Delhi mulls travel advisory on Malaysia
kuala lumpur (PTI): As 32 Indian IT professionals prepared to leave Malaysia on Friday after a humiliating weekend of police detention, New Delhi was considering issuing a travel advisory to its citizens planning to visit the country.
Maintaining that she had not received any written response on the incident from the Malaysian government, Indian high commissioner Veena Sikri said the country would have “little choice” but to issue a travel advisory to its citizens planning to visit Malaysia.
“We will have to warn our citizens if we did not get any explanation, apology and assurance that it would not happen again,” she said, adding that as a result of the harrowing experience suffered by the Indian nationals, several of them were leaving the country while many more had already shifted their residence.
“Thirty-two (Indian) IT professionals from the Palm Court apartments, that was raided by the police, will leave the country tomorrow,” Sikri said. “These professionals who came from India on the invitation of the Malaysian government feel humiliated and unsafe, and are choosing to leave.”
Besides the IT professionals, there were also some Indian tourists among people whom police had rounded up and brought to the police station last Saturday and “the police still maintained that it acted in accordance with Malaysian law”, Sikri said.
Cong MLA pulls up Gehlot
jaipur: Not only the Opposition members but a veteran member of the ruling Congress, too, pulled up the Ashok Gehlot government in the Assembly on Thursday for going back on its electoral promise of implementing the crop insurance scheme in Rajasthan, reports our special correspondent.
Members ridiculed both the chief minister and agriculture minister Ram Singh Vishnoi when they said the state could not implement the scheme as the Centre had rejected its request for bearing 80 per cent of the financial burden of the scheme instead of the existing 50 per cent.
While replying to a starred question of the BJP’s Hira Singh Chawhan, Vishnoi conceded that the scheme was already enforced in 19 states. The scheme could not be implemented due to the resource crunch, he added.
When the minister said the state would consider the implementation of the scheme in case of a good rainfall and better crop conditions, veteran Congress member Shiv Nath Singh got annoyed.
Court upholds rail zone split
new delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld both the bifurcation and creation of railway zones, putting to rest a raging controversy fuelled by Mamata Banerjee’s opposition to the carving of Eastern Railway, reports our legal correspondent.
A division bench of Justices S. Rajendra Babu and G.P. Mathur dismissed a batch of petitions challenging the creation of zones by upholding the validity of the government’s order.
Dawood kin booked
mumbai (PTI): Police booked Iqbal Kaskar, brother of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim, and two others under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act on the charge of extortion and robbery on Thursday.
Indian student held
lafayette (indiana) (AP): Police have arrested an Indian chemistry student who they said threatened to explode a nuclear device on the Purdue university campus. Police said the threat was a hoax. Rajesh G. Manyar, 23, was held on Thursday in Tippecanoe county jail on $5,000-bond on a preliminary charge of false informing. Manyar allegedly sent the threat to Purdue’s vice-president for student services using another student’s e-mail, campus police said.
Militants released
jammu: The Jammu and Kashmir government on Thursday released 17 militants from jails in the second phase of releasing such prisoners against whom no serious cases are pending, reports our correspondent. The orders were issued on the recommendations of the screening committee that had held its first meeting in Jammu on March 5.The committee had deliberated upon more than 110 cases but only 24 were recommended for release.
SC on burial ritual
new delhi: A remote Tamil Nadu village’s ritual of burying alive drugged children for a few minutes to appease Goddesses on Thursday came under the Supreme Court’s scanner, reports our legal correspondent. A division bench of Chief Justice V.N. Khare and Justice S.B. Sinha issued notices to the Centre and Tamil Nadu on a petition seeking a direction to the governments to “educate” people, besides taking preventive steps.
FRAMES, the film industry’s three-day convention to be held in Mumbai from Friday, will be used by the UK Film Council to launch a major drive to increase cooperation with India in areas such as film production, distribution and tackling piracy.
