Malik tenders unconditional apology to HC over remarks on Wankhede

The Government on Friday told the Rajya Sabha that a Production-Linked Incentive scheme has been approved for manufacturing ‘Advanced Chemistry Cell ACC’ in the country to reduce the prices of battery cells. In a written answer on Friday, Minister of State for Heavy Industries Krishan Pal Gurjar said, the development of the cell will bring down the prices of electric vehicles. He said, the GST on e-vehicles has been reduced from 12 percent to 5 percent. He said, the demand incentive for electric two-wheelers has been increased from 10-thousand rupees per Kilo Watt hour to 15-thousand rupees per kilowatt hour.

-Maharashtra’s Minority Affairs Minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik has tendered an unconditional apology to the Bombay High Court for his remarks against NCB Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede and his family. This comes after Sameer Wankhede’s father, Dhayndev Wankhede approached the court stating that the minister had wilfully breached his undertaking given before the Division Bench of Justices SJ Kathawalla and Milind Jadhav. It may be recalled that  Malik had given an undertaking stating that he will refrain from making any defamatory statements against Dhyandev Wankhede and his family members till a defamation suit filed by the latter is heard by the court. In his 3-page affidavit, Malik said, the statements were made during the course of an interview with a belief that they were not against the undertaking. Stating that he had no intention to disrespect, dishonour, overreach or breach the said orders, Malik added that going forward, he would not respond or comment even if questions are posed to him in respect of the Wankhede family. He, however, clarified that the undertaking does not prevent him from commenting on the political misuse of central agencies and the conduct of their officers in the course of their duties hereafter.
While the court took on record the affidavit and accepted the apology; the bench said that Mr. Malik, being a minister, should use proper forums to raise grievances against any public officer.

-Karnataka State Government will initiate legal action against those who had tweeted derogatory messages against the Chief of Defense Staff General Bipin Rawat who died in a helicopter crash on Wednesday. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai informed media persons in Haveri on Friday that those who tweeted messages dishonoring the martyred Defense Chief will be booked under relevant laws. He said that the police department has been instructed to take legal action against these elements. Saying that every Indian should strongly condemn this act of perverted minds, he added that General Rawat was a brave man who led the armed forces to defend the country. The Chief Minister said, the culprits who posted such derogatory tweets will be traced and legal action will be initiated against them. He informed that the lone survivor of the helicopter crash Group Captain Varun Singh admitted to the Command Hospital in Bengaluru is getting the best medical treatment by the specialist doctors.

-Polling for six MLC seats from Telangana local body constituencies concluded on a peaceful note in five districts on Friday. A total 26 people contested in the election for six MLC seats, two from erstwhile Karimnagar district and one each from erstwhile Adilabad, Nalgonda, Medak and Khammam districts. Amidst COVID-19 appropriate behaviour, the polling concluded at 4 pm. As per the Election Commission authorities, over 99 per cent voting recorded in Karimnagar while 1320 against 1,324 utilised their vote. The counting of votes will take place on 14th of December.

-The pending recruitment process in the union territory of Ladakh has been finalized. All the issues related to recruitment have been addressed for the final notification of posts. General Administration Department Commissioner Ajeet Kumar Sahu said that 36 recruitment rules for non-Gazetted cadres have been finalized and reservations rules by making amendments to the Jammu and Kashmir Reservations Rules, 2005 have been notified. Apportionment of employees from the Jammu and Kashmir have completed with the allocation of 19878 posts to the Union Territory Ladakh. Apart from these, recently additional posts of 104  Gazetted and 382 non-Gazetted posts have been also transferred by the J&K. General Administration Department Commissioner Secretary also said 36 out of the 49 Non-Gazetted cadres are ready for recruitment process and targeted to complete the requisition by 31 of this month. Fresh vacancies of 1031 posts at union Territory and Divisional level have been created in Ladakh. Out of it, requisitions for 350 posts have already referred to Staff  Selection Commission. Besides requisition for 800 District level posts is also ready to complete by 31 December. The Union Territory  Administration is also in under process of preparation of recruitment rules for Gazetted posts. 

-The winter session of Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly will begin Friday at Tapovan in Dharamsala. There will be a total of 5 sittings of the House during this session, which will continue till December 15. The proceedings of the House will start at 11 am. A total of 5 hundred 76 questions have been received from the members for the winter session, out of which 3 hundred 88 are starred and one hundred 88 unstarred questions. In view of the new variant of Corona - Omicron, the assembly premises have been completely sanitized and thermal screening of all will be done before entering the premises. Tight security arrangements have also been made for the winter session.Speaker Vipin Singh Parmar has appealed to all the members of the ruling party and the opposition to give constructive cooperation in the smooth conduct of the session. Mr. Parmar also urged the members to maintain the high tradition and dignity of the Vidhan Sabha and raise issues related to the public interest in the House.