MADHYA PRADESH GOVERNMENT CONFERS ENVIRONMENT AWARD TO MAN TRUCKS
Indore, 31st July, 2017: MAN Trucks India, a 100% subsidiary of MAN Truck & Bus AG, Germany, was conferred the Environment Award for its facility in Pithampur, near Indore by the Government of Madhya Pradesh. The Hon’ble Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shri. Shivraj Singh Chauhan gave the award to Mr. Shrikant Pandit, Head of MAN Trucks’ plant in Pithampur at a function organised in Bhopal recently. The Hon’ble Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, Shri. Raman Singh was present on the occasion.
MAN Trucks’ Pithampur facility won this State Level Competition organised by Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board. The award comprises a trophy, certificate and cash prize of INR 50,000. This award evaluates all industries for their efforts in continual improvements on air quality, water usage, wastage control, method of handling &disposal of hazardous material, etc. A panel of senior government officials adjudged participating companies on the above aspects, besides on safety, waste control, optimum use of natural resources and employee involvement.
Mr. Joerg Mommertz, Chairman & Managing Director, MAN Trucks India said, “We are happy to receive this honour from the Madhya Pradesh government. At MAN, it is our commitment to preserve the environment, which is part of our Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives. We are focused on our efforts to ensure that our production facility meets all the concerns towards conserving the ecology and make products that address environmental concerns. This approach is reflected in the recognition given by the state government. We will aim to achieve even better results going forward.”
The award recognised efforts by the company towards pollution control and environment conservancy during 2014-15. MAN Truck competed in the large scale industry, medium hazardous category. Other participants included players from automotive, pharmaceutical, textiles and cement manufacturing facilities.
About MAN Trucks India
MAN Trucks India Pvt. Ltd. is a fully owned subsidiary of MAN Truck & Bus AG, Germany. The company has its Head Quarters in Pune and state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh. The product range manufactured in this plant include tippers for off-road& construction, haulage for regular & over dimensional cargo, and special application trucks such as fire tenders, garbage compactors, concrete mixers, boom pumps, tip trailers and bulkers. The product range for India is developed at MAN Trucks R&D centre in Pune. The trucks made in India are also exported to African and Asian markets. MAN Trucks offers prompt and efficient support through its network of 64 touch points in India and one each in Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal. The company has sold over 25,000 trucks since it started its India operations in 2006.
ISIS CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY FOR ATTACK NEAR IRAQI EMBASSY IN KABUL
Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) claimed responsibility on Monday for a suicide attack that targeted the Iraqi embassy in the Afghan capital Kabul, the group’s Amaq news agency reported. Afghan security forces battled gunmen near a police compound and the nearby Iraqi embassy on Monday. They said the attackers appeared to have taken cover in the embassy building in a business district of the city, from where smoke could be seen rising.
VENEZUELA PROTESTS LOOM
An election in which less than thirty percent votes is to give powers to President and null to mull the position voices was condemned by the US President Donald Trump, European Union, Canada and Latin American powers including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico.
Senior opposition leader Henrique Capriles called on Venezuelans to continue defying the deeply unpopular Maduro with new protests against the election and the “massacre” he said accompanied it.
“We do not recognize this fraudulent process,” he said, calling for nationwide marches Monday and a mass protest in Caracas Wednesday, the day the new assembly is due to be installed.
Maduro has decreed a ban on protests during and after the vote, threatening prison terms of up to 10 years.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro claimed victory Monday in an internationally criticized election to pick a new assembly to rewrite the constitution, but the opposition vowed to keep protesting despite deadly clashes.
Ten people were killed in a wave of bloodshed that swept Venezuela Sunday as Maduro defied an opposition boycott and international condemnation — including the threat of new US sanctions — to hold elections for a powerful new “Constituent Assembly.”
Protesters attacked polling stations and barricaded streets around the country, drawing a bloody response from security forces, who opened fire with live ammunition in some cases.
Despite the boycott and the unrest, the head of the National Electoral Council, Tibisay Lucena — one of 13 Maduro allies already hit by US sanctions — said there had been “extraordinary turnout” of more than eight million voters, 41.5 percent of the electorate.
In a speech to hundreds of supporters in central Caracas, Maduro hailed it as a win.
“We have a Constituent Assembly,” he said.
“It is the biggest vote the revolution has ever scored in its 18-year history,” he said, referring to the year his late mentor, Hugo Chavez, came to power.
The socialist president is gambling his four-year rule on the 545-member assembly, which will be empowered to dissolve the opposition-controlled congress and rewrite the constitution.
But the unrest fueled fears that his insistence on convening the assembly — despite months of demonstrations — would only plunge the country deeper into chaos.
There was blistering international condemnation of the vote, led by Washington.
“The United States condemns the elections… for the National Constituent Assembly, which is designed to replace the legitimately elected National Assembly and undermine the Venezuelan people´s right to self-determination,” US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.
It threatened further “strong and swift” sanctions on Maduro´s government.
The election was also condemned by the European Union, Canada and Latin American powers including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico.
The opposition said the vote was a fraud.
TURKEY DETAINS MORE THAN 1K IN ANTI-TERROR RAIDS
Turkish authorities detained 1,098 people over the last week for suspected links to militant groups or last year’s failed coup attempt, the Interior Ministry said on Monday. It said 831 of those were detained for suspected ties to the US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara blames for orchestrating an attempted coup in July. Gulen denies any involvement. The ministry said another 213 of those were suspected of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has carried out a three-decade insurgency against the government. Forty-six people were detained over alleged links to Islamic State, while 8 more were held for suspected ties to “leftist terrorist groups,” the ministry said.
Thousands of people rallied in Turkey’s largest city on Sunday against security measures Israel has imposed at the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, shortly after Israel removed other measures that led to two weeks of violent Palestinian protests.
The rally in Istanbul, called “The Big Jerusalem Meeting” and organized by Turkey’s Saadet Party, drew some five thousand people to the Yenikapi parade ground on the southern edge of Istanbul.
Protesters were brought in by buses and ferries from across the city, waved Turkish and Palestinian flags, and held up posters in front of a giant stage where the chairman of the Saadet party and representatives from NGOs addressed the crowd.
“The Al-Aqsa mosque is our honor,” read a poster.
“You should know that not only Gaza, but Tel Aviv also has their eyes on this parade ground. Netanyahu does as well, and he is scared”, said Saadet Party Chairman Temel Karamollaoglu, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Turkey has opposed the security measures installed at the entry points of the mosque compound, with President Tayyip Erdogan warning Israel that it would suffer most from the dispute.
Erdogan accused Israel of inflicting damage on Jerusalem’s “Islamic character”, in comments that Israel’s foreign ministry called “absurd”.
The dispute over security at the mosque compound – where Israel installed metal detectors at entry points after two police guards were shot dead this month – has touched off the bloodiest clashes between Israelis and Palestinians in years.
On Friday however, the main prayer session at the Al-Aqsa mosque ended relatively calmly after Israel removed the tougher security measures, though it barred entrance to men under age 50.
Israel captured East Jerusalem, including the Old City and the holy compound, in the 1967 Middle East war. It annexed the area in a move that has never been recognized internationally.
Al-Aqsa mosque, Islam’s third holiest shrine, sits in the heart of the Old City. It is also the holiest place in Judaism – the venue of two ancient temples, the last destroyed by the Romans. Jews pray under heavy security at the Western Wall at the foot of the elevated plaza.
AUSTRALIA BEEF-UP AIRPORT SECURITY
Stricter screening of passengers and luggage at Australian airports will stay in place indefinitely after police foiled an alleged “Islamic-inspired” plot to bring down a plane, which local media said may have involved a bomb or poisonous gas. The ramped up security procedures were put in place after four men were arrested at the weekend in raids conducted across several Sydney suburbs. The men are being held without charge under special terror-related powers. The Australian Federal Police would not confirm media reports the alleged plot may have involved a bomb disguised in a meat grinder or the planned release of poisonous gas inside a plane. Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Andrew Colvin told reporters on Monday that the plot specifics were still being investigated
ECP CANNOT AUDIT PARTY FUNDS: PTI
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief’s counsel, Anwar Mansoor, claimed before the Supreme Court today that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has no right to audit a political party’s funds after they have been audited by a chartered accountancy firm.
Mansoor, the counsel for PTI Chairman Imran Khan, was presenting his arguments before the three-judge Supreme Court bench, which resumed hearing the disqualification case against the PTI chairman today.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Hanif Abbasi petitioned the Supreme Court late last year to disqualify Imran and PTI leader Jahangir Tareen for ‘not declaring their assets and violating the income tax ordinance and peoples act’. The petition also terms the PTI a ‘foreign funded party’.
Mansoor resumed arguments today after being absent from previous proceedings owing to a medical leave.
Addressing the bench, headed by Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar and comprising Justice Faisal Arab and Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Mansoor argued that the ECP can only conduct scrutiny and not an inquiry of funds.
He claimed the law has no provision for the ECP to inquire into a party’s funds once its details have been submitted to it.
The chief justice observed whether not having the power to scrutinise funds is an acceptable defence by the PTI.
He further remarked that the defence being presented by the counsel is not per the correct interpretation of the law.
Mansoor is continuing PTI counsel Naeem Bukhari’s arguments presenting the money trail of Imran’s properties in London and Islamabad.
The hearing was then adjourned until tomorrow.
INDIA COASTGUARDS SEIZES SHIP WITH 1,500 KG OF HEROIN
India’s navy seized a ship carrying about 1,500 kg of heroin worth 35 billion rupees ($545 million) on Sunday in what it said was its biggest ever drugs haul. The vessel, which was operating under the name MV Henry under the Panama flag, was intercepted off the Gujarat coast near the city of Porbandar, said S. Paramesh, deputy director general at the Indian Coast Guard. It was sailing from Dubai to Alang, a town in Gujarat known for shipbreaking, Paramesh said. The eight crew members aboard, all of whom were identified as Indian nationals, are under investigation
