07:45 Gujarat Deputy CM’s son barred from flight for being ‘heavily drunk’:
Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel’s son was stopped from boarding a Qatar Airways flight early on Monday after he arrived in a “heavily drunken” state and argued with the staff at the airport.
Jaiman Patel, who is in his mid-30s, along with his wife Jhalak and daughter Vaishvi were stopped from boarding the plane, which was scheduled to take-off at 4 am, official sources said.
Patel, who is a land dealer, reached the Ahmedabad International Airport in a drunken state, barely able to walk.
He cleared the immigration and other checks in a wheelchair due to his inebriated condition, said airport officials.
“Jaimin Patel was prevented from boarding the flight. He also had an argument with the staff of the airways,” an official said, requesting anonymity.
Meanwhile, Nitin Patel told reporters in Gandhinagar that this was a ploy to defame him. “My son, his wife and daughter were going for a vacation. He was not feeling well.”
00:23 Maoists trying to expand activities to newer areas: Home ministry:
The Maoists are trying to extend their “movement” to new areas and they stepped up their activities along the shared borders of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, a government dossier said.
The most deadly of the Naxalites’ formations — the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee, operating along the southern border flank of Chhattisgarh, is behind this move.
“In order to extend their movement to newer areas and deflect attention of the security forces away from the Dandakaranya region, the CPI-Maoist has stepped up activities at the tri-junction of Chhattisgarh-MP-Maharashtra.
“They plan to develop the area into a new zone for which a vistaar core commiteee has been formed,” it said.
“The DKSZC has reportedly sent around 60 People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army cadres to participate in political and organisational work,” the agenda paper placed by the Union home ministry during Monday’s meeting on Naxal issues with various states said.
It said, in a similar fashion, other inter-state boundaries like along West Bengal-Jharkhand, Odisha-Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh-Jharkhand have also seen activities of the CPI-Maoist for “consolidation and expansion”.
It said 2016 witnessed maximum Naxal violence incidents in the states of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh who together accounted for 68.5 per cent of the total incidents and 69 per cent of the deaths.
“Bihar followed by Odisha and Maharashtra accounted for 12.3 per cent, 8.2 per cent and 6.9 per cent of the incidents respectively. Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana together reported less than 4 per cent incidents,” it said.
Chhattisgarh, it said, despite being the “core area” for Maoist activities recorded a decrease of 15 per cent in incidents of violence in 2016.
“The year 2017 (upto April 15) has also seen an overall 23.3 per cent (377 to 289) decline in number of violent incidents so far as compared to the corresponding period of 2016,” it said.
Source: Rediff