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Former IPS officer alleges land grab by Pawar, family

[email protected] (DHNS )
October 19, 2012
Former_IPS

Mumbai, October 19: Former IPS officer turned lawyer cum activist Y P Singh, on Thursday, launched a frontal attack on Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, his daughter Supriya Sule and nephew Ajit Pawar, charging them of usurping hills near Pune at dirt-cheap price to construct ultra-swanky Lavasa township.

In a packed press conference, Singh presented documents to substantiate his allegations interspersed with caustic remarks against India Against Corruption (IAC) key member Arvind Kejriwal, whom he subtly compared with 'German dictator Adolf Hitler.'

However, at the outset, Singh clarified that the conference was not called 'to attack Kejriwal but to expose an important scam involving Pawar family in the construction of Lavasa spread over 3,000 acres and reportedly involving an investment of Rs 3,000 crore.

Brandishing documents procured through RTI, Singh said that scrutiny of papers reveal that former Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, under the guise of irrigation project, first allotted 341 acres of land to real estate firm 'at throwaway prices,' on 30 years’ lease for just Rs 23,000 a month.

“And who were the beneficiaries? The beneficiaries were Ajit Pawar's cousin and Sharad Pawar's daughter Supriya Sule and her husband Sadanand Sule... 20.81 per cent shares belonged to Supriya and Sadanand in Lake City Corp formed to construct Lavasa....which means Supriya had at least 10.4 per cent shares...and Ajit Pawar had given this land almost free to the company... All this in the name of irrigation project.”

Singh, who has been waging a legal battle for activists, including Medha Patkar, against the construction of Lavasa township for the past several years, traced the history of the controversial manicured hill-township, alleging that in 2002 the then Principal Secretary of the Revenue Department Ramesh Kumar (IAS) had questioned the transaction, demanding an inquiry into the matter. Strangely, the then Revenue Minister Narayan Rane, after tom-tomming about the inquiry in public quietly buried the case.

“In 2006, Supriya and Sadanand sold their stake in the company which later became Lavasa Corporation and in 2009 when Supriya had to declare her assets as a Member of Parliament, she informed that she was worth Rs 15 crore...this figure cannot be correct as Axis Bank in its evaluation of Lavasa Corporation had pegged its value at Rs 10,000 crore which would mean her 10 per cent and her husband's 10 per cent would be probably worth several hundred crores...and if this is true then it reeks of a huge money-laundering exercise,' Singh argued.

Singh pointed out: “...there are several things we have uncovered recently. In 2009, Sharad Pawar and Ajit Pawar met senior bureaucrats at a guesthouse within Lavasa township. And our information indicates that the Lavasa Corporation was allowed to add floors to the buildings by granting them extra FSI (floor space index.) The question here is under what jurisdiction Union Agriculture Minister met state bureaucrats?

“Thereafter, Sharad Pawar along with his nephew Ajit met the then Chief Minister along with some bureaucrats, wherein it was decided to grant Lavasa a global floating FSI...and Ajit was the irrigation minister at the time. And despite my providing all these facts to Kejriwal...he has not bothered to highlight them and, thus, this press conference,” he said


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News Network
August 8,2020

The Kozhikode International Airport located at Karipur is not safe for the landing of flights in rainy season, according to an air-safety expert, who had warned the aviation ministry and the civil aviation regulator about this in 2011. 

The warning was particularly about the dangers of permitting passenger aircraft to land on runway 10 of the airport during rains and unfavourable wind conditions. 

Nine years later, on August 7, 2020, the warning became a reality when an Air India Express pilots landed in tailwind conditions and the aircraft overshot the tabletop runway to drop off the end and crash.

 “An aircraft landing on runway 10 in tailwind will experience poor braking action due to heavy rubber deposits … All such flights … are endangering the lives of all on board,’’ said Capt Mohan Ranganathan, in a letter sent on June 17, 2011 to then director general of civil aviation Bharat Bhushan and Nasim Zaidi, chairman of a civil aviation safety advisory committee, which was formed after the May 2010 Mangaluru air crash which killed 158 people.

“My warning issued after the Mangaluru crash was ignored. It is a table-top runway with a down slope. The buffer zone at the end of the runway is inadequate,” Capt Ranganathan said. Given the topography, he pointed out, the airport should have a buffer of 240m at the end of the runway, but it only has 90m (which the DGCA had approved). “Moreover, the space on either side of the runway is only 75m instead of the mandatory 100m,” he added.

Capt Ranganathan said there is no guideline for operations on a table-top runway when it is raining. “Runway 10 approach should not be permitted in view of the lack of runway end safety area (RESA) and the terrain beyond the end of the runway. RESA of 240m should be immediately introduced and runway length has to be reduced to make the operations safe,” his letter said.

If an aircraft is unable to stop within the runway, there is no RESA beyond the end. The ILS localiser antenna is housed on a concrete structure and the area beyond is a steep slope. “The Air India Express accident in Mangalore should have alerted AAI to make the runway conditions safe. We have brought up the issue of RESA during the initial Casac-sub group meetings. We had specifically mentioned that the declared distances for both runways have to be reduced in order to comply with ICAO Annex 14 requirement,” Capt Ranganathan said.

He said the condition of the runway strip was known to DGCA teams that have been conducting inspection and safety assessments. “Have they considered the danger involved? Did the DGCA or the airlines lay down any operational restrictions or special procedures?”

The letter also refers to Approach and Landing Accident Reduction (ALAR) training, which is supposed to be mandatory before every monsoon, but airlines don’t follow it, he said. “70% of accidents take place during approach and landing and that is why this training is essential,” he added.

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News Network
February 18,2020

New Delhi, Feb 18: Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot is the richest minister in the AAP government, according to a report released by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on Monday.

In a statement, the NGO said, Delhi Election Watch and ADR have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of all the seven-party leaders including Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

According to the statement, the minister with the lowest declared total assets is Gopal Rai with assets worth Rs 90.01 lakh.

"The minister with the highest declared total assets is Kailash Gahlot from Najafgarh constituency with assets worth Rs 46.07 crore," it stated.

The report by ADR comes on the day Kejriwal and his six ministers took charge after the formation of the new AAP government.

Chief Minister Kejriwal and his cabinet colleagues took charge of their respective offices on Monday and asserted that they would work to fulfil the promises made in the "guarantee card", released during the poll campaign, including reduction in pollution and expansion of metro network.

Members of his Cabinet are -- Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain, Rajendra Pal Gautam, Imran Hussain, Gopal Rai and Kailash Gahlot.

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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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