Kumaraswamy slams Modi over "Mission Shakti"
Bengaluru, Mar 27: Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy Wednesday questioned whether the success of the A-SAT was a major achievement of the Modi government and charged the Prime Minister with seeking votes "using the works done by someone else."
"Is it a major achievement (of Modi government)? There is a team of scientists in the country specifically for that purpose.They do their job in a routine manner, irrespective of whichever government is in power.
So using somebody else's work, should anyone seek votes? It is the contribution of citizens who are experts in some specialised fields," the chief minister said.
India Wednesday shot down a satellite revolving at the low earth orbit, thereby joining the league of developed nations which have achieved this feat, about which the prime minister made the announcement in his televised address to the nation.
In an apparent bid to downplay the achievement, Kumaraswamy said "Did Narendra Modi shoot the anti-satellite? It is the scientists who made it possible."
Mocking Modi, Kumaraswamy told reporters in Bengaluru that the prime minister made everyone wait for half-an-hour, so much so that everybody was in tension, whether they were in the bathroom, office or bus stand.
Turning to journalists, he said the media needs such stories to attribute every achievement to Modi.
"You need this (such stories). This is an era where achievements started 50 years ago are projected as if something done now by Modi," the chief minister said.
The Karnataka Pradesh Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao credited scientists and engineers at IISc, DRDO and ISRO for the achievement.
"It is indeed a matter of pride. Modi says today that India has emerged as a space super power, but I would like to tell him that India became space superpower long back, not today.
Chandrayaan and Mangal Yaan and many other satellites were launched long back.
The credit should go to our scientists and engineers at IISc, ISRO and DRDO," Rao told reporters in Bengaluru.
Congress strongman and former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah gave credit to successive Prime Ministers and scientists for the development of A-SAT.
He tweeted; "Years of ground work, persistent efforts, incremental technological advancements & the vision of all the Prime ministers, scientists & other stakeholders have now yielded results."
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Codeine syrup seized in UP; six held in separate operations in Etah, Mirzapur
Etah/Mirzapur (PTI) The Uttar Pradesh Police have intensified their crackdown on the alleged illegal trade, diversion and distribution of regulated codeine-based cough syrup, arresting six persons in separate operations in Etah and Mirzapur districts, officials said on Monday.
The action comes as the probe widened into the alleged codiene syrup trafficking racket, suspected to be involved in illicit trade estimated to be worth hundreds of crores -- with links stretching across several states and possibly beyond international borders.
In Etah, a joint team of the Agra anti-narcotics unit and Aliganj police recovered 47 cartons of codeine-based cough syrup, estimated to be worth around Rs 50 lakh, from a tobacco warehouse under Aliganj police station area limits Sunday night.
Four persons, including a retired serviceman, were arrested on the spot, police said.
According to police, the raid was carried out at a warehouse in Nagla Bani village following a tip-off. Preliminary investigation revealed that the seized cough syrup bore the name of a Baddi-based pharmaceutical company, 'Wings', but the batch numbers printed on the wrappers had been deliberately scratched off, indicating that the consignment was illegally manufactured.
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The arrested accused have been identified as Jitendra Yadav, Jitendra Shakya, Pramod Shakya and Punjab Singh, a retired soldier. Cases have been registered against them under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and other relevant sections, and further investigation is underway, police said.
Official sources said the Etah recovery is suspected to be linked to Varanasi-based drug trader, Shubham Jaiswal, who is allegedly associated with an international drug syndicate.
A lookout circular has already been issued against him, while his father was arrested earlier from Kolkata. The main accused remains absconding, officials said.
In a separate development, Mirzapur police arrested two more accused -- Ajit Yadav and Akshat Yadav -- in connection with a case of illegal supply of codeine-based cough syrup registered at Adalhat police station. The arrests were made on Sunday evening following sustained investigation of the suspects, police said.
According to officials, the two accused had allegedly floated firms using forged Aadhaar cards and supplied cough syrup through fake documentation.
During investigation, police found that transactions worth over Rs 1 crore had been routed through bank accounts opened in Varanasi in the name of the fake firms.
Police said Akshat Yadav, proprietor of a firm named A K Distributors, was supplied around 36 litre of New Phensedyl cough syrup (100 ml bottles) from a trader based in Ranchi, Jharkhand.
The firm was found to be non-functional on the ground, and records showed it had been opened only once or twice without carrying out any genuine pharmaceutical business.
Further scrutiny revealed that the Aadhaar card used for obtaining the drug licence carried a Mirzapur address and was forged, while a different Aadhaar card with a Varanasi address was used for banking purposes, pointing to deliberate fabrication of documents, police said. The firm's bank account in Varanasi showed a turnover of around Rs 1.28 crore.
The two accused have been booked under multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the NDPS Act and sent to jail. Police said involvement of more suspects is likely and the investigation is ongoing.
Officials said the recoveries and arrests form part of a broader state-wide investigation into the illegal diversion of codeine-based cough syrup, a regulated drug.
