Syndicate Bank founder’s son sad over merger decision

31/08/2019, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT, UDUPI

The decision to merge SyndicateBank — founded here with its head office located in Manipal — with Canara Bank, announced by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, was met with sadness here on Friday.

Ashok Pai, the youngest son of the late T.M.A. Pai, one of the founders of SyndicateBank, told The Hindu that his father was its chairman till it was nationalised.

“When the Union government proposed nationalisation of banks in 1969, my father had said, ‘I have a beautiful daughter [Syndicate Bank] and she has to get married. Who can be a better father-in-law than the government of India?’ He requested the government of India to continue all the new ideas of SyndicateBank such as its Pigmy Deposit Scheme to help the common man,” he said.

Mr. Ashok Pai, who is also chairman of Manipal Cooperative Bank and founder and secretary of Dr. T.M.A. Pai Foundation, said SyndicateBank was in those days known as the “small man’s big bank”.

‘Continue progressive policies’

“We feel sorry because we thought other banks should have been merged with SyndicateBank. Now that the government has merged SyndicateBank with Canara Bank, I want the progressive policies of SyndicateBank to be continued,” he said.

No return visa to India for former Chinese soldier
31/08/2019,BHOPAL

A former Chinese soldier, who got married in India in 1974 and returned to his native country for the first time in 2017, is now stuck there for want of return visa to India, his son said on Friday. Wang Chang Qi, 80, was captured by Indian forces in 1963 after the India-China war. He was in prison for six years till his release in 1969. He married a woman in Madhya Pradesh in 1974 and settled there. PTI

Casual wear banned for Bihar Secretariat staff

Govt. issued order on August 28

31/08/2019, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,PATNA

The Bihar government has directed its Secretariat employees to avoid wearing casuals like jeans and T-shirts with immediate effect to uphold “office culture and decorum.” They have been asked to come to work in formal clothes of sober colour.

An order was issued to this effect by Additional Secretary of the General Administration Department (GAD) Shiv Mahadeo Prasad on August 28. However, it is not clear whether it is meant only for employees of the GAD or the entire Secretariat staff.

“The order issued by GAD usually means for all Secretariat employees…we all have to comply with this order,” said Suman Kumar, a Secretariat staffer.

Earlier in 2007, then Chief Secretary Ashok Kumar Chowdhary had issued a circular on dress code for government employees saying “loud, gaudy colours must be avoided.”

In 2018 then Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar Singh issued a circular asking government employees to wear khadi clothes at least twice a week to promote the national fabric.

“Such orders come from time to time but are not being followed or implemented in spirit,” said an employee retiring next June.

Will strengthen UG courses: IP University V-C

31/08/2019,NEW DELHI

The new Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU) Vice-Chancellor Mahesh Verma on Friday said that the focus of the university would be on strengthening its undergraduate programmes (UG) and introducing several skill-based courses that will help employment generation.

Canal completed in 42 years, washed away in 24 hours
Jharkhand administration probe blames rodents for breach

31/08/2019, INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE,RANCHI

It took 42 years to build a Jharkhand irrigation project, and then within 24 hours of its inauguration, the canal meant to provide water to 85 villages across Giridih, Hazaribagh and Bokaro districts was washed away.

The State administration has found rodents to pin the blame on.

The irrigation project in Giridih district was dedicated to the people by Chief Minister Raghubar Das on Wednesday. By Thursday, a major breach developed in the canal, causing extensive flooding in several villages.

“The initial probe suspected ‘rat holes’ causing damage to the canal,” said a government statement released on Friday.

Arun Kumar Singh, Additional Chief Secretary of Water Resources Department, tweeted that following the breach in the canal and damage caused to the crops, a high-level team, led by chief engineer of advanced projects in the department, has been constituted. The reports are to be submitted within 24 hours. The repair works are on.

In 1978, the then Governor of undivided Bihar, Jagannath Kaushal, had laid the foundation of the project, but due to several reasons the project got delayed. The cost of the project also escalated from ₹12 crore in 1978 to ₹2,500 crore.

Law student can stay in Delhi, says Supreme Court

The woman, who was traced in Rajasthan, had alleged sexual harassment by ex-BJP MP Chinmayanand

31/08/2019, KRISHNADAS RAJAGOPAL,NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to the wishes of a woman law student, who had disappeared after levelling charges of sexual harassment against ex-BJP MP Swami Chinmayanand only to be traced in Rajasthan, to stay back in Delhi.

After a closed-door session with the woman, Justices R. Banumathi and A.S. Bopanna also directed the Delhi police to safely bring her parents too to Delhi from their native Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

The court asked the Registrar to keep the woman and her parents incommunicado till the court takes up the matter again on Monday.

The court had suo motu taken up a letter from a group of women Supreme Court lawyers anxious about the safety of the woman. They had sought her production before the apex court.

On Monday, the Uttar Pradesh government counsel informed the Bench that the woman had been found in Rajasthan and was being taken to Shahjahanpur. The lawyer said the police convoy bringing the woman had already reached Fatehpur Sikri.

But the Bench insisted that the woman be produced before the Supreme Court during the course of the day.

The government counsel, after consulting with the State police officers, returned to the Bench, saying the woman could be brought here in under three hours.

Justice Banumathi said the Bench would wait for the woman to reach the court in order to interact with her in-camera. The interaction happened late in the evening.

The Shahjahanpur police had on Tuesday lodged an FIR against Mr. Chinmayanand after the student went missing following her allegation in a video clip that he had been harassing her. The woman also spoke about threats to her and her family’s life in the video clip.

Her father had filed a complaint with the police, accusing Mr. Chinmayanand of sexually harassing his daughter, a charge refuted by the BJP leader’s lawyer, who claimed it was a “conspiracy” to blackmail him.

The woman’s father had alleged that she went missing at the behest of the 72-year-old BJP leader, who heads the Mumukshu ashram. She is a postgraduate student in one of the colleges run by the ashram.

U.P. Director General of Police O.P. Singh on Friday said necessary legal action was being taken.

(With inputs from Omar Rashid)

Casual wear banned for Bihar Secretariat staff

31/08/2019,PATNA

The Bihar government has directed its Secretariat employees to avoid wearing casuals like jeans and T-shirts with immediate effect to uphold “office culture and decorum.” They have been asked to come to work in formal clothes of sober colour. An order was issued to this effect by the General Administration Department on August 28.