Latest Politics News and Updates

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

12 killed, 45 injured in train collision near Gorakhpur - India Today

Gorakhpur train accident Gorakhpur train accident. (Photo: ANI) At least seven persons were killed and 45 others injured when two speeding passenger trains collided near Gorakhpur, railway official said on Wednesday.

Railway spokesperson Anil Saxena said among the 45 injured, 12 are grievously injured.

Krishak Express, travelling from Varanasi to Gorakhpur, hit Barauni Express, going from Lucknow to Barauni, from behind at a place, about seven km from Gorakhpur at around 11 pm, Chief Public Relations Officer Alok Singh said.

He added three coaches of Barauni Express were thrown off the track following the collision.

Railway officials rushed to the spot. The injured have been admitted to a nearby hospital.

"The railway has suspended the drivers of Krishak Express for overshooting the signal", Saxena said. "An inquiry has been ordered by the railway under Commissioner Rail Safety P K Bajpai to ascertain the cause of the incident," he added.

The railway has also set up helpline for inquiries for various cities- Gorakhpur (05513303365, 09794846980), Lucknow (05222233042), Chhapra (09006693233) and Benares (09919041978), the spokesperson said.

Movement of trains on Gorakhpur-Varanasi track has been disrupted following the incident and few trains have been diverted.

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Maharashtra polls: With all alliances coming apart, no safe seat even for top ... - Economic Times

Mumbai: The top five leaders of the state are facing some unexpected challenges on their home turf. With all alliances coming apart, former CM Prithviraj Chavan and his party colleague Narayan Rane, NCP's RR Patil and Ajit Pawar and BJP state chief Devender Fadnavis are finding the going tough in their own seats.

Apart from campaigning all over the state for their parties and projecting themselves for the top job in the state, these leaders have been forced to concentrate on their own assembly constituencies to ensure that they don't slip themselves.

Two other big leaders, Sena's Uddhav Thackeray and MNS' Raj Thackeray have decided not to contest. The Congress is contesting all 288 seats in the state and its going into the campaign with Prithviraj Chavan's as its Chief Ministerial candidate.

Chavan had convinced the central leadership that the party has to project just one face for CM's post and has been successful in occupying that slot. But Chavan faces an uphill task of winning in his Karad South constituency in western Maharashtra.

The constituency will see a tough contest between Chavan and two Congress rebels Vilaskaka Undalkar & Atul Bhosle this time. Undalkar won this assembly seat seven times earlier. After the split with Congress, the NCP is now going hammer and tongs against Prithviraj Chavan.

They have taken Undalkar on board. Undalkar's associate Jagannath Mohite revealed that he would now be NCP's candidate. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded Atul Bhosale, yet another Congress rebel who is a Maratha. While the Sena has fielded Ajinkya Patil, son of DY Patil.

NCP's prominent face in the state and former Home Minster of Maharashtra RR Patil faces a very tough challenge in his constituency Tasgaon in Sangali district because this Congress bastion voted for BJP for the first time since India's independence in the recent Lok Sabha polls.

Patil won the last election in 2009 with the help of Sanjay Kaka Patil and got a huge margin of over 65,000 votes. But later Kaka parted ways and fought Lok Sabha on a BJP ticket. Kaka won the seat and now has openly challenged Patil over this contest.

The toughest challenge for Patil will come from Ajit Ghorpade. Leaders from Sangli, like Vilasrao Jagtap from Jath, Prithviraj Deshmukh from Kadegaon and Dinkar Patil used to back Patil but are no longer supporting him.

In Konkan's Kudal constituency, Congress' campaign chief and former industries minister Narayan Rane is likely to be on a sticky wicket because of two challengers, Shiv Sena's Vaibhav Naik who is the district chief of the party and NCP's Pushpasen Sawant.

Rane's son Nilesh recently lost the Lok Sabha election in this district and he trailed by 22,000 votes in this assembly segment. Rane faces a lot of resentment in the region because of people's opposition to Jaitapur Nuclear Power plant and land acquisition related to this project and other power projects in the area.

People think that Rane was not there to support them while their land was being acquired. The Sena is going all out against Rane and has even taken his rival Deepk Kesarkar on board to counter Rane.

In Nagpur, BJP's state president Devendra Fadnavis is being projected as one of the Chief Ministerial candidates of the BJP. But now with the split in the saffron alliance, Devendra is likely to face some competition from Congress party's Praful Gudadhe Patil in the South-West Nagpur constituency.

This constituency has seen over 75,000 new voters since Lok Sabha polls and the BJP feels that the youth will vote in its favour. However, with Sena fielding a candidate BJP could face some challenge.

BJP's target was to enrol 20,000 new voters after names of several voters were found missing in voter rolls. Fadnavis sounds confident of victory but the Congress camp claims that since he took over as state president, he has not been in day-to-day touch with the constituency.

Maharashtra's former deputy chief minister and NCP top man Ajit Pawar may look invincible on his home turf of Baramati but this time the BJP and its allies—who managed to cut down NCP leader Supriya Sule's winning margin sizably in the Lok Sabha polls—are mobilising forces against Pawar.

Ajit was the first to openly say that he felt that all parties should fight separately in Maharashtra. A divided opposition may result in Ajit benefiting but he certainly cannot take a large winning margin for granted anymore because of challenges posed jointly by leaders like Raju Shetty a n d Mahadev Jankar in alliance with the BJP.

12 killed, many hurt as trains collide near Gorakhpur - Hindustan Times

As many as 12 persons were killed and many others severely injured as two express trains rammed into each other near Nandanagar railway crossing in Gorakhpur late in the night on Tuesday.

The mishap occurred when the Krishak Express, on its way from Varanasi to Gorakhpur, hit Barauni Express resulting in overturning of three bogeys of the latter, which was on its way from Lucknow to Barauni.

Panic gripped the area as survivors screamed for help drawing attention of the passers-by. On information, police and railway administration reached the spot.

Eye witnesses said as Barauni Express, after leaving Gorakhpur around 11pm, was crossing Kainchi crossing, Krishak Express came on the same track.

By the time the driver applied emergency brakes, it was too late to prevent the mishap. Officials said general coaches were hit and the rescue operation was on despite bad light at the accident site.

Border stand-off: India and China hold farewell flag meeting - Indian Express

Indian and Chinese troops held a flag meeting at Spanggur gap on Tuesday, the day Chinese troops were supposed to withdraw their positions along the Line of Actual Control.

The meeting is said to have started at about 1.30 pm and have continued for about “two-three hours”.

Meanwhile, sources said that a few Chinese troops were still present at Chumar on Tuesday.

A Defence Ministry official, however, said that the “withdrawal is more or less complete”, that the troops left behind were “small in number” and that he had “no doubt that the remaining troops will also withdraw”.

The Chumar stand-off which began on September 10 concluded on September 26 after External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj met her Chinese counterpart in New York. As per the plan chalked out in the subsequent flag meeting along the LAC, the troops were supposed to withdraw to their “pre-September 10 positions” by Tuesday.

Sources said that Demchok — another area where the Chinese civilians had pitched tents — too had a few Chinese troops during the stand-off. “But the Chinese troops from Demchok have withdrawn completely,” said an official.

“Normally, flag meetings are not required to be held on such days when both the sides are withdrawing. They are a mechanism to break the deadlock and not the means to ensure that both sides are withdrawing,” said a source.

The sources added that the Chinese side had raised concerns regarding a post constructed by the Indian side, a concern that stayed even till the day of their withdrawal.

12 percent rain deficit for India as Southwest monsoon winds up officially - Zee News

New Delhi: As India marks the official end of Southwest Monsoon Tuesday, it is left with a -12 per cent rain shortfall after a third of its territory witnessed deficient precipitation during the wet season.

The official period for the Southwest Monsoon season in India is between June 1 and Sept. 30.

According to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), monsoon is fast winding up and its withdrawal line passes through Jammu, Una, Bareilly, Kanpur, Nowgong, Ujjain, Vadodara and Porbandar. It is also active over Kerala, IMD said.

Private forecasting agency Skymet said that only one sub- division, South Interior Karnataka, received excess rainfall, of 21 per cent, while about 30 per cent of the country received deficient rainfall.

The overall monsoon deficit in the country was at -12 per cent this year, as per IMD data.

IMD had projected a "below normal" monsoon this year for India and the country received 775-mm rainfall as against the normal precipitation of 883-mm.

The onset of monsoon was weak with June seeing a high rainfall deficit of -43 per cent.

However, conditions improved in July and August on the back of good spells of rain in their last two weeks. The good rainfall in July, August and September helped limit the overall deficit to -12 per cent.

Northwest division, which includes eastern and western Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Chandigarh and Haryana saw a rain deficit of -21 per cent, the highest in the country, while the shortfall for the southern peninsula was -7 per cent.

Good rainfall in the last three months kept the overall deficit at -9 per cent in Central India while eastern and Northeast India recorded a deficit of -12 per cent.

According to IMD, overall, Sept. 4 recorded the highest rainfall for a single day while June 1, the date for the official onset of the monsoon in the country, recorded the least rainfall for one day.

Bankers rule out cut in deposit rates - Financial Express

fe Bureau | Mumbai | Published: Oct 01 2014, 23:37 IST

Oct 01 2014, 23:37 IST

SummaryBankers feel there is a possibility that the recovery in...

Bankers feel there is a possibility that the recovery in non-performing assets (NPA) cycle will be further drawn out following the Supreme Court�s verdict cancelling the allocation of coal blocks.

Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairman of the State Bank of India, said the turning of the NPA cycle could get delayed. �I am not ruling it out, but we are not pressing the panic buttons right now,� Bhattacharya said at the customary post-policy bankers� press conference on Tuesday. �We need to be a bit patient and watch where it is.�

Bhattacharya said the government planned to come up with measures for companies affected by the cancellation of captive coal blocks. These were expected by October-end and bankers were waiting to assess the impact these would have on their accounts.

�Meanwhile, we are keeping our options open and keeping a track of all these accounts. We are also trying to engage with the necessary people to tell them what are the issues; we may suggest some solutions,� Bhattacharya explained.

On lending rates, bankers said they remain dependent on credit demand, currently not healthy. Aditya Puri, managing director and CEO of HDFC Bank, said if credit demand picked up, one wouldn�t see lower deposit rates. �If it does not pick up and there is a lowering of deposit rates, then we can possibly see some reductions on the asset rates,� Puri added.

Latest data from the Reserve Bank of India showed that non-food credit grew by a mere 9.8% for the fortnight ended September 5, compared with the 18.4% growth in the same period last year.

Bankers said there is no credit demand for new projects and that waiting for the new capex cycle and now are looking for growth in their retail books. �Retail credit has been growing and is stable. Sentiments such as the festival season will add to further demand. As far as working capital goes, it all depends on the momentum coming back into the economy. Finally, the new projects come in when new investments come in,� said Chanda Kochhar, managing director and CEO of ICICI Bank.

Kochhar, also ruled out the possibility of a cut in deposit rates immediately.

�Today, deposits compete with many other financial instruments and a customer has many choices.

You have to keep that in mind as well,� Kochhar reasoned.