and its citizens… I will fight with all my strength against the divisions that separate us.” 

 Macron, who will take office on May 14, is now looking to use his popularity to lead his fledgling party in legislative elections in over a month from now.

 He is expected to meet stiff resistance from Le Pen’s National Front and others.

 European Union leaders heaved a sigh of relief over Le Pen’s defeat. She had threatened a “Brexit” if she won.

 European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said: “Happy that the French chose a European future.”

 European Council President Donald Tusk congratulated the French people “for choosing Liberty, Equality and Fraternity over tyranny of fake news”.

 German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: “Macron’s win was a victory for a strong united Europe.”

 US President Donald Trump, who had earlier praised Le Pen, congratulated Macron for the “big win” and said he looked forward to working with him.

 Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also hailed Macron’s victory.

 Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had openly backed Le Pen, welcomed Macron’s victory. He urged Macron to bridge “deep rifts” and work together in the face of growing threats of terrorism and violent extremism.

 Macron’s triumph casts a shadow over British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit ambitions as the newly-elected President vowed to be “tough” on the UK earlier if it left the bloc. 

 Macron’s supporters admitted that he would face huge challenges, with a third of the electorate choosing Le Pen or abstaining or casting a blank ballot, the French and European media said.

 It was clear the traditional Left had voted for Macron — not because they loved him but because they feared chaos if Le Pen took charge.

(With Inputs from IANS)

PARIS : Centrist candidate Emmanuel Macron was declared victor after he won 20.7 million votes, firmly beating Marine Le Pen, who took about 10.6 million in the French Presidential elections’ crucial runoff on Sunday.
  According to the official results announced, Macron wins 66.06 per cent of total votes. Le Pen got 33.94 per cent of the votes, BBC quoted the French Interior Ministry as saying.    The turnout in this runoff was nearly 74 per cent — the lowest in almost 50 years.  French media reported that Macron supporters came out on the streets in celebration while Le Pen called him up to congratulate him.   Thanking his supporters, Macron tweeted: “Let us love France. As of this evening and for the coming five years, I am going to serve with humility, with dedication, with determination, in your name.”  Earlier in the day, projections after the polls closed at 8 p.m. (Paris time) showed political novice Macron, who at 39 will be the youngest French President, had secured over 65 per cent of the vote, against his right-wing opponent, Marie Le Pen of the National Front, said the BBC.  “It’s a great honour and a great responsibility. I want to thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart,” he had said.   He also acknowledged the anger of many voters and vowed to protect the weakest members of society  “I will work to renew the links between Europe and its citizens. My duty is to alleviate fears and rekindle optimism. I will fight with all my strength against the divisions that separate us,” he said.   Twice in his speech, the president-elect acknowledged the risks France was facing by climate change and ecological dangers.   Le Pen called him up to congratulate him. She told her supporters at her campaign headquarters that the new divide in France is between “globalists and patriots”.

(With Inputs from IANS)

Blame it on the soaring mercury or power going to their heads, the saffron brigade in Uttar Pradesh is cutting loose, much to the chagrin of the bureaucracy that is facing the heat of their misconduct.

And so, while it was initially dismissed as the handiwork of fringe elements and overzealous party workers by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the situation now is precarious with many of its lawmakers and ministers involved in such public incidents of high-handedness.
On Sunday, veteran Gorakhpur legislator Radha Mohan Das Agarwal, who is also a confidant of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, not only took on a woman police officer but publicly humiliated her, so much so that the woman in uniform broke down and was seen in TV footage wiping her tears. 
Charu Nigam, the Indian Police Service (IPS) officer at the receiving end, tried to explain her position in an altercation over a protest against a liquor shop, but Agarwal asked her to shut up and not make him lose his cool.
Not long ago, Raghav Lakhanpal, the young Lok Sabha MP from Saharanpur, led a mob involved in a violent attack on the official residence of the then district SSP Luv Kumar. Angered by the police not giving permission for a procession planned on the anniversary of Dalit icon B.R. Ambedkar, angry BJP workers had stormed Kumar’s high-security house and vandalised it.
While an FIR related to the violence during the procession does name the BJP MP, the honest and upright police officer was shifted to Noida. When a hue and cry followed the transfer, an official spokesman of the state government said this was a “promotion and not a punishment since he was given a better district”! Better in what terms, only the BJP would know. 
This apart, a mob of young party workers had not long ago manhandled policemen at Kannauj, the parliamentary constituency of Dimple Yadav, wife of former Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
There have been other incidents as well where leaders of the ruling party have been caught on tape openly threatening police inspectors of dire consequences if they did not pay heed to matters raised by them. The police officers had secretly recorded the conversations and gave them to their superiors. In its defence, the BJP said its state leaders were only seeking justice for people, insisting that the tone and tenor of the conversation hardly mattered.
Last month, the brother of a senior cabinet minister openly humiliated a constable in Unnao, even telling him that he should mend his ways or else he would be disrobed in public. “Dalal kahin ka, purani sarkaar chali gayi hai, hosh mein rehna warna kapde utarwa doonga” (The old government has gone. Come to your senses or I’ll have you disrobed in public), he told a constable over the drowning of some youth in the Ganga river. 
Cow vigilantes are also active in villages and are allegedly hounding the Muslim community and threatening them with consequences if they stepped out of line.
Some time back, senior minister Satyadev Pachauri was caught on camera during an inspection making derogatory references to a disabled employee. When disabled people can’t work why are they recruited, he asked officials. 
To put this in perspective, some two years ago, in one his monthly radio chats, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had suggested that the word “divyaang” be used instead of ‘viklaang’ for the differently abled and yet Pachauri called the man a “loola langda” (dumb cripple), which is definitely a pejorative. He later apologised, saying he had been misinterpreted.
BJP workers seemingly are not paying heed to the repeated advisories from party leaders asking them to be “in control and humble”. Party President Amit Shah, during his address at the state executive earlier this month, warned workers and leaders against any adventurism and said they should learn to be humble and more responsible. 
Adityanath, too, has on at least two occasions, asked workers to be good in their conduct. On one occasion he, however, blamed some “unscrupulous elements” wearing saffron scarves of indulging in hooliganism and bringing disrepute to the BJP.
Whatever be the case, the “elixir of power”, and that too after a long exile of 14 years, seems to be too much for the BJP workers and leaders not to be tempted with. What is even more ironical is the fact that the BJP romped home to power by highlighting the lawlessness by Samajwadi Party (SP) workers and promising change.

A Class 11 student here has built a device that enables visually-impaired people to read by providing them a 3D aural environment using the concept of binaural beats. It’s got him a grant of Rs 20 lakh from NITI Aayog to take it forward.

The “EyeScribe” device, developed by Gursimran Singh of the Amity International School here, facilitates reading and comprehension by dictating the text and allowing the user to create a mental picture of the subject.

A binaural beat is an “auditory illusion” created when two different tones that are close to each other in frequency are presented dichotically — one through each ear. The listener then perceives the auditory illusion of a third tone — the binaural beat.

“The device has two main functions — it has a camera attached with spectacles that takes pictures of the text that they want to read,” Gursimran Singh.

“All the processing happens in a micro-processive platform called Raspberry pie. The image goes under an optical character recognition (OCR) software. Then, the text is extracted and converted into audio with the help of a text-to-speech (TTS) engine,” he said.

He explained that the device dictates the text and helps blind people do without braille. “If it is connected to your smart phone it can be translated into other languages,” he said.

Singh’s inspiration came from the struggles of his grandfather’s blind brother who is no more.

“I spent a lot of time with him when he was alive. I closely observed him struggling with the challenge. His troubles gave me a push to do something for the blind,” he said.

He claims that his device is better than others that blind people use.

“EyeScribe is a wearable technology. It is handy, unlike JAWS that is used by the government in blind schools. It is quite cumbersome as you need a computer to use that,” he said.

“My device can be connected with a smartphone and thus translates the text into different languages,” he added.

Another feature of EyeScribe is the use of OCR and TTS together. “The two softwares have never been used together before this,” he said.

It took him quite some time to build the device, after which he approached many blind schools for testing its design and performance. Many refused, fearing it to be hazardous.

“I then went on to work closely with psychiatrists and eye specialists for a week, who tested EyeScribe on their patients and validated it fit for usage,” Singh said.

Till date, Gursimran has helped approximately 150 visually-impaired people with his device. He continues to improvise it based on user feedback and is committed to expanding its market to help more and more people.

He has managed to get a grant-in-aid of Rs 20 lakh and a makerspace from the NITI Aayog to develop EyeScribe at a commercial level for distribution across the country.

What is Singh’s message to fellow youngsters?

“Our life is like a web page. The brain sends us pop-ups every day and we should never block them. It is our curiosity which navigates and opens a new tab in our life. Be curious, be humble and always try to make your life memorable for others as well as yourself.”

For his extraordinary efforts in the area of community service, he was feted at the seventh Annual Pramerica Spirit of Community awards.

Singh is now in Washington representing India at the Prudential Spirit of Community Award Global Ceremony.

He will be participating in be a series of events at places like The White House, The Smithsonian National Museum and The Andrew Mellon Auditorium.

(With Inputs from IANS)

NEW DELHI : Sacked Delhi Water Minister and AAP leader Kapil Mishra on Sunday claimed that he saw Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal accept Rs 2 crore in cash from Health Minister Satyendar Jain.

“Day before yesterday (Friday) I saw Jain handing over Rs 2 crore in cash to Kejriwal at his residence. I asked about the money but Kejriwal refused to answer,” Mishra told the media, a day after being sacked on Saturday.

Mishra said he has informed Lt Governor Anil Baijal about this and said he will provide details to investigating agencies.

“I asked Kejriwal to call all party leaders, ministers and members to explain about the money. I urged him to seek an apology. And now, I have been sacked,” said Mishra, and vowed to end corruption in the party.

He insisted he won’t quit the Aam Aadmi Party. “I will neither quit the party nor anyone can ask me to go.” 

(With Inputs from IANS)