President's secretary Sanjay Kothari next CVC, ex-IAS officer Julka to be CIC: Officials
New Delhi: Sanjay Kothari, the Secretary to the President, has been selected as the new Chief Vigilance Commissioner by a high-powered committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, officials said on Wednesday.
The committee has also chosen by a majority decision, former Information and Broadcasting Secretary Bimal Julka, currently serving as an Information Commissioner, as the new Chief Information Commissioner in the Central Information Commission.
"Kothari and Julka have been selected as the next CVC and CIC," a senior government official said. Both Kothari and Julka are retired Indian Administrative Service officers.
While Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury opposed the decisions, it was supported by other members in the panel -- Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Minister of State for PMO and Personnel Jitendra Singh, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba and Secretary Personnel C Chandramouli, sources said.
The panel also decided by majority the appointment of Suresh Patel as Vigilance Commissioner and Anita Pandove as Information Commissioner.
The orders related to the appointments are expected to be issued on Wednesday after formal approval from President Ram Nath Kovind, the official said.
The Central Vigilance Commission is an-corruptiom watchdog with autonomous status.
It is free of control from any executive authority and has the responsibility of monitoring all vigilance activities in the Central government besides advising various authorities in planning, executing, reviewing and reforming their vigilance work.
The Central Information Commission was constituted under the Right to Information Act and has the jurisdiction over all central public authorities.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
US temporarily suspends all military aid to Ukraine after Trump-Zelenskyy faceoff
_vb_40.jpeg)
New York/Washington (PTI): US President Donald Trump has temporarily suspended, with immediate effect, the delivery of all American military aid to Ukraine, just days after an unprecedented showdown with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.
A report in The New York Times quoted a senior administration official as saying that Trump temporarily suspended the delivery of all US military aid to Ukraine and that the order takes effect immediately, affecting "more than $1 billion in arms and ammunition in the pipeline and on order”.
The report said Trump’s decision to halt military aid “resulted from a series of meetings” at the White House between the US leader and his senior national security aides.
The official said "the order would be in effect until” Trump determined that Ukraine had demonstrated a commitment to peace negotiations with Russia.
The order also pauses “hundreds of millions of dollars in aid through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which provides funds that Kyiv can use only to buy new military hardware directly from US defence companies.”
According to the US State Department, Washington has till date provided USD 65.9 billion in military assistance since Russia launched its premeditated, unprovoked, and brutal full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and approximately USD 69.2 billion in military assistance since Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014.
This latest setback for Ukraine in the third year of its war with Russia comes just days after Trump and Vice President J D Vance had a heated verbal exchange with Zelensky, who was visiting the White House last Friday and the two countries were all set to sign a rare mineral deal.
But talks between Trump and Zelensky unravelled in a heated exchange that played out in front of the global media.
Towards the end of the about 50-minute press conference, Vance told the Ukrainian leader, "I think it's disrespectful for you to come to the Oval Office to try to litigate this in front of the American media. ... you should be thanking the president for trying to bring you into this conference.”
As the conversation grew heated, Trump told Zelenskyy, “You're gambling with the lives of millions of people. You're gambling with World War Three. You're gambling with World War Three, and what you're doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country that's backed you far more than a lot of people say they should.”
Trump and Vance also criticised Zelensky for not being grateful enough for the support that the US had given so far to Ukraine in its war with Russia. As leaders from Europe and around the world took to social media website X to rally behind Zelenskyy and underscore their support for Kyiv, the Ukrainian leader responded to everyone with the same message - “Thank you for your support.”
