Ananth Kumar challenges Rahul Gandhi for open debate on black money

Agencies
November 9, 2017

Hyderabad, Nov 9: Union minister Ananth Kumar on Wednesday challenged Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for an open debate on the issue of black money and alleged that scams worth Rs 12 lakh crore had taken place during the UPA rule.

"The Congress is synonymous with black money, corruption and scams," the Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister alleged while talking to reporters on Wednesday evening.

He alleged that scams like 2G spectrum auction, coal block allocation, and the chopper deal, among others, collectively worth Rs 12 lakh crore, had taken place during the 10-year rule of the UPA government between 2004 and 2014.

"Today, Rahul baba is touring Gujarat... He is seen only in Gujarat (campaigning) and there he is speaking about demonetisation and GST. I challenge Shri Rahul Gandhi to come for an open debate and open discussion on the issue of black money, on the issue of 10 years of scams and corruption of the UPA government," Kumar said.

"I will not say the UPA government led by Manmohan Singh... but it was led by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi because they were guiding and dictating it and indulged in scams of Rs 12 lakh crore which is all black money," the minister said.

Kumar, a BJP MP from Bengaluru, said that on 8 November last year the Modi government took a historic decision against black money in the country by way of demonetisation. "People who have lost black money are observing 'black day'," he said.

The minister said that around 1.5 lakh people deposited over Rs 4.92 lakh crore during the demonetisation, which is one-third of total cash/currency deposited. "How come such a small section amass such huge unaccounted money," he asked.

According to him, in the last one year (post-demonetisation) the stone pelting incidents in Kashmir came down to 639 from 2,683 reported during November 2015 to November 2016. Similarly, Left-wing extremism incidents decreased post-note ban and came down to 831 from 1,071 during the same period.

The Modi government has closed around 2.24 lakh shell companies in the last one year, which were having a huge number of bank accounts, he said, adding that 58,000 bank accounts belonging to 35,000 companies revealed that they deposited Rs 17,000 crore and also withdrew Rs 17,000 crore and now all of them are under the net.

"I want to ask Sonia, Rahul and P Chidambaram... why didn't he (Chidambaram) do in the 10 years of the UPA rule what Narendra bhai did in one year. Why didn't he close so many fake companies... why he did not reduce high demonetisation currency... why he did not take action against fake accounts... the questions are there. Because they wanted to hide those 12 lakh crore of scam and corruption," Kumar said.

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News Network
June 29,2020

New Delhi, Jun 29: A disturbing video of a Covid-19 patient, speaking his last words, after his oxygen supply was allegedly cut off, has surfaced on social media. The patient reportedly died after indicating that the oxygen supply to him was cut off despite his requests.

The video has a 35-year-old Covid-19 patient bidding good-bye to his family, from a government hospital bed in Hyderabad. The patient Ravi Kumar can be seen speaking out against the negligence of of the medical staff in providing ventilator support to him when he needed it the most.

The video has led to social media outrage as it attracted public attention towards plight of patients in government hospitals

"I am not able to breathe, I pleaded but they did not continue oxygen for the last three hours. I am not able to breathe anymore daddy, it's like my heart has stopped, Bye daddy. Bye to all, daddy," these were apparently the final words of the man, who spoke in his local dialect, and shared on social media.

Several reports have claimed that the man had been admitted to government Chest hospital, after several private hospitals refused to admit him. His ventilator support was allegedly taken off in the hospital, after which he recorded the video message.

The victim’s family shared the video message for the public to know of the negligence.

Reports have it that Ravi’s covid-19 report, which testes positive, was given to family a day after his death, when 30 of his family members performed the final rites, thus making all of them vulnerable to the virus. Ravi’s father has alleged that the test was done on June 24 and Ravi died on June 26, while the report was given to them on June 27.

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News Network
March 27,2020

New Delhi, Mar 27: The Delhi government has arranged to serve lunch and dinner to the needy in 325 schools in Delhi, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Friday amid reports of people going hungry without access to food during the ongoing nationwide lockdown.

From Saturday, arrangements will be put in place to feed about four lakh people daily at different centres across Delhi, he said addressing the media. "We have made arrangements to provide lunch and dinner in 325 schools. Around 500 people will be provided with food in all these schools. So far we were providing food to 20,000 people daily, the number will now increase to around 2,00,000 from today."

He also said that "from tomorrow, we'll be providing food to 4,00,000 people daily. We're distributing the centres across Delhi."

Stating that the total number of confirmed positive COVID-19 cases in Delhi is now 39, Kejriwal said "We are ready to face any challenge.".

"There are a total of 39 coronavirus positive cases in Delhi as of today, of which 29 cases are of those who had come from outside and were kept in quarantine and 10 of these were cases of local transmission," said Kejriwal at a press conference.

The Chief Minister said that a team of 5 doctors has been set up to look into the preparedness needed to deal with an increase in the number of positive cases for coronavirus in future.

He said, "The team of doctors under the chairmanship of Dr Shiv Kumar Sarin, the head of Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, presented a detailed report on March 26 on the preparedness needed to deal with a situation if the number of positive cases for coronavirus increases."

"The report has categorized three situations - if the number of positive cases increases to 100 per day, 500 per day and 1000 per day," he said while adding that the doctors have clearly stated what preparedness should be taken for each situation including the number of ventilators, isolation beds, doctors and nurses required.

He also cited concerns raised by chief ministers of several states including Jharkhand's Hemant Soren and West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee.

Kejriwal said "we consider all those living in Delhi as Delhiites and everyone will be taken care of."
The number of cases tested positive for coronavirus rose to 724 on Friday, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. 

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News Network
January 7,2020

Jan 7: Body of the senior Iranian military commander, Qasem Soleimani killed in a U.S. drone strike in Iraq last week, has arrived in his home town of Kerman in southeast Iran for burial, the official IRNA news agency said on Tuesday.

State TV broadcast live images of thousands of people in the streets of the town, many of them dressed in black, to mourn Soleimani's death.

Soleimani was widely seen as Iran’s second most powerful figure behind Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 80, who wept in grief along with hundreds of thousands of mourners who thronged the streets of Tehran for Soleimani’s funeral on Monday.

Khamenei led prayers at the funeral in the Iranian capital, pausing as his voice cracked with emotion. Soleimani, 62, was a national hero even to many who do not consider themselves supporters of Iran’s clerical rulers.

He was killed while leaving Baghdad airport last Friday. Mourners packed the streets, chanting: “Death to America!” - a show of national unity after anti-government protests in November in which many demonstrators were killed.

The crowd, which state media said numbered in the millions, recalled the masses gathered in 1989 for the funeral of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The killing of Soleimani has prompted fears around the world of a broader regional conflict, as well as calls in the U.S. Congress for legislation to keep President Donald Trump from going to war against Iran.

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