'Not my responsibility': KCR on RTC workers who committed suicide

Agencies
October 25, 2019

Hyderabad, Oct 25: Even as Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) employees' strike continues and reports of several protestors committing suicide, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has washed his hands off the matter stating that it is not his responsibility.

"TSRTC workers who have committed suicide are not my responsibility. They are responsible for themselves. We did not ask them to protest. Unions provoked them," Rao said addressing a press conference in the state capital.

"The fact is, soon the TSRTC will get dissolved and shut down. Nobody can stop this from happening. Merger demand is not accepted at all," the Chief Minister added.

Opposition leaders from BJP and Congress alike, however, have strongly objected to the statement.

"KCR is acting more like CEO of a profit-centric private enterprise than the chief minister of a democratically run state government. His statements on RTC and its employees reflect his neo-capitalist mindset. The party feels that he is behaving irresponsibly by underplaying RTC role in the public transport system of the state," said BJP Telangana chief spokesperson K Krishna Saagar Rao.

The BJP leader said that the RTC is a welfare initiative for public transport, to connect to the remotest villages and towns in Telangana, which otherwise can't be connected by private operators due to route-passenger ratio.

"It's commercially impossible for private operators to ply buses on unviable routes. The RTC ticket prices for poor and needy passengers can never be matched by private operators. BJP condemns the open threat issued by KCR to striking RTC employees that RTC will completely be shut down sooner than later," he said.

The leader also accused KCR of taking advantage of the strike and trying to "sell the public transport system in Telangana to his pet private enterprises at the cost of poor and needy passengers and 50,000 RTC employees".

Meanwhile, Congress spokesperson Sarvan compared the chief minister to a dictator.

"Just as blind do not see the end, an arrogant dictator also does not see the rationality in others' arguments. So is the case with Rao. By-election victory has not only blinded but also deafened him," Sarvan said.

He said that the Congress party strongly condemns the arrogant response of KCR on the matter.

"We demand that he calls a discussion with the striking RTC employees and resolve the issue. It is absurd and inhumane on the part of KCR that he does not take any responsibility of RTC employees who committed suicides," the Congress leader said.

Sarvan said that all the suicides and deaths of RTC employees are blatant murders committed by the irresponsible government of KCR.

Taking a different stand, TRS ally AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi has extended support to KCR's controversial stand.

"The strike is not good for anyone. Hope the issue is resolved amicably and striking TSRTC employees should understand the gravity of the situation," Owaisi said.

Over 49,000 workers have been on strike since October 5, protesting against the state government's order to sack over 40,000 employees of TSRTC.

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News Network
June 18,2020

New Delhi, Jun 18: For the 12th consecutive day, state-run oil marketing companies (OMCs) has increased the price of fuel on Thursday.

The price of petrol is increased by 53 paise a litre while that of diesel by 64 paise a litre.

Petrol and diesel will now cost Rs 77.81/litre and Rs 76.43/litre respectively in Delhi.

Notably, oil marketing companies have been adjusting retail rates in line with costs after an 82-day break from rate revision amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. These firms on June 7 restarted revising prices in line with costs.

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Agencies
June 29,2020

Tehran, Jun 29: Iran has issued an arrest warrant and asked Interpol for help in detaining President Donald Trump and dozens of others it believes carried out the drone strike that killed a top Iranian general in Baghdad, a local prosecutor reportedly said Monday.

While Trump faces no danger of arrest, the charges underscore the heightened tensions between Iran and the United States since Trump unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers.

Tehran prosecutor Ali Alqasimehr said Trump and more than 30 others whom Iran accuses of involvement in the Jan. 3 strike that killed Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad face “murder and terrorism charges,” the semiofficial ISNA news agency reported.

Alqasimehr did not identify anyone else sought other than Trump, but stressed that Iran would continue to pursue his prosecution even after his presidency ends.

Interpol, based in Lyon, France, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Alqasimehr also was quoted as saying that Iran requested a “red notice” be put out for Trump and the others, which represents the highest level arrest request issued by Interpol. Local authorities end up making the arrests on behalf of the country that request it. The notices cannot force countries to arrest or extradite suspects, but can put government leaders on the spot and limit suspects’ travel.

After receiving a request, Interpol meets by committee and discusses whether or not to share the information with its member states. Interpol has no requirement for making any of the notices public, though some do get published on its website.

It is unlikely Interpol would grant Iran’s request as its guideline for notices forbids it from “undertaking any intervention or activities of a political” nature.

The U.S. killed Soleimani, who oversaw the Revolutionary Guard’s expeditionary Quds Force, and others in the January strike near Baghdad International Airport. It came after months of incidents raising tensions between the two countries and ultimately saw Iran retaliate with a ballistic missile strike targeting American troops in Iraq.

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Agencies
January 9,2020

Kashmir, Jan 9: US Ambassador to India Kenneth I Juster along with envoys from 15 other countries arrived in Srinagar on a two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, the first visit by diplomats since the abrogation of the erstwhile state's special status in August last year.

The Delhi-based envoys arrived in Srinagar by a special chartered flight at Srinagar's technical airport where top officials from the newly carved out union territory received them, officials said.

Later in the day, they would be going to Jammu, the winter capital of the newly created Union Territory, for an overnight stay. They will meet Lt Governor G C Murmu as well as civil society members, they said.

Besides the US, the delegation will include diplomats from Bangladesh, Vietnam, Norway, Maldives, South Korea, Morocco, and Nigeria, among others.

Brazil's envoy Andre Aranha Correa do Lago was also scheduled to visit Jammu and Kashmir. However, he backed out because of his preoccupation here, the officials said on Wednesday.

Envoys from the European Union (EU) countries are understood to have conveyed that they will visit the union territory on a different date and are also believed to have stressed on meeting the three former chief ministers -- Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti -- who are under detention.

Officials said envoys of several countries had requested the government for a visit to Kashmir to get a first-hand account of the situation in the Valley following the August 5 decision to abrogate provisions of Article 370 and bifurcate it into two union territories, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

This is the second visit of a foreign delegation to Jammu and Kashmir since August 5. Earlier, Delhi-based think tank International Institute for Non-Aligned Studies, a Delhi-based think tank took 23 EU MPs on a two-day visit to assess the situation in the union territory.

The government had distanced itself from the visit with Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy informing Parliament that the European parliamentarians were on a "private visit".

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