Gujjar/ Gurjar gets 5% and Brahmin, Rajput and other economically backward classes(EBC) gets 14% Reservation in Rajasthan

Governor S K Singh on Thursday signed the Rajasthan Reservation Bill-2008, ending the deadlock over the Gujjar quota issue, which had claimed over 70 lives in violent protests for the past two years. With this, the overall quota in government jobs in the state now stands at 69%. The Bill proposes 5% reservation for Gujjars and other three castes under the most backward category and another 14% reservation to EBCs (economically backward classes). The governor signed the Bill after the state cabinet reportedly made a suggestion that the stamp will resolve the issue for ever and also that the Bill was as per the agenda of Congress, which too had promised reservation to the economically weaker sections. The Bill had been passed by the state assembly in August last year during the Vasundhara Raje-led BJP regime and was awaiting the governor’s signature since then. “We welcome the governor’s decision,” Col Kirori Singh Bainsla, the convener of the Gujjar Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti, told TOI soon after the Bill was signed on Thursday. He said he was grateful to the government, chief minister Ashok Gehlot and also to former chief minister Vasundhara Raje. “Iam especially thankful to Vasundhara Raje as it was she who conceived the Bill,” he added.
Gehlot said Congress was never opposed to reservation for Gujjars and also for the economically weaker sections (EWCs). “In 2003, the government led by me had requested the NDA government at the Centre to make constitutional changes for quota on economic status basis, so we had at no point of time opposed the Bill,” the CM added. He said the governor took legal opinion on the issue and signed the Bill once he was satisfied. Leader of Opposition Vasundhara Raje termed it a victory for BJP. “The Bill had been passed unanimously. Even after that the governor was not signing it citing some reason or the other. But all is well that ends well and I welcome the fact that the governor has signed the Bill ultimately,” Raje said. She added that the governor should have done it earlier, which could have averted uproarious scenes witnessed in the state assembly recently

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Jaipur Rajmata Gayatri Devi passed away

Rajmata Gayatri Devi’s grandson Devraj Singh and his sister Lalitya Kumari will not only inherit her wealth — estimated at anything between Rs 750 and Rs 1,000 crore — but also that of their late father Jagat Singh, which had been a matter of raging dispute three years back. It is learnt that Gayatri Devi has left a will. the will will come up for execution soon. huge royal property dispute erupted in 2006 when the purported will of Jagat Singh barred his two children from inheriting his property. In this purported will Jagat Singh, who had married a Thai princess and later divorced her, apparently disinherited his two children. This, the two challenged in a Jaipur court. The purported will reportedly left all of Jagat Singh’s property to his mother, Gayatri Devi. In court, Gayatri Devi had claimed that through the will, Jagat Singh had made her the sole inheritor.
Jagat Singh, the only son of Gayatri Devi, had married Thai princess Rajawongse Priyanandana Rangsit. She had two children — Devraj and Lalitya — with him, but later the two divorced, and she shifted to Bangkok. Jagat Singh died in 1997. Rangsit in 2006 moved court, claiming that her children were the legal heirs of Jagat Singh’s estates and Gayatri Devi was trying to prevent them on the basis of a ‘forged will’, which made the Rajmata the sole inheritor.

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New Nuclear Power plan for Rajasthan

The government has accorded approval for setting up nuclear power plants in Gujarat and Rajasthan with a combined generating capacity of 2,800 MW, parliament was informed Thursday. The plants will be located at Kakrapar in Gujarat and Rawatbhata in Rajasthan and will each have two units of 700 MW each, Minister of State for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Prithviraj Chavan said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha. Both sites are already home to nuclear power plants, with the one at Rawatbhata generating 740 MW of electricity and the one at Kakrapar generating 440 MW. 'Similarly, in principle approval has been accorded for sites at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu and Jaitapur in Maharashtra for setting up light water reactors through imports,' Chavan said. A nuclear power plant with four reactors of 1,000 MW each is currently being constructed at Kudankulam.

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Gujjar may soon get 5% reservation in rajasthan

Gurjjar agitation continue in rajasthan for fourth day and finally gurjar leaders agree to talk with State government. After a round of talks with Gujjar leaders on Tuesday over the reservation Bill passed by the Vasundhara regime, the state government seems to be veering around to the idea of bringing another Bill for providing 5% quota to the community. Though there was no official word yet, home minister Shanti Dhariwal indicated as much when he met media persons after the meeting. Higher education minister Jitendra Singh is likely to call on governor S K Singh on Wednesday and apprise him about the possibility of a new Bill.

According to sources, the talks between a 51-member Gujjar delegation and the government was held in a cordial atmosphere. The government was represented by home minister Shanti Dhariwal, higher education minister Jitendra Singh, transport minister Brij Kishore Sharma and principal secretary home, S N Thanvi. During the talks, which went late into the night, the government cited complications in the Bill passed during the BJP regime in 2008. Apart from the reservation for Gujjars, the Bill had another 14% quota for the economically weaker sections, to which Congress objected. “The Bill passed during Vasundhara government is highly complicated and can’t be approved. There are several constitutional lapses in the Bill which the BJP leaders themselves should be aware of,” said chief minister Ashok Gehlot after the talks on Tuesday. So Gujjar may soon get 5% reservation in rajasthan but Bhrahman may oppose this decision, let see what will be outcome from talk.

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Three BJP MLAs suspended from Rajasthan Assembly

Three BJP MLAs were suspended for one year for unruly behaviour in the assembly House. Speaker Deependra Singh Shekhawat on Tuesday suspended Gyan Dev Ahuja, Hem Singh Bhadana and Bhawani Singh Rajawat for one year. While BJP has decided to boycott all the parliamentary committees of the state assembly and also of the government. “We are going to boycott House committees and also the government functions until the suspensions are revoked,” said leader of Opposition Vasundhara Raje. She said the action of the Speaker was unwarranted and should be revoked immediately.

The House had witnessed unprecedented scenes on Monday as the slogan-shouting Opposition members stormed the well of the House, throwing files and jumping over the tables of the support staff after the Speaker sought the help of marshals to run the House. There was pandemonium with BJP leaders demanding the Governor’s immediate approval of the special quota for Gujjars and the economically backward among forward castes that the Raje regime had cleared. Congress MLA Pratap Singh Khachariawas then demanded action against the Opposition MLAs for misbehaving with the Speaker and the watch and ward. Suspension passed by voice vote.

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J&K CM Omar Abdullah quits on sex scandal issue

The chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah, resigned on Tuesday after an opposition lawmaker accused him of involvement in a sex scandal. An angry Abdullah denied the allegation but said he couldn't continue in office until the issue was resolved. The scandal, in which girls, some of them minors, were said to be supplied to politicians, bureaucrats, police officials, sparked weeks of violent protests across the Himalayan region in 2006 after it was uncovered. "I cannot work as the chief minister until my name is cleared. It is a blot on my character," the 38-year-old Abdullah, the troubled region's youngest chief minister, said.

The resignation came shortly after Muzaffar Hussain Baig, a leader of Kashmir's main opposition People's Democratic Party, said Abdullah was involved in the scandal in a speech in the state assembly. In 2006, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the country's federal police probing the sex scandal, arrested two former state ministers and lawmakers but later freed them on bail. The scandal is still under investigation by the authorities.

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Bangladesh win ODI Series against west Indies

Bangladesh claimed their first one-day series success over a current test-playing nation with a three-wicket victory over West Indies to secure a 2-0 lead with one match remaining. The triumph adds to the successful tour of the Caribbean for the Tigers who have also enjoyed their first test series win overseas. Travis Dowlin struck his maiden international century as the weakened West Indies side racked up an impressive 274 for six in their 50 overs. Bangladesh had never chased down such a total in any of their previous 199 ODI games but once again skipper Shakib Al Hasan produced a match-winning performance. Al Hasan (65) and Mohammad Ashraful (64) put on 74 for the fourth wicket in just 10.3 overs - a partnership that turned the match in Bangladesh's direction.

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2003 Mumbai twin blasts case: Three accused found guilty

A special POTA court on Monday convicted three persons of carrying out bomb blasts at the Gateway of India and the Zaveri Bazaar here on August 25, 2003, killing 52 people and injuring 184. This is the biggest judgment in a terror-related case since 100 people were convicted of the 1993 serial blasts two years ago. Judge M.R. Puranik announced that Haneef Sayyed (46) and his wife Fahmeeda (43) from Marol and Ashrat Ansari (32) from Juhu Galli would be sentenced on August 4. The three were held guilty of carrying out a bomb blast in a bus at Ghatkopar on July 28, 2003, which killed two people and injured 60, and of planting a bomb, which however did not explode, in a bus in the Santa Cruz Electronics Export Processing Zone.
They were convicted under Sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 427 (damaging property) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code. They were also convicted under Sections 3 (damaging property) and 4 (damaging property by fire or explosive) of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act; Sections 3 (causing an explosion to endanger life) and 4 (making an explosive to endanger life) of the Explosive Substances Act; and Sections 5 and 9B (licence for the use of explosives) of the Explosives Act.

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