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Pranab Mukherjee elected as 13th President, P A Sangma cries foul

July 23, 2012

pranab13thNew Delhi, July 23: Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday scripted history by becoming the first person from West Bengal to be elected as the President of India. He defeated his opponent, former Lok Sabha speaker P A Sangma, with a huge margin to be elected as the 13th President of the country.

Following the declaration of the results, Mukherjee thanked the people of the "great country" for his win with a record margin of sorts bagging 69 per cent of the votes.

"I express deep gratitude for electing me to high office," said Mukherjee.

Addressing mediapersons, he further said, "I thank all those who supported me…I thank Sangma for congratulating me." He said he would try to justify the trust of people, adding, "I have received much more than I have given".

Meanwhile, though Sangma congratulated Mukherjee on the win, he lashed out at his opponent saying the poll was not fair. Sangma did not even rule out moving court on the election, saying its process was "exceptionally partisan".

Not ruling out moving the Supreme Court on the election, he said, "We are meeting a day after tomorrow to review the whole situation where this matter will come up for discussion."

Addressing mediapersons, the former Lok Sabha speaker said the presidential and the vice presidential elections must have a code of conduct to make the elections fair.

When asked to clarify on his statement that the elections needed to be made fair, Sangma said that several states were given financial packages.

Sangma accused the UPA of indulging in unfair practices saying the election was not fair and the country had lost a great opportunity to elect a tribal President. "Election process was exceptionally partisan and political through economic and other packages, inducements and threats," he said.

"I might have lost the elections but nation also lost an opportunity to project a tribal as President. I thank Pranab Mukherjee for winning the Presidential poll," he told reporters.

"There is compelling need for establishing an election code of conduct in Presidential elections. Presidential and Vice-Presidential elections should have a code of conduct," he said, when asked to clarify on his statement that the elections needed to be made fair. He said that several states were given financial packages.

On asked if he will go to the court, he said, "We are meeting in a few days to discuss all these issues. We knew that there was a problem in Karnataka. Results also show in many places there was cross voting."

However, even before the election commission declared the final results, there was a steady stream of visitors at the residence of the former finance minister to congratulate him on the massive victory.

Among the early callers at his Talkatora Road residence, located not far from Parliament House, were Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi and ministers from the UPA Cabinet.

Sonia Gandhi and party general secretary Rahul Gandhi came together ahead of the Prime Minister's visit to greet the 76-year-old veteran. They were soon joined by Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur.

Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, Union ministers A K Anthony, P Chidambaram, Sushil Kumar Shinde, Subodh Kant Sahai, Farooq Abdullah and E Ahamed visited Mukherjee's residence to greet him for becoming the 13th President of India.

"We thank our all our allies for the victory of Pranab Mukherjee as the President of India. This is an emphatic victory," Chidambaram said after meeting Mukherjee.

DMK leaders T R Baalu and Murasoli Maran also met Mukherjee to greet him.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who had earlier opposed the candidature of Mukherjee for the presidential elections but decided to back him two days before the voting, also congratulated Mukherjee. She also accepted the invitation by the President-elect to attend his swearing-in ceremony. The Trinamool Congress chief also invited Mukherjee to visit West Bengal first after the win.

Later, leaders from Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Left parties also congratulated the man of the moment.

However, the BJP in Karnataka suffered a humiliation when Mukherjee secured a backing of 117 MLAs as against Sangma's 103, with some party members cross-voting in favour of the UPA nominee.

Mukherjee had a pledged support from only 98 MLAs – 71 from Congress and 27 from JD(S) – but he managed to secure the support of 19 more legislators.

Sangma could only garner 103 votes, even though the BJP has 119 members in the Assembly.

The counting of votes for the Presidential election was done in Room number 63 of Parliament. Six groups were formed for the counting of votes.

The six groups were:

Group 1: Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Nagaland, Tripura and Parliament

Group 2: Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttarakhand

Group 3: Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh

Group 4: Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, Rajasthan, West Bengal

Group 5: Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Delhi

Group 6: Goa, Karnataka, Mizoram, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry

Following the counting, Rajya Sabha Secretary General V K Agnihotri officially declared Pranab Mukherjee elected as the 13th President of the country with 3095 votes valued at 7, 13, 763. His opponent P A Sangma secured 1483 votes valued at 3, 15, 987.

The total number of votes cast in the presidential elections was 4659, valued at 10, 47, 971, of which 4578 votes, at a value of 10, 29, 750, were valid. There were 81 invalid votes valued at 18, 221.

Agnihotri presented the certificate to Pranab Mukherjee on winning the presidential elections.


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News Network
August 8,2020

Nagpur, Aug 8: "He was a great son and always the first one to help others in need. He sacrificed his life for the country," said Neela Sathe, the mother of late captain DV Sathe, who was flying the Air India flight that crash-landed at Kozhikode airport on Friday, claiming 18 lives.

Indian Army Retired Colonel Vasant Sathe and his wife Neela lost both their sons in line of duty. The couple is originally from Nagpur, Maharashtra.

Speaking to news agency, Neela broke into tears and said, "He was a great son and always the first one to help others in need. 

His teachers still appreciate him. During the Ahmedabad floods, he saved the children of the soldiers by lifting them in his arms. I wish God would have called us instead of him."

"Both our children sacrificed their lives for the country," she added.

Remembering DV Sathe's childhood, Neela talked about every that moment when he made his parents proud.

Neela told with great pride that Captain DV Sathe had received the Sword of Honor and had also won eight medals in the Air Force.

Neela last talked to DV Sathe over phone call a few days ago during which captain told her mother not to go out of the house amid COVID-19 crisis as if something happens to her, he won't be able to bear that.

Vasant, captain's father retired as a colonel after serving in the Army for 30 years, following the footsteps of their father, both his sons joined too the Army.

Their elder son Vikas, was in the Army, and at the age of 22, he was martyred in an accident in Ferozepur in 1981. Their younger son Deepak (DV Sathe), who served as a pilot in Air India after serving in the Indian Air Force, died in the plane crash on Friday.

An Air India Express plane carrying 190 passengers including 10 infants skidded while landing at Karipur Airport in Kozhikode on Friday evening.

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Agencies
July 21,2020

New Delhi, Jul 21: Air India trade unions have complained to Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Puri that the government has now turned a blind eye to the management's ethnic cleansing at lower levels through compulsory leave without pay (LWP), redundancies and wage cuts.

In a letter to Puri, the Joint Action Forum of Air India unions said, "We are deeply ashamed to say that it seems that after praising our Air Indian Corona Warriors at grand functions, respectfully, the government has now turned a blind eye to this management's ethnic cleansing of Air Indians at the lower levels, through compulsory LWP, redundancies and wage cuts."

The Joint Action Forum of Air India unions strongly opposes this Compulsory Leave without pay scheme as it is an illegal practice and is not a voluntary scheme.

"In fact the Board resolution itself empowers the Chairman and Managing Director with extraordinary powers, which seem akin to a High Court, to pack off employees on 2 years leave (extended to 5 years) at CMD's discretion or at the arbitrary whim of the Regional heads," the trade unions said.

"This said Compulsory LWP scheme violates every labour law put in place by Parliament and orders of the Supreme Court and various other courts and seeks to dispossess the lower categories workers of their legally guaranteed rights," it added.

The trade unions have pointed out that the redundancies are at the elite management cadre level and not the workers.

"We are indeed shocked that the management of Air India could prepare and formulate a scheme for compulsorily sending workers on leave without pay, which is akin to an illegal lay-off, under the garb of a Leave Without Pay, when ironically the redundancy actually lies in the upper echelons of management and not with the humble workers of Air India, who have slogged to make our Airline the treasure it is," they complained to Puri.

"It must be noted that out of 11,000 permanent employees, our management occupies almost 25% as Executive Cadre, with little or no accountability. Solely amongst the Elite Management Cadre, we have 121 top officers ranking from DGMS, GMs, EDs to Functional Directors, most of whom are either performing duplicate job functions or are indeed redundant and not to mention the retired relics serving as consultants and also the CEOs of various subsidiary companies," they added.

Trade unions said the redundancy or compulsory leave without pay scheme if any at all, has to apply only to these Executives, more so, when they do not even have protection of labour laws or Supreme Court orders.

Strangely, the topmost corporate executive cadre and the backroom Generals, have saved themselves from the axe of wage cuts, by sacrificing a piffling of a few grand, whilst the frontline warriors of flying cabin crew, engineers, ground staff have borne the biggest brunt head on, the unions said.

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News Network
April 2,2020

Mumbai, Apr 2: NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Thursday

urged Muslims to observe Shab-e-Barat staying inside their homes, and also suggested that the birth anniversary celebrations of Dalit icon Dr B R Ambedkar be postponed in view of the coronavirus outbreak.

Pawar said Ram Navami, being observed on Thursday, is celebrated with fervour every year across the country.

"Unfortunately, there is this threat of coronavirus this year and we have to observe some restrictions...but I am sure people must be remembering Lord Ram staying inside their homes," he said in his address via Facebook.

Shab-e-Barat, also known as the night of forgiveness,will be observed on April 8.

Members of the Muslim community visit graveyards to remember their relatives who are no more, Pawar said, and called for taking precautions to avoid gathering of people given the coronavirus crisis.

Pawar said congregation such as the one held last month in Delhi's Nizamuddin area by Tablighi Jamaat could have been avoided, and urged people to ensure there is no repeat of such meetings on Shab-e-Barat.

"The meeting should have been avoided, but it was notand others may have to pay for it," Pawar said referring to the religious meeting in the national capital.

He said the "possibility of some people who attended the meeting carrying the disease cannot be ruled out" and pressed for maintaining discipline given the situation caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.

"Shab-e-Barat is on April 8. Muslims remember their relatives, who are not more, by visiting kabrastan (graveyard). It should be observed inside home. Precaution should be taken to see there is no repeat of the Nizamuddin meeting-like episode," he said.

The birth anniversary of Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian Constitution, is observed on April 14.

Pawar said people should also think about postponing Ambedkar's birth anniversary celebrations.

"We normally celebrate it (the anniversary) for two or so months. We should think whether we should really observe the programme at this juncture (given the coronavirus threat).

If we come together, we may have to face health issues," the former Union minister said.

He said in general, 90 per cent people have been observing the lockdown, but 10 per cent are not doing so.

The Centre and the Maharashtra government may have to extend the lockdown period if discipline is not observed till April 14 (till when the lockdown is in force), he said, urging people to toe the line in the interest of each other.

Pawar also praised Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, the state administration and police for working round-the- clock, and asked people to cooperate with them by staying at home.

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