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PM Narendra Modi launches three ambitious schemes for transforming urban India

June 26, 2015

New Delhi, Jun 26: Marking a major initiative for urban development in the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday launched the Smart Cities Mission, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and Housing for All.

modi-smart-city

The main objective of the three ambitious schemes launched by the Prime Minister is to develop Indian cities and towns as new engines of growth.

The three big ticket projects – Smart Cities Mission, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) and the Housing for All, now named as Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), are worth Rs four lakh crore.

While AMRUT seeks to ensure basic infrastructure and sanitation, PMAY enables the urban poor to own decent and affordable houses.

Launching these three schemes, the Prime Minister said under Smart Cities Mission, quality of life will be enhanced in 100 identified cities and towns by ensuring quality infrastructure, improving services through application of smart solutions and enabling a clean and sustainable environment.

These 500 cities will become engines of growth and they in turn should develop into smart cities, Modi said.

Citing the existing housing shortage of 2 crore units, the Prime Minister said that India was completing 75 years of independence in 2022, and by then, it was our responsibility to provide a house for everyone.

Modi said today there is a lack of holistic vision about urban planning, and expansion is driven not by the administrators of a city, but by property developers. Through AMRUT, the aim of the Government is to give cities themselves the chance to plan their future growth.

PM also unveiled the criteria and guidelines for the smart cities and other schemes besides releasing operational guidelines for the three urban missions, unveiling logos and tag lines.

500 cities having 1 lakh and more population will be chosen for AMRUT project, PM Modi said, adding that neither the Centre not states will have any discretion in choosing 100 cities through a competition for smart cities scheme.

The Minister for Urban Development Venkaiah Naidu, and the Minister of State for Urban Development Babul Supriyo, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis, the Chief Minister of Haryana Manohar Lal Khattar, and the Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Nirmal Kumar Singh were present on the occasion.

The launching event will be followed by a two-day workshop in which over 1000 mayors, municipal heads, ministers concerned from states and their chief secretaries will take part.

UP leads the pack as it has been given the opportunity to nominate 13 cities to be developed as smart cities, while 54 cities in the state have been identified under AMRUT scheme.

Tamil Nadu comes second with the allocation of 12 smart cities and 33 AMRUT cities.

While Maharashtra has been alloted 10 cities to nominate under the smart city project, Gujarat and Karnataka are eligible to develop six cities each.

Under AMRUT scheme, 37, 31 and 21 cities have been identified in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka respectively.

Delhi has got one city each for Smart City and AMRUT.

According to the criteria finalised by the government, West Bengal and Rajasthan get to nominate four cities for the smart city project; Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab three cities; Odisha, Haryana, Telangana and Chhatisgarh two cities; and Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Jharkhand, Assam, Himachal, Goa, Arunachal and Chandigarh one city each.

Similarly, under the AMRUT scheme, 31 cities have been identified in Andhra Pradesh; 30 in Rajasthan; 28 in West Bengal; 27 in Bihar; 19 in Odisha and Haryana; 18 in Kerala; 17 in Punjab; 15 in Telangana and 10 in Chhattisharh.

Twelve states - UP, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, MP, Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Telangana and Chhattisgarh would lead the urban transformation piloted by the Modi-led government.

These 12 states account for 70 percent of smart cities to be developed and AMRUT cities to be rejuvenated.

Of these 12 states, eight are under the rule of BJP or its allies accounting for about half of smart cities to be developed and 225 of 476 AMRUT cities identified so far. UTs are also the responsibility of central government.

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News Network
June 18,2020

New Delhi, Jun 18: The Delhi High Court Thursday asked the Delhi Police to file status report on a plea by Jamia Coordination Committee member Safoora Zargar, who was arrested under the anti-terror law --UAPA -- seeking bail in a case related to communal violence in northeast Delhi during protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act in February.

Zargar, M Phil student of Jamia Millia Islamia University, is more than four months pregnant.

Justice Rajiv Shakdher issued notice to the police and asked it to file a status report on the bail plea.

The high court listed the matter for further hearing on June 22.

Zargar, who was arrested by the Special Cell of Delhi Police on April 10, has challenged the June 4 order of the trial court denying her bail in the case.

The trial court, in its order, had said “when you choose to play with embers, you cannot blame the wind to have carried the spark a bit too far and spread the fire.”

It had said that during the course of investigation a larger conspiracy was discernible and if there was prima evidence of conspiracy, acts and statements made by any one of the conspirators, it is admissible against all.

The court had said that even if there was no direct act of violence attributable to the accused (Zargar), she cannot shy away from her liability under the provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

However, the trial court had asked the concerned jail superintendent to provide adequate medical aid and the assistance to Zargar.

The police had earlier claimed that Zargar allegedly blocked a road near Jaffrabad metro station during the anti-CAA protests and instigated people that led to the riots in the area.

It further claimed that she was allegedly part of the “premediated conspiracy” to incite communal riots in northeast Delhi in February.

Communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi on February 24 after violence between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and scores injured.

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News Network
May 9,2020

New Delhi, May 9: Three promoters of Ram Dev International, recently booked by the CBI for allegedly cheating a consortium of six banks to the tune of Rs 411 crore, have already fled the country before the State Bank of India reached the agency with the complaint, officials said on Saturday.

The CBI had recently booked the company engaged in export of Basmati rice to the West Asian and European countries and its directors Naresh Kumar, Suresh Kumar and Sangita on the basis of complaint from the State Bank of India (SBI), which suffered the loss of more than Rs 173 crore, they said.

The company had three rice milling plants, besides eight sorting and grading units in Karnal district with offices in Saudi Arabia and Dubai for trading purposes, the SBI complaint said.

Besides SBI, other members of consortium are Canara Bank, Union Bank of India, IDBI, Central Bank of India and Corporation Bank, they said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) did not carry out any searches in the matter because of the coronavirus-induced lockdown, the officials said.

The agency will start the process of summoning the accused, incase they do not join the investigation, appropriate legal action will be initiated, they said.

According to the complaint filed by SBI, the account had become non-performing asset (NPA) on January 27, 2016.

The banks conducted a joint inspection of properties in August and October, nearly 7-9 months later only to find Haryana Police security guards deployed there, they said.

"On inquiry, it has been come to notice that borrowers are absconding and have left the country," the complaint filed on February 25, 2020, after over a year of account becoming NPA, the officials said.

The complaint alleged that borrowers had removed entire machinery from old plant and fudged the balance sheets in order to unlawfully gain at the cost of banks'' funds, it said.

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Agencies
August 4,2020

New Delhi, Aug 4: India witnessed a single-day spike of 52,050 COVID-19 cases as the total cases in the country reached 18,55,746, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Tuesday.

803 COVID-19 related deaths were reported in the last 24 hours. The total cases include 5,86,298 active cases, 12,30,510 cured/discharged/migrated and 38,938 deaths, the Health Ministry added.

Maharashtra continues to be the worst-affected state as it has a total of 1,47,324 active cases and 15,842 deaths. A total of 4,50,196 coronavirus cases have been recorded in the state up to Monday, according to Union Ministry of Health.

Tamil Nadu reported 5,609 new COVID-19 cases and 109 deaths on Monday, taking total cases to 2,63,222 including 2,02,283 discharges and 4,241 deaths, the state Health Department said.

The total cases in Delhi have risen to 1,38,482 including 1,24,254 recovered/discharged/migrated cases and 4,021 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health.

Meanwhile, India recorded the highest single-day testing by conducting over 6.6 lakh tests to diagnose COVID-19 in the last 24 hours.
"In its fight against COVID-19, India scales a new high of 6,61,715 tests in the last 24 hours," said the Health Ministry in a tweet.

A total of 2,08,64,206 samples for COVID-19 have been tested across the country so far, said the Health Ministry.

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