Maneka Gandhi expresses concern over sexual exploitation in shelter home

At the launch of the sexual offender registry portal by Home Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi on Thursday, Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi  (pictured) raised the issue of sexual exploitation of inmates in a shelter home in Muzaffarpur, Bihar. Gandhi suggested there was a failure on the part of local authorities to monitor crimes in the shelter homes. A Janata Dal (United) and Bharatiya Janata Party coalition government, led by Nitish Kumar, rules Bihar. While Gandhi is a cabinet minister in the Modi government, her son Varun, a Lok Sabha member from Sultanpur, has been out of favour under party chief Amit Shah's scheme of things.

Looking to mingle

Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a ride in the Airport Express Metro from Dhaula Kuan to Dwarka in New Delhi while on his way to lay the foundation stone of the India International Convention and Expo Centre on Thursday. Official sources said the ride was completed in 18 minutes. During the train ride, Modi hobnobbed with fellow riders, who clicked selfies with him. With the Lok Sabha elections approaching and with the Bharatiya Janata Party pitching the battle as one between Modi's leadership versus that of a collection of 'discredited' leaders, the PM has been reaching out to the common people through interactions via his NaMo app, and milling with them wherever possible.

Tiles not election collateral

Madhya Pradesh goes to the polls later this year and the Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state surely would have hoped that things turned out otherwise. The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Thursday ordered the state government to remove, by December 20, pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan from the tiles laid in houses built under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. The court also sought a report from the state government by that date. The bench issued notices to the state and central governments after a petition was filed in July by Datia resident Sanjay Purohit. The petitioner's contention was that those houses were built using public money and should not be used for electoral benefit.