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Amma Medicines, Anyone? Jayalalithaa's 'Balm' For the Poor

Posted by Unknown | Thursday, June 26, 2014 | Posted in



Chennai: Tamil Nadu's brand "Amma", dedicated to its Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, today expanded its repertory with Amma medicine stores - after Amma Canteens, Amma Mineral Water and Amma Salt.


10 outlets of "Amma Pharmacies" opened today in Chennai. The plan is to have 200 shops that will sell medicines 10 per cent cheaper, at just four per cent profit - compared to the usual 14 per cent.

Ms Jayalalithaa, 66, is reverentially called 'Amma' by her followers in the state. While trying to market her image as a pro-poor leader, the chief minister last year launched the Amma brand, with a 'no-profit-no-loss' theme.

"Chief Minister Amma wants to provide all kinds of medicines, from routine to life saving drugs at affordable costs to the common man," Minister of Cooperation Mr Sellur Raju told NDTV. 

The state government has allocated Rs. 20 crore to the state cooperative society to finance the Amma medicine stores, which means a spending of Rs. 20 lakh on every air-conditioned outlet. 

Amma Canteens were first off the mark, selling food items at subsidized rates. This was followed by Amma packaged water. Last month, she unveiled three varieties of low-cost salt: double fortified, low sodium and refined free-flow iodized.

The Amma Canteens, seen as a big vote catcher, run at a cost to the Chennai Corporation, which loses five lakh each day on the business.

Ms Jayalalithaa's AIADMK swept the national election in Tamil Nadu, bagging 37 of the 39 constituencies. The Opposition DMK, which is led by former chief minister M Karunanidhi, drew a blank.

The Amma pharmacies show Jayalalithaa's resolve to stay on top as the state faces assembly polls in 2016. The AIADMK had dislodged the Karunanidhi government in 2011 by wresting 150 seats in an assembly with a total strength of 234. The DMK was reduced to just 23 seats.

State to lift load shedding today

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Thiruvananthapuram: Load shedding to be lifted from today onwards in state. The maintenance work in various power stations including Neriamangalam Hydroelectric Power Plant and Peringalkuthu power plant was completed, and the state has restarted power production.

Hydro electric power production gets increased due to the availability of requisite water on some days owing to good rains. Sabarigiri hydroelectric power plant that had stopped production earlier has restarted 350 MW production Wednesday afternoon. A full-fledged production of power will be on from today.

Minister for Electricity and Transport, Aryadan Muhammad on Monday announced at the assembly that the 45-minute load shedding imposed across the state will be lifted from 27 June. He had informed that electricity will be obtained from Kayamkulam thermal power plant in case of emergency.

No load-shedding from Friday: Aryadan

Posted by Unknown | Monday, June 23, 2014 | Posted in




Thiruvananthapuram: Electricity Minister Aryadan Muhammed on Monday informed the Assembly that the load-shedding would be withdrawn from Friday.

“The load-shedding will be withdrawn from Friday. As part of it, the KSEB will procure additional powerfrom the Kayamkulam station of National Thermal Power Corporation,” Mr. Aryadan told reporters here.

“Spells of rain that improved the inflow of water into dams have also helped us in doing away with load-shedding,” he said.

A cyclical 45-minute load-shedding is in force in the State from late May after the monsoon got delayed and reservoir levels at the generating stations plumped to new lows.

No Information on Black Money List from Switzerland: Finance Minister

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Delhi: The government has not received any communication from Switzerland about "black money" suspected to be stashed in Swiss banks, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today.


"We are writing to Swiss authorities so that the details or whatever information they have can be expedited and the cooperation between Swiss authorities and the government can bring fruitful results," said Mr Jaitley, whose BJP had made bringing back black money a key campaign pitch before the recent national election.

The minister was reacting to reports that Switzerland is compiling a list of Indians suspected to have stashed untaxed wealth in its banks and the details are being shared with the government.

In a statement, the Swiss government said, "Since a high-level Swiss delegation met with its India counterparts in New Delhi in February, no further official meeting has taken place. There is no new development to be reported." 

The Press Trust of India had quoted a Swiss government official as saying that the country is trying to identify those suspected to hold untaxed money in Swiss banks "through structures like trusts, domiciliary companies and other legal entities."

He reportedly refused to name these account-holders or reveal the size of the funds they held in Swiss banks, citing a confidentiality clause in the bilateral information exchange treaty with India.

The Swiss government today said, "Switzerland is committed to resolving any open question with India and trusts that India shares its understanding that any solution can only be found within the established national and international legal frameworks."

After being voted to power, the Modi government set up an 11-member Special Investigation Team to help identify Indians stashing money in foreign accounts. The team is headed by Justice MB Shah, a former Supreme Court judge.

The Supreme Court had repeatedly censured the previous UPA government for failing to take strong steps to recover black money. The UPA had then argued that a mechanism was already in place to deal with tax evasion and black money.and a court-supervised investigation was not needed.

Hundreds of Kolkata Metro Passengers were Trapped in Tunnel

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Kolkata: Hundreds of passengers in a Kolkata metro train were trapped in a tunnel between Park Street and Maidan stations on Monday following a technical snag, sparking panic.


Passengers said several people suffered from breathlessness and fell sick but the metro authorities denied this.

The incident happened before noon when a metro train bound for Dum Dum developed a snag in the tunnel after leaving the Maidan station.

"We were stranded in the dark for over two hours. There was no current. As the fans didn't work, we felt suffocated. Some fell sick," said a passenger in the train which is not air-conditioned.

"It was a horrible experience. Physically we felt exhausted and breathless. There were no lights. And there were no timely announcements about how they planned to rescue us," said another passenger.

Later, Metro authorities brought out the passengers from the train to the Park Street station.

Television cameras showed a trapped passenger apparently suffering from suffocation being carried by other passengers to the station.

Jaya, BJP allies in TN oppose Centre's move on Hindi

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Chennai: The row over Centre's move to promote Hindi in social media and official work snowballed on Friday with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha and two of BJP's allies opposing it strongly while a union minister said a 'wrong propaganda' was being made on the issue.

At the national level, CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat also opposed any move to impose Hindi while in Odisha Assembly a member's attempt to put a question in Hindi was disallowed by the Chair.

Shooting off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Jayalalithaa described the Home Ministry's proposal as 'against the letter and spirit' of the Official Languages Act, 1963, and said the 'highly sensitive issue' caused 'disquiet' to the people of Tamil Nadu 'who are very proud of and passionate about their linguistic heritage'.

Social media by their very nature were not only accessible to all persons on the internet, but were meant to be a means of communication to persons living in all parts of India, including those in 'Region C', she said.

"People located in 'Region C' with whom the Government of India's communication needs to be in English, will not have access to such public information if it is not in English. This move would therefore be against the letter and spirit of the Official Languages Act, 1963," she said.

DMK President M. Karunanidhi, whose party had successfully led the anti-Hindi agitation in 1960s, had on Thursday dubbed the move as a beginning of 'imposition of Hindi' that would make non-Hindi speaking people second class citizens.

The Centre's move also found no favour with two of its Tamil Nadu allies also, with both PMK and MDMK opposing it.

PMK founder S. Ramadoss said the BJP in its election 2014 manifesto, had promised to develop all languages with rich history and culture. He also called for declaring all 22 languages in the VIII schedule of the Constitution, including Tamil, as official language and "thus put an end to the Hindi imposition controversy."

Attempts to 'impose' Hindi in the past have been successfully resisted with, though attempts were later made to do the same, he said while terming the latest move as a "softer version" of the imposition of Hindi.

MDMK chief Vaiko cited Modi's preference of the social media platform and said that the Centre's advisory on Hindi was a 'matter of concern'.

He demanded that all Indian languages be made official languages in the interest of the country's 'unity and integrity' and till such time English should continue as the official language.

"Tamil Nadu will never accept imposition of Hindi," he said in a statement, while recalling the earlier anti-Hindi agitation. The state unit of CPI also opposed the move.

The controversy was sparked by two Home Ministry circulars. The official language department had issued a circular on May 27 asking all Ministries and Departments, public sector undertakings and banks to give prominence to Hindi on official accounts in social media.

"...all officers and employees who operate official accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, Google, YouTube should use Hindi and English languages. Prominence should be given to Hindi," Director, official language, Avadesh Kumar Mishra wrote in the directive.

Another circular announced prize money of Rs 2,000 to two employees who do their official work mostly in Hindi. Rs 1,200 and Rs 600 will be given to the second and third position holders respectively.

Union Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju had on Thursday said he will promote use of Hindi in all official work and public life while his senior Rajnath Singh sought to down play the controversy by saying the Centre will promote all languages of the country.

As the controversy raged, Union Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu said in Bangalore Hindi was not being forced on anyone and a 'wrong propaganda' was on that it was being imposed.

"This is again a wrong propaganda going on; nobody is forcing Hindi on anybody...," Naidu, also the Parliamentary Affairs Minister, told reporters here.

"I'm for popularising more and more regional languages, giving them importance- that is the policy of this government. There is no question of forcing any language. Let there be no apprehensions in this regard," he added.

Party spokesman Shahnawaz Hussain the government was not imposing Hindi as it respects all the languages.

Reacting to the development, CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat said the problem is the government order saying 'only Hindi' will be used in social media communication. The problem is with the word 'only Hindi' which is dangerous to national unity and against linguistic equality.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said his Samajwadi Party has always favoured Hindi and Urdu.

However, his counterpart in Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah said in a big country like India any attempt to impose one religion, one language will not work.

Shiv Sena found there was nothing wrong in promoting Hindi. Sena spokesman Sanjay Raut there will be state languages but Hindi should be promoted as social language.

In the Odisha Assembly, four days ago Kengam Surya Rao, MLA from Parlakhemundi, where Telugu is widely spoken, raised a question in Hindi.

Speaker Niranjan Pujari disallowed him saying the member can ask a question either in Odiya or English. But today he allowed the Congress MLA to speak in Hindi.

Swiss Government Prepares List of Indians With Suspected Black Money

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Zurich: In a major boost to India's fight against black money, Switzerland has prepared a list of Indians suspected to have stashed un-taxed wealth in its banks and the details are being shared with Indian government.


The names of these Indian individuals and entities have come under scanner of the Swiss authorities during an ongoing exercise to identify real beneficiary owners of funds held in various banks operating in Switzerland, a senior Swiss government official said.

"These individuals and entities are suspected to have held un-taxed money in Swiss banks through structures like trusts, domiciliary companies and other legal entities based out of countries other than India," the official said.

He refused to divulge the identity of these persons and entities, as also the quantum of funds held by them in Swiss banks, citing confidentiality clause of the bilateral information exchange treaty between the two countries.

The official further said that Swiss authorities were very keen to work with the new government in India and they would also provide all necessary support to the newly set up Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black money.

He, however, dismissed claims that black money stashed in Swiss banks by Indians could be trillions of dollars, as the latest Swiss National Bank data pegs the total foreign client money across 283 banks in Switzerland at US $1.6 trillion.

When asked about rise in Indian exposure to Swiss banks at 2.03 billion Swiss francs (Rs. 14,000 crore), he said these are the funds held by clients who have declared themselves as Indian and therefore were unlikely to be ill-gotten wealth.

While declining to be named, as he is not authorised to speak to media, the senior official further said the details are being shared with India on a 'spontaneous' basis and are different from the information sought earlier by the Indian authorities on the basis of 'leaked' or 'stolen' lists of certain banks, including the so-called 'HSBC list'.

Son held for raping Mother

Posted by Unknown | Sunday, June 22, 2014 | Posted in




Palai: A 25-year-old man has been arrested on charges of raping his mother.

"This was happening for some time and there used to be ruckus in their home over this. The neighbours were unhappy over this and filed a complaint and we arrested the man," said a police official at the Pala police station near here.

The head of the family works as a casual labourer and is reported to be an alcoholic.

"The accused - who at times used to work in a hotel at Pala - has confessed to the crime," he said.

AirAsia CEO: Some Airlines Scared of Us

Posted by Trueline Radio | Tuesday, June 3, 2014 | Posted in




After triggering off an airline fare war, AirAsia has now made some strong comments against rivals. Ahead of AirAsia India's maiden flight on June 12, the budget carrier's group CEO Tony Fernandes in a recent tweet said, "Some airlines scared of us. We must be doing something write (sic). Help us people of India. Don't let cartels win and not let ordinary man fly."

His tweet comes in the backdrop of other domestic airlines represented by Federation of Indian Airlines urging the government to advise the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) not to allow the new no-frill airline to launch its operations. Federation of Indian Airlines claimed that approvals granted to AirAsia India were "illegal".

FIA's letter sent by associate director Ujjwal Dey said: "It is obvious that the actions taken by the last government and more particularly by the DGCA have been to preempt a review of this matter by the new government and to proceed with indecent haste ... While foreign investment needs to be encouraged, the same cannot be at the cost of the domestic industry, which is rightly the position of this government as in the case of FDI in retail."

AirAsia India had won flying permit from Indian regulator, the DGCA, last month. Tata Group and Delhi-based investment firm Telestra Tradeplace are AirAsia's partners in the Indian venture.

Even before AirAsia's takeoff into Indian skies, it has triggered a fare war.


Budget carriers IndiGo and SpiceJet have launched special offers on routes AirAsia India is set to begin operations. AirAsia India is set to begin its India operations from June 12 on the Bangalore-Goa route. AirAsia flights from Bangalore to Chennai commence on June 19, 2014.

Mallika Sherawat's Dirty Politics in Flag Controversy, Director Won't Change Poster

Posted by Trueline Radio | | Posted in ,


The release of the first poster of Dirty Politics, showing protagonist Mallika Sherawat wrapped in the tricolour and sitting atop a car with a beacon, has kicked up a row, but director K C Bokadia is unperturbed. He says that he will not buckle under pressure and change it.


"Some political party from Rajasthan is planning to file a case against me and I got to know about it yesterday when my lawyer briefed me about it," Bokadia, knwon for producing hits like Pyaar Jhukta Nahin and Janta Ki Adalat, told IANS.

"Our poster has nothing to do with any party and if someone forcibly wants to link his party with our film, then it's not acceptable. The party is claiming that the Congress flag is similar to the one in the poster. In the Congress flag, there is a hand in it and in our flag there is nothing as such. If at all the colour looks similar, it was not intentional at all," he added. 

Helmed by Bokadia, the film is based on the Bhanwari Devi sex scandal, and the cast features some of the best actors from Hindi films - Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Anupam Kher, Jackie Shroff, Ashutosh Rana and Rajpal Yadav. 

"People are targeting our film because they don't want us to release the film. There should be a valid reason to change the poster. I am not going to change the poster of my film under any pressure. There should be a solid convincing reason to change it," said Bokadia.