Rahul Gandhi not to be PM candidate, to lead Congress campaign for L S polls

January 16, 2014

New Delhi, Jan 16: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi will lead the party's campaign for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections but will not be declared prime ministerial candidate, the party said Thursday.

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A meeting of the extended Congress Working Committee (CWC) Thursday evening decided the agenda for the All India Congress Committee (AICC) meeting Friday, in which a resolution will be moved about the role of Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha polls.

Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi told reporters after the CWC meeting that there was a demand from several leaders to declare Rahul Gandhi the prime ministerial candidate but party president Sonia Gandhi intervened to say that the Congress did not have the tradition of declaring a prime ministerial candidate.

He said the CWC decided that the resolution be moved at the AICC meeting.

"This meeting of CWC declares that the 2014 election campaign will be led by Rahul Gandhi," Dwivedi said reading out the resolution.

Dwivedi said Sonia Gandhi told the meeting that it was not necessary for the Congress to declare a prime ministerial candidate even if some other party had done so.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has declared Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi its prime ministerial candidate.

Dwivedi said it was always known in the Congress who will lead the poll campaign.Answering queries, he said the resolution means that the 2014 elections will be contested under "one leadership".

He said the party has been consistently saying that Rahul Gandhi was the party leader next to Sonia Gandhi.

"Rahul Gandhi is the leader of the future," he said.

Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi said he was always ready to discharge any responsibility given to him by the party.

He also said there were attempts to strike at the Congress ideology and there was a need to strengthen it.

Dwivedi said the party's election leaders were known from the time of Jawaharlal Nehru even if there was no announcement of the prime ministerial candidate.

He said an announcement was made about Manmohan Singh's candidature as prime minister ahead of the 2009 Lok Sabha polls as he was already holding the position.

Manmohan Singh had announced earlier this month that he will not be seeking another term as prime minister.

Sources said several CWC members at the meeting asked the party-led United Progressive Alliance government to take immediate steps to check price rise.

They demanded an increase in subsidised cooking gas cylinders from nine to 12 for each household.

They said the concerns were targeted at Petroleum Minister M. Veerapa Moily, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who were all present at the meeting.

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News Network
June 8,2020

New Delhi, June 8: Only 20.26 lakh migrant workers of the targeted 8 crore such labourers have received free food grains in May and June (2020), according to data released by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.

In the middle of May, as part of the Rs 20 lakh crore Atma Nirbhar Bharat package, the Modi government had announced that migrant labourers who are not covered under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) or any state-run PDS scheme, will receive free food grains for two months.

"Non-card holders shall be given 5 kg wheat or rice per person and 1 kg chana per family per month for the next 2 months. About 8 crore migrants will benefit from this scheme that will cost the government Rs 3500 crore,” Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said at a press conference following PM Modi’s announcement.

But the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said on Sunday, "The states and UTs have lifted 4.42 LMT (lakh metric tonne) of food grains and distributed 10,131 MT of it to 20.26 lakh beneficiaries."

It added, "The Government of India also approved 39,000 MT pulses for 1.96 crore migrant families. Around 28,306 MT gram/dal have been dispatched to the states and UTs. A total 15,413 MT gram have been lifted by various states and UTs". The state governments, the ministry added, had distributed only 631MT (metric tonnes) of gram so far.

Because of the constant movement of migrant workers, the Centre had said that the states will be responsible for identifying the migrants and subsequent food distribution.

The Centre claims it is spending approximately Rs 3,109 crore for food grains and Rs 280 crores for grams/chana under this package.

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News Network
February 17,2020

New Delhi, Feb 17: Two alleged criminals were killed in an exchange of fire with the Special Cell of Delhi Police at Pul Pehlad Pur area in New Delhi on Monday morning, officials said.

The encounter took place around 5 am, they said.

Raja Qureshi and Ramesh Bahadur, who were injured during the encounter, were rushed to a nearby hospital, where they were declared brought dead by doctors, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) P S Kushwah said.

According to police, the two men were involved in multiple cases of murder and robbery.

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News Network
January 27,2020

Jan 27: Bollywood Film Director Anurag Kashyap, who has been vocal about his political views on social media, slammed Union Minister Amit Shah and accused him of being 'cheap'.

"How timid our Home Minister is. Its own police, its own goons, its own army and security increases and invades unarmed protestors. Amit Shah has crossed the extent of cheapness and inferiority. History will spit on this animal," Kashyap tweeted.

The film director has taken an active part in the anti-Citizenship Act protest rallies and was against the Jawaharlal Nehru violence. He also came in support of his contemporary Deepika Padukone when the latter faced backlash for showing up at JNU in support of the students.

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