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Pratibha’s gifts are in son’s museum, says Rashtrapati Bhavan

[email protected] (The Hindu)
September 26, 2012

Pratibha-Patil

New Delhi, September 26: The former President, Pratibha Patil, whose foreign tours and post-retirement housing plans generated controversies towards the end of her tenure, is attracting fresh criticism for dispatching gifts received while in office to a museum run by her son.

According to an answer provided by Rashtrapati Bhavan to a Right to Information query by activist Subhash Chandra Agarwal, as many as 155 gifts/artefacts received by Ms. Patil during her tenure have been given on loan to the Vidya Bharati Shaikshanik Mandal, Amravati, Maharashtra, for display.

In his query, Mr Agarwal cited media reports that the gifts were kept in the private museum of this Mandal, which is controlled by none other than her son and Congress MLA Rajendra Singh Shekhawat.

Rasthrapati Bhavan said an MoU was signed between the President’s Secretariat and the Mandal on June 15 this year, a few weeks before she demitted office. It said the MoU would cease to be operative from June 15, 2013, and all the artefacts currently on loan would be returned to Rashtrapati Bhavan thereafter.

The RTI reply also cited a precedent for this, noting that during the term of President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, 36 artifacts were handed over for display in the Brahmos Centre in New Delhi.

But Mr. Agarwal argues that while the Brahmos Centre was a government body, the Vidya Bharati Mandal is a private trust involving Ms. Patil’s family members. He alleges that the RTI response makes it clear the President’s Secretariat during Ms. Patil’s tenure did not follow the toshakhana (government treasury) rules in regard to gifts received by the President.

He says that like her predecessors, Ms. Patil should have surrendered all her gifts to the toshakhana.

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Agencies
July 30,2020

Ahead of the grand foundation stone-laying ceremony of the Ram Temple on August 5, Ayodhya priest and 16 police personnel, involved in the mega event on August 5, have tested positive for COVID-19. Priest Pradeep Das is one of the four priests who regularly perform puja at the Ram Temple site in Ayodhya.

Das has been placed under home quarantine and contact tracing is underway, reported.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh police and Sashastra Seema Bal have been put on high alert in the districts bordering Nepal ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Ayodhya on August 5.

PM Modi likely to launch postal stamps on Ram Temple, Ramayana during Ayodhya visit: Report
Counterfeit products create Rs 1-lakh-crore hole in economy, incidents up 24% in 2019: Report
On July 29, Uttar Pradesh reported a record single-day spike of 3,570 COVID-19 cases, taking the infection tally to more than 77,000, while 33 fresh fatalities pushed the death toll to 1,530.

"There are 29,997 active COVID-19 cases in the state and 45,807 patients have been discharged after treatment," Additional Chief Secretary, Medical and Health, Amit Mohan Prasad told reporters. "The death toll due to the disease has reached 1,530," he said.

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Agencies
April 24,2020

New Delhi, Apr 24: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has termed the government decision to freeze Dearness Allowance of Central government employees for a year as "insensitive and inhuman."

The former Congress President in a tweet said: "Lakhs and crores are being spent on the Bullet Train and New Delhi's Central Vista which should have been suspended, but the government has deducted DA of Central government employees and pensioners... It is insensitive and inhuman."

"The tragic part is that by deducting this amount from January 1, 2020 up to 30th June, 2021 for a period of 1.5 years, the government of India proceeds to deduct almost Rs 38 thousand crore from the income of these middle class government employees and pensioners, who rely completely on the pay and pensions that they receive," said Randeep Surjewala, chief spokesperson of Congress.

There are about 50 lakh such serving government employees and about 62 lakh pensioners.

"Even more tragic and objectionable is the fact that the government of India has not even spared our armed forces. The government has deducted Rs 11 thousand crore of the 15 lakh serving armed forces personnel and nearly 26 lakh military pensioners. What is their fault? They are serving the nation in times of all types of crises," said Surjewala.

The Congress alleged that the government did not spare the savings scheme.

Instead of curbing the wasteful expenditure, the government has been constantly hitting at the income of government employees and the middle class, it added.

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Agencies
February 16,2020

New Delhi, Feb 16: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal was on Sunday sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Delhi for the third time in a row at Ramlila Maidan here, after his party registered a massive victory in the recently concluded Delhi Assembly polls.

Kejriwal was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal.

The sprawling Ramlila Maidan reverberated with sounds of thousands of people cheering for the AAP leader.

Kejriwal who received a hero's welcome here had extended an invitation to the people of Delhi urging them to attend the swearing-in ceremony to witness "the son of Delhi" taking oath today.

The AAP nearly repeated its 2015 performance in the elections, sweeping the Assembly polls winning 62 seats in the 70-member Assembly, in the face of a high-voltage campaign by the BJP, which fielded a battery of Union Ministers and Chief Ministers in its electioneering spearheaded by Home Minister Amit Shah. 

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