Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal during his recent visits to Goa refused to stay in the state guest house, and only a meagre Rs 500 was spent by the government in the trips, the Legislative Assembly was told August 1.
“The Chief Minister of Delhi was provided vehicles and accommodation at the state guest house. He was received and seen off at the airport. However, he did not avail the accommodation at the state guest house,” State Protocol Minister Dilip Parulekar told the House.
“The state government had presented a flower bouquet amounting to Rs 500 on his first visit,” the minister said.
The question about the expenses on Kejriwal’s visits was tabled by Goa Vikas Party MLA Fransisco Miccky Pacheco.
Delhi Chief Minister had visited Goa twice on May 22 and June 28, during which he addressed a public meeting and also interacted with cross section of society.
AAP has already announced that they will fight on all the 40 seats for the upcoming Goa polls due before March 2017.

In a sudden move ahead of Assembly polls, Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, who is in the midst of several challenges, today offered to resign, saying it was time for new leadership to take over since she is soon going to turn 75.

During Patel’s over two-year-old tenure, the BJP for the first time in the post-Narendra Modi era in Gujarat has faced multiple challenges including defeat in rural areas in the civic polls, a powerful agitation by Patel community for OBC quota and the ongoing Dalit unrest over the flogging incident after the skinning of a dead cow in Una.

BJP President Amit Shah said the party’s Parliamentary Board will decide on the replacement for Patel, who will turn 75 on November 21 and is the first woman chief minister of Gujarat. “She has requested the party to relieve her of her post. I will place the letter she has written to me before the Parliamentary Board and it will take a decision,” Shah told PTI in Delhi.

Patel took to Facebook to request the party leadership to relieve her of the post though speculation has been rife for quite some time that she is on the way out. Elections are due in later part of 2017.

An unwritten age bar of 75 has been set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the BJP leaders to hold positions in state and central governments. A minister in the BJP government since 1998, Patel succeeded Modi as Chief Minister on May 22, 2014.

“For the last some time there has been a tradition in the party that those who attain the age of 75, voluntarily retires from the post. I will attain the age of 75 in November,” Patel said in the Facebook post.

“Two months ago I had requested the party to relieve me from the post and today also through this letter, I request the party to relieve me of the post,” she said.

“I am asking the party to relieve me two months in advance as the new chief minister will require the time to work, when the state is going to face elections in 2017 and an important event like Vibrant Gujarat Summit to be held in January,” Patel said.

“It (the rule of 75) is a good thing and it will give a chance to young leaders to come up,” she added.PTI

Scotland Yard today warned that a terror attack in the UK is a case of “when” rather than “if” and the current threat level of “severe” in the country meant an attack was imminent.

“I feel and understand that fear, and as the police officer-in-charge of preventing such an attack I know you want me to reassure you. I am afraid I cannot do that entirely. Our threat level has been at ‘severe’ for two years. It remains there. It means an attack is highly likely – you could say it is a case of when, not if,” Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, the chief of Metropolitan Police said.

The warning by Britain’s top police chief came as ‘The Sunday Times’ quoted a senior intelligence source as saying that at least four active terror plots in Britain are being investigated by police and security services.

“There’s four or five cases where there is a sense of a plot, where they are planning and plotting and intending to commit an act of terrorism rather than just being extremists,” the source told the newspaper.

Last week Ben Wallace, the UK’s new security minister, held talks with retail bosses and operators of sporting venues to review security at stadiums and shopping centres.

“In light of events in Germany and France, the government is keen to ensure that shopping centres and sports stadiums where there are large crowds are getting the support they require,” said Wallace.

Another intelligence source said that Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists were increasingly going after “softer targets”, as well as seeking to recruit people with mental health problems.

“Unbalanced people, mentally ill people, people with particularly violent or anti-societal or sociopathic tendencies are being recruited as foot soldiers; and then that is playing itself out in the most innocent and unassuming targets, such as the street crowds on Bastille Day in Nice,” the source said.

A current review by the UK’s National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) is expected to redeploy firearms officers from rural areas of the UK to major cities deemed to be at greater threat of terrorism.

The review, which started in March when Theresa May was home secretary and is now being overseen by her successor Amber Rudd, is expected to report in October.PTI

Fifteen people were detained and the main accused identified, as police launched a massive manhunt for the bandits who brutally gangraped a woman and her teenager daughter after dragging them out of their car at Bulandshahr bypass on Delhi-Kanpur National Highway.

The incident which occurred on Friday night when the family from Noida was from travelling on NH-91 sparked outrage in the country with opposition parties today attacking the Akhilesh Yadav government, alleging that “goonda raj” was at its peak in Uttar Pradesh and governance had collapsed.

Facing flak, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav gave “24 hours time” to SSP Bulandshar to crack the case while directing disciplinary action against policemen of the area.

He also directed Principal Secretary, Home, Debashish Panda and DGP Javeed Ahmad to monitor the case, an official spokesman said, adding the CM has asked officials to initiate “stern action against the guilty so that no one could dare to do such an act in future”.

SSP Bulandshahr Vaibhav Krishna said that 15 Special Task Force teams have been pressed into action and were carrying out searches in Bulandshahr, Meerut and other districts and also states to nab the accused.

“15 suspects have been detained. Main accused has been identified. He belongs to nomadic tribe involved in criminal activities. Special teams have been formed to crack the case,” he said.

The suspects are being interrogated in connection with the incident that took place on Friday night when the family was travelling from Noida to Shahjahanpur by car. A group of bandits waylaid the family, dragged the woman her 13-year-old girl daughter to a nearby field and raped them while the men were tied with ropes.

They also looted cash, jewellery and mobile phones.

One of the family members, who later managed to escape, reported the matter to police.

SHO Ramsen of Kotwali Dehat was relieved from charge of the case and taken off active duty after police reported his negligence in the matter, the SSP said.

Taking cognisance of the case, the National Commission for Women said it has sent a member to meet the victims and officials in Uttar Pradesh but added that it finds little cooperation from the state administration in such cases.

BSP, BJP and Congress targeted the Samajwadi Party government in the poll-bound state and demanded that it step down.

Hitting out at the Akhilesh Yadav government, Union Minister Mahesh Sharma said, “When will this end? It shows that the state government has collapsed on every front. They cannot save the honour of a daughter. It is shameful and they should step down”.

BSP leader Sudhindra Bhadoria questioned the law and order situation in the state. “It is shameful that the UP government did not act fast enough to protect the dignity of women and common citizens.

“The complete lawlessness in UP proves the point that ‘goona raj’ under Akhilesh Yadav has reached its peak.

Mothers, daughters… nobody is safe in UP,” he said.PTI

Congress today attacked Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar over his jibe against actor Aamir Khan, accusing BJP and RSS of “concerted conspiracy” to hound Dalits, minorities, writers, actors and whoever dissents against the Narendra Modi government.

“Shameful that @manoharparrikar threatens ‘teaching a lesson’ to ‘actors’, instead of training his guns elsewhere,” Congress spokesperson Randeep S Surjewala said.

He said it was a “shocking revelation” by Parrikar and showed that BJP and RSS supporters actively disrupted and sabotaged an online trading company on Aamir Khan issue.

“Scandalous,” he tweeted questioning whether Parrikar’s job is to protect India from external aggressors like Pakistan or threaten fellow countrymen.

“@manoharparrikar’s statement proves a concerted conspiracy to curb all dissent, hound Dalits & Minorities. Can this be the ‘Raj Dharma’?,” he tweeted.

Later in a statement to the media, he alleged that Parrikar has “unknowingly” exposed the conspiracy through which BJP people targeted the online company, booked orders and cancelled in pursuance of a conspiracy to ensure that Aamir Khan was removed as its brand ambassador.

He said the incident “now established that there is a concerted conspiracy against poor, the dalits, the minorities, artists, actors and anybody who dissents against Modi government”.

Parrikar had reportedly yesterday said anyone speaking against the country must be “taught a lesson” and had referred to alleged anti-national sloganeering at JNU earlier this year and remarks by an “actor” who “had said that his wife wants to live out of India”.

Khan had late last year spoken about a “sense of insecurity” resulting from increasing intolerance in the country, and mentioned his wife Kiran Rao’s apprehensions about the future of their child in India.

According to Parrikar, when the actor made the statement last year, many people had protested against his remark and even uninstalled the mobile application of an online shopping site he was associated with, while the firm had also pulled out the advertisement featuring him.

As the lenders and tax authorities cool their heels for Vijay Mallya to return to India, they will put under hammer next month assets worth over Rs 700 crore of the embattled businessman’s long-defunct Kingfisher Airlines.

The items waiting for the right bidders are plenty — the erstwhile headquarters Kingfisher House near airport here; cars and office furniture; Mallya’s plush personal jet along with everything inside that include cushy couches and even a bathrobe; Kingfisher Villa in Goa famous for parties hosted by Mallya; and numerous brands and trademarks including the famed ‘Fly with Good Times’.

This would be the second try by the lenders and tax authorities at auction of these assets as part of their efforts to recover thousands of crores worth outstanding dues, after the earlier attempt for each of these properties proved to be a damp squib.

Mallya’s personal jet is being put under hammer by the service tax department, while other properties will be auctioned by the lenders whose dues from long-grounded Kingfisher Airlines have ballooned to over Rs 9,000 crore including penal interest.

For almost all the properties, the reserve price has been marked down after the earlier attempts failed to attract bidders.

The 17-bank consortium, led by the State Bank of India, is re-auctioning Kingfisher House in Mumbai and the airlines’ trademarks and brands, including the ‘Kingfisher’ logo.

On August 4, the lenders will re-auction Kingfisher House, the erstwhile headquarters of the airline, at a lower reserve price of Rs 135 crore. In the initial attempt in March to sell the property with a built-up area of over 17,000 sq ft in plush Vile Parle area near domestic airport here, not a single bidder came forward at the then reserve price of Rs 150 crore.

Banks have also put up some of the movable secured assets worth Rs 13.70 lakh lying at Kingfisher House for sale. These assets will be auctioned separately on August 25 by SBI Cap Trustee, which possesses these assets on behalf of the lenders.PTI