India rejects Pak demand to free driver
New Delhi: Amidst a continued standoff on cross-loC trade, India rejected Pakistan’s demand for the release of a Pakistani driver arrested for smuggling narcotics worth Rs100 crore across the loC and said that the criminal will have to face the “full force of Indian law”. India has already summoned Pakistan Acting High Commissioner on Tuesday in connection with the suspension of Srinagar-Muzaffarabad and Rawalakot-Poonch bus services by Pakistan, which has demanded release of its driver. In a tit-for-tat action, authorities in PoK detained 27 Indian truck drivers and demanded release of their driver.
S-1 coaches in trains to have security escort
New Delhi: Wondering where to find security personnel on board the trains in case of an emergencyIJ This issue has been addressed now with the Railways deciding to earmark berth no. 71 in coach S-1 in all the trains having security escort, which will act as a sort of security picket. The idea of having a dedicated berth for the security personnel is to help passengers to locate them easily in case of some emergency, a railway official said. However, this will not apply to trains which are devoid of sleepers, like Shatabdi and Rajdhani.
Namo’s godhra rhetoric ‘unoriginal’, says tewari
New Delhi: Union Minister Manish Tewari slammed Narendra Modi’s speech as “unoriginal” and raised the 2002 Godhra incident to question the Gujarat Chief Minister’s claim that train travellers felt safe on entering his State. Picking on Modi’s speech at a rally in Gorakhpur, in which he had attacked Congress, Tewari said he thought the most “amusing part” of the speech was that “even the rhetoric is unoriginal”. He said in 1991, former Prime Minister Chandrasekhar had given a slogan 4 months qua 40 years. “And now, 23 years later, the CM of Gujarat repeats those same lines, 60 months qua 60 years, “
Tewari said.
Yeda means ignorant, not mad, cong clarifies
New Delhi: Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde’s controversial remarks dubbing the Delhi Chief Minister as “mad” were downplayed by the Congress which said he was only referring to Arvind Kejriwal being “ignorant” in running the affairs of the government. “If you go into the local dialect the word yeda used by Shinde (in Marathi) is interchangeable with the word bawala being used in Hindi which means nasamajh (ignorant),” party spokesman Randip Surjewala told reporters.
Army to wait further for 197 helicopters
New Delhi: Army will have to wait further for 197 helicopters as the Defence Ministry has extended till June 30 the contractual validity of two bids received for the Rs5,000 crore tender amid allegations of bribery attempt. The tender, which was floated in 2008, got marred after allegations that a Brigadier, involved in the acquisition process, had sought kickbacks from Anglo-Italian company AgustaWestland to swing the deal in its favour. The allegations are being probed by CBI.