0815 Hrs.

17th May, 2013

THE HEADLINES:

• A Delhi Court sends three cricketers, including Sreesanth to five day police custody in IPL spot-fixing case.

• Cabinet raises creamy layer criteria for OBCs from 4.5 lakh to 6 lakh rupees; Approves additional allocation of over 61 lakh tonnes of foodgrains to Above Poverty Line families through PDS.

• Tribal Affairs Minister Kishore Chandra Deo says that MoU between Odisha Mining Corporation and Vedanta for mining in Niyamgiri forest area is against constitutional provisions.

• Cyclone Mahasen claims fourteen lives in southwestern coastal areas of Bangladesh.

• Former England Football captain David Beckham announces his retirement.

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Indian pacer S Sreesanth and 13 others, including two cricketers of Rajasthan Royals franchise, were sent to police custody for five days by a Delhi court for being quizzed in connection with the IPL spot-fixing case.

Sreesanth and two of his IPL teammates who were arrested in Mumbai yesterday, were brought to the Saket district court complex in New Delhi with 11 Mumbai andDelhi based bookies. They were produced at the residence of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Lokesh Kumar Sharma inside the Saket court complex. Media was barred from entering the magistrate's residence which was under a thick security blanket.

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The Board of Control for Cricket in India has suspended all the three players charged with spot-fixing in the IPL pending inquiry. Reacting on the incident, former cricketer, Kirti Azad said, if strong measures are not taken, incidents like these will continue.

Agriculture Minister Sharad Yadav said that a life term ban should be imposed on players who are found guilty of match fixing.

The decision of BCCI to suspend three cricket players is absolutely correct. However, BCCI should not limit itself here. BCCI should initiate inquiry against all the players involved into match fixing. They should be banned for life time.

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Government has revised the creamy layer criteria for Other Backward Classes, OBCs from 4.5 lakh rupees to 6 lakh rupees to avail benefits of reservations in government jobs and admission to central educational institutions. The decision was taken by the Union Cabinet last evening. The increase in the income limit is in tune with increase in the consumer price index and would enable more persons to take advantage of reservation benefits extended to the OBCs.

The Cabinet gave its approval for the construction of a Rashtriya Smriti at the Samadhis Complex near Ekta Sthal in New Delhi. The place will be established to perform last rites of departed national leaders namely Presidents, Vice Presidents, Prime Ministers, former Presidents and Vice Presidents, and other leaders as decided by the Cabinet.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved additional allocation of over 61 lakh tonnes of foodgrains to Above Poverty Line, APL families through Public Distribution System for the current financial year. The additional allocation of food grains at APL issue prices will ensure a minimum allocation of 15 kg per APL family per month in 22 States and 35 kg per family per month in 13 States.

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Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has asked the Planning Commission to formulate a draft Bill on Dispute Resolution in public contracts in consultation with all stakeholders and Ministries. He said dispute resolution in large public contracts is an area of growing concern and the first step is to improve the institutional arrangement for dispute settlement.
Following the rapid expansion of Public Private Partnerships which have already attracted investment of a few lakh crore of rupees in different sectors, there are concerns about the dispute resolution mechanisms in place. As a result of this expansion, contractual disputes have been rising steadily.

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Tribal Affairs Minister Kishore Chandra Deo has questioned the veracity of an MoU between Odisha Mining Corporation, OMC and the private firm - Vedanta for mining in the tribal-dominated Niyamgiri forest areas of the state. Talking to reporters inNew Delhi, Mr Deo said the MoU is against the letter and spirit of the Constitution and its provisions. The MoU between the OMC and Vedanta was signed in 2003 for mining in the tribal-dominated Niyamgiri forest areas of the state. The Minister claimed that mining did not improve financial or living conditions of the people in these areas as development was never inclusive.

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In Arunachal Pradesh, voting for the municipal and panchayat elections were held yesterday. Our correspondent reports that voting was by and large peaceful except for a few stray incidents.

Election office sources said the percentage of voting may increase as reports are yet to come from remote and inaccessible areas. Moreover voting for 20 polling booths in Tali and Pipsorang areas in Kurung Kumey district has been rescheduled on May 20 and 29 respectively. No election was conducted for 2 Zila parishad seats, 17 anchal samiti members and 124 gram panchayat members as no candidate filed nomination papers. The State Election Commission said polling for the remaining seats will be held at a later date. There are also reports that repoll will be done in some polling booths. However final official reports are being awaited. This is Sonikumar Konjengbam for AIR News Itanagar.

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At least 14 people were killed as cyclonic storm 'Mahasen' battered Bangladesh's southwestern coastline. The storm also damaged thousands of thatched houses and forced evacuation of over 10 lakh people from low-lying areas. A Disaster Management Ministry spokesman said, all the deaths were reported from the southwestern coastline where the cyclone hit with maximum strength before weakening gradually. The people have started returning home from cyclone shelters as the situation turned normal.

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Actor Sanjay Dutt went back to jail yesterday to serve 42 months sentence in the 1993 Mumbai blasts case, several hours after he surrendered before a TADA court,abiding by the deadline set by the Supreme Court. Besides Dutt, four other convicts in the 1993 bomb blast case also surrendered before a designated TADA court to serve their remaining sentence. Our correspondent has filed this report

Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt surrendered before the designated TADA court in Mumbai yesterday to serve a three-and-a-half year sentence in the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts case. He was accompanied by his wife Manyata and film maker Mahesh Bhatt. Formalities of his surrender began as soon as Dutt appeared before the court. The court commenced the process for the identification of Dutt, whose conviction was upheld by the Supreme Court recently. He was sent to the Arthur Road Central Prison by court after completion of formalities. Police had maintained strong bandobast in the court premises as well as at the actor's residence in Bandra in the wake of threat to his life. Sudha Ramasubramanian, AIR News, Mumbai.

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A minister in the previous Mayawati regime in Uttar Pradesh was booked in Azamgarh in connection with disproportionate assets case. Azamgarh SP Arvind Sen said that an FIR was lodged at Mubarakpur police station against Chandradeo Ram Yadav, who was Small Scale Industry Minister in Mayawati cabinet.

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Minister of State in PMO, V Narayanasamy has said that ISRO will launch geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle, GSLV D5 from Sriharikota in July. Addressing a convocation in Chennai yesterday, he said, GSLV D5, which is fitted with indigenously developed cryogenic engine, will put communication satellite GSAT-14 into orbit. GSAT-14 satellite with six extended C band and 6 Ku band transponders envisages enhancing the communication transponder capacity.

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All India Radio, Jalandhar has completed 64 years of its existence as a public broadcaster. Information & Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari extended his greetings to the staff members of the station on the occasion yesterday. He also greeted and thanked its listeners for continuously bestowing their love and support. CEO of Prasar Bharati, Jawahar Sircar called upon staff and guest participants to put in their best efforts to bring the organization to the zenith. More from our correspondent:

Sh. Kartar Singh Duggal, a renowned writer was the first Station Director of AllIndia Radio, Jalandhar. The Station has played a pivotal role in disseminating information during rehabilitation of refugees after partition in 1947. It has enthused the morale of countrymen during two wars with Pakistan and provided useful and important information to them through news and other programmes. The Jalandhar station is also credited with broadcasting information regarding Green Revolution in Punjab and during Family Planning campaign. Besides educating, it is also entertaining people with number of programmes. At present the station is broadcasting many public oriented programmes as per the requirement of modern India in various fields. Rajesh Bali, AIR News, Jalandhar.

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The first all women post office was inaugurated in Jammu and Kashmir yesterday. Jammu and Kashmir Chief Post Master General, John Samuel said that this is the first of its kind in the state and fourth across the entire country. Two such post offices are currently operating in New Delhi and Mumbai.

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Former England captain David Beckham has announced his retirement from football, ending a 20-year glittering playing career during which he became a globalsuperstar. The popular English star, who has played for Manchester United, Real Madrid, AC Milan and Los Angeles Galaxy, has retired after two decades at the top of the game.

Beckham holds the England record for making 115 appearances as an outfield player for the national team and is the only English player to win championships in fourcountries.

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Kings XI Punjab beat Delhi Daredevils by 7 runs in the IPL cricket to keep their hopes alive to qualify for the play-offs of the tournament. Put in to bat first, Kings XI Punjab made a challenging 171 runs at the loss of 4 wickets in stipulated 20 overs at Dharamsala last night. Chasing a victory target of 172, Delhi Daredevils could manage only 164 runs at the loss of 7 wickets in 20 overs. This was Delhi Daredevils's 12th defeat of the season.

In today's encounter, Sunrisers Hyderabad will take on Rajasthan Royals at Rajiv Gandhi Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad at 8 PM.

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NEWSPAPERS HEADLINES

Almost all papers have covered on their front pages on how the Indian Cricket's reputation has been dragged through the mud and a billion fans were betrayed as three players were arrested for fixing in the domestic T20 league. The Hindustan Times headlines it as "Sree 420 shames Indian Cricket" and Mail Today covers it under "Fixers Fixed".

According to the Pioneer Prices of 348 medicines, including life - saving drugs will be cheaper by upto 80 percent, as the new drug price control order has came into effect.

A front page story in the Hindu states that according to the supreme Court no person should be arrested for posting objectionable comments on social networking sites without permission from Senior police officers.

Ahead of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's visit to India next week, reports the Tribune, Afghanistan has proposed that India, Pakistan and Afghanistan evolve a suitable mechanism to address each other's concern in the larger interest of peace in the region, which could also include a tri - partite no war pact among the 3 nations.

The Asian Age reports UK Prime Minister David Cameron has suffered a fresh blow with around a third of his own party's legislators voting against his policy on offering a referendum on UK's European Union membership.

According to the Times of India, the UPSC has for the first time made public, the final marks of all successful candidates recommended for appointment to central services. The data shows how tough cracking the civil services exam is, as just 4 candidates secured more than 50%. The minimum cut off in general category is 42% and in other categories it went as low as 35%