Saradha gone, website remains

The website www.saradhagroup.biz can be accessed on the Internet.

It begins with a message: "Saradha Group of companies has brought in a new renaissance for better development of the country. We always give more importance for the development of the community, along with education and social upgradation. We give priority to moral values."
  
It is 20 months since the chit fund company closed down, leaving lakhs of investors, mainly from rural Bengal, cheated of their life's savings following which Saradha Group chairman Sudipto Sen was arrested from Kashmir in April, last year.

"We will look into the matter how the website is still there on the web," an official of CBI, which is probing the fraud, said when asked.

"It might be that the agency which has created the website, has been paid the money. We have to look into it," he said.
 
The website has the address and contact numbers and email IDs of 69 branch offices of Saradha Group spread across West Bengal, Tripura, Odisha, Assam and New Delhi.  

The home page opens with the message "You Wish We Fulfill" and an introduction about Saradha's journey which began 12 years ago.

It also mentions the group of companies that Saradha had floated.
  
They are: Saradha Construction, Saradha Realty, Landmark Cement, Saradha Agro, Saradha Education Hub, Saradha Tea Estate, Saradha Health resorts, Saradha Tours & Travels, Saradha Shopping Mall and Saradha Exports.

It went on to say, "Several other prolific ventures would soon come up to see the daylight. The group is driven by innovation, quality, excellence, and a social conscience."

Source: Chhattisgarh Hindi News and MP Hindi News

Sena inching closer to join BJP government in Maharashtra, talks to continue today

"Talks between BJP and Sena leaders will continue today. We discussed several things last night," senior Sena leader Subhash Desai who held talks with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis last night said.

Desai declined to disclose the time and venue of the parleys on Tuesday.

There were reports that the Shiv Sena which had been demanding the post of the Deputy Chief Minister and crucial Home Ministry, had toned down the demand and was ready to settle for other ministerial posts but nobody from either side confirmed the same.

The meeting between senior leaders of the two parties was held at Varsha, the official residence of Chief Minister.

Source: Chhattisgarh Hindi News and MP Hindi News

Police still clueless in daring ATM heist in North Delhi

Police has now turned to dump data - collection of mobile numbers operating in the area when the incident took place - to identify the assailants.

"Several leads which we had been working in the last 48 hours have led into a dead end. We are now looking for new clues," said a senior police official investigating the case.

They have asked all mobile operating companies to provide their data regarding the numbers active in an around Kamla Nagar area.

Police had recovered the empty suitcase, which was robbed by the assailants from the ATM on Saturday the same evening from Subji Mandi area's Mukimpur residential colony.

Investigators believe that the numbers which would be found active in both these spots simultaneously may lead them to the assailants.

As many as 10 teams are working to crack the case, including those from the Special Cell and Crime Branch are looking into the case.

Meanwhile, police is also going to issue an advisory to follow the Standard Operating Procedure to all cash replenishment agencies.

Scientific Systems Management Services, the company involved in this case may also face police action for not following the SOP.

Source: Chhattisgarh Hindi News and MP Hindi News

Record 120 farmers killed themselves in Maharashtra in November: Activist

"While at least 65 farmers ended their lives in Marathwada, another 55 took the extreme step in Vidarbha region," Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti president Kishore Tiwari said.

In the past 24 hours alone, around two dozen farm folk have committed suicide, according to available figures, claimed Tiwari.

He added that the current agrarian crisis has so gripped farmers that average of four distressed farmers are now killing themselves daily, breaking all past records.

He said a VJAS delegation would visit New Delhi Tuesday and attempt to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi to apprise him of the grim situation in the agrarian sector of the state.

The maximum deaths have been reported of farmers cultivating cotton and soyabean besides other cash crops and fruits - raised in over five million hectares - which have been destroyed in the drought, he added.

Tiwari lamented that despite all efforts, the state and central governments have turned a blind eye to the farmers' plight, leaving them with no options but end their lives.

"We have estimated losses worth around Rs.60,000 crore due to the drought, but the state government has demanded only Rs.4,000 crore central relief - how will this suffice?" he asked in a reference to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' statement last week.

VJAS secretary Mohan Jadhav added that till date this year the farmers suicide figures have crossed 1,000 in Vidarbha and 1,200 in Marathwada.

"In order to provide immediate relief, the state must seek Rs.20,000 crore central aid for crop losses, another Rs.20,000 crore to tackle the serious drought conditions and Rs.20,000 crore to waive off farm debts," Jadhav demanded.

Tiwari reiterated the long-pending demands for total farm loans waiver, food and health security for the farm folk, education and other social aid for the farm widows and orphans.

Source: Chhattisgarh Hindi News and MP Hindi News

AIDS campaigners say pandemic has finally reached tipping point

The number of people newly infected with HIV over the last year was lower than the number of HIV-positive people who joined those getting access to the medicines they need to take for life to keep AIDS at bay.
            
 But in a report to mark World AIDS Day on December. 1, the ONE campaign, an advocacy group working to end poverty and preventable disease in Africa, warned that reaching this milestone did not mean the end of AIDS was around the corner.
             
"We've passed the tipping point in the AIDS fight at the global level, but not all countries are there yet, and the gains made can easily stall or unravel," said Erin Hohlfelder, ONE's director of global health policy.

The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS is spread via blood, semen and breast milk. There is no cure for the infection, but AIDS can be kept at bay for many years with cocktails of antiretroviral drugs.

United Nations data show that in 2013, 35 million people were living with HIV, 2.1 million people were newly infected with the virus and some 1.5 million people died of AIDS. By far the greatest part of the HIV/AIDS burden is in sub-Saharan Africa. The AIDS pandemic began more than 30 years ago and has killed up to 40 million people worldwide.

The United Nations AIDS agency, UNAIDS, says that, by June 2014, some 13.6 million people globally had access to AIDS drugs, a dramatic improvement on the 5 million who were getting treatment in 2010.

"Despite the good news, we should not take a victory lap yet," said Hohlfelder.  She highlighted several threats to current progress, including a USD 3 billion shortfall in the funds needed each year to control HIV around the world.

"We want to see bold new funding from a more diversified base, including more from African domestic budgets," she said.

ONE also noted that HIV is increasingly concentrated among hard-to-reach populations such as injecting drug users, gay men and sex workers - groups who are often stigmatised and have trouble accessing treatment and prevention services.

Source: Chhattisgarh Hindi News and MP Hindi News

Israeli government approves new bill to detain asylum seekers

The bill proposal, called "The Infiltration Prevention Act," is the third formulation of the bill, the two previous versions having been struck down by the country's Supreme Court, for the alleged infringement upon the migrants' basic human rights.

According to the bill, once asylum seekers enter Israel, they would be sent to a prison called Saharonim, and from there, they would be brought to the Holot detention centre in the southern Negev desert for a period of up to 20 months.

The Supreme Court, Sep 22 disqualified the government policy, which allowed the detention of illegal migrants for up to a year without trial. In 2013, the Supreme Court had struck down the first formulation of the bill, which had allowed the authorities to lock migrants up for a period of up to three years without trial.

Following the approval of the government, the bill would be transferred, for discussion, to the Knesset (parliament) committee for Interior Affairs and then put to several rounds of voting in the Knesset plenum.

According to Israeli authorities, there are currently about 48,000 African migrants who had entered the country without permits across the Egypt-Israel border. Most of them have from the war-torn African countries of South Sudan and Eritrea.

 About 2,000 illegal migrants are currently held at the Holot facility. Israeli authorities consider the migrants to be a risk to the Jewish character of the state. On the other hand, harsh measures taken against the migrants are criticised by left-wing protesters and activists.

Source: Chhattisgarh Hindi News and MP Hindi News

Imran threatens to "shut down" Pakistan by 16 December

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief, in a rally here outside the Parliament, said that his protest will continue till the government initiate an inquiry into the "massive rigging" in last year's general elections, which saw Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) win by a landslide.

"The ball is in your court, Nawaz Sharif — do your talks, do your investigations and solve the issue. We will close Pakistan down when December 16 comes, and what I do after that you will not be able to bear it...It has been 109 days and Naya Pakistan is waking up every day. We can all see it," Khan was quoted as saying by Dawn.

"On Thursday (December 4), I will go to Lahore and shut it down. On December 8 I will shut down Faisalabad, on December 12 I will go to Karachi and shut it down. By December 16 I will shut down all of Pakistan if the poll inquiry is not initiated," Khan said.

The cricketer-turned-politician has been holding protest-rallies in different cities to spread his movement, demanding a probe into the allegations of rigging the election.

Khan had launched his protest in mid-August, demanding Sharif's ouster, but he later withdrew his main demand of the Prime Minister's resignation ahead of the probe and offered the government to constitute a judicial commission comprising Supreme Court judges, ISI and Military Intelligence officials, to investigate the reported rigging.

December 16 is considered as a tragic day in the history of Pakistan as the country lost its eastern wing after a war with India when its army surrendered and Bangladesh emerged as an independent country.

The PTI leader said that if his demand for the impartial inquiry of the elections was not met, he would make the functioning of government "impossible".

He alleged that the Nawaz Sahrif government is promoting corruption and politics of patronage.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister's spokesman, Mussadik Malik said that it was "unfortunate" that Khan had threatened to "shut down" the country.

"What he want to achieve through it. I urge him to leave the politics of agitation and enter into a meaningful dialogue to achieve his objectives," he said.

Minister for Railways Saad Rafiq said such announcements cannot be made by a patriotic person.

"Imran wants to spread anarchy and derail democracy in the disguise of bringing true democracy," he said.

Source: Chhattisgarh Hindi News and MP Hindi News