1. Nitish Says Nobody Has Capacity to Compete With Modi in 2019
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said on Monday that the re-election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019 was inevitable, less than a week after he patched up with the Bharatiya Janata Party to form a new coalition government in his state.
His comments represent a significant shift in how he views the Prime Minister, whose candidacy in 2013 was behind his decision to break a decades-long partnership with the saffron party.
“Nobody has the capacity nor is strong enough to take on PM Narendra Modi in the 2019 parliamentary elections,” Kumar said in his first media interaction since he parted ways with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress last week, a decision that many see as a significant blow to the Opposition’s unity.
Source: Hindustan Times
2. Chinese Army Entered Indian Territory, Threatened Shepherds in Uttarakhand
Chinese troops were sighted on the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) at Barahoti in Uttarakhand, officials said on Monday, against the backdrop of the nearly two-month-old standoff between the two sides in the Sikkim sector.
The latest incident came almost a year after People’s Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers were spotted on the Indian side in the same area of Chamoli district.
The Chinese troops intruded almost a kilometre into Indian territory and threatened some shepherds, PTI reported. The incident occurred last week and the Chinese troops went back after about two hours, sources said.
Chamoli’s superintendent of police Tripti Bhatt acknowledged that “something” had occurred at the border but did not go into details.
“I am not supposed to comment since it’s a matter of the strategic relationship between two nations. But there has been something (in Barahoti). Partially, it (the news report) is correct,” Bhatt told HT on phone.
Source: Hindustan Times
3. Govt Counters Oppn’s ‘Lynchistan’ Slur: Don’t Malign PM on State Subject
The government termed lynching an “unacceptable and worst form of crime” but accused the Opposition on Monday of politicising the topic to malign Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the country.
Winding up a six-hour debate in the Lok Sabha, junior Home Minister Kiren Rijiju said lynchings happened in the country irrespective of which party is in power and insisted that states are empowered to act against the culprits.
How is it possible for the central government to intervene in a state subject? Does the Opposition want the Prime Minister to take over the state administration and break the federal structure? He was the first to condemn such incidents.Kiren Rijiju
“We are working under the provisions of the Constitution. It is the responsibility of state governments to deal with such crimes and the Centre has issued clear advisory in this regard.”
Source: Hindustan Times
4. NSAs in Touch… Hope This Helps Both Pak, India Come to Table: Basit
The National Security Advisors of India and Pakistan have been in touch and have met, at least once in recent weeks, to explore ways to resume the dialogue process. Outgoing Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit, in an interview with The Indian Express, confirmed that NSAs Ajit Doval and Nasser Khan Janjua have been in touch.
I believe they are in touch with each other. I don’t know if they met. Let us hope this will help both countries to come to the negotiating table.Abdul Basit
Asked if the meeting took place in Moscow on 24 May on the margins of an international security conference, Basit said, “You may like to ask your NSA to confirm.” In the interview, his last before he leaves India after three-and-half years during which the roller-coaster relationship touched several highs and lows, Basit said the SAARC summit will be postponed to next year.
Source: Indian Express
5. Crew Diverted Heroin Ship to India to Get Back at Employer: Probe
A day after the Coast Guard seized 1,500 kg of heroin worth Rs 3,500 crore from a merchant ship off the Porbandar coast, preliminary investigations Monday indicated that the captain and crew diverted the Panama-registered vessel “to get back at their employer” and, in the process, “make quick money” since they were “unhappy with the reward they would have received to ship the consignment to Egypt”.
Captain Suprit Tiwari (27) of Hennry was said to have told interrogators – these included officers from different security agencies, Gujarat ATS and Porbandar police –that he “had an idea about the contraband but was not offered a good reward”. The case has been handed over to the Narcotics Control Bureau for a detailed probe.
On input from National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), the ship aroused suspicion because a vessel with its description was not expected to anchor at any of the ports in Gujarat. And the crew version that the ship was headed to Alang for breaking was also not true.
Source: Indian Express
6. In Big Growth Push, Delhi Metro to Have 45% More Trains From March
The Delhi Metro is on the verge of a major expansion with its Phase 3 project nearing completion. By next March, not only will the network expand from 218 km to 348 km, the number of trains will also go up by 45 percent, from 227 trains at present to 328.
Starting this October, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) will start commissioning in phases two of its upcoming corridors – Magenta Line (Janakpuri West-Botanical Garden) and Pink Line (Majlis Park-Shiv Vihar). Both lines are expected to be completely operational by March 2018.
Currently , DMRC runs 227 trains, including four, six and eight-coach rakes. With the completion of Phase 3, the number of trains will go up to 328. The number of coaches will also rise to 2,158 from 1,468.
While 504 of the 690 new coaches will be used for the Magenta and Pink Lines, the number of trains in the existing corridors will also be increased from 227 to 244 – most of them eight-coach ones – to tackle the ever-increasing passenger rush.
Source: Times of India
7. Red Faces in Govt After
Key Clause in Bill Falls for
Lack of Numbers
There were red faces in the government Monday after the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, realising that the treasury benches were short of numbers, forced a crucial clause to be dropped from a Constitution amendment Bill granting constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC). The Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill, 2017, was passed minus Clause 3 which dealt with the composition of the commission.
This means that the government will have to start the process afresh in Lok Sabha with a new Bill that need not include amendments pushed through by the Opposition in the Upper House.
In Rajya Sabha, Congress MPs Digvijaya Singh, BK Hariprasad and Husain Dalwai moved several amendments, including one for the inclusion of a woman member and a minority member in the Commission. The amendments needed to be passed with a simple majority, and it did with a 74-52 margin. But that is when the situation changed. The amendments had passed with a simple majority but for the clause amended to become part of the Bill, it needed a two-third majority since it was a Constitution amendment Bill.
Source: Indian Express
8. Fireworks to Lose Sparkle as Supreme Court Bars Use of 5 Chemicals
The Supreme Court has banned fireworks manufacturers from using five substances that stoke air and noise pollution, an order that is likely to mean firecrackers with subdued sound and light effects this Diwali. The substances barred are lithium, antimony, mercury, arsenic and lead.
Lithium is a metal used to impart red colour to fireworks, while antimony is used to create glitter effects.
Lead oxide provides a special crackling effect which, if inhaled in high concentration could cause damage to the nervous system.
A bench of Justice Madan B Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta on Monday banned the use of the substances in the manufacture of firecrackers after senior officers of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the Petroleum and Explosive Safety Organisation (PESO) briefed the court about their impact.
Source: Times of India
9. Mumbai Boy 1st Indian Victim of ‘Blue Whale' Dare? Cops Probe
The death of a 14-year-old student who apparently jumped off the terrace of the Andheri building in which he stayed has raised concerns over the popularity of a deadly online game called ‘The Blue Whale’.
Cops are probing messages circulating on social media that he was playing the game that is based on a 50-day dare. The player has to tackle each challenge – posted online daily – and post selfies on the private group. The last stage of the game is suicide.
Police sources said they learned about the suicide pact from Manpreet Singh Sahani’s friends’ WhatsApp group. While cops said they did not find any representation of a whale etched into his skin – normally part of the game – cyber police are scanning the Class IX student’s gadgets.
Last Saturday, Sahani had gone up to the sixth floor terrace of the building in Sher-e-Punjab society in Andheri (E) around 5:30 pm and clambered up the parapet of the side wall. Residents from other buildings shouted out warnings to be careful, but he jumped before they could do anything.
Source: Times of India
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