Jantar Mantar here today demanding One Rank One Pension (OROP) benefits and other privileges under the ex-servicemen category. “Our major demands to the government are the granting of OROP to paramilitary veterans like military personnel, exemption of serving troops from contributory pension scheme and extending full benefits to these forces under the ex-servicemen category,” said Ex-servicemen Welfare Association national general secretary P.S. Nair. “The association has already sent a memorandum to the government in this regard and failing to get any reply we have decided to begin the protest here,” he added. Nair said that they have been waiting for over a decade for implementation of their demands.The association claims to have the support of a maximum number of state chapters in this regard and has even met senior government leadership for the same.

(2 Nov) Gonda (UP): Rangilal, a Panchayat election candidate who died three days before polling day, has been elected as a member of Ksetra Panchayat after defeating his “alive” opponents in Dharmai village here. Rangilal who was one among the four candidates in fray for the Panchayat seat in Mujehna development block died three days before the October 13 polling, District Magistrate and Returning Officer Ajay Kumar Upadhaya said today. But since there is no provision of cancellation of voting in the event of death of a candidate in Panchayat elections, polling was held as per the schedule, Upadhaya said.

(28 Oct) The Central government is going very slow over deporting underworld don Chhota Rajan back to the country. In fact, the Centre is yet to make a decision on Rajan’s deportation and could delay the procedure for the time being. Mr K.P. Bakshi, additional chief secretary for home, also admitted that they have not received any official confirmation from the Centre about the arrest of the fugitive don so far. Meanwhile, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said his government would provide all the documental evidences to the Centre for making the deportation of Chhota Rajan possible.

The chief minister also emphasised on the arrest of Dawood Ibrahim, India’s most wanted fugitive don, after Rajan. Ending a 28-year-old global manhunt, one of the country’s most wanted gangsters Rajendra Sadashiv Nikalje alias Chhota Rajan was arrested in the Indonesian resort island of Bali on a tip-off from the Australian Federal Police on Monday. The Central government has said that Rajan would be deported to India soon. He had been hiding in Australia for over a year, and got in touch with Indian authorities four-five months ago. However, according to highly placed sources in the Maharashtra government, the Central government is going very slow on the issue of deporting Chhota Rajan. “The government and its agencies – Intelligence Bureau and Central Bureau of Investigation is yet to take a call whether to deport the underworld don immediately or not,” revealed a senior Mantralaya official. The sources added that the government could also delay the procedure for deporting Rajan for the time being as it might want to make a full-proof case against him.

“It seems that the objective of the government is not only to bring Rajan back for the sake of putting him behind the bars. They must want to make a strong case against him and thus are yet to start the process for his deportation,” the senior official said. Mr Bakshi admitted that the Maharashtra government has not received any official confirmation from the Centre on Rajan’s arrest. “As of now, we have not received any confirmation or information from the Centre over Rajan’s arrest. Once the directives are received, action will be taken accordingly,” he said. Earlier in the day, chief minister Fadnavis in Sangli said the Centre is after Dawood Ibrahim now. “Rajan has been arrested and Maharashtra government would provide all the documental evidences to the Centre as the red corner notice was basically issued by us. Now, the state government also wants Dawood to be arrested and the Centre is after him,” Mr Fadnavis said.

(28 Oct) New Delhi: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg today said his firm is working on an open framework and continues to ‘lobby’ for net neutrality even as its plan to provide free Internet access to people under Free Basics programme faces criticism. “We do a lot to support (net neutrality) in terms of regulations, we are working on building an open framework.” Zucerkerbg said, while speaking at Townhall at IIT- Delhi.

Buffalo meat was the most sought-after dish at Delhi’s Kerala House after it found its way back on the menu on Wednesday, a day after it was pulled off. “We have resumed selling buffalo meat in the canteen and most people are asking for the dish. It’s because of the news,” an official at Kerala House said. The state guest house was “raided” by Delhi Police on Monday after a leader of a fringe right-wing outfit Hindu Sena complained that beef was being served there. Later, it turned out that carabeef (buffalo meat) was being served in the Kerala House canteen. On Wednesday, the menu board at the canteen had the meat listed as ‘Meat Fry and Meat Curry (Buffalo)’.

FTII students who went on strike on June 12 against the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as its chairman returned to their classes on Wednesday but said protests against the BJP member will go on. The Film and Television Institute of India students said they will continue to protest in a “peaceful and democratic manner” against Chauhan, who they say is not fit to head the country’s premier film institute. Ranjit Nair, spokesperson for the Students Association, told IANS that the strike was over.

We have come to realize, after our long-stretched negotiations with the government, that the government is a bully,” a miffed Nair said. He said the students will now invite people from all over the country who face similar problems. “The strike will escalate now… It’s time to register our protest all over again and take it to different heights,” Nair said. He said filmmakers and academics should come forward and take the protests forward in Mumbai. The students held multiple By
meetings with officials of the information and broadcasting ministry but there was no end to the stalemate. The government refused to buckle over Chauhan, forcing the student community to blink. Chauhan congratulated the students for ending the strike, and told IANS over telephone that it was time for them to return to their classes. The decision to end the strike followed the government’s “incongruous approach” towards the students’ cause, said another student leader, Reema Kaur.

“The 139 days of strike have not only made us stronger but more aware of the state that we today live in,” said Kaur, a final year student of editing and a part of the core committee of the Students Association that spearheaded the strike. “We voiced ourselves loud and clear but it is the government’s adamant stand and incongruous approach towards our valid demands that has made us completely lose faith,” Kaur told IANS. “Looking at the ministry’s unrelenting approach and the amount of our valuable time spent, we have decided to end the strike and resume classes. “However, our voices will not shut, but grow louder. The protests shall continue democratically and in the peaceful manner as they have,” Kaur added.

As goes the tradition, Patna has been dominated by the BJP for the last ten years. Rajdeep Sardesai, Consulting Editor of the India Today group, took to the streets of Patna, talking to morning walkers at Sanjay Gandhi Zoological Park to understand what the middle class expects from their government. Sardesai met retired police officers in the park and asked them of their expectations from the ongoing assembly elections. “We will vote for ‘vikas’ (development),” said the retired police officers in unison. “But what does ‘development’ mean for Bihar?” asked Sardesai. While few said that development is synonymous with Narendra Modi, there were others who said they were happy with the present government headed by Nitish Kumar. However, one thing that all the retired police officers agreed on was,

“Bihar cannot develop with Lalu Prasad Yadav.” “I have worked in different parts of the country like Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai, and I have realised that Patna is the least developed capital in the entire country,” shouted a resident from the crowd. On being asked about whose idea of development they would go for, a woman who was present in the group said, “Narendra Modi has presented India well in the global market, but he has not done much for Bihar. So we don’t have an option but to go with Nitish Kumar.” Veteran politician Shivanand Tiwari, joined the crowd, “Bihar elections is not only about development. It is about caste and women security.” Women in Patna are in favour of Nitish Kumar as he has changed the law and order situation in the state. “Modi might have worked for our development, but I do not trust the team that is working with him. Women feel secured under Nitish Kumar’s government,” said another lady who had come for her morning walk. For all the details, watch the full episode here:

Gangster Chhota Rajan, who was arrested in Bali, Indonesia on Sunday, had pleaded the police officers to deport him to Zimbabwe claiming threat to his life in India. In an exclusive interaction with India Today, Bali CID officer Major Reinhard, who arrested Rajan at the airport, said the underworld don had pleaded him to be sent to Zimbabwe and not to India. “When we took him for interrogation, he first refused to accept that he was Chhota Rajan. He kept on flashing his passport which mentioned his name as Mohan Kumar. But, later confessed that he indeed is Chhota Rajan,” Major Reinhard said. “There is a threat to my life in India, please take me to Zimbabwe,” the CID official quoted Rajan as saying. Rajendra Nikalje, widely known as Chhota Rajan, has been on Interpol’s wanted list since 1995 for running a crime syndicate that engaged in extortion, arms smuggling and contract killing.

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director Anil Sinha had said on Monday that the Mumbai Police six months back with an intent to surrender. Intelligence agencies also believe that Chhota Rajan may lose his value with the passage of time and he may not have much to share on Dawood network. Rajan had been living in Sydney and maintaining a low profile in the last 2-3 years. Earlier on Tuesday, a high level meeting was held at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) t to discuss the process to bring back Rajan and future course of action. Officials from RAW, IB and Ministry of Home Ministry were present in the meeting but they refused to divulge any detail. Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director Anil Sinha had said on Monday that the agency is making arrangements to bring Rajan back from Bali.

“We tracked Chhota Rajan’s movements closely and informed the police in Indonesia and Australia. Eventually the Indonesian police managed to arrest him. We are making arrangments to bring him to India and pursue all criminal cases against him,” Sinha said. Rajan’s arrest has come at a time when the Modi government is stepping up diplomatic pressure on Pakistan to hand over his former partner and underworld boss, Dawood Ibrahim, suspected of militant links. Dawood masterminded India’s deadliest bombings, which killed at least 250 people and wounded more than 700 in Mumbai in 1993.
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Pakistani doctors treat patients at a hospital after an earthquake hit, in Peshawar, Pakistan on October 26, 2015. (Photo: AP) Rescuers on Tuesday rushed to deliver relief aid to victims of a massive earthquake that hit northern Afghanistan and Pakistan, killing at least 275 people over a wide swath of mostly mountainous terrain. Thousands spent the night outdoors in near-freezing temperatures reluctant to go back inside for fear of aftershocks, Pakistani media reported. “Rescue work is ongoing, and tents, blankets and sleeping mats are being provided,” Latif ur Rehman, a Pakistani disaster management official, told Reuters from the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Pakistan’s military and civilian authorities dispatched several helicopters to affected areas to assess damage and run rescue operations, the National Disaster Management Authority said. Landslides in mountainous northern Pakistan over the weekend caused by heavy rain and snow had already left thousands of touristsstranded. The earthquake struck almost exactly six months after Nepal suffered its worst quake on record on April 25. Including the toll from a major aftershock in May, 9,000 people lost their lives there and 900,000 homes were damaged or destroyed. Afghan boys receive treatment at a hospital after an earthquake hit, in Jalalabad province, east of Kabul, Afghanistan on Monday, October 26, 2015. (Photo: AP) In Afghanistan, where rescue and relief work is likely to be complicated by security threats created by an escalating Taliban insurgency, more than 50 people were reported dead in several provinces including Badakhshan, where hundreds were killed in mudslides last year. In pics: See extensive damage in Pakistan caused by 7.7 quake Hundreds of houses were destroyed, creating additional hardship with winter temperatures setting in.

The death toll could climb in coming days because communications were down in much of the rugged Hindu Kush mountain range where the quake was centred. In Pakistan, 228 people were confirmed dead. The initial magnitude 7.5 quake on Monday afternoon was followed by seven aftershocks, measuring as high as magnitude 4.8, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The latest aftershock came just before dawn on Tuesday. The United States and Iran were among countries that offered to provide humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, which already depends heavily on foreign aid after decades of war that have wrecked its economy and infrastructure. The quake was 213 km (132 miles) deep and centred 254 km (158 miles) northeast of Kabul. People stand outside their offices after a severe earthquake is felt in Lahore, Pakistan on Monday, October 26, 2015.(Photo: AP) Dr. John Ebel, chairman of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Boston College in the United States, said the depth of the earthquake had limited its severity and meant damage was likely to be spread broadly rather than focused in one disaster zone.

But he said landslides on the unstable slopes of the mountainous region could pose a major problem. “Obviously if a landslide comes into a village, it will take out buildings, but landslides can also take out roads and communications and power systems, so you lose the ability to access remote areas,” he said. In Washington, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the U.S. Agency for International Development was ready to provide emergency shelter and relief supply kits. Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, in London en route from an official visit to the U.S., said he would personally oversee the rescue efforts. “We will try our best to deal with this disaster using our own resources,” he said.

New Delhi, Oct 27 (IANS) All 54 countries, which have been invited, will be represented at the third India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS) that got underway here on Monday, a senior external affairs ministry official said. “This is a summit of 56 representatives – 54 (countries) from Africa, the African Union and our prime minister,” Syed Akbaruddin, additional secretary in the ministry and the chief coordinator of IFAS, told the media. “We are confident that every institution and country invited will be present when our prime minister will take the floor on October 29. This summit will be a gathering of every country in Africa, the African Union and India, which is unprecedented in the annals of any summit between Africa and any other country,” he said. Though he did not give the exact number of heads of government and state who will be coming, he said that even countries that had elections or where new governments have been formed will be represented at the highest level.