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Bihar in flux as Manjhi wants House dissolved

February 8, 2015

Patna, Feb 8: Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi has recommended the dissolution of the Assembly to pre-empt his mentor-turned-rival and Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar’s attempts to replace him.

Manjhi

On Saturday, Mr. Kumar, who was elected leader of the JD(U) legislature party, is set to stake claim to form a new government and urged the Governor to reject Mr. Manjhi’s recommendation, arguing that he had lost the majority. Twenty Ministers from the Nitish camp had resigned.

Mr. Manjhi is moving with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), say sources in both camps, in a major blow to the attempts to forge a united front against the saffron party ahead of the Assembly elections scheduled for November.

The JD(U) and Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) had buried the hatchet after their defeat at the hands of the BJP in May 2014, but Mr. Manjhi’s rebellion can derail their plans.

Mr. Kumar had given way to Mr. Manjhi, accepting moral responsibility for the party’s Lok Sabha defeat, but Mr. Manjhi soon began to assert himself and placed himself as a Mahadalit leader, causing friction between him and Mr. Kumar.

The lingering tension between the two came to the fore in an interview that Mr. Manjhi gave to The Hindu on January 6, setting off a series of developments that culminated in Saturday’s split.

Some last-minute efforts at truce did not bear fruit, with the Chief Minister holding a marathon meeting with Mr. Kumar at his 7 Circular Road residence.

Sources said Mr. Kumar refused to accept three demands put forward by Mr. Manjhi.

Mr. Manjhi left for Delhi on Saturday, where he is expected to meet BJP leaders. Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviewed the Bihar situation with leaders on Saturday.

Responding to people’s complaints, says Nitish

Without naming Mr. Manjhi, the visibly emboldened Mr. Kumar said that the need to remove him came when people were coming and complaining about his controversial statements every day. “People of the state appeared to have lost faith in him [Manjhi] and good governance was in danger”, he added.

“Now I’ve come and will lead the party from the front. We’ve majority support and we’ll definitely stake claim, if need be, to form the government in the State,” he declared.

Mr. Manjhi had called the JD(U) legislators meeting “unauthorized and unconstitutional,” and wrote to Governor, Keshari Nath Tripathi recommending dissolution of the Assembly.

At the meeting, 97 out of total 111 [membership of 8 party MLAs were terminated earlier] JD-U MLAs and 37 MLCs were present in the meeting.

In a letter to the Governor and the President of India, 130 legislators — including 24 from RJD, five from Congress and one of Communist Party India — claimed majority support in the Assembly for Mr. Kumar.

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News Network
April 23,2020

Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 23: Amid opposition charges, the Kerala government on Tuesday constituted a two-member committee to examine whether the privacy of personal and sensitive data of COVID-19 patients has been protected under the agreement entered by it with US-based IT firm Sprinklr.

The committee, headed by former Special IT Sscretary M Madhavan Nambiar and former health secretary Rajeev Sadanandan, will also ascertain whether adequate procedures were followed while finalising the arrangements with the private company.

The Opposition Congress has been levelling charges that the collection of data by the US firm violated the fundamental rights of the patients.

In its order, state government said it had initiated steps to set up a Data Analytics platform to integrate data from various sources available in the government to meet the "exigency of a massive and unprecedented surge of epidemic".

The committee will also examine whether deviations, if any, are fair, justified and reasonable considering the extraordinary and critical situation faced by the state, it said.

Meanwhile, the Kerala High Court on Tuesday asked the state government to file its reply by April 24 on a plea seeking to quash its contract with the US-based firm.

Expressing concern over the confidentiality of the citizen's data processed by a third party, the court sought to know why the sanction of the law department was not taken before finalising the agreement.

The court hailed the state government's fight against COVID-19, but said it is concerned about data confidentiality.

The government informed the court that the agreement with Sprinklr has safeguards for data protection "as per standard practices of software as a service model."

The ward-level committees, set up by the government for the anti-coronavirus fight, collect information of those under home isolation, the elderly and those at the risk of the disease, using a questionnaire and later uploads it on the server of the private agency.

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Agencies
July 28,2020

New Delhi, Jul 28: Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had "unconstitutionally" merged six MLAs of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) with the Congress in Rajasthan, he did the same in his earlier tenure too, for which we wanted to teach him and his party a lesson, said BSP chief Mayawati on Tuesday.

The BSP chief added that her party could have gone to courts earlier but decided to wait for the "right opportunity".

"In Rajasthan, after elections results, BSP gave unconditional support of all its 6 MLAs to Congress. Unfortunately, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, out of his malicious intent and to damage BSP, merged them with Congress unconstitutionally. He did the same even during his earlier tenure," Mayawati said here.

"BSP could have gone to the court earlier too but we were looking for the time to teach Congress party and CM Ashok Gehlot a lesson. Now we have decided to go to the Court. We will not let this matter alone. We will go even to the Supreme Court," she added.

The BSP chief further reiterated that the party has asked the six MLAs to vote against the Congress government led by Ashok Gehlot if a trust vote takes place on the floor of the Rajasthan Assembly, failing which "their party membership will be cancelled".
She further said that the merger of BSP MLAs with Congress was immoral and went against the mandate given by voters in Rajasthan.
"Ulta-chor kotwal ko daante (the thief accuses the cop of wrongs) they (Congress) themselves indulge in wrongdoing and then accuse us," she further said.
On Sunday, the BSP issued a whip to six MLAs, asking them to vote against Congress in case of a no-confidence motion or any proceedings to be held during the Rajasthan Assembly session.

National General Secretary of BSP Satish Chandra Mishra, while speaking to news agecncy said, "Notices have been issued to the six MLAs separately as well as collectively, pointing out that since BSP is a National Party, there cannot be any merger at the state level at the instance of six MLAs unless there is a merger of BSP at the national level. If they violate it, they will be disqualified.

Notices have been issued to all six MLAs- - R Gudha, Lakhan Singh, Deep Chand, JS Awana, Sandeep Kumar and Wajib Ali, who are elected to the Rajasthan Assembly."
However, later on Monday, Lakhan Singh, hit back saying he and the five others had already joined the Congress.

"We six MLAs have already joined the Congress. BSP remembered us after nine months. They have issued this whip, after a message from the BJP. On this basis they are going to court", said Karauli MLA Lakhan Singh.

Rajasthan government is in turmoil after simmering differences between Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and Gehlot came out in the open. Pilot was removed as the Deputy Chief Minister and the state unit chief of Congress.

The Congress has accused the BJP of indulging in horse-trading to bring down the Gehlot government. The BJP has rejected the allegations.

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Agencies
June 8,2020

Idukki, Jun 8: Devikulam MLA S Rajendran from CPM along with supporters staged a protest by blocking the Munnar-Udumalpet interstate highway here on Monday, demanding that action to be taken to prevent wild elephants entering into human settlements and destroying properties.

The protest started at 9.30 am and demand was made that senior forest officials should give them assurance of putting an end to the problem.

A police team led by Munnar Deputy Superintendent of Police (SP) Ramesh Kumar was camping in the area.

Wild elephants from the nearby forest are frequently trespassing into Munnar and last night two elephants destroyed a vegetable shop in the town.

If it was a lone elephant that the locals nicknamed as Padayappa that used to enter the human settlement, now along with him a baby elephant is also coming to the town at night.

The locals have named the second elephant Ganeshan. Though there were instances of them destroying crops and eating from vegetable shops, till now the duo has not attacked humans.

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