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LIVE! Rapes are unfortunate, but can’t be prevented, says Union minister

12:12  Rapes are unfortunate, but can’t be prevented, says Union minister:  

Union Minister Santosh Gangwar said that rampant incidents of rape in the country are unfortunate, but sometimes they cannot be prevented.

“Such incidents (rape cases) are unfortunate, but sometimes cannot be prevented,” Gangwar told media.

Asserting that the Central government is actively taking action against such incidents, he said that hue and cry should not be created if one or two such incidents rake up in a big country like India.

The minister’s statement comes amid an outrage over Kathua and Unnao rape cases that have taken the country by a storm.

In the wake of these incidents, the Union Cabinet on Saturday approved the amendment in the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act putting a stamp on the death penalty for the rapists of children below 12 years of age. 

— ANI

12:04   BJP names star campaigners for May 12 Karnataka elections:  

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday released its list of 40 star campaigners for the May 12 polls in Karnataka.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief Amit Shah and the partys CM candidate BS Yeddyurappa will be accompanied by 14 Union ministers, for campaigning.

Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Nitin Gadkari, Nirmala Sitaraman, Piyush Goel and Smriti Irani will tour the state. Ministers Ananth Kumar, DV Sadananda Gowda, Ramesh Jigajinagi and Ananthkumar Hegde, all of whom are from Karnataka, will also be part of the campaign drive.

The party has also listed three chief ministers, Yogi Adityanath of UP, Madhya Pradeshs Shivaraj Singh Chauhan and Devendra Fadnavis of Maharashtra for canvassing.

It has also listed named film stars and party leaders Hema Malini, Tara Anuradha and Shruthi as its campaigners.

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11:50  Pippa Middleton is pregnant with her first child:  

Pippa Middleton is pregnant with her first child. The Duchess of Cambridges younger sister, 34, and financier husband James Matthews, 42, are said to be overjoyed.

They told close family and friends last week after her 12-week scan.

It comes at a difficult time for the family, after Jamess dad, David, 74, was accused of rape.

The Duchess of Cambridge could not have been more delighted on learning little sister Pippa was pregnant, a friend revealed.

Kate, only weeks away from giving birth to her third child, was the first person after Pippas husband, James Matthews, to hear the good news.

A friend said: When Pippa found out she was pregnant, she was obviously thrilled and utterly overjoyed.

Pippa was said to be eager to start a family after marrying financier James in May last year.

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11:36  CJI won’t recuse himself from administrative, judicial work:  

Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra is learned to have decided not to recuse himself from administrative and judicial work in the Supreme Court, feeling reassured by the support from a large number of senior advocates and lawyers who have rallied behind him against the removal motion of Congress-led opposition parties.

SC sources said that Justice Misra maintains that the removal motion against him, based on frivolous allegations, has been propped up for political considerations and to deter him from discharging his duties as the CJI. They also said that he is in no mood to oblige those who have engineered the dubious pretext to get him to quit.

With Congress-aligned lawyers, like former attorney general K Parasaran and his son Mohan, the former solicitor general, as well as senior advocate Mahalaxmi Pavani, daughter-in-law of the late P P Rao, backing him, the CJI, sources said, is feeling vindicated that he has done no wrong.

SC sources said the CJI is of the opinion that he would reconsider his stand if the Rajya Sabha chairman too fails to see through, what they called, the game being played by Congress, which is annoyed with the CJI for not giving in to belligerence by certain party-affiliated lawyers to coerce the court into accepting demands for a year-long adjournment of a sensitive case, and admits the motion. Till that time the CJI will continue with his administrative and judicial work, a source said.

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11:16  Rabri’s chance to become opposition leader in Council brightens:  

The victory of Rabri Devi along with two other RJD members and son of former CM Jitan Ram Manjhi in the biennial elections to the Bihar Legislative Council has brightened her chance of getting the status of Leader of Opposition in the upper house.

After announcement of results for 11 seats of Council on April 19, the RJD now has 9 members in the 75-member upper house.

Santosh Manjhi, son of former Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, also won the council poll with the help of Lalu Prasad’s party.

The strength of at least 10 members is required for according the status of the Leader of Opposition in the Council.

Her son Tejashwi Yadav is the Leader of Opposition in the state Legislative assembly after the Grand Alliance comprising JD-U, RJD and Congress disintegrated. Nitish Kumar joined hands with the BJP to form a new government in July last year while the RJD moved into the opposition bench.

Earlier for want of numbers, Rabri Devi, wife of RJD president Lalu Prasad, was denied the status of Leader of Opposition in the Council. At that time RJD had only seven

members including Rabri Devi.

RJD Bihar president Ramchandra Purve, who also became MLC after declaration of results on Thursday last, said the party would send a proposal to the Acting Chairman of the Council Haroon Rashid to accord opposition leader status to Rabri Devi.

    

When contacted, Rashid told PTI that he would deliberate on the issue when a proposal seeking opposition leader status came to him.

— PTI

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10:42  Prez signs ordinance to award death for rape of girls below 12 years:  

President Ram Nath Kovind has signed an ordinance to provide stringent punishment, including death penalty, for those convicted of rape of girls below 12 years.

Yesterday, The Union cabinet approved the ordinance amid a nation-wide outrage over cases of sexual assault and murder of minors in Kathua and Surat and the rape of a girl in Unnao.

New fast-track courts will be set up to deal with such cases and special forensic kits for rape cases will be given to all police stations and hospitals in the long term, according to the Criminal Law Amendment Ordinance cleared by a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

It stipulates stringent punishment for perpetrators of rape, particularly of girls below 16 and 12 years. 

Death sentence has been provided for rapists of girls under 12 years, officials said quoting the ordinance.

The minimum punishment in case of rape of women has been increased from rigorous imprisonment of seven years to 10 years, extendable to life imprisonment.

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10:14  UP: Minor girl raped at gunpoint by 3 men in Ghaziabad:  

A minor girl was allegedly raped by three men at gunpoint here, an official said on Saturday.

The incident took place on the intervening night of April 19 and 2o when the victim was sleeping in the courtyard of her house with her sister-in-law, said Assistant superintendent of police (circle officer Modinagar) Ravi Kumar.

After midnight, the trio barged into her house and took the girl to a secluded place. They stuffed a cloth in her mouth and raped her, he said.

An FIR was registered against the three accused — Amir, Adil and Ziaul — under Section 376 of the IPC and the POCSO Act.

He said the girl was also beaten up for resisting sexual assault. Later, they threw in front of her house. After reaching home, the girl narrated her ordeal to her sister-in-law.

Police are verifying the veracity of the complaint as the victim denied any medical checkup.

According to the officer, a case was registered six years ago against the victim’s brother for raping Amir’s sister on the pretext of marrying her.

The woman had later committed suicide, he said. An FIR was registered against the victim’s brother under Section 306, 376, 506 and 120B of the IPC, he said, adding that the case is under trial in the sessions court. — PTI

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09:29  Decision on rape ordinance taken in view of LS polls: Nirbhaya’s father:  

Nirbhaya’s father alleged on Saturday that the Union Cabinet’s approval to promulgate an ordinance to give the death penalty to those convicted of raping girls below 12 years has no “logic” and the decision was taken in view of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The man, whose daughter was raped and tortured by six people in a moving bus in a south Delhi neighbourhood on December 16, 2012, said there should be “no differentiation between the rape of minors and adults”.

“Rape is rape, be it of a minor or an adult. Why the ordinance has the provision for death penalty for those found guilty of raping children below 12 years only? All rapists should get life term or death penalty, irrespective of the age of victim,” he told PTI.

He also wondered how a juvenile accused will be dealt with under the new provision.

One of the six people who assaulted his daughter was a juvenile and according to the Juvenile Justice Act, no minor can be sentenced to death.

“Rapists don’t have fear in their minds, it’s the biggest reason such acts are committed,” he stressed.

He said to deter people from committing such crimes against women and children, all rapists should be given life term or the death sentence.

“I don’t see logic behind bringing this ordinance. This is just being done in view of the general elections in 2019. I have been battling over last six years to secure justice for my daughter and yet the culprits have not been hanged,” he said.

The Cabinet on Saturday approved an ordinance to provide stringent punishment, including the death penalty, for those convicted of rape of girls below 12 years. — PTI 

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09:23  I am not Modi critic, but will keep speaking my mind where I don’t agree: Uddhav:  

Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday said he was not a detractor of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but”will always speak up when he doesn’t approve of something.

“I am not a critic of Modi, but I will speak on the issues where I don’t agree (with Modi government’s decisions),” he said.

Sena, ally of the BJP in the Centre and in Maharashtra, continually takes swipe at the the prime minister and his party, especially through its mouthpiece Saamana.

Speaking at the release of a Marathi book, Gof, penned by Sena’s Rajya Sabha MP and Saamana executive editor Sanjay Raut in Mumbai, Thackeray said his father (late Bal Thackeray) had taught him to speak his mind.

RSS leader Sunil Deodhar, who is credited for the BJP’s victory in Tripura assembly elections, was present at the function.

“If we come together as Hindus, there will be no division of votes. But if”there are differences of opinion and views, then the question arises who is the real Hindu,” said Thackeray.

“You (Deodhar) have come back to Maharashtra after 28 years, if you hadn’t left, this state would have fared better,” the Sena chief said.

“You gave your sweat and blood to install a BJP chief minister in Tripura, but what should one do when he makes laughable comments,” Thackeray said, in apparent reference to Tripura chief minister Biplab Deb’s widely reported comment that `Internet existed during the Mahabharat era’. — PTI

08:56  ‘India’s GDP expected to reach USD 5 trillion by 2025’:  

With economic reforms adopted in the last few years starting to bear fruit, India is poised to remain the fastest growing large economy in the world, and its GDP is expected to reach USD 5 trillion by 2025, a top Indian official has told the World Bank.

“India is poised to remain as the fastest growing large economy in the world. In 2018, we expect India to grow at over 7.4 per cent,” Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg told the 97th meeting of the Development Committee of the World Bank in Washington on Saturday.

Giving an overview of the South Asian countries – Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka – Garg said India continued to be a beacon of growth in the region.

“In the last few years, India has undertaken massive structural reforms toward formalisation of the economy and fostering digital financial inclusion,” he said, adding that the country had grown at an average of 7.2 per cent per annum in the last four years and was continuing on the trajectory of sustained growth.

“India’s GDP is expected to reach a volume of USD 5 trillion by FY2025 by leveraging on digitisation, globalisation, favourable demographics and structural reforms,” Garg added.

Transformational reforms such as Goods and Services Tax, and initiatives such as Insolvency and Bankruptcy code, recapitalisation of banks, and unclogging of infrastructure investments will support such elevated growth, he told the World Bank.

In the absence of the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Garg is leading the Indian delegation for the annual Spring Meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

India, he said, has accorded top priority to addressing its infrastructure deficit to sustain economic growth. Steps have been taken to mobilise funds from various sources for development of infrastructure which includes, inter alia, launching of innovative financial vehicles, he added. — PTI

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08:26  Pak conspiring to break up India: Rajnath Singh:  

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday alleged that Pakistan was trying to “break up India” by helping terrorists sneak into the country, but the armed forces are giving it a befitting reply.

Addressing a gathering at Diu in the Union Territory of Daman and Diu, Singh said “all our neighbours are good, except one”.

“We want to maintain good relations with all our neighbours. Our sages said the whole world is one family….We accept our neighbours as friends. All neighbours are good except one which does not agree. You know which one,” he said, alluding to Pakistan.

“If (this neighbour is) not agreeing with us today, it will have to do so tomorrow. The entire international fraternity is putting pressure on it to leave the path of terrorism. It is helping terrorists sneak in to India, conspiring to break up India despite being a neighbour. It should look at its own weaknesses,” Singh said.

He lauded the armed forces for giving a “befitting reply” to terrorists.

“We told the Border Security Force in September 2014 itself that we should maintain good relations with neighbours, and also with Pakistan because it is our neighbour. I told the BSF and armed forces not to fire the first bullet, but when the other side fires, don’t count how many bullets you fire (in retaliation),” he said to a cheering crowd. — PTI

Source: Rediff