LIVE! Won’t let PM sleep until all farms loans waived: Rahul

13:00  Won’t let PM sleep until all farms loans waived: Rahul :  Congress president Rahul Gandhi holds an impromptu press conference outside Parliament house. Flanked by Ghulam Nabi Azad and Jyotiraditya Scindia, the Congress president said he would keep the government awake till it gave loan waivers to farmers.

“We will not let PM Modi sleep till he waives off loans of farmers, all opposition parties will unitedly demand this. Till now PM has not waived off a single rupee of farmers.  “It took our state government hours to waive loans of farmers, oppn will force Narendra Modi govt to waive farm loans. Modi government waives loans of only rich people. Money of farmers and small shopkeepers is being stolen by government,” he said.

Rahul Gandhi assured India’s farmers that their welfare will be looked after. “People have been lied to, farmers & small traders are being looted. Demonetization is the biggest scam in the world.

“JPC, Rafale, farm loan waivers, demonetization, typo errors will soon emerge in everything. ON Sajjan Kumar’s conviction, Gandhi said, “I have made my position on the riots very clear, and I have said this before. This press conference is about the farmers of the country and that Mr Modi refuses to waive off even 1 rupee of loan.”

12:18  Rajya Sabha adjourned as well :  Rajya Sabha was adjourned till 2 pm on Tuesday as the AIADMK and DMK protested over Cauvery issue, while the Congress demanded that a privilege notice against the government be taken up for allegedly misleading Parliament and the Supreme Court on Rafale jet deal. Rajya Sabha proceedings have been disrupted for the last five days on issues like Rafale, dam on Cauvery river and demand of special status to Andhra Pradesh.

As the House assembled for the sixth day of the Winter Session, Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu informed the members that various notices on urgent matters, ranging from cyclones affecting lives in some states to price rise to agriculture crisis, have been admitted for discussion.

Naidu, who had adjourned the proceedings for the entire day on Monday amid uproar over Rafale, Cauvery and other issues, appealed to the members to let the House run its business. — PTI

12:13  Rafale dominates LS proceedings :  Lok Sabha proceedings were adjourned till noon on Tuesday following vociferous protests by various parties over Rafale deal, construction of a dam across Cauvery river and other issues.

As soon as the House met, members from the AIADMK, the TDP and the Congress trooped into the Well, with many of them displaying placards, and sought to raise various issues. The Congress raised the Rafale issue and some party members displayed placards demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the fighter jet deal. Many members from the BJP shouted slogans against the Congress and demanded an apology from Congress President Rahul Gandhi on the Rafale issue.

Some members stood in the aisle while others were at their seats. The AIADMK members were protesting against construction of a dam across Cauvery river while those from the TDP were demanding special status for Andhra Pradesh.

There were more than 30 members from the AIADMK, the TDP and the Congress in the Well during the Question Hour. Only one question related to production of garlic was taken up. Even as Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh was responding to supplementary questions, BJP members continued sloganeering on the Rafale issue.

Amid the ruckus, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourned the House till noon. Home Minister Rajnath Singh was present in the House.

11:44  C’garh govt to waive short-term agri loans, probe Naxal attack:  Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has said his government will waive short-term agricultural loans of farmers and hike the MSP for paddy to Rs 2,500, fulfilling promises made by the Congress ahead of the state Assembly polls.

The state government will also set up a Special Investigation Team to probe the “biggest Naxal attack in the country on political leaders” in Jhiram valley, he said.

Soon after taking oath, Baghel Monday evening chaired his maiden cabinet meeting at the new secretariat office in Atal Nagar (Naya Raipur) where the decisions were taken. The short-term crop loans to the tune of overRs 6,100 crore of more than 16.65 lakh farmers drawn from cooperative banks and Chhattisgarh Gramin Bank as on November 30, 2018, will be completely waived, Baghel told mediapersons at a press conference held late Monday evening at Samvad Bhawan.

He was accompanied by his two newly-inducted ministers – T S Singh Deo and Tamradhawaj Sahu – and Chief Secretary Ajay Singh. — PTI

Image: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel

11:40  Sajjan Kumar quits Congress:  
Congress leader Sajjan Kumar has written to party president Rahul Gandhi submitting his resignation from the primary membership of the party, sources in the party said on Tuesday.

On Monday, the Delhi High Court convicted Kumar for his role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and sentenced him to imprisonment for life. “I tender my resignation with immediate effect from the primary membership of the Indian National Congress in the wake of the judgement of the hon’be high court of Delhi against me,” he said in the letter to Gandhi. — PTI

11:36  Mentally challenged man crosses across LoC, family seeks govt’s help :   Family of a 33-year-old “mentally challenged” man, who crossed across LoC and reached Pakistan, has appealed to the governments of India and Pakistan to help him in getting his son back.

The man, who had gone missing on December 11, hails from a remote village of Poonch district.Speaking to ANI, father of the missing man, said, “My son is mentally ill and was under treatment. Our Sarpanch came to us informing that he has received a video which confirms that our son is in Pakistan. I urge both (India and Pakistan) governments to help us.”

The mother of the missing man said that her son had crossed the Line of Control (LoC) seven days back inadvertently and was later apprehended by Pakistani forces. “I appeal to the authorities of India and Pakistan to help us in getting my son back,” she said. — PTI

11:21  Mumbai hospital not fire compliant:  
The death toll in the blaze in a government hospital in Mumbai rose to eight Tuesday, while 176 injured people, including three firemen, are being treated in different hospitals across the city, an official said.

Milind Ogle, the deputy chief fire officer of the MIDC area, said the hospital doesn’t have the final no-objection certificate for fire compliance.

“The hospital applied for the final NOC a fortnight ago for its under-construction building adjacent to the old structure that caught fire,” he said. “When our team visited the hospital to inspect the conditions for fire compliance, it found certain shortcomings in the installations and it was communicated to the hospital administration,” Ogle said.

While reviewing fire compliance norms for the new building, the team also noticed some lacunae in the old hospital building, he said. “So we refused to issue the full and final fire NOC to the old building also,” he added. Hospital medical superintendent Dr Rakesh Sharma said everything happened suddenly.

The deceased include a six-month-old girl. Among those admitted, almost 25 are reported to be critical while 26 were discharged after primary treatment, said the official of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s  disaster management cell.

The 325-bed ESIC (Employees State Insurance Scheme) Kamgar Hospital at Marol in suburban Andheri was constructed in 1970s. Police and hospital authorities have vacated the building, he added.

While six people had died in the blaze on Monday, two more succumbed to their injuries later in different hospitals, the official said.

Nearly 375 people, including patients and visitors, were in the five-floor hospital during visiting hours when fire and smoke were reported on its fourth floor around 4.03 pm on Monday, according to a fire brigade official.

“The fire was extinguished at 7.35 pm, and hospital authorities shut down the facility till further notice,” he said. “Most of the deceased, including the six-month-old child, died due to suffocation,” he said.

Several women who recently delivered babies managed to save their newborns by rushing out of the building while wrapping the children in their arms, he said.

The building’s glass facade posed a hindrance as it blocked air passage and firemen had to break the glasses on all the floors to evacuate those stranded inside, he said. A hospital staffer received injuries on his arm when he jumped out of the building to save his life, he added. — PTI

10:56  Aircel-Maxis case: Protection from arrest to Chidambaram extended till Jan 11:  A Delhi court Tuesday extended till January 11 the protection granted to former Union minister P Chidambaram and his son from arrest in the Aircel-Maxis scam.

Special Judge OP Saini extended the relief granted to Chidambaram and his son Karti after the CBI and the ED submitted that new material has been recovered which needs to be collated. It also granted time till January 11 to the CBI to get sanction to prosecute some of people accused in the case.

The CBI had on November 26 told the court that Centre had granted sanction to prosecute P Chidambaram. The case relates to alleged irregularities in grant of FIPB approval in Aircel-Maxis deal. — PTI

10:52  Nashik farmer writes to PMO, dubs report of low quality onions “false”:  The farmer from Nashik, who had sent his onion sale earnings to the Prime Minister’s Office to highlight low returns, has alleged that the district authorities wrongly described his produce as of “low quality”.

Sanjay Sathe, from Niphad tehsil in Nashik district of Maharashtra, on Monday wrote a letter to the PMO in which he said the authorities prepared a report about his onion produce without any inquiry and that it was “false”.

Sathe had earlier sent Rs 1,064, his earnings from onion sale in the wholesale market, to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 29 as a protest.

However, a report later submitted to the Maharashtra government by the district deputy registrar office said the farmer’s onions were of “medium to low quality” and “blackish” in colour. Refuting the claim, Sathe, in his letter to the PMO, said, “I sold 750 kg onion and earned Rs 1,064. But without any inquiry, the state government officials in their report stated that my onions were blackish and of low quality. It is false and officials are misguiding you.” “I hope you will understand that if authorities can lie to you, what challenges a common man would be facing in government offices,” he said in the letter sent from the local post office.

Almost every onion grower was facing the same situation of low rates and the state’s “apathy” towards it, Sathe claimed, and requested the prime minister to find a solution to it.

Notably, authorities of the Lasalgaon Agriculture Produce Market Committee had said last week that the report submitted by the district deputy registrar office to the state government was “false”.

No official of the district deputy registrar office had met the APMC authorities in connection with the farmer’s case, they said. Nashik district in north Maharashtra accounts for about 50 per cent of onion production in India. The Lasalgaon APMC in Nashik is the country’s largest wholesale onion market. — PTI

10:32  Love jihad: Hadiya’s father joins BJP:  KM Ashokan, father of Hadiya, 26-year-old Kerala woman who converted to Islam and married a Muslim man in 2016, has joined the BJP. KM Asokan had approached Court alleging his daughter was a victim of ‘love jihad’.

The Supreme Court in March this year had restored the marriage of Hadiya, a Hindu woman who had converted to Islam and entered into wedlock with a Muslim man, setting aside a Kerala high court order, and ruling that no court can interfere in the marriage of two consulting adults.

Pulling up the Kerala high court for annulling Hadiya’s marriage to Shafin Jahan, the apex court observed that Article 226 gives the extraordinary power to high courts to protect the constitutional rights and not to scuttle them.

The high-profile case of alleged ‘love jihad’, a term used for Muslim men allegedly seducing and marrying Hindu women after making them convert to Islam, was being probed by anti-terror agency National Investigation Agency.

The court instructed the NIA to go ahead with its probe into alleged instances of love jihad without “touching the marriage”.

In Kochi, Hadiya’s father K M Asokan, who had claimed her daughter was “brainwashed” to convert, said he would consider moving a review petition in the Supreme Court against its judgement.He maintained that his daughter’s marriage with Shafin Jahan was an act of “adjustment” done by a group.

File pic: Hadiya and her father KM Asokan

10:15  Sensex drops 141 points in early trade :  Breaking its five-day winning streak, the benchmark BSE Sensex fell 141 points in early trade Tuesday, as banking, IT, realty and FMCG stocks retreated, tracking sell-off in global market.

The 30-share index dropped 140.51 points, or 0.40 per cent, to 36,129.56 points in opening trade. The gauge had rallied over 1,310 points in the previous five sessions. The NSE Nifty too fell 47.50 points, or 0.44 per cent, to 10,840.85. Among sectoral indices, IT fell the most 1.19 per cent, followed by tech 1.08 per cent, on account of appreciating domestic currency.

Meanwhile, FMCG, healthcare, banking and consumer durables also fell by up to 0.35 per cent as profit taking emerged on these counters. Brokers said, the decline in benchmark indices was on account of a weak trend in Asian markets amid sharp losses at the Wall Street, as investors continued to fear weakening global growth. Besides, profit-booking in recent gainers also dampened investor sentiment. — PTI

09:29  Imran Khan is Pak army’s ‘proxy’, best time for talks: Mehbooba:  

Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Monday said it was the “best time” for India to hold talks with Pakistan as the neighbouring country’s new Prime Minister Imran Khan is being touted as a “proxy” their army.

 

If initiated now, she said, the talks between the two neighbours at this time could prove “beneficial”.

“If Imran is a proxy of the Pak army then this is the best time to talk. When Imran Khan says he is ready to talk, to open corridors, then I think army is also on the same page…,” Mufti said at the ‘Agenda Aaj Tak’ event here.

She said the “best bargain” for India, vis-a-vis the Kashmir issue, was during the time when Pervez Musharraf was the President of Pakistan as during that time ceasefire was initiated at the border and the Muzaffarabad route was opened up.

“The talks could be beneficial now….why should we not talk?” she asked.

The Peoples Democratic Party leader also said her party will “join hands” with any political party that will support the “resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir issue.”

“If we can join hands with the BJP, we can do so with anyone for resolution of the J-K issue,” she said.

Mufti said her Peoples Democratic Party going with the BJP, during the last political regime in the state, was “suicidal” and that she was “disappointed” that this experiment to begin the political process in the state did not work.

Asked if she had any lessons to learn, Mufti replied in the negative.

“They (the BJP) didn’t teach me any lesson. I stood my ground…(in taking decisions). We experimented (through the PDP-BJP alliance) for the people of Kashmir but that did not work,” she said.

She said there was a huge difference between former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s regime and the current one under PM Narendra Modi.

“Vajpayee was spontaneous and down to earth…he never looked back or over his shoulder. He was a statesman. Today’s NDA is more focussed in winning elections,” Mufti said.

“God save! they have not given voting rights to cows,” she said in an apparent dig on the BJP. — PTI

08:57  4-feet hole appears on Gurgaon flyover on NH 8:  

A four-feet wide hole appeared at the Rampura flyover on National Highway 8 in Gurgaon on Monday.

 

The flyover between Kherki Daula toll plaza and IMT Manesar, was opened last year by the National Highway Authority of India to ease traffic congestion on the strect leading to Maneser.

“We have received information about a hole surfacing on the Rampura flyover around 5 am. Subsequently, road safety staffs rushed at the spot and blocked the road,” said Anil Kumar, road safety officer of NHAI. 

“The matter has been informed to higher authorities and repairing of the affected area will start soon,” he added.

As the hole appeared in the middle of the flyover, it affected traffic movement between Jaipur and Delhi.

“We have partially diverted traffic movement and are also using service lanes to provide some respite to the commuters,” Kumar said. — PTI  

08:38  Death toll in Mumbai hospital fire rises to 8:  

The death toll in Mumbai’s Andheri hospital fire incident has increased to eight.

A massive fire broke out at ESIC Kamgar hospital on Monday injuring more than 100 people.

Ten fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the blaze while a rescue van and 16 ambulances were also rushed to the spot for necessary assistance.

The injured were shifted to Cooper Hospital, P. Thakrey Hospital (Trauma), Holi Spirit Hospital and Seven Hills Hospital for treatment.

Taking note of the incident, Fire Officer of Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC), MV Ogale said that the hospital did not obtain a final No Objection Certificate (NOC).

“They (hospital authorities) have applied for the final NOC but compliances were not in line with the provisions of the act and hence they have not been given final NOC by us. Our building proposal department has also not given final occupation certificate,” Ogale told media on Monday.

The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained. — ANI

00:04  US shutdown: Empowered Democrats refuse funds for Trump wall:  

US President Donald Trump’s signature campaign pledge to build a wall along the US-Mexico border is at stake in a major budget battle this week.

A partial government shutdown is looming on Friday if Congress cannot agree funding for federal agencies.

Newly empowered Democrats are refusing White House demands for $5 billoin  towards constructing such a wall.

Trump said last week he would be “proud” to shut down his own government if he does not secure the funding.

The Republican president has been unable to loosen legislative purse strings for the project, even with his party controlling both the Senate and House of Representatives for nearly two years.

That challenge is only likely to get more difficult once Democrats formally regain control of the lower chamber of Congress from January.