Lt Gen Pande to be next army chief
Lt Gen Manoj Pande will take over as the next Army chief from General M M Naravane on April 30, becoming the first ever officer commissioned in the Corps of Engineers to head the 12,0,000 strong force. The government has gone by the seniority principle in announcing the next Army chief, with Lt-Gen Pande being the senior most Lt-Gen in the force. India's next chief of defence staff (CDS), however, is yet to be announced well over four months after Gen Bipin Rawat’s untimely death in a helicopter crash, though Gen Naravane is considered to be the front runner. A CDS can serve till the age of 65, while the Army, Navy and IAF chiefs serve till 62 or for three years, whichever is earlier. Lt Gen Pande, who turns 60 on May 6, will take over as the Army chief at a time when there are still no signs of any de-escalation in the almost two-year long military confrontation with China in eastern Ladakh.
SC cancels bail of union minister's son
The Supreme Court has cancelled bail granted to main accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case Ashish Mishra, son of Union minister Ajay Mishra and ordered him to surrender in a week, and asked the Allahabad HC to take a fresh call on his bail plea while scrupulously adhering to cardinal principles governing grant of bail. In a pithy judgment on a petition filed by complainant Jagjeet Singh, a bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli recorded their serious disagreement with the manner in which the HC had granted bail to Ashish on February 10 and asked it to reconsider the accused person's bail plea afresh within three months. Till that time Ashish will remain in custody. Justice Kant slammed the HC's ‘insouciant myopic’ approach in hastily granting bail without giving an opportunity to the complainant to oppose the bail plea in a heinous crime.
Smart city award for Surat
Surat city bagged the highest award in the ‘Smart Cities Smart Urbanization’ conference. At the two-day conference, Indore won awards in six categories while Surat received five awards. Both cities shared the ‘Best City’ award while Uttar Pradesh bagged the Best State recognition.
Hardeep Singh Puri, Union minister of housing and urban affairs, was the chief guest at the event while Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel addressed the gathering through a video link.
NCB suspends 2 for 'dereliction of duty'
The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has suspended two of its Mumbai zone officers, superintendent V V Singh and intelligence officer Ashish Ranjan Prasad, for alleged “dereliction of duty” in investigations conducted by them, officials said. The two officers also investigated the cruise drugs case in which at least 20 people, including actor Shah Rukh Khan’ s son Aryan Khan, were arrested in October in Mumbai. Singh was the investigating officer of the case and Prasad his deputy. However, officials said, their suspension was not linked to drugs case which led to a controversy after allegations of procedural lapses and extortion were made against the sleuths by independent witness Prabhakar Sail who recently died from heart attack.
