Amaravati (AP), Apr 16 : A state-wide bandh called by a people’s forum for granting special category status (SCS) to Andhra Pradesh is being observed today.
The ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP), though supporting the cause, decided to stay away from the agitation.
No untoward incidents, except burning of a motorbike in Tirupati, have been reported so far during the bandh called by the Andhra Pradesh Pratyeka Hoda Saadhana Samiti.
The strike has been supported by all opposition parties, including the YSR Congress (YSRC) and Congress.
Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, who reviewed the situation with top police officials, directed them to ensure that peace prevailed in the state.
Educational institutions remained shut and examinations scheduled for the day have been postponed in view of the stir.
State Road Transport Corporation buses remained confined to the depots as protesters staged sit-ins and ‘road roko’ at various places.
In Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh Pratyeka Hoda Saadhana Samiti president Chalasani Srinivas, CPI and CPI(M) state secretaries K Ramakrishna and P Madhu organised a ‘dharna’ at the PN bus station.
In Visakhapatnam, YSR Congress MP V Vijayasai Reddy led the protest.
YSRC president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy announced a day’s break to his ongoing ‘Padayatra’ (foot march) to monitor the bandh from his camp in Krishna district.
The police said unidentified miscreants set a bike on fire outside the bus terminus in Tirupati town.
The ruling Telugu Desam Party had withdrawn its ministers in the Union cabinet and walked out of the NDA after the BJP-led Centre denied special category status to Andhra Pradesh.
Tokyo, Apr 16 : China and Japan have resumed high-level economic talks after a hiatus of nearly eight years in a sign of improving ties in their often-frosty relationship.
The Japan-China High-Level Economic Dialogue was being held Monday in Tokyo for the first time since August 2010.
The Chinese side was led by Foreign Minister Wang Yi, the first visit by a Chinese foreign minister for bilateral talks since 2009.
Asia’s two largest economies have reason to cooperate in the face of President Donald Trump’s moves to impose tariffs on imports from their countries and his demands that they open their markets more to American exports.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is headed to the United States this week to meet Trump.
Dhaka, Apr 16 : Bangladesh today rejected a claim by Myanmar that the Buddhist-majority nation had repatriated the first five among some 700,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees who fled to the neighbouring country to escape military-led violence against the minority group.
A Myanmar government statement said on Saturday that five members of a family had returned to western Rakhine state from the border area. It said the family was staying temporarily with relatives in Maungdaw town, the administrative centre close to the border.
The statement said authorities determined whether they had lived in Myanmar and provided them with a national verification card. The card is a form of ID, but does not mean citizenship – something Rohingya have been denied in Myanmar, where they’ve faced persecution for decades.
The statement did not say whether any more repatriations were being planned. Bangladesh has given Myanmar a list of more than 8,000 refugees to begin the repatriations, but there have been delays due to a complicated verification process.
Bangladesh’s Home Minister, Asaduzzaman Khan, today said Myanmar’s claim that the family had been “repatriated” was false, noting that the family had never reached Bangladeshi territory.
Khan said Myanmar’s move was “nothing but a farce.” “I hope Myanmar will take all the Rohingya families back within the shortest possible time,” he said.
Bangladesh’s refugee, relief and repatriation commissioner, Abul Kalam, said the Rohingya family involved had never crossed the border.
“By no definition can this be called repatriation. No repatriation has taken place,” he said by phone from Cox’s Bazar. “Bangladesh is no way part of it.” Cox’s Bazar is a district in Bangladesh where camps have been set up to shelter the Rohingya.
Asif Munier, an independent refugee expert who had handled the Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh for years as part of the United Nations, said Myanmar’s claim was a public relations stunt.
“They are doing it again and again,” he said. “Bangladesh’s government and the international community must ask Myanmar for an explanation for this move. While there is a bilateral process going on and international agencies are involved, such a move by Myanmar is again very unfortunate and unexpected.”
Myanmar’s security forces have been accused of rape, killing, torture and the burning of the homes of Rohingya villagers after insurgents attacked about 30 police outposts on August 25.
The United Nations and the United States have described the army crackdown as “ethnic cleansing.” About 700,000 Rohingya Muslims flooded into neighbouring Bangladesh to escape the violence.
Bangladesh and Myanmar agreed in December to begin repatriating them in January, but there were concerns among aid workers and Rohingya that they would be forced to return and face unsafe conditions in Myanmar.
On Friday, the UN refugee agency and Bangladesh finalised a memorandum of understanding that said the repatriation process must be “safe, voluntary and dignified … in line with international standards.”
UNHCR said it “considers that conditions in Myanmar are not yet conducive for returns to be safe, dignified, and sustainable. The responsibility for creating such conditions remains with the Myanmar authorities, and these must go beyond the preparation of physical infrastructure to facilitate logistical arrangements.”
Rohingya Muslims have long been treated as outsiders in Myanmar, even though their families have lived in the country for generations. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982, effectively rendering them stateless. They are denied freedom of movement and other basic rights.
Beijing, April 15: China opposed the joint attack by the US, France and the UK on Syria, saying any action bypassing the UN charter violates the principles of international law and the basic norms governing international relations.
The US ordered the launch of air strikes on Syria in retaliation to the alleged chemical attacks by President Bashar al-Assad.
US President Donald Trump claimed that the joint action was meant to establish a “strong deterrent” against the production, spread, and use of chemical weapons.
Trump said he has ordered “precision strikes” against Syria, where dozens of people were killed last weekend in a suspected toxic gas attack on Douma, the largest town in a former rebel stronghold outside Damascus.
Calling for the relevant parties to return to the framework of international law and resolve the Syria issue through dialogue and negotiation, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Beijing is opposed the use of force.
China opposed the use of force in international relations and called for respect for other countries’ sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity,” she said in response to media queries, seeking Beijing reaction to the air strikes.
“Any unilateral military action bypassing the Security Council runs contrary to the purpose and principles of the United Nations (UN) Charter and violates the principles of international law and the basic norms governing international relations, and will further complicate the Syrian issue,” Hua said.
Hua said China believes a comprehensive, impartial and objective investigation should be carried out to reach a reliable conclusion that could stand the test of time.
“Yet before that, a prejudgment should not be made,” she added.
China believes that political settlement is the only viable way out for the Syrian issue. Relevant parties of the international community should continue to support the role of the UN as the main channel for mediation and make relentless efforts to facilitate the final settlement of the Syrian issue.
When asked about the current situation of Chinese citizens in Syria, Hua said the Chinese government took their safety very seriously and the Chinese Embassy in Syria had maintained close communication with them. They are all safe so far, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Gurgaon, Apr 15: Former Himachal Pradesh governor V S Kokje was today elected the VHP’s international president for which voting was held for the first time in over five decades.
Kokje got 131 votes and defeated incumbent Raghava Reddy who mustered 60 votes. 192 delegates of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad were eligible to vote in today’s election in Gurgaon.
Former working president Pravin Togadia, who batted for Redyy, however, alleged irregularities in the exercise.
The election was necessitated after the organisation’s members failed to reach a consensus on a new international president.
Kokje proposed names for the new central executive team, which were approved the Board of Trustees, according to a VHP statement.
Alok Kumar has been made the VHP working president and Ashok Rao Chowgule the working president (external).
Milind Parande is the new secretary general and Vinayak Rao Deshpande organizational general secretary.
Champat Rai will be the vice-president and Venkata Koteswara Rao the joint general secretary.
After the election, Togadia said they would continue to be the voice of Hindus.
He stressed the need to work together for building a Ram Temple at Ayodhya, getting a law enacted to ban cow slaughter and abrogating Article 370 and 35A.
Article 370 gives autonomous status to Jammu and Kashmir and Article 35A empowers its legislature to define the state’s “permanent residents”, their special rights and privileges.
Togadia alleged that there was an attempt to rig the elections.
It was “shocking and saddening” to see that the VHP has been made to bow before power “not for Hindu well being but for individual whims and fancies of some powermongers”, he said in a statement.
“Hindus all over can clearly see through the dirty political designs in cracking the grand VHP,” he said.
Hyderabad, Apr 14 : All India Bank Employees’ Association (AIBEA) has demanded the Union Government to Nationalise the ICICI Bank and Axis Bank as there are serious charges of corruption and nepotism in sanction of loans.
In a statement here on Saturday, AIBEA General Secretary Ch Venkatachalam said everyone is by now aware what is the reality about the so called champions of Private Sector Efficiency in ICICI Bank and Axis Bank. Both these Banks together have Deposits of the public to the tune of Rs 9 lakh crore.
We need to safeguard this public money. They ( government ) talk about better governance in private Banks. ICICI Bank was projected as a role model. What happened to that now. There are serious charges of corruption and nepotism in sanction of loans.
Mr Venkatachalam said, ‘There are repeated suppression of bad loans and under provisioning. All these unethical things are going on for a long time. Just changing the top Executives will not suffice’, he added.
It is high time that Government should come forward to Nationalise ICICI Bank and Axis Bank, the top Union leader said.
United Nations, Apr 14: Over 100 death sentences were handed out last year by courts in India which also expanded the scope of capital punishment by enacting new laws against hijacking, human rights watchdog Amnesty International said.
In ‘The Death Sentences and Executions 2017’ report released here yesterday, Amnesty said it has recorded at least 993 executions in 23 countries in 2017, down by four per cent from 2016 (1,032 executions) and 39 per cent from 2015 (when the organisation recorded 1,634 executions, the highest number since 1989).
At least 2,591 death sentences in 53 countries were recorded in 2017, a significant decrease from the record-high of 3,117 recorded in 2016.
These figures do not include the thousands of death sentences and executions that Amnesty International believes were imposed and implemented in China, where figures remain classified as a state secret.
In India, 109 death sentences were recorded in 2017. However, there were zero executions in the country last year.
Amnesty International recorded commutations or pardons of death sentences in 21 countries: India, Bangladesh, Cameroon, China, Egypt, Indonesia, Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mauritania, Morocco/Western Sahara, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tunisia, the UAE, the US and Zimbabwe.
“Against international standards, India, Singapore and Thailand expanded the scope of death penalty by adopting new laws that would impose death sentence for hijacking, nuclear terrorism and corruption, respectively,” it said.
In India, a total of 371 people were known to be under sentence of death at the end of 2017.
The report said that nine countries in the Asia-Pacific region carried out executions, down from 11 in 2016.
Indonesia and Taiwan did not implement any death sentences and India observed a hiatus on executions for the second year running.
The report added that a research by the Centre on the Death Penalty, National Law University, indicated that the courts in India imposed 109 new death sentences, including 51 for murder and 43 for murder involving sexual offences.
This represented a decrease in the total number of death sentences imposed (136 in 2016), as well as in those imposed for murder not involving other offences (87 in 2016). Two new death sentences were imposed for drug-related offences.
The Anti-Hijacking Act, 2016, which provided for the death penalty for hijacking resulting into death, came into force in July, the report said.
Amnesty recorded drug-related executions in four countries China (where figures are classified as a state secret), Iran, Saudi Arabia and Singapore.
The secrecy that shrouded capital punishment in Malaysia and Vietnam made it impossible to determine whether executions for drug crimes occurred.
Singapore hanged eight people in 2017 all for drug-related offences. There was a similar trend in Saudi Arabia, where drug-related beheadings rocketed from 16 per cent of total executions in 2016 to 40 per cent in 2017.
“Despite strides towards abolishing this abhorrent punishment, there are still a few leaders who would resort to death penalty as a ‘quick-fix’ rather than tackling problems at their roots with humane, effective and evidence-based policies. Strong leaders execute justice, not people,” Amnesty International’s Secretary General Salil Shetty said in the report.
He said the fact that countries continue to resort to death penalty for drug-related offences remains troubling.
“However, steps taken by Iran and Malaysia to amend their anti-drug laws go a long way towards showing that cracks are appearing, even in the minority of countries that still execute people,” Shetty added.
Lahore, Apr 13: Around 1,700 Sikh pilgrims from India today arrived in Pakistan to celebrate Baisakhi festival at Gurdwara Panja Sahib in Rawalpindi district.
The Sikhs, who arrived at Wagah railway station by special trains, were greeted by Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) Secretary Tariq Khan, Pakistan Gurdwara Parbandhik Committee president Sardar Tara Singh and other officials.
“Some 1,700 India Sikhs arrived here by special trains to attend festivities and Baisakhi Mela at Gurdwara Panja Sahib in Hasan Abdal in Rawalpindi (some 250 km from Lahore), said Amir Hashmi, a spokesman of ETPB that looks after the holy places of minorities in the country.
He said the main event will be held on April 14 in which a large number of local Sikh and Hindus will also participate.
During their 10-day stay, the Indian pilgrims will also visit their other holy places including Gurudwara Janamesthan Nankana Sahib and Dera Sahib in Lahore.
They will leave for India on April 21.
A visiting Sikh leader Sardar Gurmeet Singh said the yatrees always receive love from the people of Pakistan.
He said there should be peace and more people-to-people contact between the two countries. He also urged both governments for provision of hassle-free visa.
ETPB Secretary Tariq Khan said fool-proof security arrangements have been made for the Sikh pilgrims.
“Rangers and elite force police personnel are deployed for the Sikh pilgrims’ security, he said, adding that all other arrangements including accommodation, medical services, trained doctors, currency exchange and free food have been made.
New Delhi, Apr 12 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi is leading a nationwide `save democracy’ (Loktantra Bachao) fast on Thursday from 1000 hrs till 1700 hrs to protest against washout of the second part of the Budget session of Parliament owing to stalling of proceedings by Congress and other parties.
“To expose the Congress for its undemocratic style of functioning, and pursuing divisive politics and anti-development agenda, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will observe a day-long fast on April 12 while continuing his routine official work. He will be joined by BJP MPs who will also observe a day-long fast and hold ‘dharnas’ across India,” said a BJP statement.
Mr Modi will observe the fast but that would not stop him from continuing routine official work, including inaugurating 10th edition of Defence Expo in Chennai in Kancheepuram district that has been on edge due to protests over Cauvery water issue.
“The Prime Minister will also visit the Cancer Institute, Adyar in Chennai,” an official statement said on Wednesday.
BJP leaders all over the country, including Union Ministers and BJP chief Amit Shah in Karnataka, will join the Prime Minister in the symbolic fast from 1000 hrs till 1700 hrs.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani will fast in Amethi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh in Lucknow, Highways and Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari in Nagpur, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in Patna, Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi in Ranchi and Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan in Delhi. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will observe fast in New Delhi.
Union Minister of Human Resource Development Prakash Javadekar will be in Bengaluru. Union ministers Suresh Prabhu, Maneka Gandhi and Meenakshi Lekhi will be at Hanuman Mandir in Connaught Place in Delhi staging the protest and observing the fast.
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will observe the fast in Chennai while Union Minister Thawarchand Gehlot will be in Indore at the time of the protest. Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Vijay Goel will observe fast at Shastri Park in New Delhi.
“Frustrated of being out of power and seeing its popularity dipping to lowest level, the Congress in a planned way is conspiring to spread fear in the society and trying to create an atmosphere of confusion in the country. By inciting hatred and creating rift in the society, the Congress party is disturbing peace and harmony of the country. The entire Budget Session of Parliament which was meant for discussion on important issues related to common man was disrupted by the Congress,” the BJP statement said.
Hitting back, the Congress termed the fast as nothing but a “photo-opportunity” and “drama” and said, “This is not time for the PM to sit on fast, this is time for his retirement. If not now, then after 2019 they will have to retire.”
Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 11: Three southern states on Tuesday demanded reframing the Terms of Reference of the 15th Finance Commission for devolution of funds to states, alleging it was biased and in contradiction to principles of Federalism enshrined in the Constitution.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley rejected the charge of bias against the southern states, asserting there was no inherent bias or mandate in the ToRs which can be construed as discriminatory against the states which made good progress in population control.
Jaitley also said a “needless controversy” is sought to be created that the ToRs are loaded against any particular region of the country. “Nothing could be further from truth”, he said in a Facebook post.
In a first-of-its-kind initiative, the finance ministers of southern states that stare at the prospect of drastic cuts in Central transfers in the wake of the ToR met here to discuss the challenges ahead, alleging it was biased against some of the progressive states.
At the conclave, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh as well as the Congress-ruled union territory of Puducherry while opposing the ToR said it was in contradiction to the principles of Federalism enshrined in the Constitution and also would result in revenue loss to the performing states.
Among other things, they also strongly opposed the ToR recommendation to use the 2011 census to calculate population for allocation of union tax revenue in place of 1971 census, which was used by the previous Finance Commissions.
AIADMK-ruled Tamil Nadu and TRS-ruled Telangana opted out of the conference, hosted by Kerala to discuss issues of common concern with respect to the 15th Finance Commission.
Briefing reporters on the deliberations, Kerala Finance minister T M Thomas Isaac said a similar conference would be held at Visakhapatnam either in April end or May first week to finalise a memorandum seeking changes in the ToR.
“We will see that Tamil Nadu and Telangana along with more states like West Bengal, Orissa, Punjab and Delhi attend that conference,” Isaac said.
On the outcome of the meet, he said the states, which participated, came together on several issues.
The ministers were of the view that there was an attempt to reduce the Centre’s share to states through the 15th Finance Commission, he said. “If this is allowed to succeed, states would become a glorified muncipalities”.
Inaugurating the conclave, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the heated debates that followed appointment of the Commission was unprecedented because of the ‘conspicuous bias’ in-built in the ToR of the new commission.
It was widely feared that the ToR framed by the Central Government would prevent the Finance Commission from fulfilling its constitutional responsibility, he said.
“Therefore, it is only proper for all of us to appeal to the Union Government to reframe the terms of reference of the 15th Finance Commission,” Vijayan added.
Vijayan said introduction of GST in the country has resulted in erosion of fiscal autonomy of the states.
“We are all aware that the terms of reference of the 15th Finance Commission has created apprehension about principles of fairness and equity in the distribution of national resources for development,” the CPI-M veteran said.
Attacking the BJP-led NDA government, he said the ToR was unprecedented in asking the Commission to consider proposing performance-based incentives beyond those relating to fiscal responsibility, population and devolution to local bodies.
“This reflects the viewpoint and ideological inclinations of the Central government and are attempts to micro-manage the the fiscal domain of states’,” he said.
Backing the southern states, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram in a tweet said the ToR was “seriously flawed” and would adversely affect the better-performing states. Earlier, he had said the Centre has “lit a fire” and that it should be doused before the southern “flames scorch the federation”.
Andhra Pradesh Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu said the TDP-ruled state was against ToR “unilaterally” stipulated by the Centre without consulting the states demanded it be reframed after discussions.
Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy said the conference would be an “eye opener” for the union government.
The best performing states are punished and worst performing ones are rewarded, he said, and sought to know how developed states could carry out works if funds were not given to them.
He took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he talks about co-operative federalism at all meetings, ‘but what was actually happening is dictatorship”.
“We have to revolt against the Union Government for our rights”.
Representing Karnataka, Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda said his state fully supports the views of other states.
Karnataka was of the opinion that all progressive states, including perhaps all the southern states, have been ‘disincentivised’ by means of the ToR, he said.
Chennai, Apr 11 : Massive anti-IPL protests by pro-Tamil groups erupted here on Tuesday with scores of activists including film directors being detained even as police chased away agitators in some places.
One incident of protesters burning yellow jerseys, the attire of Chennai Super Kings players, was witnessed.
Pro-Tamil groups like Tamizhaga Vazhvurimai Katchi (TVK) and a newly launched forum of Tamil directors had given a boycott call of the popular Indian Premier League.
They alleged that the game was being organised to divert attention from the raging Cauvery protests across the state.
Hundreds of activists of outfits like TVK, Naam Tamizhar and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), besides some Muslim groups, staged road blockade at the arterial Anna Salai and TTK Salai, affecting traffic movement, police said.
The agitations especially affected vehicular traffic on the busy Anna Salai, resulting in traffic snarls.
Naam Tamizhar leader and film personality Seeman, film-maker Bharathirajaa and scores of activists were taken into custody by police, who had a tough time managing the surging number of protesters.
In some places, the agitators clashed with police, even as there were reports of police chasing them away.
Police had brought the M A Chidambaram stadium under tight security cover with 4000 police personnel guarding the venue, hosting its first IPL tie since May 2015.
Commandos and personnel of Rapid Action Force were among the security detail.
The threat of more protests prompted police to step up security for the cricketers, including during their journey to the stadium from their hotel.
The CSK team suffered a slight delay on its onward trip to the stadium for the match due to the disruption.
Some protesters at Anna Salao were seen raising slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not establishing the Cauvery Management Board, an issue on which Tamil Nadu political parties including DMK and other outfits have been agitating for the past one week.
Protests were also held at Triplicane, in the vicinity of the stadium, by some outfits including VCK but police foiled their bid to march towards the venue and detained them.
Earlier in the day, activists of TVK who tried to stage a demonstration outside the stadium were held.
Tamil Nadu has been witnessing protests for the past one week, urging the Centre to constitute the Cauvery Management Board (CMB).
Various political parties and outfits have demanded cancellation of IPL matches in Chennai, saying it was being held at a time when the state was witnessing widespread agitations on the vexed issue.
On February 16, the Supreme Court raised the 270 tmcft share of Cauvery water for Karnataka by 14.75 tmcft and compensated Tamil Nadu by allowing extraction of 10 tmcft groundwater from the river basin.
The court had granted six weeks to the Centre to formulate a scheme to ensure compliance of its 465-page judgement on the decades-old Cauvery dispute, modifying the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal award of 2007.
The six-week period ended on March 29.