Gesture of support from France as it freezes JeM founder Masood Azhar’s assets

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March 16, 2019

In a bright gesture of support, France approves sanctions on JeM founder Masood Azhar. It also freezed his assets in on it’s soil. Few days ago, they pledged to designate Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist at the United Nations. JeM claimed the responsibility of Pulwama attack.

“France has decided to sanction Masood Azhar at the national level by freezing his assets in application of the Monetary and Financial Code. A joint decree of the Ministries of the Interior, and Economy and Finance was published today in the Official Gazette,” said a press statement from the Government of France that was also placed on social media by the French Ambassador to India.

Apart from creating hurdles for financial transactions, the sanction from France will also help in stopping travel by Azhar and his known followers.

Such a nice gesture by France. It would definitely put pressure on Pakistan to act against the terror groups based in its territory. Since Pulwama attack, India has sought tough actions on terrorist groups and individuals like Azhar. This move would also induce support from nations which are not openly supporting India through actions.

BookMyShow ‘booked’ by Consumer Court for illegal ‘Internet Handling Charges’

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Sugat Srivastava

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March 15, 2019

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An RTI revealed that we were paying extra while booking tickets through BookMyShow. That collection of ‘Internet Handling Charges’ is a violation of RBI’s Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) regulations.

Acting upon the RTI query Vijay Gopal, president of ‘Forum Against Corruption’ a body fighting against corruption has moved consumer court in Hyderabad against BookMyShow, PVR, and the Department of Information Technology. The case is scheduled to be heard on March 23.

If you are one of those who paid the extra ‘internet handling fee’ while booking tickets online, this is for you. The RBI in an RTI query recently stated that online platforms through which movie tickets are booked do not hold the authority to levy handling fees from customers. The reply further explains that this is in violation of the RBI’s Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) regulations.

MDR is basically cost paid by a merchant to a bank for accepting payment from its customers via credit or debit cards every time a card is used in their stores. This essentially means that it is the merchant/trader who has to pay the MDR and not the customer. Therefore levying ‘internet handling fee’ on customers is in violation of the MDR regulations and therefore illegal.

Claiming that this practice is spreading, Gopal alleges, “ Various cab services and food delivery apps like Swiggy are following the footsteps of BookMyShow”. He further said that we as citizens should come together and fight against such malpractices. Gopal also questioned the Ministry of Electronics for failing to keep a track of the violation of RBI’s MDR regulations.

“It seems that Ministry of Electronics is blindfolded by someone on this issue,” he adds.

RTI is a boon for a common man. Though it’s impact has been diluted by the present government but it is still effective. Recent revelation would check the unnecessary ‘snatching’ of money from public’s pocket by such online service providing firms.

Government allocates 1000 crores to BSNL and MTNL to clear February wages

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Sugat Srivastava

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March 13, 2019

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PSUs BSNL and MTNL have suffered tremendous loss due to low – tariff and unavailability of 4G spectrum. The loss is so huge that they are not able to pay-off the wages. Government came to the rescue and allocated Rs. 1000 crores to clear their wage bill.

A senior official of the Department of Telecom (DoT) said BSNL will clear about Rs 850 crore dues of its employees before Holi (March 21). MTNL was given Rs 171 crore on Monday and instructed to pay salaries by Wednesday.

Due to stiff competition in a low-tariff market and crippled by lack of services due to no 4G spectrum, a huge work force of 1.76 lakh and without Delhi and Mumbai as operational bases, BSNL’s profitability has suffered heavily in recent years. It’s losses widened to Rs 7,992 crore in 2017-18.

According to financial data shared by the Telecom Minister in the Lok Sabha, the company posted a loss of Rs 4,793 crore in 2016-17.

MTNL too has been on the decline. Its Q3FY19 losses widened to Rs 833 crore. The government has been footing the bill for monthly salaries of its 23,000 employees since November 2018.

While BSNL’s annual wage bill is Rs 15,000 crore, which is 85 per cent of its revenue, MTNL’s yearly wage bill is Rs 2,500 crore, 95 per cent of its revenue. In contrast, the salary bills of private operators are less than 10 per cent of their revenues.

It’s quite depressing that these already established PSUs have to rely on government. Not able to generate any profit is a failure for any company. Not only BSNL and MTNL but also many PSUs suffer from the same fate. They are walking on the crutches of government. These PSU should introspect and find why they are incompetent despite hiring the best talent pool through national level exams.

National Ganga Council has not met once since Modi took charge

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Sugat Srivastava

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March 12, 2019

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In 2014, Modi’s BJP strongly campaigned for the cleaning of the river Ganga. When they ascend to the power, they allocated huge funds for the cleaning of Ganga. Namami Gange was the name given to the project. It was an utter failure. According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), only one out of 39 locations through which the Ganga river flows had clean water in the post-monsoon period this year. In the recent revelation, an RTI by The Wire states that there has not been even a single meeting of the National Ganga Council (NGC) headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi thus far. Is our government really serious about Ganga?

The NGC was formed in October 2016. Its purpose is to preserve, protect and manage the Ganga river waters. On October 7, 2016, a notification issued by the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation stated that the NGC should hold one or more meetings every year, at its discretion.

However, information obtained from the National Clean Ganga Mission, an organisation under the water ministry, has revealed that more than two years since its formation, the NGC has not held a single meeting. The NGC is perhaps the largest committee overseeing work being done towards cleaning the Ganga.

With the formation of the NGC, the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) was dissolved. The functioning of the NGRBA was similar to the NGC, and the prime minister was the chairman of the NGRBA as well.

The NGRBA was formed after the Congress-led UPA government came to power in 2009. Its first meeting was held on October 5, 2009, under the chairmanship of then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

From 2009 to 2012, there were three meetings of the NGRBA which Manmohan Singh presided over. After this, there were three meetings between 2014 and 2016, out of which two meetings were presided over by then water minister Uma Bharti. The March 26, 2015 meeting of the Authority was chaired by Modi.

Modi ji used to blame the previous governments about the ill health of the river. (Read here) They might be as Ganga wasn’t polluted in his tenure. But the point is that he promised people and he failed to deliver. Results though do not matter but zero efforts wasn’t expected.

The condition of Ganga is pathetic. Despite this, the committee is not meeting once. The government is just ‘allocating funds’ in order to show people that they care. Not holding a single meeting, hardly any improvement in the pollution level tells a totally different story. And that story is not what our Prime Minister wants us to know.

Kashmir newspapers protest ad ‘ban’

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Sugat Srivastava

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March 11, 2019

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After Pulwama attack, government took coercive measures to deny government ads to newspapers like Greater Kashmir and Kashmir Reader. The newspapers in the valley protest by publishing blank front page and citing the incident. The Kashmir Editors Guild had earlier sought the attention of the Press Council of India and the Editors Guild to exercise their legal, ethical and professional mandate to intervene in the issue and ensure that the media was not strangulated.

Government action against the two dailies came on February 16, two days after the Pulwama attack. The government, however, did not issue any formal order and the newspapers were on February 22 informed that the ban was imposed by “higher officials” without specifying anyone.

“The government did not send us a formal order. Whoever we contacted in the government said that it was an order from the “top”,” Haji Muhammad Hayat Bhat, founder and editor of Kashmir Reader said.

Condemning the ban, the guild had said the media in Kashmir is one of the most professional and has retained its neutrality even at the cost of lives.
“It will continue to do so. The professional capacities of Kashmir media have been acknowledged world over. The Press Council of India has also issued a detailed report in 2018, detailing the issues and challenges that the Kashmir media is facing. It also addressed certain misconceptions about the media in the report. The guild also wants to reiterate that the attempts at strangulating the media is in continuation of what has happened in last more than three decades,” it said.

About the newspapers

Greater Kashmir and Kashmir Reader are English language broadsheet daily newspapers published from Srinagar.

Owned by the Greater Kashmir Communications Private Limited, the former daily began publishing as a weekly newspaper in 1987 and moved to daily publishing in 1989. The newspaper has a circulation of over 1 lakh copies per day, Rashid Makhdoomi, printer and publisher of Greater Kashmir said.

1700 species of birds and animals can become extinct in the next 50 years

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Sugat Srivastava

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March 10, 2019

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Human encroachment has already caused an irreparable harm to the nature. Many species in the past has become extinct due to poaching, encroachment, loss of habitat, hunting for body parts, etc. Nearly 1,700 species of amphibians, birds and mammals are likely to lose their natural habitats and face greater extinction risk by 2070 due to increased human land use.

A new study has revealed that in nearly 5 decades since 1970, 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptile species were wiped out from the face of out planet, due to human activity. A study by Ecologists at Yale University has warned that in the next 50 years 886 species of amphibians, 436 birds and 376 mammals could go extinct due to habitat loss.

The saddest part is that humans are well aware of this approaching danger. Still, they are taking actions. In fact, recently China reversed 25-year ban on Rhino and Tiger Parts. Just see yourself what we should do and what we are doing. Save environment before it becomes late.

Kolkata police seized vehicle containing 1000 kg explosives

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Sugat Srivastava

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March 9, 2019

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Police seized 1000 kg of explosive substances were seized from a vehicle in Chitpur area of Kolkata. Such a huge quantity of explosives could have levelled a large area in future.

Police officers were acting on a tip-off. They intercepted police a goods vehicle near Tala bridge on the BT Road in the early hours of Saturday. It contained 27 gunny bags containing about 1,000 kg of potassium nitrate which they seized. Two persons – the driver and his helper have been arrested. Potassium Nitrate is used in making explosives.

“The vehicle was coming from Odisha and was heading towards North 24 Parganas district. We have arrested the driver and the helper of the goods vehicle. We are interrogating the duo and trying to find out more details from them,” police officer said.

Intercepting and seizing such huge amount of explosives is quite significant. This is much like intercepting a plot for future terrorist activity.

Attorney General took 180 degree turn, now says documents not stolen

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Sugat Srivastava

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March 8, 2019

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In a bizarre turn of events, Attorney General now claims that the petitioners used the photocopies. They didn’t steal the documents. Earlier, healleged the petitioners for stealing and later blamed the public servants.

His comments in the apex court on Wednesday that Rafale fighter jet deal documents were stolen caused a political row, with Congress president Rahul Gandhi targeting the government over stealing of such sensitive papers and seeking a criminal investigation.

“I am told that the opposition has alleged what was argued (in SC) was that files had been stolen from the Defence Ministry. This is wholly incorrect. The statement that files have been stolen is wholly incorrect,” he told PTI, in an apparent damage-control exercise.

Venugopal said the application filed by Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and Prashant Bhushant, seeking from the court a review of its verdict dismissing pleas for a probe into against the Rafale deal, had annexed three documents which were photocopies of the original.

Official sources said the AG’s use of word stolen was probably “stronger” and could have been avoided.

The government had also warned The Hindu newspapers with a case under Official Secrets Act for publishing articles based on these documents.

Stolen or not, the point is – such documents do exist. That means, the deal is shady. Let’s see how much shady and below the belt it is by the verdict of the Apex Court.

Government blames public servants for stolen Rafale Documents

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Sugat Srivastava

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March 7, 2019

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Rafale Documents are missing. This news itself is a shock. Progression of shocks led to the blaming of public servants for the steal. The opposition is not losing the golden opportunity to attack the government on ‘carelessness’. Government has also imposed Official Secrets Act on the newspaper The Hindu.

Attorney General KK Venugopal said papers regarding the pricing of the Rafales were stolen from ministry files and given to The Hindu newspaper for publishing. He also argued that a report by the newspaper could not be taken up as evidence against the government. Justice KM Joseph injected some sense into the debate and said that even stolen evidence could be looked into provided it was authentic and relevant.

KK Venugopal also said a review petition and an affidavit filed by senior advocate Prashant Bhushan contained extracts from the stolen documents, and these should be dismissed. He also demanded imposing the Official Secrets Act. But Prashant Bhushan said there was no infringement, explaining that the information on file notings was open under the Right To Information. Venugopal countered the point by reading out the RTI Act and said it exempted defence documents from disclosure.

Rafale deal has already been the political flash point. On one hand, the Congress has relentlessly accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of crony capitalism and corruption, pointing — among other things — to the choice of Reliance Defence as an offset partner of the jetmaker, Dassault Aviation.

On the other hand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi says India felt the absence of Rafale fighters as tensions with Pakistan escalated last week.

Supreme court has already cleared the deal but a review petition has been filed by Prashant Bhushan and his associates. On this, Attorney General Venugopal told the court on Wednesday that judicial review of the Rafale case would affect future defence purchases.

Venugopal said the court shouldn’t get into the Rafale issue, as any observation by it would be used by the Opposition to destabilise the government.

The million dollar question is that how can the government lose such important documents? Was it their carelessness or they deliberately hiding it? Whatever be the reason, now the government has started blaming public servants for the leak. The ultimate point is that such documents do exist which can topple the ‘clean deal’ claim of the government. Let’s see how the story unfolds.

‘Digital India’ endorsing party BJP’s site under maintenance

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Sugat Srivastava

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March 6, 2019

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The crusaders of Digital India are finding themselves in the doldrums. The official site of BJP was hacked yesterday and it is ‘under maintenance’ since then. BJP denied hacking but everyone knows that! Screenshots of the hacked home page showed an unflattering meme of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, captioned with language containing abusive terms. We all know that cyberspace has also become war-field for Indian and Pakistani hackers.

That meme pokes fun at a clip in which German Chancellor Angela Merkel walks past the prime minister as he extends his hand, expecting her to shake it. A caption above the meme said, in abusive language: “Brothers and sisters, I’ve fooled all of you. Brothers and sisters, we’ve fooled all of you. More to come! Many, many congratulations!” Below the meme was a video with the song ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.

The BJP website was down at the time when this story was last updated. Congress could not resist taking a swipe at its arch-rival. “If you’re not looking at the BJP website right now — you’re missing out,” said Divya Spandana, head of social media for the main opposition party.

Today, BJP sources denied the website had been hacked. “The website wasn’t hacked. It’s just a technical issue which is being fixed. No complaint has been lodged with the police. The website will be operational at the earliest,” a source in the BJP’s information technology cell said, requesting not to be named.

But Subimal Bhattacharjee, a cybersecurity expert contested the claim. “Some level of wrongdoing has happened. Someone did gain access to the website. BJP’s website is one of the most active political websites here with a lot of content,” he told NDTV.

“It’s good that instead of coming up with a back-up website, they are working to fix all the loopholes,” he added.

Let’s hope BJP retains its site as early as possible. Site under maintenance doesn’t look good for their propaganda.

Tag: maverickworks

About the newspapers