MEA rebuts Kejriwal's claim on Ugandan official meeting Bharti

January 20, 2014

New Delhi, Jan 20: Ministry of External Affairs today rejected Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's claim that a Ugandan official had met his Law minister Somnath Bharti in connection with an alleged sex racket, and said Aam Aadmi Party was playing with the "reputation" of India.

Hours after Kejriwal produced an internal letter purportedly written by a Ugandan official to his government mentioning an incident of a Ugandan woman being "duped" on pretext of a job offer here and forced into prostitution, the MEA said the letter was of June 2013 and since then that government has never raised this issue with India.aap_copy

"We have been told by the Ugandan mission that none of its officials have met Delhi government ministers," Official Spokesperson in the External Affairs Ministry said.

Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said the Aam Admi Party was creating problems with the friendly countries.

"It is completely wrong (that any Ugandan official has met AAP leaders). They are not here. The High Commissioner is not here.... I am accustomed to seeing these kind of letters which they transpose and play around with. This is a letter of June 2013....

"It is sad that they are playing with country's reputation. You are playing with country's relationship with friendly countries. I cannot think of anything greater in terms of betrayal of this country then what is being done."

Kejriwal, who is on a dharna outside the Rail Bhavan in the heart of the capital, had claimed that a woman official from the Uganda High Commission came to Bharti and gave him a letter regarding the alleged sex racket in the city.

According to the Chief Minister, the woman told Somnath Bharti, "You did very well. Many women from our country are being trafficked".

With the letter, Kejriwal tried to vindicate his government's and Law Minister's action against the alleged prostitution and drug peddling racket in Khirke extension and Malviya Nagar.

Kejriwal also rejected allegation of being "racist".

The letter released by Kejriwal to media was written in June 2013 by the Defence Advisor of the Uganda High Commission to the Chief of Military Intelligence in Kampala and said a Ugandan woman was "duped" into accepting to come to Delhi on pretext of giving her a job here.

However, on reaching Delhi, the woman was introduced into prostitution, but she refused.

"I was staying with her (sex trafficker who duped the woman) in Malviya Nagar Near Sai Baba Mandir. She was bringing men everyday to me and forcing me to sleep with them, but I refused to do so as I have never done that in my whole life and came here only for job," the letter, which carried the victim's statement, said.

Apart from it, the party claimed that the Shiv Mandir Sanstha and the Khirki Village Residents Welfare Association also wrote several letters to the Delhi Police complaining about an alleged prostitution and drug racket, but it fell on deaf ears. The letters, which were also distributed to the media, claimed that "African/Nigerian ladies" were involved in illegal activities.

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Agencies
July 15,2020

New Delhi, Jul 15: Air India has started the process of identifying employees, based on various factors like efficiency, health and redundancy, who will be sent on compulsory leave without pay (LWP) for up to five years, according to an official order.

The airline's board of directors have authorised its Chairman and Managing Director Rajiv Bansal to send employees on LWP "for six months or for a period of two years extendable upto five years, depending upon the following factors - suitability, efficiency, competence, quality of performance, health of the employee, instance of non-availability of the employee for duty in the past as a result of ill health or otherwise and redundancy", the order said on Tuesday.

The departmental heads in the headquarter as well as regional directors are required to assess each employee "on the above mentioned factors and identify the cases where option of compulsory LWP can be exercised", stated the order dated July 14.

"Names of such employees need to be forwarded to the General Manager (Personnel) in headquarter for obtaining necessary approval of CMD," the order added.

In response to queries regarding this matter, Air India spokesperson said,"We would not like to make any comment on the issue."

Aviation sector has been significantly impacted due to the travel restrictions imposed in India and other countries due to the coronavirus pandemic. All airlines in India have taken cost-cutting measures such as pay cuts, LWP and firings of employees in order to conserve cash flow.

For example, GoAir has put most of its employees on compulsory LWP since April.

India resumed domestic passenger flights from May 25 after a gap of two months due to the coronavirus pandemic.

However, the airlines have been allowed to operate only a maximum of 45 per cent of their pre-COVID domestic flights. Occupancy rate in Indian domestic flights has been around 50-60 per cent since May 25.

Scheduled international passenger flights continue to remain suspended in India since March 23.

The passenger demand for air travel will contract by 49 per cent in 2020 for Indian carriers in comparison to 2019 due to COVID-19 crisis, said global airlines body IATA on Monday.

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Agencies
January 25,2020

Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 25: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday asked the state's MPs to take up the matter of deaths of eight Keralites at a resort in Nepal early this week, with the Centre to pursue the matter with the neighbouring country's government.

He was speaking to the MPs at the customary meeting that the Chief Minister has with all MPs ahead of every session of the parliament.

"The demand has come from the families of the victims for a fair probe on what happened and adequate compensation. For this, you (MPs) should take it up with the Centre. A probe has to be done by the Nepal authorities and the Centre should pursue this with them," Pinarayi reportedly stated. 

"We (the state government) have already taken the issue with the Centre and will now send a detailed letter on the need for a fair probe by the Nepal authorities," he added.

The eight dead include Praveen Krishnan Nair, who worked in the UAE and was on a short vacation here, when the tragedy struck the family. His wife Saranya, a second year M.Pharma student, and their three children, were also killed.

On Friday morning, it was a goodbye that Thiruvananthapuram has perhaps not seen before, as hundreds of people, many of them strangers, came to pay last respects to the five members of the Nair family.

The family of Praveen Nair decided to bury the bodies of the three children and cremate the bodies of Praveen and Saranya. It was also decided to bury the ashes of the couple alongside their three children in the compound of their house.

The second family hailed from Kozhikode and the bodies of Ranjith, an IT professional, his wife, who works in a cooperative bank and their younger child, who slept in the same room as that of Praveen, arrived at the Kozhikode airport on Friday morning.

State Transport Minister A.K. Saseendran and many others were there to receive the bodies, which were first taken to Ranjith's new home that is almost complete.

From there it was taken to a hall for all to pay their last respects and then to the family home of Ranjith where the cremation took place.

Watching everything happening was Ranjith's elder son, seven-year-old Madhav, who escaped that night in Nepal as he was sleeping in another room.

Madhav had arrived from Delhi on Thursday and was unaware of the tragedy as he was busy moving around in a new bicycle, which his relatives had bought to keep him busy.

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News Network
May 21,2020

New Delhi, May 21: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday paid tributes to Rajiv Gandhi on his death anniversary.

Former prime minister Gandhi was assassinated on this day in 1991 in Tamil Nadu's Sriperumbudur by a suicide bomber during an election campaign.
 
"On his death anniversary, tributes to former PM Shri Rajiv Gandhi," Modi tweeted.

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