Then PM Narasimha Rao ditched my father: Karunakaran's son
Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 16 : Late Congress leader K. Karunakaran's son K. Muraleedharan on Sunday claimed that then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao "ditched" his father and then Kerala Chief Minister after the 1994 ISRO espionage case.
"As far as I know, and what was told by him (Karunakaran), he was crestfallen by the way Rao (then Congress President) behaved in 1995. It was Rao who ditched him. (Congress leader) G.K. Moopanar called me on March 15, 1995, to tell my father to resign as Chief Minister as per Rao's directive, which he did the next day," Muraleedharan, a Congress legislator, told the media here.
"He (Karunakaran) told me that Rao was responsible (for his removal). No one from Kerala had ever asked for Karunakaran's removal. What happened in the Congress then was nothing but the usual factional feud," the Congress leader said.
Muraleedharan also said that had someone from the Nehru-Gandhi family been at the helm either in the government or the party in 1995, Karunakaran would not have suffered the "humiliation". Karunakaran passed away in December 2010.
The Congress leader said that he will appear, if asked to, before a three-member committee set up by the Supreme Court to probe the role of three police officers in the espionage case and tell them what he had said on Sunday.
Reacting to his sister Padmaja Venugopal's assertion that the Indian Space Research Organisation espionage case was the creation of five Congress leaders which led to Karunakaran's resignation on March 16, 1995, Muraleedharan said that he did not know on what basis she had made the statement.
Her statement came after the Supreme Court on September 14 directed the Kerala government to award Rs 50 lakh compensation to ISRO scientist S. Nambi Narayanan for his unnecessary arrest and harassment and mental cruelty he underwent due to false implication in the espionage case.
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Rs 2L fine slapped on passport office in Hubballi for mistakenly stamping ‘cancellation’ on passport
Hubballi: The District Consumer Grievances Redressal Commission has imposed a penalty of Rs 2 lakh on the passport office in Hubballi for mistakenly stamping ‘cancellation’ on a valid passport.
Pankesh Jain, a businessman from Hubballi’s Keshwapur, was denied boarding at Mumbai Airport on his way to Dubai with his wife and two children after a “cancellation” stamp was mistakenly placed on his passport by the Hubballi Passport Office during the children’s passport issuance, as reported by Deccan Herald on Wednesday.
Jain was unaware of the error until the inspection at the airport. He immediately contacted his relatives in Hubballi, who informed the passport office. The department acknowledged the error and corrected the passport by coordinating with the Mumbai office. The correction, however, cost Jain Rs 11,000 and led to a one-day delay in their trip.
Due to the passport cancellation, Jain faced extra accommodation costs in Mumbai and lost two days of his planned Dubai stay. He filed a Rs 25 lakh compensation claim with the Dharwad District Consumer Commission, citing service deficiency by the passport office.
While the respondents cited Section 16 of the Passport Act, arguing that no action could be taken against officials, Commission Chairman Eshappa Bhute and member Vishalakshi Bolashetti, after a thorough review, ruled that the cancellation stamp on Jain’s valid passport was a departmental error, the report stated.
The Commission rejected the respondents' objections and held the passport department accountable for the service deficiency. It directed the department to compensate Jain with Rs 2 lakh, covering Rs 62,876 for additional flight costs, Rs 11,000 for passport correction, one day's accommodation, inconvenience, and Rs 10,000 for legal expenses.
