Bihar in flux as Manjhi wants House dissolved

February 8, 2015

Patna, Feb 8: Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi has recommended the dissolution of the Assembly to pre-empt his mentor-turned-rival and Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar’s attempts to replace him.

Manjhi

On Saturday, Mr. Kumar, who was elected leader of the JD(U) legislature party, is set to stake claim to form a new government and urged the Governor to reject Mr. Manjhi’s recommendation, arguing that he had lost the majority. Twenty Ministers from the Nitish camp had resigned.

Mr. Manjhi is moving with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), say sources in both camps, in a major blow to the attempts to forge a united front against the saffron party ahead of the Assembly elections scheduled for November.

The JD(U) and Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) had buried the hatchet after their defeat at the hands of the BJP in May 2014, but Mr. Manjhi’s rebellion can derail their plans.

Mr. Kumar had given way to Mr. Manjhi, accepting moral responsibility for the party’s Lok Sabha defeat, but Mr. Manjhi soon began to assert himself and placed himself as a Mahadalit leader, causing friction between him and Mr. Kumar.

The lingering tension between the two came to the fore in an interview that Mr. Manjhi gave to The Hindu on January 6, setting off a series of developments that culminated in Saturday’s split.

Some last-minute efforts at truce did not bear fruit, with the Chief Minister holding a marathon meeting with Mr. Kumar at his 7 Circular Road residence.

Sources said Mr. Kumar refused to accept three demands put forward by Mr. Manjhi.

Mr. Manjhi left for Delhi on Saturday, where he is expected to meet BJP leaders. Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviewed the Bihar situation with leaders on Saturday.

Responding to people’s complaints, says Nitish

Without naming Mr. Manjhi, the visibly emboldened Mr. Kumar said that the need to remove him came when people were coming and complaining about his controversial statements every day. “People of the state appeared to have lost faith in him [Manjhi] and good governance was in danger”, he added.

“Now I’ve come and will lead the party from the front. We’ve majority support and we’ll definitely stake claim, if need be, to form the government in the State,” he declared.

Mr. Manjhi had called the JD(U) legislators meeting “unauthorized and unconstitutional,” and wrote to Governor, Keshari Nath Tripathi recommending dissolution of the Assembly.

At the meeting, 97 out of total 111 [membership of 8 party MLAs were terminated earlier] JD-U MLAs and 37 MLCs were present in the meeting.

In a letter to the Governor and the President of India, 130 legislators — including 24 from RJD, five from Congress and one of Communist Party India — claimed majority support in the Assembly for Mr. Kumar.

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Agencies
July 1,2020

Sopore, Jammu And Kashmir: A three-year-old boy survived as his grandfather was killed in a terror attack on the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Jammu and Kashmir's Sopore town this morning. A CRPF jawan was also killed in the line of duty as terrorists opened fire on a patrol team.

In heart-wrenching images, the child is seen sitting on the blood-splattered body of his grandfather, a civilian caught in the crossfire. The boy was numb with fear when he was picked up by policemen, according to the police.

The Kashmir police also tweeted a photo of the child being carried to safety by a policeman.

"Jammu and Kashmir police rescued a three-year-old boy from getting hit by bullets during the terrorist attack in Sopore," said the tweet by the Kashmir Zone Police.

The child was travelling in a Maruti car with his grandfather from Srinagar to Handwara when it was hit by a spray of bullets in Sopore town, which is in Baramulla district about 50 km from Srinagar.

The police said terrorists hiding in a mosque fired indiscriminately at the patrol team as it was getting off a bus. The CRPF troops retaliated but the terrorists managed to escape.

According to the CRPF, the grandfather stopped the car and got out to run to a safe spot but was shot dead in the firing by terrorists. The boy was later rescued by a policeman standing nearby.

Last week, a six-year-old boy was killed during a terror attack on the CRPF in Anantnag.

Little Nihaan Bhat was sleeping in a parked car when he was hit by a bullet. Police say the terrorist was on a bike and opened fire from a pistol on a CRPF patrol. One jawan was killed. The child's killing drew widespread anger and condemnation.

The terrorist believed to be involved in the Anantnag attack escaped yesterday after an encounter with security forces. Police said two other terrorists who were hiding with him at a village were killed.

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News Network
March 18,2020

New Delhi, Mar 18: As many as 276 Indians have been infected with coronavirus abroad, including 255 in Iran, 12 in UAE and five in Italy, the government informed the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said the total number of Indians infected by coronavirus is 276 — 255 in Iran, 12 in UAE, five in Italy, and one each in Hong Kong, Kuwait, Rwanda and Sri Lanka.

A fourth batch of 53 Indians returned to India from Iran on Monday, taking the total number of people evacuated from the coronavirus-hit country to 389.

Iran is one of the worst-affected countries by the coronavirus outbreak and the government has been working to bring back Indians stranded there. Over 700 people have died from the disease in Iran and nearly 14,000 cases detected.

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News Network
April 1,2020

Prayagraj,  April 1: Seven Indonesian nationals, one person from Kolkata and one from Kerala who had attended the event at Delhi's Nizamuddin Markaz have been put under quarantine, informed SP (City) Prayagraj, Brijesh Kumar Srivastava on Wednesday.

"Seven Indonesian nationals, one person from Kolkata and one from Kerala, were found at Abdullah mosque here. During the investigation, it was found that they had attended the Markaz gathering in Delhi. These people, along with 28 people who came in contact with them, have been quarantined." he said.

"A case has also been registered against them for not informing the police on reaching here," he added.

Earlier, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain had said that the officials are not certain of the accurate number of people who participated in the event but it is being estimated that 1,500-1,700 people had assembled at the Markaz building.

The religious gathering was held at the Markaz building in Nizamuddin between March 13 and March 15.

The total number of active cases rose to 1466 in the country, while 132 people have been cured and discharged after receiving treatment, as of 9 am.

The number of deaths due to the infection also rose to 38, while one person has migrated.

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