The Enforcement Directorate has attached a sugar mill worth Rs 65 crore in Satara, which is linked to Maharashtra deputy chief minister and NCP leader Ajit Pawar and his wife Sunetra Pawar, as part of the probe into a money laundering case pertaining to Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank (MSCB). These assets include land, building, machinery and other facilities held by a Guru Commodity Services Private Limited, that had leased it to a sugar mill— Jarandeshwar Sahkari Sugar Karkhana (SSK)— in Maharashtra’s Satara district.

“The Enforcement Directorate has attached the properties including Land, Building & Structure and Plant & Machinery of M/s Jarandeshwar Sahkari Sugar Karkhana (Jarandeshwar SSK) situated at Chimangaon, Koregaon, Satara, Maharashtra worth Rs. 65,75,00,000/- (purchase price of the year 2010) under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering, 2002 (PMLA) in a case related to Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank (MSCB). The assets are currently held in the name of M/s Guru Commodity Services Pvt. Ltd. and leased to M/s Jarandeshwar Sugar Mills Pvt. Ltd. M/s Sparkling Soil Pvt. Ltd. is holding majority shares of M/s Jarandeshwar Sugar Mills Pvt. Ltd. Investigations revealed that M/s Sparkling Soil Pvt. Ltd. is a related company to Ajit Pawar, Deputy Chief Minister of State of Maharashtra and Sunetra Ajit Pawar.” ED release stated.

Reacting to the development, NCP said that it was nothing but a move to malign the party and its leaders. However, Ajit Pawar, the nephew of NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, remained unfazed and said that he was seeking legal advice on the issue. “The agency (ED) has the right to conduct an inquiry. Earlier, the state-CID and Anti-Corruption Bureau did the investigation but nothing came out. The Economic Offences Wing probe is also underway. The investigation is being done from all sides but nothing has come out. A judicial probe had also been conducted,” Pawar said.

He also said he had no idea why Guru Commodity Services— which owns the sugar factory— was facing probe. “This sugar factory was among 14 mills which were sold after they failed to repay loans to MSC Bank. The Bombay High Court had asked the bank to give them one year and put them up for sale if they could not clear the outstanding amounts in that period,” said Pawar in Pune. He was not at all associated with Guru Commodity Services, the deputy CM said.

In the MSCB case which was investigated on directions from the Bombay high court, ED has alleged that MSCB officials sanctioned loans to sick sugar mills and when the mills defaulted on the loans, they were auctioned off to recover the loss. The MSCB officials ensured that relatives or close associates of senior politicians got the mills during the auction at throwaway prices.

The West Bengal governor and the ruling party TMC have been at loggerheads for most of the three years he has been in the post, fighting over several issues, including fake Covid vaccination camps, a 1996 hawala scam, and violence after the Trinamool’s sweeping victory in the recently held elections.

On Friday afternoon, a commotion erupted in the West Bengal Assembly as governor Jagdeep Dhankhar began his speech— opening address of the new Bengal Assembly session. Opposition BJP MLAs held up placards and shouted protests ostensibly over post-poll violence, and the Governor left without completing his speech.

The governor was scheduled to address the session at the beginning of the session. In the speech he praised the work of the government. However, as soon as he started his speech, the slogan in the assembly was ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jay’, and he was forced to stop less than 10 minutes into his address and was escorted to his vehicle by Speaker Biman Banerjee.

Usually the assembly session starts with the speech of the governor. Although there is a lot of controversy over the Governor’s speech or his statements regarding the speech, it is unprecedented to end the speech in the middle or at the beginning.

The speech praised the state’s role in curbing “post-election violence”. It is to be noted that the BJP has repeatedly complained about the violence. It was mentioned in the speech that all the incidents of violence took place during the polls when law and order was in the hands of the Election Commission. The brief speech also mentioned that the Trinamool-led government had impartially investigated the incidents after coming to power. Nevertheless, the BJP complained about this statement.

Opposition leader Shuvendu Adhikari after the incident, said that the governor was active in speaking against violence. “The governor is a sensitive person,” Shuvendu told reporters later.

“He went to Shitalkuchi, Nandigram to take note of the post-poll violence situation. 41 BJP workers have been killed in the state. Women have been oppressed. We have raised all that in the assembly. If there was even a line in the speech about post-poll violence, we would have acted as a responsible opponent,” he said, referring to the protests in the assembly.

Nevertheless, BJP vehemently protested against the fact that the governor’s speech did not mention post-election violence and how it was ‘orchestrated’ by the party in power.

During the harrowing second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, the government took a tough stance by ordering a nationwide lockdown. Amid all this, the iTV Foundation and the Akshaya Patra Foundation stepped in to provide relief by delivering meals to people across the country.

Thousands of people, including the daily wage workers, migrant labourers, building site workers, and poor people at old-age homes and night shelters, have benefited from the relief programme run by the iTV Foundation and the Akshaya Patra Foundation. The programme includes ensuring meals and providing packed grocery kits to the needy, whilst all the Covid-19 protocols are followed.

“Amid the pandemic, many children in our country have lost their parents. And multitudes of people have lost their livelihoods as a result of the economic downturn. Hence, this food bank service with us and the Akshaya Patra Foundation is an opportunity for us to aid the rest of our country’s residents. Many impoverished people will benefit from this service since it will provide them with nutritious food, which they desperately require at this time,” said Aishwarya Sharma, founder of the iTV Foundation.

“We came here today to deliver nearly 600 meal-packs to children. It brings me great joy to see children’s faces light up, and it gives me immense satisfaction that we have the opportunity to help them amid such trying times. We’ve been doing this all around Delhi; we have about 25 centres from which we distribute close to 500 lunch and dinner meals,” Sri Arjun Nath Dasa, Head, Communications (Delhi NCR), Akshaya Patra remarked while distributing the meals.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation operates 55 kitchens across 13 States and a Union Territory of India. Centralised kitchens are large kitchen units that can cook up to 100,000 meals. These kitchens are automated and thus ensure utmost hygiene during the cooking processes. On the other hand, in locations where factors such as difficult geographical terrain and improper road connectivity do not support the construction of large infrastructure, the decentralised kitchen format is followed.

To distribute meals and one month’s worth of rations to the needy, the two Foundations travelled to remote regions in the national capital, including Indra Vihar Camp in Punjabi Bagh, and Pashchim Vihar. These kits are called “Happiness Kits” because they bring smiles to the faces of those who are in need during the lockdown.

The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday allowed cinema halls, multiplexes and stadiums in Uttar Pradesh to open from 5 July while following Covid-19 protocols.

The Yogi Adityanath government took this decision after considering their problems sympathetically. Operators will have to strictly follow the guidelines issued by the government in cinemas and multiplexes. If the guidelines are violated, then legal action will be taken under the Covid-19 Epidemic Act.

Covid protocol will have to be followed. There will be no arrangement for food and drink in the cinema hall. Only packaged food will be provided to the visitors. Tickets will be booked online. In places where online booking is not available, tickets will be available through the window. Ticket buyers will keep a distance of six feet from each other. The entire cinema hall will be sanitized after every show. Another major decision of the government was to set up health ATMs in villages and towns.

Mumbai is witnessing a slouching pace in vaccination drive due to the supply shortages in the city. A day after suspending Covid-19 vaccination across 300 centres on Thursday, BMC conducted the vaccination for a limited period of three hours on Friday. According to BMC officials, vaccination across 281 civic-run centres and 20 government centres will be conducted between 2 pm to 5 pm only, as the doses of the vaccine are falling short.

Mumbai created a record in June with ‘ramp-up in vaccination’ wherein 1 lakh doses were administered daily, nevertheless, the inoculation drive has now slowed down in the city since the past two days as the supplies have dried up. Private centres have once again taken a lead in administering the doses. Additional chief secretary Dr. Pradeep Vyas said fresh stocks are expected to arrive by July 2, adding that the rate of vaccination depends on the availability of doses. The state is expecting to receive 9-10 lakh doses, which may suffice for a few days.

Suresh Kakani, the additional municipal commissioner, said that “they are hoping to receive some stocks on Thursday. If they arrive, we will resume vaccination from Friday”.

“Citizens of Mumbai are constantly informed about the extent to which the stock of vaccines will be obtained and appropriate decisions are taken. Vaccinations will be resumed once vaccine stocks become available. A humble appeal is being made to the citizens of Mumbai to cooperate with the BMC administration,” read the official press statement of the BMC.

Maharashtra health minister, Rajesh Tope had said the number of people who had taken the first dose was significant but the number of fully vaccinated was far from desirable. In Mumbai, 10.72 lakh people have taken both doses and nearly 33lakh have taken the first dose. Of the 63,579 doses administered in Mumbai on Wednesday, 36,054 were in private and 27,525 were at the public centres.

NEW DELHI: The counter-drone technology developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) could help Army swiftly detect and destroy drones that pose a security threat to the country.

As per Dr Jillelamudi Manjula, Director General- Electronics and Communication Systems (ECS), DRDO, the D-4 drone system could detect close-range attacks like the one in Jammu on Sunday that injured two Army jawans. “D-4 drone system would’ve detected attack (in Jammu) as its range is over 4 kilometres. The system’s aim is to detect rogue drones that are likely to attack most vulnerable places. The system has got multiple sensors and two different counterattacks to destroy the rogue drones,” she said.

Dr Manjula further informed that the D-4 drone system is capable of destroying micro-drones by jamming the command and control links and further by damaging the hardware of the drones.

“Prevention can be done by early detection only, so we need to have multiple systems all around our vulnerable areas. We need to detect the drones early,” said the DRDO DG.

The D-4 drone system was used for security during this year’s Republic Day parade at Rajpath.

“It was used during Republic Day security preparation to detect and respond to any suspicious activity or contingency situation. We were continuously monitoring 24X7 those days but fortunately, we didn’t find anything suspicious,” Dr Manjula further said.

On Sunday, two low-intensity explosions were reported in Jammu Air Force station. One of the blasts caused minor damage to the roof of a building while the other exploded in an open area.

After the attack, Chief General MM Naravane said, “Easy availability of drones definitely increases the complexity and challenges that we have to deal with. We have put in place some measures. We’re developing capabilities to deal with the drone threat in both kinetic and non-kinetic realm”. ANI