New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned Jharkhand IAS officer Chhavi Ranjan for questioning later this week in connection with a money laundering investigation linked to alleged illegal land sale, official sources said Monday.
The 2011-batch officer has been asked to depose on April 21 at the federal agency’s office in state capital Ranchi. He was questioned briefly by the agency last week when searches were carried out in this case at his premises and those of some others in Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal.
An assistant registrar of assurances of West Bengal government based in Kolkata has also been asked to depose on May 2, the sources said.
The agency had arrested a total of seven people, including a Jharkhand government officer, after these raids. The searches in this case were launched on April 14.
The action was taken under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and the agency is looking at more than a dozen land deals, including one pertaining to defence land, wherein a group including land mafia, middlemen and bureaucrats allegedly “connived” in forging land deeds and documents from as early as 1932.
Lands of the poor and the downtrodden were “usurped” as part of this fraud, ED sources had said. To launch its investigation under the PMLA, the federal agency took cognisance of a police FIR of forgery of some personal identification documents registered by the civic authorities concerned.
The agency, according to the sources, has recovered a number of fake seals, land deeds and registry documents during the searches.
This is the second case in which a Jharkhand-cadre IAS officer has come under the scanner of the ED. Last year, the ED had raided and arrested IAS officer Pooja Singhal in a money laundering case.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday declined to entertain a Kerala government plea challenging the state high court order asking it to translocate a rogue elephant to the Parambikulam tiger reserve in the state’s Palakkad district.
The Kerala government, earlier in the day, mentioned the plea for hearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud and it decided to hear the plea during the day.
During the hearing, the bench, also comprising Justices P.S. Narasimha and J.B. Pardiwala, observed that the high court had considered the view of the expert committee and passed a reasoned order. However, the state government pressed that the elephant should be sent to a training centre, since it had killed seven people and destroyed several homes.
The bench told the Kerala government counsel that experts have said that the elephant needs to be relocated, while declining to interfere with the high court order. It further added that the committee has suggested something and the state government cannot go over it.
The state government contended that one week was given by the high court to relocate the elephant to an alternative space, and if the state government fails, then it has to be shifted to Parambikulam. Counsel pressed that the government had decided to relocate the elephant to a training centre against the backdrop that the elephant had killed people and destroyed several homes.
After hearing arguments in the matter, the bench declined to entertain the appeal by the state government against the high court order.
The Kerala High Court, last week, declined to review its decision to translocate the rice-eating tusker to the Parambikulam tiger reserve.
On April 5, the high court had directed relocation of the elephant to the tiger reserve in accordance with the suggestion made by the expert committee.
Hyderabad: Cancer patients in Siddipet will soon have access to a chemotherapy facility at the local Government Hospital with the health department’s installation of equipment for a four-bed chemotherapy day care center.
Health minister T Harish Rao directed the health department to set up a facility in Siddipet. In the past, majority of patients had to travel to either the MNJ Cancer Hospital or the NIMS in Hyderabad for treatment, which required a lot of effort and money.
The health minister has taken this decision to ensure that the Cancer patients receive proper healthcare without having to put up with frequent long distance travel.
However, patients would have to go to NIMS or MNJ for first and second chemotherapy sessions. After the third session, they can avail the chemotherapy facilities at the Government Hospital.
According to Harish Rao, the treatment would be provided at no cost. In private hospitals, patients will need to spend between Rs 10,000 and Rs 20,000 for each session.
The bill “targets people for who they are and therefore is discriminatory,” the White House’s Office of Management and Budget wrote. “Politicians should not dictate a one-size-fits-all requirement that forces coaches to remove kids from their teams.”
The statement notes that local schools, coaches and athletic associations are already working on participation rules for transgender children. A national ban would disrupt that more nuanced process, it said.
The threats come ahead of House Republicans’ plan to bring the two proposals to the floor as early as this week in their latest bid to advance agenda items that force congressional Democrats into politically tough votes.
House Democrats had sought strongly worded veto threats from the administration, particularly when it came to the transgender sports bill, several Hill aides said.
Democrats are also trying to avoid a repeat of the confusion over Biden’s position on GOP-led bills that prompted many lawmakers to vote against an earlier policing reform rollback in February — only to see Biden decide to support the measure weeks later.
Pune: Amid intense speculation in Maharashtra’s political circles about his growing proximity with the ruling BJP, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar on Monday dismissed as false the reports that he has called a meeting of MLAs on Tuesday.
Ajit Pawar also said he had no scheduled events to attend on Monday amid reports that he had called off his engagements in Pune.
“I was present at MGM Hospital in Kharagar, Navi Mumbai, on Monday to offer condolences to the families of the deceased and to provide comfort to those affected by heat during the ‘Maharashtra Bhushan’ Award ceremony on Sunday. I had no scheduled events (to attend) on Monday as I am still in Mumbai,” the opposition leader said in a statement.
The NCP leader said he will be in Mumbai on Tuesday.
“I will be present at my office in Vidhan Bhavan for regular work. Reports are being circulated in a section of the media saying I have called a meeting of MLAs on Tuesday. These are completely false reports. I have not called any such meetings of MLAs or officials,” he said.
Speculation about Ajit Pawar’s next political move started swirling last week when he suddenly cancelled his scheduled meetings and also made comments which were seen as being soft on the BJP and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s camp. The BJP is part of the Shinde government.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Sunday added grist to the rumour mill claiming NCP chief Sharad Pawar recently told Uddhav Thackeray that his party will never join hands with the BJP even if anyone takes an individual decision to do so.
In a write-up in the Shiv Sena (UBT) mouthpiece Saamana, Raut had wondered whether Maharashtra politics will witness the “second season of defections”.
Earlier this month, Ajit Pawar, nephew of Sharad Pawar, had credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “charisma” for the BJP’s victory in 2014 and said inflation and jobs for youth were more important issues than the PM’s academic degrees.
When Maharashtra was under President’s rule after the results of the 2019 Assembly elections as Shiv Sena had severed ties with BJP and Opposition parties couldn’t forge alliances, Ajit Pawar secretly joined hands with Devendra Fadnavis of BJP and a government was formed with Fadnavis as the CM and Ajit as his deputy. However, that government lasted for just 80 hours as Ajit resigned.
After the Shiv Sena (undivided) joined hands with NCP and Congress to form the MVA government, Ajit took oath as deputy chief minister and handled the finance portfolio.
The bill was eventually paid, according to Somerset GOP Chair Tim Howes and former Sen. Christopher “Kip” Bateman, who said he interceded to get it done. But the episode shows just how far the party has fallen.
As recently as 2017, Republicans completely controlled the wealthy suburban county, where they had dominated for decades. The county produced Republican Gov. Christie Whitman and even the Republican gubernatorial nominee in 2021, Jack Ciattarelli. They also had one of the strongest fundraising operations in the state.
Now, Somerset County Republicans hold no county-wide offices and there isn’t a single Republican from Somerset County in the Legislature.
The party’s financial woes didn’t end with the steakhouse bill. They were months late on rent for their Somerville headquarters and, most alarming to Howes’ critics, the party hasn’t filed a legally-required campaign finance disclosure with the Election Law Enforcement Commission since January 2021, when it reported just shy of $12,000 in the bank.
The lack of disclosure risks major fines for the cash-strapped committee. And some party officials say there’s even less of an excuse for that under the leadership of Howes, an election attorney.
A group of Somerset Republicans including Bateman is now attempting to get Howes to resign and, failing that, to get a detailed accounting of the party’s finances. But Howes, who was easily reelected chair in 2022, plans to stay in office until his term is up in 2024, leaving his critics to see if there’s a way to force him out.
“My interest is just making the Republican Party relevant again in Somerset. It hasn’t been for a lot of reasons. You can’t blame the chairman for everything, but we haven’t won an election in years,” Bateman said in a phone interview with POLITICO.
On April 4, almost two dozen current and former party officials, as well as several former elected officials from the county — including Bateman and former Gov. Donald DiFrancesco — outlined their complaints in a letter to Howes calling for his immediate resignation.
“Your failure to comply with the mandatory legal requirements set forth by ELEC, as well as your utter lack of transparency and your denial surrounding this failure, are indisputable and indefensible,” reads the letter, which accuses Howes of “financial malfeasance and deception.”
The letter claims that the party’s fundraising has dropped to “historic lows,” that it’s six months behind in rent payments for its Somerville headquarters, and notes that all eight countywide Republican candidates during his tenure have lost “by record margins.”
“If you refuse [to resign], we will call a special meeting of the SCRO to remove you from office,” they wrote.
Years of decline beginning with Trump election
Howes, who took on the chairmanship in 2020, can’t be blamed for the drastic political shift in Somerset county. Republican losses there started before Howes took the reins, with the GOP going from holding every county-wide office in 2017 to none by 2021.
“I came in the sixth inning. I was the middle relief pitcher,” Howes said in a phone interview.
Howes said party officials had a “difference of opinion” with Char Steakhouse on how many people attended the holiday party and that “once we settled that, I dropped off the check.”
Howes also said that the party’s rent has since been paid and that he’s “working on perfecting” the overdue ELEC reports now that he has a new treasurer in place, but declined to say why the party has gone two years without filing them.
“As far as an explanation, I’m not there yet,” Howes said. “As far as what happened, we’ll get to that. At some point we’re going to hold a meeting so that everybody’s questions can be answered. I think the committee’s questions need to be answered before they read it on the internet.”
The effort to oust Howes was first reported by New Jersey Globe.
The Somerset County Republican Party’s downfall coincided with the presidency of Donald Trump, whose gains for Republicans in formerly competitive blue collar areas were offset by stunning losses in middle-class and wealthy suburban counties like Somerset, and whose continued presence on the political stage has allowed Democrats to cement their control.
“Can he just go away?” Bateman said. “He’s the gift that keeps on giving for Democrats, unfortunately.”
But Howes’ critics within the GOP don’t believe the party will be in position to stage a comeback under his leadership. The party’s former treasurer, Robert Damiano, resigned on March 30 over the filings with ELEC, according to a letter he sent to Howes.
“You and I have had conversations regarding the accuracy of the records that I need to file correct ELEC reports. Each time, I was told that I would get all the information that we needed. However, that never happened,” Damiano wrote.
Howes did not explicitly blame Damiano, but said “we got back control of our records from the former treasurer.”
“At this point, I took the steps within 24 hours of accepting his resignation of getting a new treasurer with a good reputation, very ethical, hard working and we’ve begun the process of going back to making sure everything was filed.”
Damiano declined to comment.
Howes isn’t up for reelection as chair until 2024, and he says there’s no mechanism to remove him. His critics acknowledge it’s not in the party bylaws, but believe that state laws provide a way to remove him.
Howes said that under his leadership Somerset County Republicans have gained 14 seats at the municipal level and noted that they have performed better in off-year elections, when federal candidates aren’t on the ballot.
“It’s not your mother’s Somerset County. In a D+10 county we still outperformed both by way of margin and by percentage the deficit,” Howes said. “I’m here to win county races. I didn’t come here to be the nice guy that runs good campaigns but we still don’t win. We came very close in 2021 — very close. We intend to win this year and we’ve been moving forward despite this distraction.”
Mysuru: Unfazed over the exit of disgruntled leaders who were denied tickets for the May 10 Assembly polls, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said on Monday that the BJP is a community and cadre-based party and it will win 130 seats to get absolute majority in the 224-member state Assembly.
Speaking to reporters at the Mysuru airport, Bommai said that a few leaders may have deserted the party but as the BJP is not an individual-based party like others, the defection of some leaders will not have any impact.
“The Congress did not have candidates for around 60 constituencies, so it announced nominees for just 150 constituencies and kept quiet without releasing the list for all the 224 seats. It is of no use to get leaders to defect from the strongholds of the BJP and give them Congress tickets,” Bommai said.
Reacting to former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar’s entry into the Congress fold, Bommai said that the senior leader is a very simple and good person, but unfortunately got into bad company.
“Social reformer Basavanna preached to people not to make friendship with bad people. But Shettar, who was in the company of good people, went to the bad people’s group,” Bommai said.
With the BJP pitching state minister V. Somanna from the Lingayat community against Congress strongman and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in the Varuna Assembly constituency, Bommai said the contest is intense but it is pro-BJP.
“A surprise result will come from this constituency due to political and social polarisation. For this reason, a senior and seasoned leader like Somanna has been fielded in this constituency. We have taken this seat seriously and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the poll campaign a day after the withdrawal of nomination papers,” Bommai said.
The Chief Minister also said that he doesn’t not know why the Congress has not announced a candidate for the Shiggaon Assembly constituency from where Bommai is contesting the polls.
“I have already filed my nomination and have full faith in the voters of ny constituency. My opponent is immaterial as the people’s mandate and support is very important. There is no dearth of it,” the Chief Minister said.
Shillong: India is one of the very few countries that have built end-to-end capability in space technologies, Union Minister of State for Space Jitendra Singh said on Monday.
Addressing the precursor event of the G20 Space Economy Leaders Meeting (SELM), Singh said India is an emerging space economy.
“India is one of the very few countries that have built end-to-end capability in space. Over the years, space technology has penetrated all walks of life. As a result, there is a huge demand for space-based services which have huge commercial potential,” he said.
He said the government has decided to open up the space sector for the private sector and help companies to enhance their participation in end-to-end space activities with the hand-holding of ISRO.
The increased private industry participation will eventually result in an increased contribution of India in the global space economy, he said.
G20 sherpa of India Amitabh Kant said the G20 countries should collaborate on three key areas — manufacturing in space, mining in space and energy in space.
“I suggest three key areas of collaboration — manufacturing in space, energy in space and mining in space. These will form the foundation on which the G20 will be able to build the civilisation of its shared vision,” he said.
“I am firm in my belief that we must start by developing and implementing new space applications for socio-economic development,” he said.
He also insisted that policies that create an enabling environment for development and trade in the new space era should be formulated by G20 to allow further collaboration among the member countries.
Speaking at the programme, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said the Indian Space Policy 2023 will allow more start-ups to enter the sector.
“With the government clearing the space policy, start-ups would be encouraged to enter the sector and make investments,” he told PTI on the sidelines of the event in Shillong.
“India has a huge resource of entrepreneurs. I am happy that the policy will allow youngsters to venture into this sector. On behalf of the state government, we will support them,” he added.
With all states of the Northeast hosting G20 events, Sangma said the region was contributing to the overall economic activity of the country.
He lauded the North Eastern Space Application Centre for assisting the state in forecast rainfalls, allowing it to prepare for floods.
Hyderabad: Osmania University (OU) students on Monday continued their campaign against the hike in PhD free by presenting a request letter to Telangana education minister Sabitha Indra Reddy.
Nelli Satya, a political science research scholar, told Siasat.com that the Minister had promised that she will speak to the OU vice-chancellor, Professor D Ravinder on Tuesday and resolve the issue.
OU students are up in arms against the varsity’s administration ever since it increased the fee for PhD courses by ten times on March 16.
VC Prof. D Ravinder, speaking to Siasat.com said in case the minister asks for an explanation regarding the fee hike, he will convey to her that it was a decision taken after thorough consideration by the Standing Committee that consisting of 12 Deans from OU.
In a notification issued by the Dean Faculties of various departments, the fee particulars for students who were allotted seats under Category – 2 PhD courses for the academic year 2022, in Social Sciences, Arts, Education, Commerce, Management, and Oriental Languages was set at Rs 20,000 and for Engineering, Science, Technology, and Pharmacy departments it presents at Rs 25,000.
A press release by OU student union members on March 21, said that the fee for PhD courses in Social Sciences and other departments was Rs 2000 until last year and for Engineering and other courses it was Rs 2500.
“There are many factors that led to this fee hike beside the fact that this is the first time the PhD course fee structure was revised since 2003. Even the fee for Post Graduate courses is at Rs 15,000,” said the OU vice-chancellor.
Prof D Ravinder further explained that the students can avail of the reimbursement of the fee. He claimed that the PhD coursework will be done according to the norms prescribed by the University Grants Commission which is expensive by itself.
“The decision regarding fee structure on PhD programme has a huge impact on students from marginalised sections, it deters them from pursuing higher education,” said a press release from the research students of OU.
In the request letter submitted to the minister, the students alleged that the university’s decision is not rational as when compared with the fee structure of various central and state universities, the OU fee hike is steep and comes without prior notice.
The letter also requests the minister to ensure that the students are allotted supervisors and a university fellowship.
Speaking about the allotment of supervisors, Nelli Satya said, “Research Scholars who joined under category 2, in 2022, have not been allotted to their respective supervisors yet. We were supposed to receive an order during our admission allotting us but when we asked the university administration, they informed us that this will be done after 6 months but did not tell us the reason for the delay”.
Sandeep Kumar, an OU research scholar, said that this delay in allotting supervisors is mostly due to the shortage of teaching faculty at the university. “Another blow to the students is the delay in the singing of the Telangana Universities Common Recruitment Board Bill, 2022 by the Governor. Since the bill has been reserved by the Governor for “consideration and assent of the President”, the recruitment of teaching faculty will be delayed even further”.
Prof D Ravinder said, “The allotment of supervisors was kept on hold to ensure that the PhD students get some time to be accustomed to the professors and finish their coursework. However, the Standing Committee has reconsidered this decision. We will be completing the allotment in a week”.
He further informed that the providence of a university fellowship is decided by the University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines. “After the completion of the UGC XII Plan (2012-2017), the commission does not hold the university obligation to provide non-NET fellowships to the students. I have personally requested the UGC chairman to reconsider this however, there is not much in the hands of the university”.
OU students have expressed that the campaign against the fee hike will continue and if there is no fee structure revision even after the minister intervenes, protests will ensue.
Rebuffed by President Joe Biden since February on that point, McCarthy and his team are now attempting to demonstrate their seriousness by drafting their own debt limit proposal — one that includes a half-dozen attempts to slash federal spending or loosen regulations in a bid to boost the economy.
“We are seeing in real time the effects of reckless government spending, record inflation and the hardship it causes,” McCarthy said inside the colonnaded walls of the New York Stock Exchange on a gloomy morning as a smattering of progressive protestors chanted out front. “Rising interest rates, supply chain shortages, instability in the banking system and uncertainty across the board.”
The speaker on Monday repeatedly blamed Biden and Democrats for driving higher inflation through excess spending, reiterating that any hike in the debt limit should be offset by significant spending cuts. He said Republicans would pass their own bill within weeks but offered no further details on which cuts his conference wants to see.
Some early drafts of those plans have been shared with GOP members in recent days, but party leaders stress that nothing is final until the entire conference can weigh in.
McCarthy vowed that in the next few weeks, “the House will vote on a bill to lift the debt ceiling into next year, save taxpayers trillions of dollars, make us less dependent on China, and curb high inflation — all without touching Social Security or Medicare.”
The bill is almost certain to include some of the GOP’s recently-passed energy priorities, including a new way to streamline the permitting process, as first reported by POLITICO.
Much of the discussion over what that bill will look like is expected to kick off this week, with Congress returning from a holiday recess to a sense of rising anxiety in both parties over the debt standoff. Even so, McCarthy sought to reassure the markets during his speech, saying defaulting on the nation’s existing debt “is not an option.”
“I have full confidence that if we limit our federal spending, if we save taxpayers money, if we grow the economy, we will end our dependence on China, we will curb inflation, and we will protect Medicare and Social Security so America will be stronger,” McCarthy said — repeatedly invoking former President Ronald Reagan, a favorite among many Wall Street traders.
The California Republican ripped Biden for doing “nothing” on the federal debt and annual deficits, saying that as a senator, Biden “voted for spending reforms attached to debt limit increases four times.”
Democrats have dismissed McCarthy’s initial proposal — which includes steep spending cuts, stricter work requirements for social programs and a new deregulatory push — as going nowhere in a divided government. They argue that Republicans should cleanly lift the borrowing limit and avoid risky negotiations with potentially dire consequences for the global economy.
“Speaker McCarthy continues to bumble our country towards a catastrophic default, which would cause the economy to crash, cause monumental job loss and drastically raise costs to the American people. He went all the way to Wall Street and gave us no more detail,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters after the speech.
Schumer said he would be willing to meet with McCarthy after the Republicans decide on a specific package of spending cute. He also stressed that while he would be willing to discuss future spending levels, he wouldn’t entertain tying that conversation to the debt limit.
“No more facts, no new information at all. I’ll be blunt. If Speaker McCarthy continues in this direction, we are headed to default,” Schumer said. And as for McCarthy’s push for a one-year debt ceiling increase — which would punt the issue until the heat of the 2024 campaign season — Schumer called it a “terrible idea.”
Wall Street traders and executives continue to believe that House Republicans and the White House will eventually cut a deal ahead of a deadline sometime this summer, avoiding a default. Republicans and Democrats clashed over the debt limit through much of former President Barack Obama’s tenure, including the first downgrade of U.S. debt by ratings agency Standard & Poor’s in 2011. (That crisis led to 10 years of spending austerity, known as budget caps, that only just ended.)
Still, the path to a deal remains unclear. McCarthy on Monday said that a “no-strings-attached debt limit increase cannot pass” — which happens to be exactly what Democrats have unwaveringly demanded.
But even a GOP-only measure may not be easy to pass in the House. Republicans can only lose four votes on the floor, meaning that virtually all of McCarthy’s conference must line up behind a package that stands no chance of becoming law in its current form.
Already, that opening offer on the debt limit is running into some potential political pitfalls — including an expiration date that would tee up another high-stakes fiscal fight just months before the 2024 presidential election.
McCarthy “again failed to clearly outline what House Republicans are proposing and will vote on, even as he referenced a vague, extreme MAGA wish list,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said, accusing the GOP of increasing costs for families and taking “food assistance and health care away from millions of Americans” with their emerging proposal.
“A speech isn’t a plan, but it did showcase House Republicans’ priorities,” Bates said.
Burgess Everett contributed to this report. Ferris reported from Washington.
[ad_2]
#McCarthy #seeks #reassure #Wall #Street #stalled #debt #talks
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
