Midday News 30/01/2015

THE HEADLINES:
  • Former Union Minister and Congress leader Jayanthi Natarajan quits the party; Accuses Rahul Gandhi of interference; Congress says Jayanthi Natarajan made false allegation against him.
  • Finance Minister Arun Jaitley seeks review of environmental projects of UPA regime following Natarajan's allegations.
  • Prime Minister asks IT experts to innovate for mobile governance.
  • CBI questions Trinamool Congress leader Mukul Roy on his alleged involvement in Saradha scam.
  • Sensex falls over 350 points in afternoon trade.
  • President Pranab Mukherjee led the nation in paying homage to Mahatma Gandhi on his 67th death anniversary.
  • India set a target of 201 runs for England in the ongoing Tri series, at Perth.
  • Leander Paes and Martina Hingis storm into mixed doubles finals of Australian open.
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Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Jayanthi Natarajan has resigned from the party. She announced her resignation at a press conference in Chennai today. She said, she also resigned from being a trustee of the Party.
"The time has come now for me to rethink my association because what happened in the recent past that the Congress is no longer the Congress which I joined with such great hopes and ideals."
Narrating all her experiences as harrowing and degrading, the former Minister said her reputation was maligned after she was asked to resign from the post. To a query, she welcomed the Centre to look into every single environmental clearance at all levels.  She said she acted as a responsible minister as she was from a family who was associated with the Congress party since Pre Independence era.  Ms. Jayanthi said that she was not given a single opportunity to explain things to the Congress President Mrs. Gandhi or the Party's vice president Mr. Rahul Gandhi.
"My issues are all with the national high command in Delhi. I want to put on record that I have no issues with the state party at all. Everybody in the state party has always cooperated with me. I was totally sidelined by the national high command."
Mrs. Jayanthi said that she was coaxed by Mr.Ajay Maken to attack Mr.Narendra Modi in the media on snoopgate which was against her wishes as she was not the Party's spokesperson.
"I also said I am not happy because I think we should attack him on policy and not on issues such as this. But again he repeated it was a view taken at the highest level and therefore I was asked to return to Delhi and against my own wishes, following the party high command, I attacked Shri Modi and on TV subsequently I was deputed only for this purpose to attack Shri Modi on Snoopgate."
Welcoming CBI's enquiry on the files handled by her as a minister, she said that it would be an opportunity given to her to explain on issues. Ms.Natarajan said that she had no intention to join any other party but this was only an explanation on what had happened to her in the party. She said on several occasions received directives from Mr. Rahul's office on environmental clearance with regard to certain projects. She asserted that she was never a bottleneck for unwarranted delays in major projects and was ready to prove it.
Mrs. Jayanthi said that she had to face the indignation of her cabinet colleagues when she did not give environmental clearances on major projects just because she had to stick to the directives given by Rahul's office.
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Reacting to Ms. Natarajan's letter to the Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Union Minister Arun Jaitley has sought a review of the environmental projects that were granted clearance, or were rejected permission during the UPA regime. He said, Ms. Natarajan's letter conclusively establishes that it was not the statutory or mandatory considerations which weighed with the Congress, but only the whims of the leaders.
Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, Mr. Jaitley said that during UPA's regime, the growth rate had been going down radically and one of the prime reasons for that was the delay in approvals being granted to projects.
"Any government which administers the country, its foremost responsibility is to administer the economy of the country. The growth rates had radically gone down during the UPA government, and one of the prime reasons was that there was delay in approvals being granted to projects. Projects worth lakhs and lakhs of crores were held up for want of permissions."
Attacking the UPA regime further, Mr. Jaitley said that it was the practitioner of a sadistic economy, which was vindictive in nature, wanting to teach some people a lesson while wanting to favour some others.       
"The sadistic economy which the UPA tried to build up was vindictive in nature, wanting to teach some people a lesson and wanting to favor some people. This obviously had to be on corrupt and collateral reasons, and this is precisely why India suffered in the last few years of the UPA government. I hope the environment ministry will now go into each of these permissions that was granted or not granted and make sure that these are expeditiously dealt with only as per law and no other consideration."
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Congress today criticized former Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan for making what it called false allegation against party Vice President Rahul Gandhi. Terming the allegations as baseless, party spokesman P C Chacko said, if she wanted to resign from the party for personal reasons, she was free.
"Through the last ten years, the UPA government's period, there was no single allegation even by the opposition that either our vice president's office or our president's office has ever interfered with the functioning of the government . So this is totally a baseless allegation. Somebody for some personal reasons if they want to resign from the party they are free to do so. But making such wild allegation is very unfair."

Aam Aadmi Party spokesman Yogendra Yadav said, truth behind the claims made by Congress that there was no interference in government affairs by its President Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi, have been exposed.
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The Prime Minister today urged the IT experts of the country to explore ways to provide as many services as possible through mobiles to boost Mobile Governance. Addressing the 18th National Conference on  E-Governance through Twitter, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the Centre is actively working to create a robust digital infrastructure to serve the interests of citizens and transform their lives. The Prime Minister reiterated his Government's commitment to realize the dream of a Digital India, with a vision to make the country a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. He said that E-Governance is an essential part of  Digital India and added that there is a need to infuse more technology for better governance.
The Prime Minister said, technology and e-Governance will make processes simpler and remove several obstacles that slow down the pace of work and progress.  
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In Kolkata, the CBI has begun interrogation of the All India General Secretary of Trinamool Congress and former Railway Minister Mukul Roy on the Sardha Chit Fund scam. According to CBI sources, the statement of Mr. Roy will be recorded today and it will be verified later with the statements given by the other accused involved in the scam. However, Mr. Roy has said that he has not been involved in any immoral activities and declined all charges levelled against him on the issue.
Mr. Roy arrived at the CBI office at Salt Lake this morning after the investigating agency had issued a summon to him on the 12th of this month.
Our Kolkata Correspondent reports that the CBI has already arrested state Transport Minister Madan Mitra and two Trinamool Congress MPs, Kunal Ghosh and Srinjay Basu, in connection with their alleged involvement in the scam.  
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After a positive opening, the Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange gave up all its initial gains, and had plunged 362 points, to 29,320 in afternoon trade, a short while ago. But earlier in the morning, the Sensex had climbed to a new intra-day peak of 29,844. Similarly, the Nifty  at the National Stock Exchange had dropped 108 points, to 8,845 a short while ago. Shares of Coal India had fallen 3.5 percent, amid the stake sale in the public sector company, with its floor price set at a discount to the market price.
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A Grateful nation is remembering Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, on his 67th martyrdom anniversary today. The day is observed as martyrs' day. It was on this day in 1948 that Mahatma Gandhi fell to an assassin's bullets.
President Pranab Mukherjee led the nation in paying homage to Mahatma Gandhi at his Samadhi at Rajghat in New Delhi. Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and Congress President Sonia Gandhi also paid floral tributes to the Father of the Nation. An all religion prayer meeting was organised at the Samadhi and favourite Bhajans of Mahatma Gandhi were recited.
Mahatma Gandhi's belief in truth and non-violence are still relevent today.
Prime Minister said, the bravery and courage of each and every martyr will always inspire the people.
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Electioneering is in full swing in Delhi for the 7th February assembly  elections. Senior party leaders of main contenders like BJP, Aam Aadmi Party and Congress are busy campaigning in different parts of the city. The leaders are holding roadshows, nukkad sabhas and community meetings highlighting their vision and work done by their parties.The BJP is focusing on the work done by the NDA government at the Center during the last eight months. The party is also trying to convince the people that the BJP government is necessary in the national capital for proper co-ordination between the Centre and State for development of the city. On the other hand, Aam Aadmi Party is projecting its 49 days rule, saying only it has the best plan for the city while Congress leaders are claiming that no other party can work for the betterment of Delhi.

"BJP leaders Amit Shah, Sushma Swaraj, Smrti Irani, Navjot Singh Sidhu and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan will be addressing  several public meetings in the city later in the day. Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal, Kumar Vishwash and  Gul Panag and Congress leaders Ajay Maken, Arvinder Singh Lovely and Harun Yousuf are also holding rallies and roadshows. Meanwhile, the revelations made by former Environment  Minister Jayanthi Natarajan that Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi was interfering in environment clearances during UPA rule,  has come as a handy tool for the  BJP and AAP to corner the Congress central leadership in this elections. with Sant Bahadur, Snigdha Ritesh for AIR News/Delhi"
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In Uttar Pradesh, prohibitory orders under Section 144 ​have been imposed in ​Brahmapuri police area of ​Meerut ​since yesterday, ahead of the Akhil Bhartiya Hindu Mahasabha’s plans to install a statue ​of Nathuram​ Godse​, the assassin of the Father of the nation. The Mahasabha​, which had planned to install the Godse statue today, ​has now decided to unveil a bust of Godse at its office​ ​in Meerut.
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Chasing a target of 201 runs, England were 44 for 3 in 14 overs against India in the Tri series ODI cricket at Perth, a short while ago. Earlier, Indian Batting order perished to English bowlers at 200 runs. For India, Ajinkya Rahane was the top scorer at 73 runs. For England, Steven Finn took three wickets whereas Chris Woakes, Stuart Broad and Moeen Ali took two scalps each with the lone remaining wicket going to James Anderson. The winner of this match will play in the finals against Australia.
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In the season's first grand slam, Australian open, Leander Paes and his partner Martina Hingis have reached mixed doubles finals. In the semi finals played at Melbourne today, Indo Swiss duo, Paes and Hingis defeated Chinese Taipei's Su-Wei Hsieh and Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas 7-5, 6-4.
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