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Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan asked the Urban Development Department to explain how an illegal 18-storey tower was constructed in South Mumbai’s Worli area despite Navy’s objections.
Close on the heels of Adarsh Society, the Navy had objected the construction of Har Siddhi Apartment as it was very close to INS Trata , a naval war post.
A notice was issued to stop-work in 2008 but it was never implemented.
Last week, a Division Bench of Justices D K Deshmukh and N D Deshpande of the Bombay High Court had granted a stay on sale of flats and had also directed the builder to submit a list of all present occupants.
This was after the Navy approached the HC in October last year seeking demolition of the building as the requisite no objection certificate was not obtained from Western Naval authorities before construction.

In a bid to create future business leaders, the Tamil Nadu Government has decided to set up a Visionary Leaders For Manufacturing institute in Chennai with the help of CII and IIT Madras at a cost of Rs 1.90 crore rupees.
The Institute will collaborate with the National Manufacturing Competitive Council on all issues that impacted manufacturing. This was decided at the first meeting of
State Manufacturing Competitive Council chaired by the Deputy Chief Minister M K Stalin. The views of industry bodies were also sought to fine tune the sector specific policies to strengthen the manufacturing sector.

In Uttar Pradesh, a local court at Banda has extended the judicial custody of ruling Bahujan Samaj Party MLA, Purushottam Naresh Dwivedi, main accused in Banda rape case and his three associates till the 3rd of next month.
The court has fixed February 3 as the next date for hearing in the case. The investigating agency has already filed charge sheet in the court into the case against the accused.
Meanwhile, the Allahabad High Court has fixed January 28 for further hearing into the case. The court had sent a two member women advocate team on 18th of this month to Banda to file a report after meeting with the victim of the rape case. The team would file its report to the court on next date of hearing.
AIR Lucknow correspondent reports that a Division Bench of the court consisting Justice Imtiyaz Murtaza and Justice SC Agrawal on January 15 had taken suo motu cognizance of this case and her fake involvement in theft case on the instance of accused BSP MLA. On the court’s direction, victim girl was released from jail and also provided security

Months after two cargo ships collided off the Mumbai coast leading to an oil spill, another incident of oil leakage occurred on Friday. The leakage was caused due to a rupture in a pipeline carrying crude oil, produced by the sate owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).
The oil was being transferred from Mumbai High, India’s biggest oil field to Uran. The production at Mumbai High was stopped for three hours and ONGC boats and Coast Guard vessels were pressed into service to assess the damage.
Initial reports suggest that about 50,000 to 55,000 tonnes of crude oil has leaked across the Uran coast. Remedial measures are being followed by ONGC to minimise the environmental damage.
The Mumbai Coast Guard has said ONGC would have to pay for the losses and will have to ensure a complete clean up of the coastline. Mumbai High produces 2.47 lakh barrels of oil per day.

The Union Home Minister Mr. P. Chidambaram has sent a letter to the West Bengal Chief Minister inviting him to a tripartite meeting on the Gorkhaland problem in New Delhi on the 25th of this month. Addressing news persons in Kolkata today, the State Chief Secretary Dr.Gyan Dutt Goutam said that, the State Municipal affairs Minister Mr. Ashoke Bhattacharya will participate in the meeting. He said, Gorkha Janamukti Morcha members have also been invited to the meeting. EOM

The Supreme Court has directed the CBI to go ahead with the probe into the 2G spectrum scam without being influenced by anybody’s statement.
Earlier, Communication and IT Minister Kapil Sibal had described the estimated loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore ‘utterly erroneous’ to the exchequer on account of allocation of 2G spectrum to telecom operators.
The apex court said Sibal’s statement undermining the CAG’s report on the scam was unfortunate. The CAG had estimated a loss of up to Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer in allocation of 2G spectrum during the tenure of former Telecom Minister A Raja but Sibal said that there was no loss at all.
The Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee Dr Murli Manohar Joshi has requested Lok Sabha Speaker Meera Kumar to ensure that the authority of PAC and the CAG is not impinged upon by ministers. Referring to Sibal’s statement on CAG report, he said the Telecom Ministry was given ample time to give response to CAG’s findings.
He questioned the timing of the statement when the report has already been tabled in Parliament.
Kapil Sibal later said that he meant no disrespect to any institution by his comments on the CAG report on the alleged 2G scam. He, however, said that the Centre needed to respond and welcomed Supreme Court’s observation that no one should comment on CAG report. He said if the Supreme Court had made this observation earlier, unnecessary controversy could have been avoided.

The Uttar Pradesh Government has said that farmers’ land will not be acquired without their consent for construction of a power plant at Karchhana in Allahabad.
An official spokesperson in Lucknow said the power project might be scrapped in view of the farmers’ agitation.
AIR Lucknow correspondent reports that both rail and road traffic is affected on Delhi Howrah rail route on Allahabad Mirzapur route due to agitation.
Farmers from about half a dozen villages are protesting for several months demanding adequate compensation for their land acquired by the State Government for the thermal power project. The farmer’s agitation turned violent on Friday when the police tried to remove farmers sitting on an indefinite hunger strike for the last eight days and disperse them from the construction site.
Meanwhile, situation is under control in Karchana and police forces are patrolling the area. The picketing on Railway track was lifted by farmers late last night.
AIR Allahabad correspondent says with the track beaing cleared of agitators many trains on Delhi- Howara route reached their destinations but several hours late. Farmers are demanding higher compensations for their acquired land where a power plant is proposed by a private agency.

In Karnataka, the ruling BJP has called a state-wide bandh today protesting against Governor H R Bhardwaj’s sanction for prosecution of Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa. BJP state unit president K S Eswarappa announced this in Bangalore.
The Governor on Friday granted sanction to prosecute Yeddyurappa on allegations of corruption and criminal misconduct.
A press communique issued by the Governor’s Secretariat in Bangalore said Bhardwaj passed the order under section 19(1) of Prevention of Corruption Act and Section 197 of Criminal Procedure Code for prosecuting in an appropriate court of law.
Earlier in the day, he dismissed as unwarranted a resolution adopted by the State Cabinet asking him to drop proceedings for prosecution of Chief Minister.
In a letter to Yeddyurappa, the Governor told him that he cannot put a lid on serious allegations of corruption. The Governor said the Chief Minister did not furnish any details to his letter of December 15 last year seeking factual information on the allegations levelled against him. He said the Chief Minister had simply stated that the allegations were politically motivated and without any basis.
Senior BJP leader and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley said the Governor’s action was politically motivated. He said the decision was contrary to the well-known constitutional precedence and the Governor had acted in undue haste.
The BJP has demanded immediate recall of the Governor.
Opposition leader in the Assembly, Siddaramaiah of the Congress has welcomed Governor’s decision.

Chairman Public Accounts Committee Dr Murli Manohar Joshi has written a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Ms.Meira Kumar requesting her to ensure that the authority of PAC and CAG is not impinged upon by ministers.

Referring to Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal’s statement about CAG report, Dr.Joshi said the Telecom Ministry was given ample time to respond on the findings of the CAG .

He questioned the timing of the statement when the report has already been tabled in parliament.

Dr. Joshi said since the Speaker is the competent authority to guide the Public Accounts Committee, she should ensure that no such impropriety of the ministry recurs.

An army court Martial has found Lt Gen P K Rath guilty in Sukna land scam. The court martial is being held since September last year.

It was convened by the army with Lt.General I P Singh as the Presiding Officer following the decision of Court Martial in the case.

The Sukhna land scam came into open in mid-2008 and the names of Avdesh Prakash and P K Rath figured among the senior Army Officers who influenced the decision to issue the No-Objection certificate to a builder to construct an educational institution on a plot of land adjacent to the Sukhna Military station in West Bengal.