Breaking News, May 18

The Odisha government on Thursday effected a major reshuffle in the IPS cadre, transferring 18 officers including five superintendents of police. According to an official notification issued by the home department, 2010-batch IPS officer Mitrabhanu Mahapatra, who was serving as the Keonjhar SP, has been appointed as Rourkela SP, while 2015-batch IPS officer Nitin Kusalkar Dagdu, who was the SP of Bolangir, was appointed as the new Keonjhar SP. Similarly, 2013-batch IPS officer Mukesh Kumar Bhamoo, who was serving as the Rourkela SP, was named the Sambalpur SP. Also, 2011-batch IPS officer Battula Gangadhar, who was serving as the Sambalpur SP, has been appointed as Mayurbhanj SP, while 2016-batch IPS officer Rishikesh Khilari, serving as Mayurbhanj SP, was named the Bolangir SP.

To strengthen corporate governance mechanism, capital markets regulator Sebi on Thursday proposed to amend the current rules governing alternative investment funds (AIFs). Under the proposal, Category I and Category II AIFs should not borrow funds directly or indirectly or engage in leverage for the purpose of making investments, Sebi said in its consultation paper. These AIFs can borrow for the purpose of meeting shortfall in drawdown while making investment in an investee company, subject to certain conditions.

Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Thursday said that a reservation policy without implementing a roster is meaningless, as his government briefed the constituents of the ruling coalition about the system. A roster is an application to determine the reservation of posts in a cadre for different categories with reference to the applicable percentage of reservations. “A reservation policy without a roster is meaningless. We had a thorough presentation on the roster with all coalition partners,” Sangma told reporters after the meeting.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the newly- constructed Parliament building on May 28. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla met Modi on Thursday and extended an invitation to inaugurate the new building, the Lok Sabha Secretariat said. The new Parliament building can comfortably seat 888 members in the Lok Sabha chamber and 300 in the Rajya Sabha chamber, it said. In case of a joint sitting of both the Houses, a total of 1,280 members can be accommodated in the Lok Sabha chamber. The prime minister had laid the foundation stone of the new parliament building on December 10, 2020. The new building has been built in record time with quality construction, the Lok Sabha Secretariat said. The present building of the Parliament was completed in 1927, and is now 96 years old. Over the years, the old building was found to be inadequate for present day requirements. Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha had passed resolutions urging the government to construct a new building for the Parliament.

The Supreme Court on Thursday said there was a need to have a uniform national protocol for dignified handling of bodies during pandemic and non-pandemic times. A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala shared the anguish of a lawyer who said his client could neither see the face of his dead mother nor perform her last rites during pandemic despite the fact she did not die of COVID-19. "We can't remove your anguish but we can create an opportunity to make it better for others," said the bench and asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to share the copy of the existing national policy on handling of dead bodies with the lawyer. It said it will peruse the national policy on the issue and seek his (lawyer) suggestions and then ask the union health ministry to engage with all states to ensure that there is a uniform protocol. "There is a need to have a uniform national policy on this," the bench said.

Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah will be on a two-day visit of Gujarat from Saturday, during which he will inaugurate and lay foundation stones of several projects and attend programmes in Devbhumi Dwarka, Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar, officials said. In Ahmedabad, he will inaugurate a national convention of the Modi community on Sunday, while in Devbhumi Dwarka, Shah will lay the foundation stone of a building for the National Academy of Coastal Policing, they said.

A 20-year-old worker died and nine others were injured when a building under construction collapsed in Bharatpur district, police said on Thursday. The incident took place near Jhantli village under the Sikri police station area late Wednesday night, they said. The building belongs to a madrassa. Ten labourers were working at the site when the building collapsed, police said, adding the incident might have been caused due to Wednesday evening's rainfall and hailstorm. Sikri SHO Naresh Sharma said one labourer died and nine more were injured. Four of them were referred to Alwar for treatment. Contractors Bachchu Singh and Sakur fled the spot after the incident, and a case has been registered against them, Sharma said. The deceased was identified as Veer Singh Jatav of Jhanjhar village.

 The Enforcement Directorate (ED) questioned former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi for about five hours and recorded her statement here on Thursday in a money laundering case linked to the alleged land-for-jobs scam, official sources said.
She reached the office of the federal probe agency in central Delhi around 11 am and left around 6 pm. In between, she stepped out for about an hour for lunch.
It was not immediately known if she had been summoned again.

 Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will attend the swearing-in ceremony of the Congress government in Karnataka on May 20, Janata Dal (United) spokesperson Rajib Ranjan said on Thursday.
The Congress had earlier named Siddaramaiah as the next chief minister of Karnataka and state party president D K Shivakumar as his deputy in the soon-to-formed government.
Bihar deputy chief minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav is also expected to attend the oath-taking ceremony in the southern state where the Congress has notched up a morale-boosting win over the BJP after suffering a series of electoral reverses in many big states.

Three men were arrested for allegedly defrauding more than 1,000 people across India of over Rs 17 lakh issuing forged certificates and IDs related to the Common Service Centers, police said on Thursday.
Monu Sharma, 24, Kuldeep Singh, 27, and Chitresh Goyal, 26, were arrested for duping rural people with a fake website and taking money from them for government services, they said.
Common Service Centers or CSC is a government initiative to deliver e-services to rural and remote locations where availability of computers and internet is sparse or negligible.

A 20-year-old man was arrested for allegedly killing a tailor by slitting his throat in east Delhi's Gandhi Nagar area, police said on Thursday. The incident occurred late Wednesday night in Old Seelampur, they said. The accused, Rohit, used a blade to slit the throat of Shivnath (22), they added. Shivnath, a tailor, and Rohit were natives of the same village in Bihar's Sitamarhi district, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Shahdara) Rohit Meena said. The accused was in a relationship with a girl whose family did not approve of their marriage due to the caste issue, Meena said. Shivnath began living with Rohit in the same rented accommodation after he came to Delhi. However, Rohit suspected that he was sent by the girl's family to spy on him, so he killed him, the DCP added.

Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Nitin Gadkari, during his inspection on Thursday announced that Dwarka Expressway will be completed in next 3-4 months. The construction work of the Haryana section (18.9 km) of the 29-km-long Dwarka Expressway from Shivmurti near IGI Airport through Dwarka near the Kherki Daula toll in Gurugram has reached the final stage. Dwarka Expressway starts near Shiv Murti on NH-48 and terminates near Kherki Daula Toll Plaza on the Delhi-Jaipur Expressway. This will be the country's first elevated urban expressway.

Two non-local labourers were killed, while seven others sustained injuries when a mini-bus overturned on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway in Pulwama district, officials said. The accident took place near Gujjar Bakarwal hostel in Awantipora area of the south Kashmir district, they said. Two labourers from Madhya Pradesh died on the spot while the injured were taken to a hospital. A case has been registered, officials said.

Two cousins died after an unidentified vehicle hit their motorcycle in a village in Musajhag Police Station area here, police said on Thursday. The incident happened late Wednesday night, Police Circle Officer (CO) Alok Mishra said. Narayan, 28, and his cousin Amarpal, 26, were returning home from a market when an unidentified vehicle hit their bike near Hathni Bhud village, severely injuring both of them, police said. Both of them were rushed to a hospital where doctors declared them dead, police said. Their bodies have been sent for post mortem and their families have been informed, they said. Further action in the case is underway, police said.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has been invited to participate in the swearing-in of Congress leader Siddaramaiah as Karnataka's Chief Minister, the government said on Thursday. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Siddaramaiah called up Stalin over phone today and invited him to participate in the swearing-in ceremony on May 20, an official release here said. In the May 10 elections to the 224-member Karnataka Assembly, the Congress scored an emphatic victory by bagging 135 seats, while the ruling BJP and the former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular) secured 66 and 19 seats respectively.

Twenty electric buses having features like CCTV cameras, panic buttons and automated digital fare collection, were inducted into Goa's state transport body on Thursday, officials said. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant launched these electric buses, which will be part of the state-run Kadamba Transport Corporation Limited. Electric bus manufacturer PMI Electro Mobility delivered these 20 vehicles to the Goa government. A senior official from PMI Electro Mobility said that the consignment was a part of a larger order to provide 48 electric buses by July 2023. Electric buses were already part of the Goa's bus transport corporation, and the induction of these 20 vehicles has added to the fleet, sources said.

A local court here convicted a man of raping a minor and sentenced him to 25 years of imprisonment, a government advocate said on Thursday. The court of the District Additional Sessions Judge Alok Dwivedi on Wednesday convicted one Ajit Saroj of raping a 13-year-old girl in May 2018, the prosecution said. According to the FIR lodged in the case, the minor girl was at a farm when the accused raped her.  Saroj was booked for rape and other sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The BJP's Padamsen Choudhary and Manvender Singh filed their nominations for the by-election to two Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council seats on Thursday, the last date to file the papers. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Brajesh Pathak were among those present on the occasion. The two seats had fallen vacant following the resignation of Laxman Acharya after he was appointed the Sikkim governor and the death of BJP member Banwari Lal Dohre. While Acharya's tenure was till January 2027, Dohre's term was to expire in July 2028. The notification for the bypoll was issued on May 11 and Thursday was announced as the last day to file nominations, a senior official said. The nomination papers will be scrutinised on Friday. The last date to withdraw nominations is May 22.

Tamil Nadu: Two people died in an explosion at a firecracker manufacturing factory at Sivakasi in Virudhunagar district. Details awaited.

Delhi: After being named the Karnataka Deputy CM-designate DK Shivakumar says, "When people have given such a big mandate, we should definitely be happy and deliver and fulfill the promises. That is our main motto, agenda." "Why should I be upset? There is a long way to go," he said.

Supreme Court declines to lift Patna High Court stay order on caste-based survey in Bihar. Matter listed for July 14.

Calcutta High Court allows West Bengal CID to continue its investigation into the Egra blast case. CID to investigate and decide whether a case can be initiated on the Explosives Act. Next hearing is on June 12. The PIL was filed by LoP Suvendu Adhikari, seeking NIA (National Investigation Agency) probe.

Arjun Ram Meghwal takes independent charge as MoS Law & Justice, replaces Kiren Rijiju.

Supreme Court upholds the Tamil Nadu law allowing bull-taming sport 'Jallikattu' in the State.

 SC to hear on Friday plea of Muslim side against HC order of scientific survey of ‘Shivling’ found at Gyanvapi mosque complex in Varanasi.

Prime accused, two others in Bengal firecracker blast case arrested from Odisha, said Police.

AAP govt seeks Centre's approval to appoint 1989 batch IAS officer PK Gupta as new chief secretary of Delhi.

Tamil Nadu hooch tragedy | CB-CID to begin today an investigation into deaths due to consumption of spurious liquor in the state. ADSP Gomathi appointed Investigation Officer in the Villupuram case and ADSP Maheshwari is the Investigation Officer in Chengalpattu deaths.

Arjun Ram Meghwal replaces Kiren Rijiju as the Law Minister. Rijijiu assigned the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

Siddaramaiah to be Karnataka CM, DK Shivakumar deputy CM; swearing-in on May 20.

Bengaluru: Heavy security deployment outside the residence of senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah who has been named as the next Karnataka CM.

Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Ashwini Vaishnaw offer prayers at Puri's Shree Jagannath temple. "On behalf of all Odias, I express gratitude towards PM Modi. Today, the high-speed Vande Bharat train has given a new identity to the country. It's an auspicious day for the state today," said Pradhan.

"Today, PM Modi will fulfil the dream of 4.5 crore Odias by flagging off the Puri-Howrah Vande Bharat Express train. The PM will inaugurate several projects worth more than Rs 8200 crores in the state," added Vaishnaw.

Folk artists perform at Odisha's Puri railway station to mark the launch of the inaugural Vande Bharat train from Puri to Howrah.

Uttarakhand government has transfers 24 IAS officers and one PCS officer.

BJP MP from Ambala, Rattan Lal Kataria passes away. He was admitted in Chandigarh PGI.

Eight people died and thousands were evacuated from their homes after heavy rains caused devastation across Italy's northern Emilia Romagna region, reports AFP News Agency citing officials