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Modi bill to weaken Gujarat anti-corruption panel

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April 2, 2013
modi_copyGandhinagar, Apr 2: The Narendra Modi government today introduced a bill in the Gujarat Assembly which curtails the 'primacy' of the Chief Justice of the state High Court and the Governor in the matter of appointment of the Lokayukta.

The Lokayukta Aayog Bill, 2013 proposes to give all the powers of the appointment to a selection committee headed by Chief Minister and wants state Governor to act on the recommendations of this committee.

The new Bill comes after the state government lost a bitter fight legally and politically when Governor Kamla Beniwal, bypassing the state government, appointed Justice R A Mehta as the state Lokayukta which was upheld by the High Court as well as Supreme Court in January this year.

Supreme Court had ruled that primacy of the opinion of Chief Justice of the High Court in the Lokayukta Act was final.

The Gujarat government on the one hand filed curative petition against the Supreme Court order and on the other, has brought this Bill in the Assembly today.

"For the purpose of conducting investigations and inquiries in accordance with the provisions of this Act, the Governor shall, by warrant under his hand and seal and, on the recommendations of a Selection Committee as provided below, appoint a person to be known as the Lokayukta and not more than four other persons each to be known as Up-Lokayuktas," reads the proposed section 3 of the Bill.

Whereas in the existing Gujarat Lokayukta Act, 1986, power of selection and consequent appointment of new Lokayukta has been vested with the High Court Chief Justice and the Governor.

Section 3(1) of the 1986 Act says, "For the purpose of conducting investigation in accordance with the provisions of this Act, the Governor shall, by warrant under his hand and seal appoint a person to be known as Lokayukta."

"...Provided that the Lokayukta shall be appointed after consultation with the Chief Justice of High Court," it further adds.

The new Bill also proposed a special provision which gives pivotal power to the state government in excluding any 'public functionaries' from the jurisdiction of the Lokayukta.

As per another significant provision (Sec 12(8)), whoever discloses to the public or to the press any information or publishes such information in contravention of the provisions of this section should invite two years' imprisonment and also a fine of Rs two lakhs.

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News Network
April 4,2020

Mumbai, Apr 4: As many as six Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel stationed at Mumbai airport in Maharashtra have tested positive for coronavirus, taking the total number of positive cases among the central force to 11. The first case of a CISF jawan being diagnosed with the viral disease was reported on March 28. 

After the first case, the armed police force reported four more cases of COVID-19 among the personnel stationed at the airport on Thursday. On the same day, the CISF collected samples of 146 staff and sent them to Kasturba hospital for testing. The results, which arrived on Friday, recorded six more COVID-19 cases among, reported news agency.

The personnel were posted at Kharghar adjoining Mumbai, a senior official told news agency.

As of now, there are 14 COVID-19 cases in Panvel Municipal Corporation (PMC) area in Mumbai. Kharghar comes under the civic body's jurisdiction.

All the 146 CISF personnel were shifted to a quarantine centre at a facility at Kamothe reported the Times of India.

Maharashtra reported 67 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total tally to 490. A total of 26 deaths have been reported in the state.  

In the meantime, the Centre on Friday said there is no shortage of medical supplies across the country to fight COVID-19 outbreak.

"The government of India is making sure that all the essential medical supplies are in place to fight COVID-19. Sixty-two lifeline Udan flights transported over 15.4 tons of essential medical supplies in the last five days," Union Minister for Chemical and Fertilisers DV Sadanada Gowda said in a tweet.

The government is also paying full attention to the manufacturing activities of essential items like pharmaceuticals and hospital devices. For this, over 200 units in Special Economic Zones (SEZs)  are operational, he added.

"A Central Control Room has also been set up for close monitoring of the distribution of essential medical items and to address logistic related issues," Gowda said.

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Agencies
August 7,2020

New Delhi, Aug 7 : Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday slammed the Central government as India crossed the 20 lakh COVID-19 positive cases.

Taking to Twitter, the Congress leader reiterated his earlier tweet, sent out on July 17, which stated "The 10,00,000-mark has been crossed.

With the rapid spread of COVID-19, by August 10, more than 20,00,000 will be infected in the country. 

The government must take concrete, planned steps to stop the epidemic."
"20 lakh-mark has been crossed, Modi government is missing," the Congress leader tweeted today.

The Union Health Ministry has said active cases as a percentage of total cases have seen a significant drop from 34.17 per cent on July 24 to 30.31 per cent.

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May 18,2020

New Delhi, May 18: Very severe cyclonic storm ‘Amphan’, over central parts of South Bay of Bengal, has intensified into extremely severe cyclonic storm, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Monday. The weather department has warned that ‘Amphan’ may turn into a “super cyclonic storm’.

According to experts, North Odisha coast will face the maximum impact of cyclone Amphan when it makes landfall.

“Wind speed expected to be 110-120 kmph, gusting up to 130 kmph. Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Mayurbhanj dist can be affected on 20 May (when it makes landfall), IMD Bhubaneswar scientist Umashankar Das told news agency ANI.

The IMD has said that ‘Amphan’ will cross West Bengal - Bangladesh coasts between Digha (WB) and Hatiya island - in the afternoon/evening of May 20 as very severe cyclonic storm.

Earlier, the IMD had warned that ‘Amphan’, over central parts of South Bay of Bengal, will intensify into an extremely severe cyclonic storm on Monday.

“Very Severe Cyclonic Storm (VSCS) ‘AMPHAN’ over central parts of South Bay of Bengal near latitude 12.5°N and longitude 86.4°E, about 870 km nearly south of Paradip (Odisha). To intensify further into an Extremely Severe Cyclonic Storm (ESCS) in the next six hours,” the IMD said in a tweet on Monday.

National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has sent its 10 teams to Odisha and seven teams to West Bengal in view of the approaching Cyclone Amphan, news agency reported.

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