Kerala CM seeks bail for Maudany
Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy yesterday urged the Karnataka government release jailed People’s Democratic Party leader Abdul Nasser Maudany on bail to enable him to attend his daughter’s wedding. Maudany was arrested on August 17, 2010, in connection with the conspiracy behind the 2008 Bangalore bomb blasts. He has since been lodged in a Bangalore jail. Chandy’s office the chief minister has written to his Karnataka counterpart Jagadish Shettar seeking bail for Maudany. The PDP is a Kerala-based party. The marriage is to be held at Kollam on March 10. Maudany is among 31 people charged in the case relating to the July 2008 bomb blasts.
Defiant MP forms new front
The Congress Party’s Gurgaon MP and former federal minister Rao Inderjit Singh yesterday announced the formation of a front to counter the “step-motherly treatment” meted out to southern Haryana by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
By launching the ‘Haryana Insaaf Manch’ (HIM) at a rally at Pataudi, 25km from here, Singh took a step forward in setting up a new regional party in Haryana.
He announced a “fight for justice” for the people of south Haryana at the massive “insaaf” (justice) rally.
Happy with the unexpectedly large crowd at the rally, Singh highlighted Hooda’s alleged prejudice against Ahirwal (south Haryana) and announced that, in future, rallies would be organised under the HIM banner all over the state.
The Ahirwal belt stretches across Gurgaon, Rewari, Mewat, Mahendergarh and Bhiwani districts. Singh alleged that dedicated Congress workers have been sidelined for the last one decade. Hooda, he claimed, was biased against development works in south Haryana and was fuelling factionalism within the party organisation.
Singh has gone on record as having said that Hooda’s home district, Rohtak, represented in the Lok Sabha by Hooda’s son, Deepender Hooda, got 1,237 projects since 2005 (when Hooda became chief minister), compared to only 69 for Gurgaon.
Indians deficient in Vitamin D
Despite ample sunlight, people in India are deficient in Vitamin D which is leading to problems like weaker bones among the population, the Rajya Sabha was informed. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has reported that surveys carried out in India indicate that despite ample sunlight, people are deficient in Vitamin D, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said while replying to a question by nominated member H K Dua earlier this week. The deficiency is in the range of 10 to 90% across all age groups, he said. The synthesis of Vitamin D in the body is dependent on multiple factors like duration and time of exposure to sunlight, latitude, atmospheric pollution and skin pigmentation.
Kashmir tense over death of student
Tension gripped south Kashmir’s Pulwama district yesterday after reports of a Kashmiri student’s death in Hyderabad under mysterious circumstances. Markets were shut and vehicles went off the roads as the news of the mysterious death of a student belonging to Parigam village of Pulwama spread in the district. The student was enrolled in an institute in the southern city. Reports said Mudasir was found dead in his room yesterday morning. Local police said they were in touch with the authorities in Hyderabad to get the facts. Police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in full riot were deployed in Pulwama town and other parts of the district.
Three arrested in murder of siblings
Three men have been arrested in connection with the killing of minor siblings in New Delhi, police said yesterday. Among those arrested is the uncle of the children. The decomposed bodies of Mansij and his sister Yashvi, aged seven and five respectively, were recovered from near railway tracks in front of Pragati Maidan power station at around 9.30am on Saturday morning. The uncle of the children, identified as Amit, and two other men, Pankaj and Shivam, have been arrested. The children had been missing from their school since February 26. The bodies were decomposed, and animals seem to have bitten away some parts, police said.
Film festival to mark International Women’s Day
The fourth edition of the Women’s Film Festival focuses on female directors. The three-day event, starting in Pune on March 8, will screen Gulabi Gang, Gangoobai and Firaaq, among others, to commemorate the International Women’s day, an organiser said. The festival is being organised by the Pune-based Aashay Film Club in association with the National Film Archive of India and Aayam, a group of women journalists. “Aayam intends to bring to the fore issues related to women in various means. We believe that the visual media is very effective in reaching out to people, thus the idea of holding the film festival,” Manaswini Prabhune, co-ordinator of Aayam, said.