HC notice to govt on appointment of finance director in Transco

The Delhi High Court has sought a response from the AAP government and TRANSCO, a state-owned power company, on a plea alleging that the appointment of director (finance) in the PSU was not approved by lieutenant governor Anil Baijal.

Justice VK Rao directed the authorities to file a counter affidavit in three days on a plea challenging the action of the power department to issue an order on June 5 for giving charge of director (finance) of Delhi Transco Limited (TRANSCO) to its company secretary.

The court fixed the hearing for August 3 on the plea filed by Surender Babbar, also a senior officer in the firm, alleging that his seniority has been overlooked.

The court, while issuing notice to the Delhi government’s power department, TRANSCO and its company secretary, said “any action taken by the respondents pursuant to and on the basis of impugned order of June 5, 2017, will be subject to the outcome of this court.”

Babbar, who was employed as general manager (finance), has claimed the company secretary has been wrongly allowed to take over the charge of director (finance). Seeking quashing of the June 5 order, Babbar claimed he was the only one eligible for the post. The plea said that Babbar was sent out of the firm as he had alleged irregularities in the management of projects worth ₹200 crore executed by Power Grid Corporation. PTI

Earlier, Vice President Hamid Ansari recalled how Mukherjee spoke about nurturing pluralism and diversity. He quoted Mukherjee to add that there is room for Argumentative Indian but not intolerant Indian. Ansari said “these messages are important in our troubled times”. The President too, spoke about the diversity of the country of 130 crore people who, he said, belonged to three major ethnic groups, practicing seven major religions and speaking 122 languages in daily lives.

“Not a single part of this vast territory of 3.3 million square kilometers of landmass and islands is unrepresented in the Parliament. Each of the 788 voices of MPs is important,” said Mukherjee. His comment assumes significance in the wake of the rise of smaller parties in Parliament.

Mukherjee spoke about his association with PV Narsimha Rao, remember former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee for his oration, Manmohan Singh for his “calming presence”, and recalled how LK Advani gave him mature advice and Sonia Gandhi was a passionate supporter of social legislations.

In the closing parts of his speech, he praised Prime Minister Modi and said: “I’ll carry with me fond memories of association with PM Narendra Modi and remember his warm behaviour towards me”. He praised the PM for advice and co-operation “at every step” and added that the BJP leader is working “with passion and energy, he is driving transformational changes.”

“It will be with a tinge of sadness and a rainbow of memories that I will be leaving this building today... I leave with a sense of fulfilment and happiness of having served the country,” he said, before finishing his speech with “Jai Hind”.

Mukherjee will address the nation tomorrow before he demits office. Express, while the Tata Group has informally sought details on the privatisation from the government.

The government had constituted a group of ministers (GoM), headed by finance minister Arun Jaitley, to explore options related to the sale of assets and a potential demerger and strategic disinvestment of three profit-making subsidiaries. The GoM held its first meeting on July 21.

While both KKR and Warburg declined to comment, the sources said the funds were told to wait till an independent adviser is appointed to manage the sale through a bidding process.

“A proposal inviting investment banks to manage divestment is expected soon and quite a few domestic and foreign investment banks have been sounded out,” according to one of the sources.

A spokesman for the civil aviation ministry did not respond to a query seeking comment.

The interest shown by the two private equity funds is arguably the first by overseas investors after foreign direct investment rules in aviation were changed last year to allow them to own 100% stake in local airlines, while limiting investment by foreign airlines to 49% of a domestic airline’s paid-up capital. More global funds could join the fray in the coming days.

“Security of tomatoes with its skyrocketing prices is of considerable concern for wholesalers. Thieves attacked a tomato-laden truck and looted 2,600kg tomatoes in Mumbai on July 15. This has added to Indore businessmen’s concern,” said Santosh Narang, a wholesaler at the mandi.

To keep the tomatoes safe, the businessmen asked for security arrangements from the mandi administration, which appointed half a dozen armed guards.

According to mandi administration, more than 11 trucks arrived in the mandi on Saturday. The tomatoes are being sold in the presence of guards.

Mandi inspector Ramesh Sawadiya said, “The businessmen had given a letter demanding proper security arrangements, particularly during unloading of trucks laden with tomatoes. The guards have been deployed after that request.”

The May hold-up triggered outrage as it happened less than a year after robbers stopped a family travelling in a car on the outskirts of Bulandshahr in western Uttar Pradesh on the night of July 29, tied up the men, and raped a woman and her 14-year-old daughter in a nearby field. They took away gold jewellery and cash of the family from Ghaziabad.

Under pressure to crack the Jewar case, police mounted a robust search and received information on Saturday that the suspects might pass through an underpass near Sabota village.

A team of 15 policemen took position and waited. They intercepted six men in a hatchback around 2.30am and the occupants immediately fired at the cops and tried to abscond.

As police fired back, a suspect was hit in one of his legs. He and three more were caught but another two escaped, taking advantage of the darkness and bushes in the area. They kept firing during their retreat.

The wounded suspect was taken to a hospital in New Delhi.

Police seized three countrymade pistols, bullets, jewellery, cash totaling Rs 11,000, iron rods, and a tyre with nails punched into it. Besides, two mobile phones robbed from the gang-rape victims were also found on them.

The suspects switched off their phones and kept changing their location constantly — moving between Haryana, New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan — to evade arrest after the crime, said Love Kumar, the Gautam Budh Nagar senior superintendent of police.

“We worked with the neighbouring states and zeroed in more than 20 gangs. Sketches, language and other manual inputs helped us trace the four men, who belong to the Bawariya gang,” he said. The motive was robbery and there’s no “personal enmity involved”, the officer added.

He said eight gangsters came in an SUV on May 25, but two of them left before the gang committed the crime. Police are searching for these two as well.

“Semen samples from the clothes of two women would be matched with the DNA of the accused.”

Nobat Singh, an elderly man who was taken hostage off the Yamuna Expressway near Jewar, helped police identify the suspects. Another man, who too was robbed and assaulted, was called. “We confirmed the faces as we can never forget those.”

The Tirupati board runs a string of temples in cities and towns such as New Delhi, Rishikesh, Guwahati, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kanyakumari.

The petitioner said collections at temples in Chennai and Hyderabad are deposited in banks once a week, but it is done once in six months in the other places.

Ramanmurthy contended that not accepting public money for charity and services infringes the devotees’ fundamental right to practice their religion.

He said the board will be unable to utilise the money for its services. Besides, possession of demonetised money is a criminal offence.

The petition follows the Supreme Court’s directive on July 4 to the government and RBI to come up with a policy to offer a window to people who could not deposit their old notes for legitimate reasons before the December deadline.

Another petition with a similar plea was filed by siblings Arushi and Apurv Jain after they found ₹60 lakh in old notes in lockers of their parents, who died in a road accident nine years ago. They appealed for a window to exchange the money. The two were given access to the locker this March after they became adults. But the succession court in Saket gave them the permission three months after the deadline to deposit defunct notes ended. A bench of Chief Justice JS Khehar and Justice DY Chandrachud on Friday took note of the duo’s plea and asked the finance ministry to file a response within four weeks.

The government recalled 500and 1,000-rupee notes last November, wiping out 86% of the money in circulation in a cashdriven economy.

Religious shrines reportedly received a surfeit of donations in old notes after the demonetisation exercise was announced. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee had asked its officials not to accept defunct notes after December 30. In Vaishnodevi temple, donations of ~1.90 crore in scrapped notes were recorded after the government’s demonetisation decision.