Delhi Law Minister replaced by Mishra

NEW DELHI: Delhi Jal Board Vice-chairman Kapil Mishra was on Wednesday named the new Law Minister. He has replaced Jitender Singh Tomar who had resigned from the post on Wednesday night following his arrest on the charge of possessing fake degrees. “I held a meeting with Arvind Kejriwal, (the chief minister of Delhi) and I have been informed about the development (of my appointment as the law minister),” Mishra, a first time Member of the Legislative Assembly, told the Press Trust of India. Other names which were discussed were Chandni Chowk MLA Alka Lamba, former law minister Somnath Bharti (Malviya Nagar) and Kailash Gahlot, legislator from Najafgarh. Thirty-four-year-old Mishra’s name was also doing the rounds for a ministerial berth when the Aam Aadmi Party had won a landslide victory in February this year. However, he was made the vice-chairman of Delhi Jal Board. Known as a Kejriwal loyalist, Mishra has been associated with him since the India Against Corruption (IAC) days — Agencies

Bus plunge kills 11

BEIJING: A Chinese tour bus plunged off a cliff in Tibet early Wednesday, killing 11 people, state media reported. The accident took in Gonggar county just south of the regional capital of Lhasa, where the city’s airport and many of Tibet’s most famous tourist attractions are located, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. It said eight other people were injured in the accident, and that the cause was under investigation.

Xinhua said the bus belonged to a Lhasa-based tour bus company, but gave no details about those on board. While foreign visitors to Tibet are tightly restricted, the Himalayan region has grown increasingly popular with domestic Chinese tourists drawn to its striking mountain vistas and traditional Buddhist culture. Visitor numbers hit 15 million in 2014, up more than 20 percent from the year before, bringing in close to $2 billion in revenue. Despite the opening of a high-altitude rail line from inland China to Lhasa, infrastructure in much of the vast area is still primitive and many cliff-side roads are narrow and unpaved. — AP

Horse carriage ban

MUMBAI: The blingy joyrides will soon be ending in Mumbai. Tourists hoping to roll down the city’s cacophonous streets in one of its famed, horse-drawn carriages will have to do so before June 2016, when a court has ordered the carriages be banned, saying it was a form of animal cruelty. The single-horse carriages — festooned with bright, flashy lights, plastic hibiscus blooms and tinsel ornaments — have long been a draw for visitors to India’s cramped and cobblestoned financial capital. Known as Victoria carriages, they were once popular with wealthy families in 19th century England, and are recognisable for their large wheels and for allowing passengers to sit face-to face. But “the activity of using horse-driven carriages only for joyrides solely for human pleasure is an avoidable activity” and “illegal,” the Mumbai High Court ruled after a charity alleged cruelty to the horses.  The court also demanded all stables within the city be closed, and ordered Maharashtra’s state government to come up with a plan for rehabilitating both the horses and the 700 or so families who depend on carriage driving for their livelihoods. — AP