AAP asks Ravi Shankar Prasad to resign over ‘Reliance link’

December 19, 2014

New Delhi, Dec 19: The Aam Aadmi Party alleged impropriety and conflict of interest on the part of Union Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and former UPA minister Manish Tewari in connection with Reliance Industries.

Alleging that Prasad’s association with the corporate group prevented him from issuing a notice to Reliance Jio on the 4G issue, the party demanded the Union Minister’s resignation.rsprasad

Prasad and Tiwari refuted the allegations and called them baseless. “We have documents that show direct conflict of interest and impropriety in conduct of a current and a former cabinet minister,” senior AAP leader Yogendra Yadav said. The AAP had with them invoices worth Rs 84 lakh raised by Prasad on Fine Tech Corporation Private Limited, a company associated with the Reliance group, between April 2013 to March 2014.

Senior AAP leader Prashant Bhushan alleged that Prasad has been receiving payment from the company “in the form of retainership fee” which “appears to be a token of gratification being offered”.

The party also pointed out that before becoming a union minister, Prasad was a member of the Joint Parliamentary Committee from March 2011 onwards, examining matters relating to allocation and pricing of telecom licences and spectrum.

“Is the current Minister for Telecom (Ravi Shankar Prasad) not sitting over a notice that needs to be issued to Reliance Jio with respect to the 4G case? Why is the Minister for Telecom Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad sitting over this notice for the past three months and not allowing DoT’s Access Service Division to issue notice to Reliance?” the AAP asked in a statement.

According to a statement by Prasad’s office: “The allegation of the AAP is completely false and misleading… Mr Prasad has never given any advice or appeared for the Reliance Industries.”

The statement also said that before becoming a minister, Prasad had terminated all his professional relationships.

In the case of former telecom minister Manish Tewari, the AAP said that he was in a retainership agreement with the RIL even during his tenure as a union minister.

Alleging that Tewari’s retainership contract expired on June 30, 2012, he got the contract extended tell June 30, 2015. Pointing out that Tewari was also a member of JPC which probed the 2G telecom scam, Bhushan said, “Such former ministers speak in Parliament on issues of interest to these companies (Reliance group).”

According to Tewari’s office, he was sworn in as a minister on October 28, 2012 and took charge on the October 29 and on his request his licence to practice was suspended by the Bar Council the next day. “On the November 1, 2012, we wrote to Reliance Industries Ltd. terminating the Legal Relationship with immediate effect and Reliance Industries acknowledged the termination of the Legal Relationship vide letter dated November 3, 2012,” the statement read.

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Agencies
June 5,2020

Jodhpur, Jun 5: A video has gone viral on social media showing what could be called Jodhpur's George Floyd moment with a twist, showing cops throwing a person on the ground and pressing his neck with their knees for roaming around without a mask.

However, unlike the unfortunate incident in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the cops in Jodhpur reportedly acted after the person, said to be mentally challenged, turned violent after being confronted by the police.

Dumb TV media is playing the initial part of this video as 'India's George Flyod moment'. Doesn't matter to them that the same video shows the man beating the cops back badly pic.twitter.com/vGSaON6oii

— Swati Goel Sharma (@swati_gs) June 5, 2020

George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died after being arrested by the police outside a shop in Minneapolis in the US on May 25. Footage showed a white officer, Derek Chauvin, kneeling on Floyd's neck for several minutes while he was pinned to the floor. He was pronounced dead later in the hospital, triggering widespread protests across the US.

However, in the Jodhpur incident, the man, identifed as Mukesh Kumar Prajapat, did not die but instead started fighting with the policemen.

Jodhpur police officers confirmed that the video was shot in the city on Thursday after the police wanted to issue a challan against the man for roaming on the streets without wearing a mask before he started manhandling the police.

The video shows a cop pressing his neck with his knee while two other cops held the young man's legs. A huge crowd gathered when the scuffle broke out.

Meanwhile, the SHO of Dev Nagar police station, Somkaran, said that the police were issuing a challan to Prajapat when he attacked them and tore their uniform. An FIR has been lodged against Prajapat on a complaint lodged by the Pratap Nagar police station. He will be produced in the court later in the day.

Prajapat is said to be mentally challenged and had damaged his father's eye earlier for which a case was registered against him, the poice said. Action is being initiated against Prajapat under the Epidemic Act, they added.

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Agencies
March 15,2020

Financially troubled Yes Bank on Saturday reported a standalone net loss of ₹ 18,560.31 crore for the third quarter of the financial year 2019-20. This is amongst the biggest losses reported by the India Inc.

At present, the private lender is under a moratorium and is controlled by the office of the administrator appointed by the RBI.

The bank had reported a net profit of ₹1,001.85 crore during the corresponding period of the previous financial year.

Besides, the bank's total income fell to Rs 6,268.50 crore from Rs 8,849.81 crore earned during the October-December quarter of the previous fiscal.

On consolidated basis, Yes Bank reported a net loss of ₹18,564.24 crore for the December quarter from a net profit of Rs 1,000.57 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

The independent auditor's review report on the consolidated results pointed out that there is a "material uncertainty related to going concern" of the bank.

"The said assumption of going concern is dependent upon the degree of success of the final reconstruction scheme, the quantum of capital infused into the bank and the bank's ability to stabalise its deposit balances post withdrawal of the moratorium by the RBI. Our conclusion is not modified in respect of this matter," the auditor said.

Furthermore, the bank recognised additional loans of ₹ 5,150.2 crore as NPAs and related provisioning requirements of ₹772.5 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2019.

The bank has recognised an additional provisions of ₹15,422.0 crore in the quarter ended December 31, 2019.

Last week, the RBI placed Yes Bank under moratorium and capped the withdrawal limit at ₹50,000 till next Wednesday.

Additionally, the central bank also superseded Yes Bank's board of directors and appointed former SBI CFO Prashant Kumar as its administrator.

Meanwhile, Kumar has been appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer of the financially troubled lender. He will take over his new responsibilities once the moratorium on the stressed lender is lifted on Wednesday.

Apart from Kumar, Sunil Mehta, former non-executive Chairman of Punjab National Bank, will take over as the non-executive Chairman of Yes Bank.

Other board members include Mahesh Krishnamurthy and Atul Bheda, both as non-executive Directors.

Additionally, six private lenders have joined the SBI to rescue Yes Bank with Federal Bank committing ₹300 crore by subscribing to 30 crore shares of ₹2 each at a premium of ₹8 per equity share.

The six private lenders have now committed an investment of ₹3,700 crore in the cash-strapped private sector bank.

On Friday, ICICI Bank and Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) Ltd had announced that they will be investing ₹1,000 crore each in Yes Bank's equity. Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank will be investing ₹ 600 crore and ₹500 crore, respectively, while Bandhan Bank will invest ₹300 crore.

The SBI board has already approved up to 49 per cent stake purchase in Yes Bank, as per the RBI's reconstruction scheme for the lender. It had said on Thursday that an investment of ₹7,250 crore would be made in Yes Bank to pick up₹ 725 crore equity shares.

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News Network
January 13,2020

New Delhi, Jan 13: The Supreme Court on Monday commenced hearing on issues related to discrimination against women in various religions and at religious places including Kerala's Sabarimala Temple.

A nine-judge bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde said that it was not considering review pleas in the Sabarimala case.

“We are not hearing review pleas of Sabarimala case. We are considering issues referred to by a 5-judge bench earlier,” the bench said.

The apex court had on November 14 asked a larger bench to re-examine various religious issues, including the entry of women into the Sabarimala Temple and mosques and the practice of female genital mutilation in the Dawoodi Bohra community.

While the five-judge bench unanimously agreed to refer religious issues to a larger bench, it gave a 3:2 split decision on petitions seeking a review of the apex court's September 2018 decision allowing women of all ages to enter the Sabarimala shrine in Kerala.

A majority verdict by then Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices A M Khanwilkar and Indu Malhotra decided to keep pending pleas seeking a review of its decision regarding entry of women into the shrine, and said restrictions on women in religious places was not restricted to Sabarimala alone and was prevalent in other religions as well.

The minority verdict by Justices R F Nariman and D Y Chandrachud gave a dissenting view by dismissing all review pleas and directing compliance of its September 28 decision.

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