Coal-gate: Sonia may ask ‘tainted’ Sahai, Jaiswal to go

September 11, 2012

soni

New Delhi, September 11: As the stink from 'Coalgate' rises, the continuation of tourism minister Subodh Kant Sahai and coal minister Sriprakash Jaiswal looks uncertain, with the Congress leadership considering strong measures to contain the fallout from the scam.

Although the leadership continues to resist the allegation of a scam, it appears to have come around to the view that persisting with the duo may have become politically untenable. Simultaneously , the leadership is also considering its options vis-a-vis party men like Vijay Darda, Naveen Jindal and former minister of state for coal Santosh Bagrodia who have been enveloped by the widening shadow of the scam.

The Congress leadership seems to realize that the involvement of party members in the controversial allocation of coal blocks has thickened the perception of collusion between the government and the allottees of blocks, handing opposition a stick to beat it with.

The sudden spike in speculation about their political fate coincided with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's return from abroad. Sonia , who had gone for a routine medical check up, is likely to hold deliberations with her colleagues as part of the larger restructuring she has planned for the government and the party this month.

Sahai had written to PM Manmohan Singh recommending allocation of coal blocks to a company, SKS Ispat and Power, whichhad his younger brother as one of its directors . The company in question got blocks the very next day, and the tourism minister has not been able to shake off the charge of conflict of interest.

A clear case of conflict of interest has not been established against Jaiswal yet, but the leadership seems to feel that he has not been able to effectively explain why coal blocks continued to be allocated on his charge, and well into 2010. His explanation that he was merely following through on the decisions taken by the screening committee before he got charge of the ministry has not been found to be convincing . There is also a wariness of the unfolding revelations on links of government functionaries with the allottees. Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Darda has been named in CBI's first set of FIRs into Coalgate. Although the agency has not charged him yet under the Prevention of Corruption Act, his proximity to Manoj Jayaswal, one of the prime beneficiaries, is seen as a political vulnerability for the Congress.

Jindal, whose Jindal Power Limited was allocated several coal blocks, has been in the opposition's line of fire.

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News Network
February 19,2020

New Delhi, Feb 19: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday, their first meeting after the assembly polls in the national capital.

The meeting went on for over 20 minutes at Shah's residence. The meeting was earlier scheduled at the Home Ministry.

"Met Hon'ble Home Minister Sh Amit Shah ji. Had a very good and fruitful meeting. Discussed several issues related to Delhi. Both of us agreed that we will work together for development of Delhi," Kejriwal tweeted.

Shah had led the BJP offensive against Kejriwal in the Delhi Assembly polls in which AAP trounced the saffron party, bagging 62 of the 70 seats.

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News Network
January 31,2020

Jan 31: Twenty-three children aged between six months and 15 years, who had been taken hostage by a murder accused after inviting them to his daughter's birthday party, were rescued late on Thursday night after police killed their captor in a village here.

The hostage drama began at Kasaria village in the afternoon and continued for about eight hours.

"The accused was killed and there were about 23 children who were rescued safely," Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi told reporters at a hurriedly called press conference at 1.20 am.

"The accused had invited the children for the birthday party of his daughter and held them hostage. It started about 5.45 pm on January 30 and continued for about eight hours," Director General of Police (DGP) O P Singh said, adding that in the entire operation they had tried to "engage" the accused and were successful.

He said the accused, identified as Subhash Batham, had initially released a six-month-old girl by handing her over to his neighbour from a balcony.

Eyewitnesses said a restive crowd gathered outside the house where the children were kept with some women wailing and praying for their safe release.

The crowd broke open the door of the house to rescue the children, they said.

As the accused opened fire, the police retaliated killing him on the spot.

In the exchange of fire, the captor's wife was injured, but none of the children suffered any injury.

A man and two policemen also suffered bullet injuries.

The motive of the accused was not known immediately.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath monitored the situation in Farrukhabad, which is nearly 200 km from state capital Lucknow.

"The CM as soon as he got to know about the incident called a meeting of the crisis management group and personally monitored the situation and ensured children are rescued safely," Awasthi said.

Earlier, a team of NSG (National Security Guard) commandos had taken a special aircraft to reach Farukhabad, a senior security official in Delhi said.

Police said Batham, a murder accused, seemed to be mentally unstable.

Inspector-General of Police, Kanpur Range, Mohit Agarwal, said, "The man called the children for a birthday party and held them hostage in the basement of the house. He fired six shots from inside the building."

Batham initially wanted to talk to the local MLA, but refused to speak to the leader when he arrived, Agarwal said.

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News Network
April 8,2020

Jamnagar, Apr 7: A 14-month-old baby boy, who had tested positive for coronavirus in Gujarat's Jamnagar district on April 5, died of multiple organ failure on Tuesday, said officials.

The toddler, son of a migrant labourer-couple having no recent travel history, died in the evening at a government hospital in Jamnagar, said an official release.

He was in a critical condition ever since he was admitted to the hospital, it said.

The boy, who tested positive for coronavirus two days ago, was as on ventilator support and eventually died due to multiple organ failure, said the release.

He becomes the youngest patient to succumb to COVID-19 in Gujarat, where the death toll has now gone up to 16.

The baby was the first and the only case of coronavirus infection so far in entire Jamnagar district and the youngest to be diagnosed with the disease in Gujarat.

Ever since he tested coronavirus positive, the authorities had been tracing the source of his infection.

His parents are from Uttar Pradesh and work as casual labourers in factories in the port city.

His parents, who have no travel history in the recent past, are asymptomatic (not showing symptoms) and kept under quarantine, officials said.

The locality where the couple resides in Dared village near Jamnagar city has been put under complete lockdown to check the spread of the virus, they said.

Gujarat has so far recorded 175 coronavirus positive cases and 16 fatalities.

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