NAGPUR: Slum-dwellers occupying land around Mumbai’s international airport will be rehabilitated in the same region, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis told the Legislative Assembly in Nagpur today.

Replying to a calling attention moved by Parag Alwani of BJP, Mr Fadnavis said the government has framed certain rules and regulations for “in situ rehabilitation”, and slum-dwellers will be resettled in the same area.

He said the Civil Aviation Minister A Gajpathi Raju had given “in principle” nod for rehabilitation.

The Chief Minister said the government was constructing houses to accommodate slum-dwellers.

“Until the houses are ready, they will be accommodated on a temporary basis. Those residing in Sahara and Vile-Parle localities (nearby the airport) have been served with notices which caused panic, and therefore they (slum-dwellers) should be accommodated in Chakala area,” Mr Fadnavis said.

The Chief Minister informed that Defence and Railway ministries have agreed to provide additional surplus land to state government for rehabilitation.

In a written statement, Mr Fadnavis said the Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) has signed an agreement to appoint Housing Development and Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) as developer for the rehabilitation project.

“Accordingly, 27,814 housing units are being constructed in seven places including Kurla, Mulund, Andheri-East and Mahul.

“About 18,000 housing units were ready and a meeting under the chairmanship of Chief Minister was held on March 30 this year. These housing units will be handed over to MMRDA,” the statement said.

It stated that a provision existed for rehabilitating slums for the vital public project as per the provisions of the Greater Mumbai Development Control rules.

“The MIAL and the MMRDA have agreed to rehabilitate the slums from the land of Mumbai international airport,” the statement said.

The Additional District Collector of Mumbai (Encroachment) was authorised to identify the eligible slum-dwellers for allotment from the restricted aeronautical area of the international airport, as per the statement.

Buenos Aires: At least 43 policemen were killed after the bus they were travelling in rammed through a bridge into a dried-up riverbed in Argentina on Monday, authorities said. The bus belonged to Argentina’s military police force, and was travelling between the towns of Santiago del Estero and San Salvador de Jujuy, according to Xinhua news agency. Early reports from emergency response teams in the Salta province said the bus was carrying 51 people and eight have been hospitalised, Gustavo Solis, mayor of Rosario de la Frontera, told the press that the stretch of road where the accident happened was notoriously bad. “The road is completely deteriorated. We try not to travel through the area at night,” he was quoted as saying. Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri sent his condolences to the families of the victims, and added that the thoughts of all Argentinean people were with them.

Dismissing rumours on social media, the Reserve Bank said all notes including those with scribbling will continue to be legal.

“As I understand, one of the topics trending on WhatsApp is the statement that at the end of the year notes with writing will not be accepted. This is absolutely false. Those notes continue to be a legal tender,”RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said in an audio message.

“RBI has had the policy in the past of disfigured note being withdrawn from circulation to be replaced by clean notes. That does not mean that they are not legal tender, they can be used everywhere, they can be accepted everywhere. There is no terminal date for acceptance, so please disregard those rumours, they are not correct,” he said.

RBI denied having issued a communication circulating on the social media alerting members of public that banks will not accept currency notes with scribbling on them from January 1, 2016.

All currency notes issued by it are legal tender and banks and members can freely and without fear accept them in exchange for good and services, RBI said in a statement.

RBI also stated that in pursuance of its clean note policy, it keeps requesting banks and members of public not to write on the currency notes it defaces them and reduces their life.

As a mark of tribute to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, on his 91st birthday, Indian Railways is all set to launch a train connecting his ancestral village Bateshwar to Agra district on December 25.

This will be a passenger train. However, any more details about the train, dates or frequency aren’t known yet.

The Additional Division Railway Manager, Sheelendra Pratap Singh, said that the new train is a gift from Indian Railways to the former prime minister.

According to the report, locals say, after Vajpayee was arrested in August 1942 for 23 days during the Quit India Moment, he never quite forgot the difficulty he had to face to reach his village. Since then, he always wanted to connect the city with the village by the way of a train.

(15 Dec) Two more alleged killers and a tempo driver were arrested on Tuesday in connection with the double murder of artist Hema Upadhyay and her lawyer Harish Bhambhani. One of the accused Shivkumar Rajbhar was arrested on Monday after he confessed to the crime and told the police that he and four others eliminated the duo in Mumbai after Hema defaulted on a payment for an idol made by his employer, Vidyadhar alias Vidya, a metal fabrication artist who is missing and is prime suspect. Primary forensic findings from investigations indicate that both suffered contusions on the body that could have led to their death. The autopsy findings are contrary to the previous assumption by investigating authorities that strangulation could be the cause of death. However, a final opinion on the precise cause of death “has been reserved” until results of the chemical analysis arrive. “There were injuries on their bodies. A blunt object was used to hit them,” said a source close to the investigation.

A contusion is a visible bruise on the body that may cause rupture of blood vessels. According to the findings, while Upadhyay (43) had a contusion on her face, Bhambhani (65) had contusions on his shoulder and chest. There were no strangulation marks, though Bhambhani’s body had duct tapes over his gagged mouth, as well as around his hands and legs. According to sources, Upadhyay’s face was found in a more “bloated condition” than Bhambhani’s. The bodies were retrieved from two cardboard boxes wrapped in plastic sheets and dumped in an open drain in Kandivali on Saturday. On Sunday, the bodies were sent for post-mortem at Bhagwati Hospital in Borivali. Viscera samples from the abdomen, intestine, liver and stomach and blood of both victims have been sent for further forensic examination, along with hair samples extracted from Bhambhani’s body.

(12 Dec) Madurai: Madras High Court today confirmed the order of Tamil Nadu Human Rights Commission directing a woman Sub Inspector to pay a compensation of Rs 15,000 to a employee of the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board for attacking her after illegally detaining her for four days. Justices V Ramasubramanian and N Kirubakaran said there was nothing to interfere with the order of the Human Rights Commission and directed the government to pay the compensation and deduct it from the salary of the Sub Inspector Shobana of Tallakulam Police Station here. The Employee Baaluthai, working as meter reader, was arrested in connection with the theft of a baby at the Government Rajaji Hospital here on April 27, 2003.

She was detained for four days at the police station and brutally attacked by Shobana. Following a complaint from Baaluthai, the Human Rights Commission directed the Government to pay Rs 15,0000 as compensation for illegally detaining and attacking her as per the guidelines of the Supreme Court. It also directed the government to deduct the compensation amount from Shobana’s salary on June 3, 2006. Shobana’s appeal against the Human Right Commission’s direction was dismissed by the division bench.

(12 Dec) Elaborate security arrangements are in place in this ancient temple town of Varanasi, which is all decked up to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe on Saturday. The two leaders are likely to arrive at around 4 pm at the Babatpur Airport on the outskirts of the city. They will be received at the airport, among others, by Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, Union Ministers Manoj Sinha and Kalraj Mishra. After a brief stop-over at a hotel, the Prime Ministers will drive straight to the fabled Dashashwamedh Ghat where they will watch the “Ganga Arti”, an exquisitely choreographed ritual performed daily on the banks of the river.

Thereafter, Modi and Abe will interact with dignitaries over dinner wherein invitees include, besides the Governor, the CM and the Union Ministers, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, renowned musician and Padma Bhushan awardee Pandit Channu Lal Mishra, author Neerja Madhav, Pandit Ashok Dwivedi of the Kashi Visvanath Temple Trust and a number of other prominent personalities from various walks of life. The Prime Ministers are expected to board their return flight to New Delhi at around 8 pm. Nearly 7,000 security personnel have been pressed into service for the high-profile visit lasting about four hours.

Security at the normally crowded Ghat has been taken over by the Army and the Navy while scuba divers of the National Disaster Response Force will be deployed around the make-shift stage which has been erected with the help of pontoons on the river bed. Personnel of the elite Special Protection Group (SPG) have been camping in the city since Tuesday. They are being assisted by the National Security Guard, Anti-Terrorist Squad, Central Para Military Forces and the state police. The entire 22-km-long route, from Babatpur airport to the Dashashwamedh Ghat, is dotted with posters, banners and banners of various designs, welcoming the two Prime Ministers. Some of these also carry messages in the Japanese script. Roads have been freshly macadamized while traffic restrictions have been in place since last night itself.

New Delhi, Dec 12 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said India requires high speed growth and not just high speed train. Addressing the India-Japan Business Leaders Forum here with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who arrived here on Friday on a three-day official visit, Modi said India is a land of possibilities with excellent human resources and a technological base. “Not just high speed train, India wants high speed growth,” he said. Modi said he feels proud to hear that there is “make in India movement going on in Japan also”.

More than 1,000 persons, including women and children, staged a demonstration here on Sunday to mark the 23{+r}{+d}anniversary of the demolition of ‘Babri Masjid’. While Muslims sought construction of a mosque, some Hindu outfits staged a demonstration urging the government to build a temple there.

Around 1,180 persons took part in a demonstration organised by Tamilnadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam (TMMK), near the South Taluk office. The demonstrators sought action against the political leaders, who demolished the mosque, and also reconstruction of a mosque at Ayodhya. Boys carried construction materials such as cement and bricks and raised slogans demanding construction of mosque.

At Gandhipuram, more than 1,200 persons took part in the demonstration organised by Hindu Munnani, seeking construction of a temple at Ayodhya.

Police arrested 1,140 of them and removed them from the place as the demonstration was organised after the police denied permission for the same.

Four organisations that had earlier planned to organise protests in this connection withdrew a day before the event as they wanted to extend a helping hand to people affected by the floods in Chennai, Cuddalore and nearby areas.

On Saturday, the India Thowheeth Jamaath (INTJ) issued a press statement that their effort to picket Coimbatore International Airport had been called off.

Police personnel said that 14 Muslim and Hindu outfits and political parties had sought police permission to organise demonstrations. A police official said that despite denial of permission to seven of them, some had announced that they would be going ahead with their decision.

Organisations that cancelled demonstrations on Sunday were Vivekanandha Makkal Iyakkam and INTJ which planned to picket the airport and Tamil Nadu Ramar Sena and Bharat Sena Hindu Makkal Munnani that separately planned to resort to rail blockade at Coimbatore Junction.

The organisations had claimed that their members were busy helping the flood victims. Police personnel were, however, deployed in large numbers.

CHENNAI: Life in flood-hit Chennai was slowly limping back to normalcy on Monday, with shops opening up and a massive clean up initiated in areas where the water levels have receded. If a calamity brings out the best in many, it also throws up unsavoury characteristics among a few, who were seen collecting electronic items out of flooded Saidapet area. Pooches may just be luckier than their two-legged owners, a boarding facility for dogs on the ECR organised a series of trips to Bengaluru to keep their house guests dry and well cared for. How lucky to be dry. How lucky to have water to drink, a toilet that flushed. How lucky to be parcelling food and not waiting for it. How lucky to be in my own clothes, and to have excess to give.