Day: April 17, 2025

The Chairman and members of the 16^th Finance Commission appreciated the Andhra Pradesh government’s WhatsApp governance initiative. The 16^th Finance Commission team visited the Andhra Pradesh Secretariat at Velagapudi on Wednesday.

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu explained the WhatsApp governance model to the delegation. He highlighted that the government was working towards a system where citizens could access public services via WhatsApp, eliminating the need to visit the offices.

“The goal is to provide up to 1,000 services through WhatsApp,” Mr. Naidu said.

Arvind Panagariya, Chairman of the Finance Commission, noted that it was impressive for a Chief Minister to give a detailed presentation on the financial matters and the depth of analysis on growth indicators and efforts to seek Central assistance.

Mr. Panagariya asked Mr. Naidu whether this innovative model had been brought to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attention. Mr. Naidu replied that he had planned to explain the project during his meeting with the Prime Minister scheduled for the next month.

Finance Commission member Anne George Mathew recalled her visit to Hyderabad 30 years ago, observing the city’s remarkable development since then, which she credited to Mr. Naidu’s vision.

She expressed confidence that Amaravati would be developed on similar standards.

Mr. Naidu recalled how Mr. Panagariya had recommended transferring the Polavaram Project to the State during his tenure in the NITI Aayog. “We aim to complete the Polavaram project before the upcoming Pushkarams,” Mr. Naidu said.

Mr. Naidu praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, under which India is evolving into a developed nation. “From being mocked for slow growth, India is now the 5th largest economy and is set to become the 3rd largest by 2028. By 2047, we will be the world’s largest economy,” he said.

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To attract foreign investors and facilitate industrial growth, an international airport is essential, Andhra Pradesh Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development P. Narayana has said.

He clarified that the government needs around 5,000 acres for the construction of an international airport in the capital region.

If the government goes with the Land Pooling Scheme (LPS), it needs 30,000 acres for the construction and developed returnable plots for farmers, the Minister said.

He added that the State needed land for industries and sports city to hold international events like Olympics, and an international airport.

He said that though Visakhapatnam has an airport, the government is constructing Bhogapuram airport.

Mr. Narayana assured the farmers who parted with their agricultural lands under the LPS for the construction of Amaravati capital city, that they need not worry.

Speaking to the media at the Secretariat on Wednesday, the Minister said the government was committed to fulfilling all the promises made to the farmers. 

He emphasised that certain individuals were spreading baseless doubts about the capital’s future, and urged farmers not to fall prey to such misinformation.

Reaffirming Amaravati’s importance, he said that the construction of the capital city was not just about infrastructure but also about creating employment opportunities and establishing smart industries. 

“To attract international investors and facilitate industrial growth, an airport is essential,” Mr. Narayana said.

Land acquisition

The government has envisioned Amaravati as a hub for smart, non-polluting industries that can generate large-scale employment for the youth. For this, the Minister said that flight connectivity was vital. “Hence, the government has planned an international airport, requiring about 5,000 acres of land. However, a final decision on whether the land will be acquired through pooling or acquisition is yet to be taken,” the Minister said.

Mr. Narayana said that administrative approval had been given for development works worth ₹64,000 crore, with most tenders finalised and works already under way.

He said that the houses for officials would be completed within a year, trunk roads in 18 months, layout roads in two and a half years, and iconic buildings within three years. 

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The Allahabad High Court has observed that couples who marry of their own will against the wishes of their parents cannot claim police protection as a matter of right unless there is a real threat perception to their life and liberty.

The court gave the ruling while deciding an application filed by a couple seeking protection.

It said the court can provide security to a couple in a deserving case but in the absence of any threat perception, such a couple must “learn to support each other and face the society”.

Justice Saurabh Srivastava made this observation while hearing a writ petition filed by Shreya Kesarwani and her husband seeking police protection and a direction for the private respondents not to interfere in their peaceful marital life.

The court after going through the averments made in their petition, disposed of their writ petition, noting that there was no serious threat perception to the petitioners.

Disposing of the writ petition, the court observed, “There is no requirement of passing any order for providing police protection to them in the light of judgment rendered by the Supreme Court in the case of Lata Singh Vs State of UP and another, wherein it has been held that the courts are not meant to provide protection to such youths who have simply fled to marry according to their own wishes.” The court also observed that there was no material or reason to conclude that the petitioners’ life and liberty were in peril.

“There is not even an iota of evidence to evince that private respondents (relatives of either of the petitioners) are likely to cause physical or mental assault to the petitioners,” the court noted.

In addition, the court noted that the petitioners had not submitted a specific application in the form of information to the concerned police authorities to file any FIR against the alleged illegal conduct of the private respondents.

However, noting that the petitioners had already submitted a representation to the superintendent of police (SP), Chitrakoot district, the court said, “In case the concerned police find a real threat perception, they will do the needful in accordance with law.” Against this backdrop, the court stressed that if any person misbehaves or manhandles them, the courts and the police authorities are there to come to their rescue.

In its decision dated April 4, the court disposed of the plea, holding that the petitioners cannot claim security as a matter of course or right.

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NEW DELHI: Dismissing Congress‘s charge of vendetta after Enforcement Directorate (ED) chargesheeted Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case, BJP on Wednesday said no one had the “licence to loot”.
Senior party functionary Ravi Shankar Prasad said the law would take its own course under the Modi govt and probe agencies would not be fazed by the Congress’s “threats”.
Prasad asked Congress to reply to the allegations against the Gandhis instead of offering a political reaction, noting that the opposition party found no relief from the judiciary in its pleas against the investigation.
He said the main charge against the Gandhis was that as 76% shareholders of Young Indian company, they had “misappropriated” real-estate worth thousands of crores owned by Associated Journals Limited, which owned the National Herald newspaper.
Prasad said Congress had the right to hold ‘dharnas’ (to protest the ED chargesheet) but that right did not extend to misappropriating public property given by the govt to National Herald.
“A newspaper that was established during the freedom struggle to espouse the voice of those fighting British imperialism degenerated into a money-minting exercise for Congress establishment,” he claimed.
Prasad said this was the “Gandhi model of development”, as he noted the allegation against Sonia’s son-in-law Robert Vadra of pocketing a huge profit in a land deal in Haryana with the collusion of the then Congress govt in the state.
BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said there was no question of vendetta politics as the probe began on Delhi high court’s directive in 2013 when the Congress-led UPA was in office at the Centre. “If they are calling it vindictive politics, they are admitting that they took some wrong action against us when they were in power,” Trivedi told media reporters.

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NEW DELHI: Calling ED’s National Herald case a “political hit job scripted by BJP”, Congress Wednesday said there is not a whiff of a crime of any sort as Young India is a not-for-profit company, with no money or property transfer. It said the case is a ploy of PM Modi to divert focus from difficult questions like unemployment, falling growth and social unrest. Congress said the probe agency should answer why it never proceeds against a BJP or NDA functionary, and that “selective justice is political thuggery”.
AICC leaders Abhishek Singhvi and Jairam Ramesh, taking postshots at the top BJP duo, said, “There is no crime under any law, PMLA, Companies Act, etc. The only crime is that ‘two persons’ with a criminal mindset are running a fake narrative.” They added, “Because Make in India has failed, Fake in India has been crafted to run the fake narrative that a crime has taken place. It is a vendetta against political rivals to scare people. It is vendetta in legal disguise.”
Addressing a presser, Singhvi asked how can there be money laundering case when there is a no transfer of money or property and there is no money trail. He said AJL, National Herald, was formed to propagate certain values during the freedom struggle and it did not succeed commercially, following which Congress gave it loans from time to time, which ballooned to Rs 90 crore. He said to revive AJL as a debt-free company, the loan was transferred to a new company called Young India and the debt was turned into equity.
Singhvi said YI was created as a not-for-profit charitable company under Sec 8, which does not pay any dividend, and which did not indulge in any economic activity like sale or purchase of property. Congress workers, meanwhile, held nationwide protests against ED’s case, with party chief Mallikarjun Kharge accusing Modi’s govt of targeting Congress to “whitewash its sins” as its economic mismanagement was spiralling out of control.

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KOCHI: Kerala HC issued Wednesday notices to chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, his daughter T Veena, and others in a PIL seeking a CBI inquiry into alleged financial dealings between Cochin Minerals and Rutile Ltd and Veena’s firm Exalogic Solutions Pvt Ltd. The next hearing is scheduled for May 27.
Before admitting the petition, the HC division bench of judges Amit Rawal and P M Manoj directed the central government to submit in a sealed cover a list of people named in the interim settlement board’s order under the Income Tax department related to the transactions involving Cochin Minerals and Rutile Ltd (CMRL).
The plea was filed by senior journalist M R Ajayan, who also sought an inquiry into alleged political connections between the companies and CM Pinarayi Vijayan. Ajayan’s plea relies on findings by the interim settlement board, which said that over Rs 1.7 crore paid to CM’s dughter Veena between 2017-18 and 2019-20 did not qualify as a business expenditure.
A CMRL official had allegedly told the board that no services were provided by Exalogic despite the payments.
Additional solicitor general ARL Sundaresan informed Kerala high court that the serious fraud investigation office had completed its probe and submitted a report to the special court, which has already taken cognisance of the offence. The division bench said a single bench had issued an interim order maintaining status quo in a related matter.

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