The Good Word

Mar 8, Telangana Chief

Minister K Chandrasekhar

Rao's daughter and Bharat

Rashtra Samithi (BRS)

leader, K Kavitha, has

been summoned by the

Enforcement Directorate

(ED) to appear before

them on March 11 for

questioning in the alleged

Delhi excise policy scam.

ED had arrested Kavita’s

frontman, Arun Pillai in

connection with alleged

corruption in the now-

scrapped Delhi liquor

policy.

At: IndiaToday

Maharashtra adds

another ₹ 6K/yr to

Union farmer dole

Volume 7S-95| Pages 1

UP bulldozers retrieve 640 sqkm of

illegally occupied, mafia land

Bharat First Visit IndiaWiki.org

Mar 9, in good news for

nature enthusiasts the

forest cover in

Maharashtra has grown

by approximately 20 sqkm

between 2019 and 2021.

The Economic Survey of

Maharashtra 2022-2023

brought out information

from the Centre’s State of

the Forest Report 2021 to

show that not only had

the area under forest

grown but qualitatively

the forest has also

improved. Between 2019

and 2021 the very dense

forest increased by 13

sqkm and the moderately

dense one by 17 sqkm.

Non-bailable

warrant issued

for Imran Khan

Mar 9, a Quetta court

issued a non-bailable

warrant against PTI

chairman and ex-

Pakistan PM Imran Khan

for intimidation in his

speeches. A beleaguered

Khan claimed 76 cases

had been registered

against him on charges

from terrorism to

corruption as the ruling

party is petrified of

holding elections. Khan

said his life was under

threat and blamed Bajwa

for bringing criminals

into government. At: Geo-1

Mar 9, Russian forces

launched dozens of

missiles and drones

across Ukraine early

Thursday, including six

hypersonic Kinzhal

missiles that Ukrainian

air defenses cannot

intercept.

Kinzhal is an air-

launched hypersonic

missile capable of

carrying nuclear or

conventional warheads.

It has a reported range

of up to 2,000 km while

carrying a payload of 480

kg. It may reach speeds

of up to Mach 10 (12,350

Kmph).

Russia has a limited

supply of such missiles

and has never sent so

many into Ukraine in a

single attack. Ukrainian

Defense Minister Oleksii

Reznikov claimed in

November that Russia

had used 16 Kinzhal

missiles over the course

of the war and retained

a stock of 42 missiles

after replacing those it

had fired. In yesterday’s

attack Ukraine claims to

have intercepted 48 of

81 missiles. At:WashingtonPost

Russia uses six

hypersonic

missiles on Kiev Mar 8, Denmark

launched an ambitious

initiative to bury vast

amounts of planet-

heating carbon dioxide

gas beneath the North

Sea floor, in the hope of

helping the Nordic

nation and others meet

climate-change targets.

CO2will be sent in liquid

form into underground

depleted oil and gas

reservoirs off shore.

The initiative hopes to

bury 8 million tons of

the liquid gas per year

by 2030. At: WashingtonPost

Mar 7, the Uttar Pradesh

(UP) Chief Minister (CM)

Yogi Adityanath has

decided to wear

Samajwadi Party leader

Akhilesh Yadav’s moniker

of ‘Bulldozer Baba’ as a

badge of honour. It has

left UP voters impressed.

Bulldozers have now

become a common sight

at the CM’s political

rallies.

According to the UP CM,

when the BJP came to

power, he formed the

'Anti-Bhu Mafia Task

Force'. Bulldozers were

used to vacate 640 2019-2021: Maharashtra forest area up by 20 sqkm

CBI grills RJD chief

Lalu Prasad, aides in

land for job case

Denmark opens

world’s first CO2

graveyard

Mar 10, septuagenarian

BJP leader Manik Saha

took oath as Chief

Minister (CM) of the

border state of Tripura

on Wednesday. Prime

Minister (PM) Narendra

Modi graced the

occasion. The BJP won

32 seats in the 60

member Assembly in its

recent elections. Saha

was made CM in 2022,

replacing Biplab Deb

due to a deteriorating

law and order situation.

Government formation

in Meghalaya and

Nagaland was

completed on Tuesday

with Conrad Sangma

Mar 10, Finance Minister

Devendra Fadnavis

allocated roughly ₹

30,000 crore for

sustainable farming and

farmer prosperity

schemes, including the

Namo Shetkari

Mahasamman Nidhi to

double the honorarium

for farmers to ₹ 12,000

per year. This is likely the

largest package for

farmers in recent past.

In addition to support for

farmers who have taken

short term loans and with

crop insurance, the state

will match the ₹ 6,000 per

farmer per year provided

by the Centre under the

PM Kisan Scheme under

the honorarium plan.

"This will result in an

annual deposit of ₹

12,000 into the farmer's

account. The 1.15 crore

farmer families will gain

from this. In 2023–2024, a

budget of ₹ 6,900 crore is

provided for this,”

Fadnavis stated in his

address to the Assembly

on the budget.

At: KrishiJagran

Mar 10, a Delhi court

sent former Deputy

Chief Minister Manish

Sisodia, arrested in a

money laundering case

related to the States

liquor Excise Policy, to

the Enforcement

Directorate's (ED’s)

custody till Mar 17.

ED had requested special

Judge M K Nagpal for 10

days custody.

The ED revealed that

Sisodia had destroyed 14

phones in a year and had

remained evasive during

questioning. It claimed

there was a conspiracy

behind framing the Delhi

liquor Excise Policy and

recommendations by the

Expert Committee were

ignored.

Terming the calling of

public opinion an

eyewash the ED

accused Sisodia of

conspiring with others

to frame a faulty Excise

Policy to generate

kickbacks and proceeds

of crime to the tune of

more than ₹ 290 crore.

While ₹ 100 crore was

received as kickback

from the 'South Group'

of liquor cartel, an

accused company in the

case, Indospirits, made

a profit of ₹ 193 crore

which were ‘proceeds

of crime’ from the

policy of 2021-2022

BJP workers have

demanded Kejriwal’s

resignation.

At: Republic Image: NewIE

Holi, Mar 7 – images courtesy FreePic

Islamic State hand

in Mangalore and

Coimbatore blasts

Mar 5, about three months

after the Coimbatore and

Mangaluru blasts, the

Islamic State in Khorasan

Province (ISKP), through its

mouthpiece, ‘Voice of

Khurasan’ magazine, has

admitted that its terrorists

are present in South India

and were involved in those

two blasts. Two weeks

earlier the NIA had raided

over 60 locations in Kerala,

Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka

for suspected IS

sympathizers. At: IndiaToday

ED arrests Manish Sisodia

in Tihar Jail

ED summons KCR’s

daughter Kavita in

Delhi liquor scam

Srisailam gets

4,500 acres of

forest land in AP

Feb 25, Andhra Pradesh

(AP) will transfer 4,500

acres of forest land to

Srisailam Devasthanam.

Worth nearly ₹ 2,000

crores, the second richest

temple in the state after

Tirumala, secured the title

after a protracted 50 year

fight. Historical records

had proved the temple’s

ownership of the land

against claims of the

revenue, forest

endowment departments

At: TimesOfIndia

Mar 6, 2023 - Week 10

Mar 2, a Delhi court sent

TMC leader Anubrata

Mondal to ED custody till

Mar 10 in the alleged

money laundering case

related to cattle

smuggling in West Bengal.

Earlier the ED had taken

Mondal to Delhi for

questioning after the

Calcutta High Court set

aside his petition

challenging it. At: Republic, BS

ED ports TMCs

Mandol to Delhi in

cow smuggling case

Navy test-fires indigenous MRSA

missile from INS Visakhapatnam

and Neiphiu Rio sworn

in as CMs, respectively,

a second time, along

with other ministers in

the presence of PM

Modi in Shillong and

Kohima.

In Nagaland, the

alliance between the

Nationalist Democratic

Progressive Party

(NDPP) and the BJP has

secured a majority of 37

seats in the House of

60. The Meghalaya

NPP-led alliance has 45

MLAs including 26 from

NPP and two from the

BJP.

At: TelegraphIndia, NewIE, Week

This was offset by a fall

of 10 sqkm in the least

dense of open forest

area.

The Survey reported

that the forest area of

the State at Mar 31,

2022 was 61,907 sqkm

or 20.1% of the

geographical area of the

State.

At: TOI Image: HT

Mar 7, the Central Bureau

of Investigation (CBI)

questioned former Bihar

Chief Minister, Lalu Prasad

Yadav in the land-for-job

scam case. The grilling

came a day after the

agency had interrogated

his wife, Rabri Devi. The ED

has also raided Yadav’s

close aide and RJD leader

Abu Dojana about a

‘disproportionate assets’

case. Dojana oversaw

construction Bihar's largest

mall, rumored to be owned

by the Yadavs.

At: Republic

square kilometers of

illegally grabbed land

and demolished 2,000

properties belonging to

the mafia. The bulldozer

has become symbol of

strict action by

Adityanath’s

government especially

against the mafia.

Meanwhile in the

Umesh Pal murder case

the brother of Shabir,

one of Pal’s killers, was

found dead in a field in

the Kaushambi district

of UP. Shabir is still

untraceable.

The UP Police continued

its crackdown on Pal’s

killers, by gunning down

one shooter Usman (27)

in the early hours of

Monday in Prayagraj.

Piror to that the Police

had neutralized

Mohammad Arbaz, who

had driven Pal’s killers

to the murder site. The

UP Police has also razed

properties belonging to

two aides of Atiq

Ahmed, the prime

suspect, who is lodged

in Ahmedabad jail.

At:ArgusEnglish, TOI, DailyYo,

Image:IndiaTimes

China ups

defence and

diplomacy spend

Mar 7, Funding for the

People's Liberation

Army will increase by

7% to $224billion, after

a 7% hike last year, the

annual National

People's Congress

proclaimed. The

Ministry of Finance also

included a significant

12% rise in ‘diplomacy

endeavours’ at $8

billion. At: Yahoo

Tripura, Meghalaya, Nagaland

Chief Ministers sworn in again

Fiddler on the

Roof lead Topol

passes away

Mar 9, Chaim Topol, the

leading Israeli actor who

charmed generations

with his portrayal of

Tevye in Fiddler on the

Roof, passed away in Tel

Aviv. He was 87.

At: IndianExpress, Guardian

Mar 7, the Navy test fired an indigenous medium,

70 km, range surface to air missile from INS

Visakhapatnam successfully. The vertically

launched, supersonic weapon will thwart air-borne

attacks from jets, choppers or missiles. ABPN, LiveMint