Kerala govt tables solar scam report in assembly amidst uproar

Agencies
November 9, 2017

Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 9: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday tabled the judicial commission report on solar scam and said it has found that his predecessor Oommen Chandy and his staff provided all help to accused Saritha S Nair and her company to dupe people.

Vijayan presented the four-volume report by Justice G Sivarajan and a Memorandum of Action taken by the government in this regard on the floor of the House during the special session.

It is for the first time in the history of the Kerala Assembly that a special session was convened to table the report of a judicial panel.

Detailing the content of the report, he said the Commission had found out that former chief minister Chandy and his personal staff had provided all help to Solar Scam accused Saritha S Nair and her company to dupe their customers.

The Commission also recommended a probe into various allegations raised in a letter written by Saritha under CrPC, IPC and other related rules, Vijayan said.

Besides bribery charges against various opposition leaders, the Commission report also found that they had got "sexual pleasure" from the accused, he said.

"The Commission has pointed out that this (sexual pleasure) comes under the ambit of illegal gratification pointed out in the Prevention of Corruption Act," he said.

Vijayan said the government would initiate legal proceedings, including under the Prevention of Corruption Act, against all persons, who are found by the Commission as having indulged in corruption.

An order has been issued forming a Special Investigation Team to probe various aspects of the solar scam based on the findings and recommendations of the Commission, the left leader said.

"The government's policy is that justice should be equal to all...That is why the government has taken the stand that further proceedings will be initiated only after receiving clear legal opinion in this regard," Vijayan added.

As soon as the Chief Minister stood up to table the report, Opposition members protested stating that Vijayan had committed a breach of privilege of the House by briefing the media last month about the content of the Commission's report before tabling it in the Assembly.

However, the Chief Minister denied the charges and said he did not go into the merit of the report during the media brief and the panel report became a public document when it was presented in the cabinet.

"It may be for the first time in the history of the state Assembly that the report of an enquiry commission is being tabled here within such a short span of time," Vijayan said.

He said the government decided to table it fast as it had received a number of requests to get a copy of the report from various persons including opposition leaders.

The state government had also sought a legal opinion from Supreme Court former judge Justice Arijit Pasayat before issuing further orders based on the report, the Chief Minister added.

Leader of Opposition in the assembly Ramesh Chennithala said they would oppose any move by the government to use the Judicial report as a weapon for "political revenge".

He also alleged that Vijayan's media briefing on the report amounted to "disrespect" to the House and "violation" of its code of conduct.

Justice G Sivarajan had submitted his report to the government on September 26, four years after the previous UDF government constituted the commission when charges surfaced about duping of several persons of crores of rupees by Saritha S Nair and her accomplice Biju Radhakrishnan by offering solar panel solutions.

The commission, set up in October 2013, had held 353 sittings, examined 214 witnesses and 972 documents.

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News Network
April 15,2020

New Delhi, Apr 15: With 1,076 new COVID-19 cases reported in the last 24 hours, India's tally of coronavirus cases has risen to 11,439, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Wednesday.

Out of the total tally, 9,756 cases are active while 1,306 patients have been cured/discharged and migrated.

With 38 new deaths reported in the last 24 hours, the death toll rises to 377.

According to the ministry, Maharashtra is the worst-affected state with 2,687 cases of which 259 patients have recovered/discharged while 178 patients have lost their lives due to the virus.

Delhi comes in at the second position with 1,561 cases of which 30 patients have recovered while 30 patients have succumbed to the virus.

Tamil Nadu is the third state with over 1,000 cases at 1,204 cases of which 81 have recovered and 12 have died due to the deadly virus.

Rajasthan is nearing the 1,000 mark with 969 cases of which 147 people have recovered while 3 patients are dead. Madhya Pradesh reported 730 cases including 51 patients recovered and 50 patients dead.

On Tuesday, in an address to the nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the 21-day national lockdown has been extended till May 3.

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News Network
January 27,2020

New Delhi, Jan 27: Remember the story of two friends coming face-to-face with a bear in a forest? One of the two friends climbs the tree to save his life and the other, not knowing how to, lays on the ground, breathless, pretending to be dead.

Well, that lesson turned out to be useful for this man who pretended to be dead when a tiger had both his paws on the man's chest.

Yes, that is right. IFS officer Parveen Kaswan recently shared a video of a man lying under a tiger, with their faces extremely close to each other with the caption, "You want to see how does a narrow escape looks like in case of an encounter with a #tiger. #Tiger was cornered by the crowd. But fortunately, the end was fine for both man and tiger. Sent by a senior."

Another Twitter user shared the full 30-second video in the comments. He also said that the incident occured in Tumsar in Bhandara district, Maharashtra. The spine-chilling clip shows a tiger running freely in the fields trying to avoid people who have surrounded him and are trying to shoo him away.

In his quest to run away, the scared tiger grabs a human. When he sees that people are still approaching him and trying to scare him away, he gets up and runs away for his life. All this while, the man who was captured by the animal lays still on the ground and does not make an attempt to get free.

This is what stuck with Twitter and they are praising the man for his presence of mind.

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News Network
January 8,2020

Sydney, Jan 8:  Authorities in Australia will begin five-day campaign to kill thousands of camels in the country as they drink too much water amid the wildfires.  The government will send helicopters to kill up to 10,000 camels in a five-day campaign starting Wednesday, The Hill reported citing The Australian.

Marita Baker, an Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) (large, sparsely-populated local government area for Aboriginal Australians) executive board member, said that the camels were causing problems in her community of Kanypi.

"We have been stuck in stinking hot and uncomfortable conditions, feeling unwell, because the camels are coming in and knocking down fences, getting in around the houses and trying to get to water through air conditioners,'' she said.

The planned killing of the camels comes at a time the country is ravaged by wildfires since November. The disaster has killed more than a dozen people and caused the displacement or deaths of 480 million animals, according to University of Sydney researchers.

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