Congress begins seeking out allies on Presidential race

April 27, 2012

RastraNew Delhi, April 27: With two months left for the installation of the new President, the Congress has begun consultations with United Progressive Alliance (UPA) allies in the hope of achieving agreement on a common name. Defence Minister A.K. Antony will be flying down to Chennai shortly to meet Dravida Munnetra Kazagham president M. Karunanidhi to discuss the coming presidential elections, senior Congress sources said.

And when West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee arrives here on May 4/5 for talks between the Centre and the States on the contentious National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC), she is likely to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi on the subject of the next President, according to senior Congress sources.

Mamata-SP envoy meet

Ms. Banerjee recently met Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav's envoy, Kiranmay Nanda, on the issue, leading to speculation that the regional parties would try and force a name of their choice on the Congress. After this meeting, a section in the Congress, angered by the episode, began to say the party could get Vice-President Hamid Ansari elected President with the help of the Left parties even if the Trinamool decided to support some other candidate. But, of course, if the Congress were to do that, the Trinamool would not be able to continue in the UPA. “The Congress has to first get its own partners on board,” party sources stressed.

Pawar's clarification

On Thursday, Union Agriculture Minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar met Ms. Sonia Gandhi at her invitation: he is believed to have clarified to her that he had not said that he was in favour of a non-political President — what was important was that there should be consensus on a name.

In the first round of talks, the Congress is hoping to get the green signal on a common name from all its major partners, starting with the Trinamool, the DMK and the NCP — which have the largest chunk of votes after the Congress in the UPA. In the second part of this exercise, the Congress will begin discussions with parties that are supporting it from outside, especially the vote-rich SP and Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party.

In the final round, the Congress will talk to the opposition parties because it is still working to avoid a contest. But party sources have made it clear that the name that appears to be emanating from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) circles — that of former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam — is unacceptable to it. If the BJP insists on that name, there will be a contest, Congress sources stressed.

However, even as Delhi is swirling with the names of presidential probables, the Congress is holding its cards close to its chest. In the end, it could even be a name currently not in circulation.

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Agencies
July 13,2020

New Delhi, Jul 13: The Land & Development Office, which comes under the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, has sent a notice to news agency PTI, demanding it to cough up more than Rs 84 crore as penalty. The notice dated July 7 says that the penalty has been imposed due to "breaches" at its office in Delhi.

The notice that sought Rs 84,48,23,281 argues that "the less will be pleased to regularise the breaches in the premises temporarily up to 14.07.2020 and withdraw the right of re-entry of the premises subject to the following conditions being fulfilled by you within 30 days from the date of issue of this letter."

The notice also stipulates that the news agency needs to give an undertaking on non-judicial stamp paper stating that it will pay the difference of "misuse/damage charges" if the land rates are revised with effect from 01.04.2016 by the government and will also remove the "breaches" by 14.07.2020 or get them regularised by paying charges.

The notice also warns that further action to execute the deed has to be subject to complete payment and putting the premise to use according to the masterplan.

The Land & Development Office so warned that an additional 10 per cent interest may need to be coughed out by PTI if it fails to furnish the concerned amount within the stipulated time period.

Additionally, if the news agency fails to comply with the terms within the said period, the concession will be withdrawn. In other words, they will have to pay the penalty up to the actual date of payment then and will also be subject to actions.

This stern notice for alleged violations by PTI comes closely on the heels of national broadcaster Prasar Bharati locking horns with PTI over its reportage that it called "anti national".

Prasar Bharti had recently sent a letter threatening to end its "relationship" with PTI after it carried an interview of Chinese Ambassador Sun Weidong, where he blamed India for the India-China violent standoff that saw 20 Indian bravehearts getting martyred.

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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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Agencies
January 12,2020

Lucknow, Jan 12: The controversy over renowned Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmad Faiz's iconic poem 'Hum dekhenge' may have caused an upheaval in the literary world but it has also helped in resurrecting the famous poet for the young generations.

Students and young professionals are making a beeline for books on Faiz, his biography and his poems and book sellers are ordering supplies of Faiz books.

"Earlier, we sold hardly one book in a month or on Faiz but after the controversy, people are curious to know more about the poet and his poems. We have placed orders for the entire literary range on Faiz Ahmad Faiz," said a leading book seller in Hazratganj in Lucknow.

The bookseller said that the highest demand was for books written in Devnagri script.

"Not many in the young generation can read or write Urdu so they prefer Devnagri," the book seller said.

In Kanpur, most of the leading bookshops have already run out of stocks and book stalls in the ongoing Handloom Expo are drawing huge crowds for Faiz books.

Suchita Srivastava, B.Ed student in Kanpur said, "I have never been fond of Urdu poetry because I do not understand much of the language but after the controversy, I want to read poems of Faiz to understand what he wanted to say. I am taking help of Google to understand difficult words in Urdu."

Krishna Rao, another student at the Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology, said that since books on Faiz had been sold out, he had ordered a Kindle edition and was reading them.

"Reading his poems actually widens one's perspective of things and becomes even more precious if you take into account the time and context in which they were written," he said.

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