Arvind Kejriwal's principal secretary, four others arrested in graft case

July 4, 2016

New Delhi, July 4: The CBI on Monday arrested Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's Principal Secretary Rajendra Kumar and four others in connection with a case of showing undue favours to a private company in award of government contracts worth over Rs 50 crore.kejriwal12

Kumar, a 1989 IAS officer of UT cadre, was called along with Tarun Sharma, a Deputy Secretary in Kejriwal's office, besides three other private persons for questioning at the CBI headquarters this morning.

After being questioned for half a day, the CBI decided to place the two officers under arrest along with a close aide of Kumar, Ashok Kumar and owners of a private firm Sandeep Kumar and Dinesh Gupta.

The CBI had registered a case against Kumar and others in December last year alleging that the officer had abused his official position by “favouring a particular firm in the last few years in getting tenders of Delhi government departments”.

The charges pressed by the CBI are under sections 120-B of IPC (criminal conspiracy), and 13(2), 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act (Criminal conspiracy, criminal misconduct etc) for allegedly favouring a private company –Endeavour Systems Pvt. Ltd.– in bagging five contracts.

The CBI alleged that the accused persons had entered into a criminal conspiracy and caused a loss of Rs 12 crore to the Delhi Government in award of contracts between 2007 and 2015, and claimed that the officials had taken “undue benefit” of over Rs three crore while awarding the contract.

“The CBI has today arrested five persons including a senior civil servant, Government of Delhi, another official of Delhi government, two directors of a Delhi-based private company and a private person.

“The allegations relate to bribery and abuse of official position by the said senior civil servant and others to favour a Delhi based private company in award of contracts of Delhi government,” CBI's Chief Press Information officer R K Gaur said, adding the arrested accused persons will be produced before court tomorrow.

This is the same case in which CBI had come under scathing criticism from court which directed it to return documents sought by the Delhi government seized during December 15, 2015 raids on Kejriwal's office.

“The CBI cannot retain the documents in the garb of the argument that investigation is in progress without whispering the fact in what manner they are related to the present case (against principal secretary Rajendra Kumar).

“The acceptance of vague reasons like investigation is still in progress implies that CBI is recognised with unbridled power to investigate even in violation of the relevant laws and regulations,” Special CBI Judge Ajay Kumar Jain had said in his order in January this year.

The case was registered on a complaint from former Delhi Dialogue Commission (DDC) member Ashish Joshi to the Delhi government's Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) earlier last year. The complaint was forwarded to CBI in July last following which the agency registered an FIR after a five-month probe.

According to CBI, the five contracts were allegedly awarded to Endeavour Systems when Kumar was holding various posts in the Delhi government and include a project for the development of a comprehensive management system to Endeavour Systems without any tendering process.

The CBI alleged that as Secretary, Health, in the Delhi government, Kumar facilitated the award of a manpower project to the firm without inviting tenders.

The CBI claimed, as commissioner, trade and taxes, Kumar helped the firm bag a contract for development of software applications for his department.

He was also accused of committing irregularities in award of contract for a facility management system for the trade and taxes department. As secretary to the Chief Minister, he allegedly facilitated the award of Delhi Jal Board contract for enterprise resource planning to the firm.

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Satyameva jayate
 - 
Monday, 4 Jul 2016

Election time....modijis politics....

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News Network
February 6,2020

New Delhi, Feb 6: BJP MP Tejaswi Surya said on Wednesday that the majority community has to remain vigilant or Mughal rule will return to the country, as he slammed the anti-CAA protest at Shaheen Bagh.

He was participating in the debate on Motion of Thanks on the President's Address in Lok Sabha.

Referring to the ongoing protest at Shaheen Bagh against the Citizenship Amendment Act, he said, "Unless majority community remains vigilant, the days of Mughal Raj may not be far away."

Surya also praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for resolving several critical issues which had been pending for several decades.

The CAA, he said, was aimed at resolving the issues emanating from Partition and added, "The new India cannot to built without healing the wounds of the past."

He said that the CAA was about giving citizenship to persecuted minorities in Pakistan, Bangaladesh and Afghanistan and not for taking away anyone's citizenship.

Under the leadership of Modi, Surya said, several issues of the past have seen closure. These include abrogation of Article 370, construction of Ram temple, Bodo problems and abolition of Triple Talaq.

K Sudhakaran (Cong) said that a time when the economy was going through its worst phase and unemployment was high, the President in his speech talked about making India a USD 5 trillion economy by 2024.

On the comments of the government functionaries that fundamentals of the economy are strong, he said the same expression was used by the then US President George Bush, days before the collapse of the America's iconic investment banker Lehman Brothers.

Not only that, Sudhakaran said even before the Great Depression, the then US President used to say that fundamentals of their economy were strong.

Anupriya Patel (Apna Dal) demanded that the government set up All India Judicial Services Commission to ensure representation of the backward community in the judiciary.

Khagen Murmu (BJP) regretted that West Bengal government was not implementing the welfare schemes of the Centre in the state.

Badruddin Ajmal (AIUDF) said that people of all communities have fought for freedom of the country and it would be incorrect to declare everyone opposing the government's policies as 'gaddar' (traitor).

He said that the government should talk to people protesting against the CAA at Shaheen Bagh and other places, and explain the provisions to them.

Shrirang Appa Barne (Shiv Sena) demanded that the ruling party fulfil all promises it had made to the people of the country.

He regretted that although the government promised to double the income of farmers by 2022, farmers were still committing suicide.

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coastaldigest.com news network
May 17,2020

Mangaluru, May 17: Former health minister U T Khader demanded that the authorities carry out a scientific analysis of the five deaths that occurred due to Covid-19 in Dakshina Kannada. 

“The number of fatalities vis-à-vis the number of positive cases in the district is worrying, and the district administration and health department should not take the matter lightly. Lapses, if any, in dealing with the co-morbidity factors should be addressed, lest it become a major health challenge,” he warned.

Addressing reporters on Saturday, Khader, said only carrying out such types of analysis will help the health department combat the spread of the novel coronavirus in the future. “At present, the only data available with the health authorities here and in the state war room, is the number of people tested and number of positive cases,” Khader said.

“Any strategy to combat Covid-19 must be built around scientific analysis of causes of how the disease is spreading and to do so, concrete efforts must be made to find the source of the cluster at the First Neuro Hospital in Padil. A analysis of reasons that caused the deaths, will also come in handy for the authorities to prepare suitable advisories for the people, who in turn could take informed decisions,” Khader noted.

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coastaldigest.com news network
June 1,2020

Udupi, Jun 1: As many as 73 people have been tested positive for coronavirus in Udupi district today.

The district has registered a total of 260 positive cases so far. Majority of the positive cases in Udupi district have inter-state travel history to Maharashtra.

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