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As Iran fired 22 missiles atIraqi bases housing USand other
coalition troops inIraq on Wednesday, USPresident Donald
Trumpclaimed that no Americanswere harmed in the attacks ashe
offered to embrace peacealong with the Iranian leader-ship, in a
significant move tode-escalate the tensions in WestAsia.
Trump also vowed that hewill never allow Iran to have anuclear
weapon.“We sufferedno casualties. All of our soldiersare safe and
only minimaldamage was sustained at ourmilitary bases,” Trump said
inan address to the nation fromthe White House GrandFoyer.His
remarks came hoursafter Iran launched missiles tar-geting at least
two bases whereUS military and coalitionforces’ are stationed in
Iraq,which Tehran said was a "slapin the face" of America.
"All is well!" US PresidentTrump tweeted earlier."Assessment of
casualties &damages taking place now. Sofar, so good!,
headded.According to Iranianstate TV, the attacks were inrevenge
for the killing of thecommander of Iran's powerful
Revolutionary Guards, GeneralQasem Soleimani, in a USdrone
strike on Friday, whichwas ordered by Trump. TheIranian state
television claimedthat "at least 80 terrorist US sol-diers" were
killed in the strikes.Some 5,000 US soldiers are inIraq as part of
the internation-al coalition against the IS ter-ror group.
In a direct message to theIranian leaders and the people,Trump
said the United States is"ready to embrace peace withall who seek
it"."To the peopleand leaders of Iran, we wantyou to have a future
and a greatfuture, one that you deserve,"Trump said.
Howerver the US Presidentvowed “as long as I'm Presidentof the
United States, Iran willnever be allowed to have anuclear weapon."
Earlier, Iraq’sPrime Minister's office said ithad received "an
official verbalmessage" from Iran informingit that a missile attack
on USforces stationed on Iraqi soilwas imminent.
However, hours later, Iraq'sPresident Barham Saleh con-demned
Iran's missile strikeson Iraqi bases where US andother foreign
troops are based,saying he feared "dangerousdevelopments" in the
region.
"We denounce the Iranianmissile bombing that hit mili-
tary installations on Iraqi ter-ritory and renew our rejectionof
the repeated violation of statesovereignty and the transfor-mation
of Iraq into a battlefieldfor warring sides," his officesaid in a
statement.
"We received an officialverbal message from theIslamic Republic
of Iran thatthe Iranian response to theassassination of
QasemSoleimani had begun or wouldbegin shortly, and that thestrike
would be limited towhere the US military waslocated in Iraq without
speci-fying the locations," said IraqPM’s office.
The Iraq Prime Minister'soffice said it was simultane-ously
contacted by the US, asthe missiles slammed into theAin al-Asad
base in westernIraq and Harir further north.
Western powers have con-demned Iran's missile attack onthe US
bases in Iraq. NATOchief Jens Stoltenberg said, "Icondemn the
Iranian missileattacks on US and coalitionforces in Iraq. NATO
calls onIran to refrain from violence."
Meanwhile, Kuwait onWednesday denied reports thatthe US had
decided to with-draw its troops from the Gulfstate, saying the
Twitteraccount of its official newsagency had been hacked.
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AUkrainian airliner crashedshortly after take-off fromTehran on
Wednesday, killingall 176 people on board, main-ly Iranians and
Canadians.
Search-and-rescue teamswere combing through thesmoking wreckage
of theBoeing 737 flight from Tehranto Kiev but officials said
therewas no hope of finding anyonealive.
The vast majority of thepassengers on the UkraineInternational
Airlines flightwere non-Ukrainians, includ-ing 82 Iranians and
63Canadians, officials said. Thecrash occurred with tensionshigh in
West Asia and shortlyafter Tehran launched missilesat bases in Iraq
housing UStroops. But there was no imme-diate indication of foul
play andUkrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelensky warnedagainst
"speculating" on causeof disaster. Meanwhile, Iran’saviation
authority said it would
not hand over to Americans therecovered black boxes of
thecrashed aircraft. “We will notgive the black boxes to
themanufacturer (Boeing) and theAmericans," Iran Civil
AviationOrganisation head AliAbedzadeh said, quoted byMehr news
agency. “It's not yetclear which country blackbox will go to for
the investi-gation,” he added.
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Given the simmering ten-sion between Iran and theUS, India on
Wednesday tooka series of measures includingissuing an advisory to
its citi-zens to avoid non-essentialtravel to Iraq and rerouting
theflight path of national carrierAir India.
The Indian Navy is also onstandby to evacuate Indiansfrom the
Middle-East in case ofany exigency and a warship is
already deployed in the Gulf ofOman. Issuing the travel
advi-sory, the Ministry of ExternalAffairs said, "In view of the
pre-vailing situation in Iraq, Indiannationals are advised to
avoidall non-essential travel to Iraquntil further
notification."
It also said Indian nation-als residing in Iraq are advisedto be
alert and may avoid trav-el within Iraq. "Our Embassy inBaghdad and
Consulate inErbil will continue to functionnormally to provide all
servicesto Indians residing in Iraq," the
Ministry said.This came aftertension increased between Iranand
US following the killing oftop Iranian commanderGeneral Qassem
Soleimani andIran launching missile strikesagainst two US military
basesin Iraq on Wednesday.
The Directorate of CivilAviation (DGCA), meanwhile,asked the
Indian airline com-panies to remain vigilant andtake all
precautions in airspaceover Iran, Iraq, Gulf of Omanand waters of
Persian Gulf,hours after a Ukrainian
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Various trade unions under-took part in the nation-wide strike
held onWednesday. A number ofunion members participated inthe
protest demonstrationdespite the rain in Dehradun.
State working president ofAll India Trade UnionCongress (AITUC),
SamarBhandari said, “Everyone fromthe public to the private
sectorincluding banks, defence,transport, oil, coal have
cometogether in opposition of theanti-worker policies of thecurrent
Government whichmakes it easy to deduce thedamage done by
theGovernment across the coun-try.
Besides, the laws andorders which were approvedafter
considerable struggle inthe past for labourers andemployees have
been shame-lessly transformed,”he alleged.
Power engineers associa-tion general secretary MukeshKumar said
that theGovernment claims that all ofits policies and decisions
arefor the public, but everyoneknows privatisation of thePSUs is
not for public welfare.
In fact, the whole point ofprivatising some PSUs is tobenefit
certain powerful peo-ple who in turn helpGovernment during
elections,
he alleged. He further said,“The strike is just a
represen-tation of people’s anger andd i s a p p o i n t m e n
twithGovernment policies. Ifthe Government ignores ourvoices, the
next time ourprotest will be more firm andstronger.” Members of the
Leftparties also participated in thestrike and the protest
againstthe Government.
“All these years, theGovernment has been disap-pointing the
people of workingclass from all sectors.Moreover, the Governmenthas
failed to do anything pro-lific and functional for theyouth.
If truth be told, the ModiGovernment has made the sit-uation
worse. The increasingrate of unemployment anduncontrolled inflation
in pricesof every item are the bestexamples of the proper func-
tioning of the Government”said Pranjal Mishra, a memberof
Communist Party of India(Marxist). Apart from tradeunions, some
college studentsparticipated in the strike too.“We are here to show
our dis-appointment towards theGovernment. Under thesupervision of
current minis-ters, to get an education hasbeen made impossible for
eco-nomically backward students”,said Abhishek Gusain, a DAVCollege
student.
Giving his own example,he explains, “Our examinationfee in the
college has hikedalmost three-fold from � 700.I belong to a lower
middle-class family and students likeme cannot afford to pay sucha
hefty amount during everyexamination session. TheGovernment should
at leastspare education and poor stu-dents.”
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Cheque transactionsamounting to about�300 crore were affect-ed
in the state due toemployees of variousnationalised banks
par-ticipating in the strikecalled by trade unionson Wednesday.
According to assis-tant general secretary ofUttaranchal
BankEmployees Union(UBEU), Vinay KumarSharma, “All nation-alised
banks like PunjabNational Bank (PNB),Allahabad Bank, UnionBank,
Central Bank ofIndia, and NainitalBank participated in the
strikeexcept State Bank of India(SBI) and no work was car-ried out
in any of the branch-es.
Cheque transactionsworth about �300 crore wereaffected and
almost no cashtransactions were done. If welook at the bigger
scenario of
the strike, it must have affect-ed transactions amountingto
�3,000 crore across thecountry,” he opined. Besidesother trade
unions, membersof the UBEU staged protestagainst the anti-labour
poli-cies, inadequate hiring of newemployees and unwantedmerger of
banks.
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The High Court ofUttarakhand has orderedthe Patanjali Ayurved
College,Haridwar, to return theincreased fee amount chargedfrom its
students within eightweeks. The single bench of jus-tice Manoj
Kumar Tiwariissued this order while hearingon a contempt petition
filed bystudents against the collegefor not observing the
earlierorders of the court.
In another contempt peti-tion, the high court has direct-ed the
chairman and managingdirector of the DevbhoomiMedical College of
Ayurvedaand hospital in Dehradun toappear in the court onFebruary
19.
In the first case, student ofBMS in the Patanjali
AyurvedCollege, Shubham Pant and 23others had filed the
contemptpetition in the high court stat-
ing that the court had earlierordered the college to returnthe
increased amount of feescharged from the students.However, the
institution hadnot returned the said amount.The petitioners had
stated thatas per the rules, the collegeshould have charged
�80,000fee but the amount charged was�2.15 lakh.
After the students chal-lenged this in the high court,the court
had directed the col-lege to return the additionalamount. However,
the institutehad not followed the order ofthe court, due to which
the stu-dents had filed a contemptpetition. In the second case,BMS
student in Devbhoomi
medical college, PrakharMishra and others had filed acontempt
petition in the highcourt. They had also pointedout that the
college had charged�2.15 lakh fee instead of �80,000.
The court had in July 2018ordered the refund of theincreased
amount to the stu-dents. However, the collegehad not refunded the
increasedamount and was seeking hikedfees from the students,
thepetitioners stated. Consideringthis, the single bench of
justiceManoj Kumar Tiwari hasdirected the chairman andmanaging
director of the col-lege to appear personally in thecourt on
February 19.
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The police have arrestedthree persons allegedlyinvolved in
shooting dead thePradhan of Nagla Kubra,Qamar Alam at Ramnagar
inRoorkee on December 20 lastyear.
The three hired shootersallegedly carried out the mur-der for an
offer of Rs 10 lakhgiven to shoot Alam by Abidwho shared an old
rivalry withthe victim. The police arrestedNaeem and Salman for
themurder and Dilshad for beinginvolved in the crime.
Alam was shot dead bybike borne assailants outsidethe court in
Ramnagar,
Roorkee on the evening ofDecember 20. Addressing themedia, the
superintendent ofpolice (rural) Swapn KishoreSingh said that police
investi-gation focused on the old ani-mosity Alam had withKamelpur
resident Abid.
Alam's brother Muzammilwas murdered in 2010 alleged-ly by Abid
and his familymembers. After this, in 2012,Alam had allegedly
murderedAbid's brother Farooq. Theinvestigation after Alam’s
mur-der revealed the involvement ofAbid and his elder brotherAshiq
in the murder.
Abid had offered to pay Rs10 lakh to Muzaffarnagar res-ident
Wasim for killing Alam.
Abid met Wasim while injail in the Muzammil murdercase. There
are more than 30cases against Wasim in UttarPradesh and
Uttarakhand.Wasim sent his brothers Naeemand Salman to
assassinateAlam.
Abid’s relative Farhanhelped the duo identify theirtarget who
was shot onDecember 20. The SP further
informed that Abid hadplanned the murder while injail. He asked
notorious crim-inal Wasim, a native ofMuzaffarnagar, to conduct
themurder while the duo was in
Roorkee jail. Later, Abid start-ed living at Dharmshala
inHimachal Pradesh. About 10minutes after Alam’s murderAbid made a
video showinghimself to be in Dharmshala
and called the local policeinforming them about the mur-der in
Roorkee in which theHaridwar police could impli-cate him though he
was inHimachal Pradesh.
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Governor Baby RaniMaurya said that womenshould develop their
leadershipcapacity by engaging them-selves in social services.Women
should support andhelp each other.
She said this while inter-acting with 33 women facultymembers of
University of
Petroleum and Energy Studieswho met her at the Raj Bhawanon
Wednesday. The womenfaculty members of UPEScalled on the governor
as partof the Shakti programme of theuniversity aimed at
impartingtraining in leadership capacitybuilding for women.
Maurya said that womenshould make their own waywith their will
power and val-
ues. They should create a goodbalance between family andcareer.
Being a woman is mat-ter of pride in itself. Womenshould move
forward in lifewith self-confidence and hardwork, said the
governor. HERSchairman Sharad Mehra, UPESsenior director Arun
Dhand,HR director Monika Jain andothers were also present on
theoccasion.
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Consistent rainfall through-out most part ofWednesday in
Dehradunsharpened the cold in the pro-visional state capital.
Whilevarious mountainous regionsalso experienced rain andsnowfall,
the weather in theState on Thursday is forecast tobe partly to
generally cloudy.
According to the statemeteorological centre, verylight to light
rainfall/snowfallis likely to occur at isolatedplaces in the
mountains espe-cially in Kumaon region whiledry weather likely to
prevail inrest of the state. Snowfall islikely to occur at places
locat-ed at 2000 metres altitude and
above. Further, hail is likely tooccur at isolated places
espe-cially in Dehradun, Haridwar,Udham Singh Nagar, Pauriand
Nanital districts onThursday.
Dense to very dense fog islikely to occur in plains
duringmorning hours especially inHaridwar and Udham SinghNagar
districts on Uttarakhandon January 10 and 11. Coldday conditions
are likely tooccur at a few places especial-ly in the mountains
onThursday. However, people inDehradun may experiencesome relief
from the rain as thesky here is forecast to be main-
ly clear to partly cloudy onThursday with the maximumand minimum
temperatureslikely to be around 15 degreesCelsius and six degrees
Celsiusrespectively.
On Wednesday, the maxi-mum and minimum tempera-tures recorded in
variousplaces were 10.8 degreesCelsius and 10 degrees
Celsiusrespectively in Dehradun, 15.8degrees Celsius and 11
degreesCelsius in Pantnagar, 1.8degrees Celsius and -0.8degrees
Celsius in Mukteshwarand 2.8 degrees Celsius andtwo degrees Celsius
respec-tively in New Tehri.
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In the first e- cabinet ofUttarakhand held at secre-tariat on
Wednesday, the stategovernment authorised thecollege principals to
appointguest faculties on the vacantposts of teachers.
Informingabout the decisions of statecabinet, the
governmentspokesperson, Madan Kaushiksaid that that a total of
sixissues were brought before thecabinet on the day.
He said that to fill vacantposts of assistant professors inthe
Government colleges, thePrincipals have been autho-rised to appoint
eligible can-didates as guest faculty for aperiod of 11
months.There
are 2137 posts of teachers ingovernment colleges of thestate out
of which 1176 postsare filled by permanent facul-ty members. The
process ofappointments of assistant pro-
fessors from public servicecommission is also underway.Since it
would take time, theGovernment has decided toappoint guest
faculties. Thecabinet also gave its approval
for the minimum support priceof sugarcane. The MSP forearly
variety has been fixed at�327 per quintal while theMSP of late
variety would be�317 per quintal. The cabinet
also gave its approval for pro-rogation of assembly
session.Kaushik added that cabinetdecided that the members
ofcorporative societies would begiven grant under 'Ganga GaiDairy
scheme'. In the grant thewomen members would begiven priority.
In another decision, thecabinet decided that the stategovernment
would constructnew buildings in place ofacquired buildings
underKedarpuri Master plan.
As of now new buildingsare being constructed onlyunder Corporate
SocialResponsibility (CSR) of com-panies.
The cabinet gave its nod todouble the grant for Kailash
Mansarovar Yatra. The pigrims would now get an amount of �50000
instead of �25000.
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About 80 per cent of thosewho came to India toescape religious
persecutionin Bangladesh and Pakistanare either members of
thescheduled caste or Dalits.Opposing the Citizenship(Amendment)
Act which is intheir favour, amounts toopposing the welfare of
theDalits. The Bharatiya JanataParty Anusuchit Jati Morchanational
office bearer SanjayNirmal said this whileaddressing the media here
onWednesday.
He said that SC and Dalitcommunity members havebeen persecuted
the most inPakistan and Bangladesh.“They are not allowed toundergo
education or havethe right to equality in soci-ety there. They are
there onlyto do menial jobs. They arealso forced to convert with
the
Dalit community facing reli-gious persecution the
most.Minorities in Pakistan haddwindled from 23 per cent tothree
per cent.
They have either beenforcibly converted or beenkilled. The
Citizenship(Amendment) Act is in theirfavour but the Congress
andother opposition parties areopposing the Act,” saidNirmal. He
thanked theprime minister NarendraModi and Union Home min-ister
Amit Shah for the CAA,stating that the scheduledand Dalit
communities aregrateful for this.
The public awarenesscampaign will be stepped upfurther to inform
the mem-bers of the scheduled casteand Dalit communities aboutthe
CAA and to expose thelies being spread about thisAct by the
opposition, hesaid.
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The Chief MinisterTrivendra Singh Rawat for-mally initiated the
e- cabinet atstate secretariat on Wednesday.
The objective of the e—cabinet is to promote the cul-ture of
paperless work in officesand develop institutionalmemory. The CM
said that thenew system would not onlyreduce the use of paper but
also
help in easily getting the deci-sions of cabinet taken
earlier.He said that e cabinet is animportant decision in
thedirection of e—governanceand transparency.
It is worth mentioninghere that in the e- cabinet sys-tem, on
line proposals wouldbe sent to the cabinet ministersfor approval.
The Gopandepartment of state govern-ment has set up a portal for
e-
cabinet. The users would beprovided an e account and theonline
ID of all cabinet minis-ters is prepared by the depart-ment. The
information aboutcabinet meetings would beprovided by sms and e-
mail.
The minutes of the meet-ings and decisions would beuploaded
online on the portal.The departments concernedwould get digital
approvals ofthe cabinet decisions.
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The undergrounding ofpower cables in Haridwarwas discussed in a
meeting ofelectricity department officialsand the members of
theHaridwar Vyapar Mandal hereon Wednesday. Work on
theundergrounding of cables hasbeen undertaken in variousparts of
the city and is nowabout to be started at the Harki Paidi and
surrounding area.
City president of theVyapar Mandal, SanjeevNayyar said that the
meetingwas held with the officials inview of the thousands of
peo-ple who arrive in the areadaily.
He said that the marketarea in the locality is small, soif the
ground is dug up and leftas in the other areas, it wouldcreate
major inconvenience.
General secretary of theVyapar Mandal, Pradeep Kalrasaid that
officials of the elec-tricity department should startthe work when
they haveenough resources, otherwisethe problem will increase
for
both the traders and the elec-tricity department.
Executiveengineer of the underground-ing project, Ankit Jain said
thatthe survey for the work isgoing on in small market area.Since
the road in the market issmall, the sewer line and otherfacilities
had been laid in a zigzag pattern which would makethe
undergrounding project abit difficult.
If the department is con-vinced of the feasibility, theproject
will be executed in themarket area but work in Har kiPaidi and
upper road will beginsoon.
It is pertinent to mentionhere that with the first week
ofJanuary already passing, theadvent of pilgrims in Haridwaris
expected to pick up pacearound the Shivratri fair inFebruary.
Earlier, a few days ago thelocal traders at Ranipur Modhad
staged a protest against theexcavation for undergroundingproject
being left uncovered bythe department. Following theprotest, the
department con-cerned filled up excavated sites.
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The Bharatiya Janata Partyhas termed as laughable theCongress’
submission of a mem-orandum to the governoragainst the state
government.The BJP has opined that theCongress leaders are
indulgingin such ‘drama’ due to theinfighting underway in theparty.
The BJP State media in-charge Devendra Bhasin saidthat the Congress
is without anyreal issues and its state unit isafflicted by
infighting. In thisscenario, various factions in
the Congress are fighting fortheir existence and indulging
ingimmicks. The memorandumsubmitted to the governor wasalso one
such gimmick. “Theprocess of appointments to gov-ernment posts is
underway inthe state apart from employ-ment in the private
sector.
Effective steps are beingtaken to tackle migration, devel-opment
work is being expedit-ed in various sectors and strictaction is
being taken againstcorruption. In such a scenario,memorandum
politics of theCongress is laughable.
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Jaipur: Rajasthan Deputy Chief MinisterSachin Pilot said on
Wednesday that theCentre should take cognisance of the nationwide
strike called by labour unions,saying every section of the country
was dissatisfied due to a communicationgap.
“You (Centre) will not communicate, youwill not explain, you
will not try to under-stand people, then what is the meaning
ofdemocracy?” Pilot asked. “Winning an elec-tion does not mean that
you have becomesupreme. We should keep our hearts, mindsand ears
open, and listen to people.”
The State Congress president said thegovernment should leave its
“ego” behind andhold a dialogue.
“Whatever is going in the JNU, the policeare going to different
universities, peoplewearing uniforms are seen in colleges
anduniversities — is not a good sign for anydemocracy for any
country,” Pilot toldreporters in Jaipur.
According to Pilot, a shutdown occurswhen all options fail and
there was a lack ofcommunication from the central govern-ment’s
end.
“Every class is unhappy today, be it gov-ernment servants,
middle class, poor or thestudents. The government should take
cog-nisance f today’s strike,” Pilot said. PTI
Kota: A five-year-old girl childwas raped by a relative in a
village in Bundi district onWednesday afternoon, policesaid.
The accused, aged around20 years, fled the spot when thefamily
members of the minorvictim were alerted by hercries and rushed to
rescue her,they said, adding that she wasbleeding profusely when
found.
A case of rape was regis-tered against the accused, whois also a
neighbour of theminor victim, under relevantsections of the IPC and
thePOSCO Act, SHO at Karwarpolice station Hariram Jajundasaid.
The girl was playing out-side her room and her familymembers
were working at anadjacent farm in the afternoonwhen the incident
took place,he said.
The victim was taken to theBundi district hospital for amedical
examination, the SHOsaid. PTI
Jammu: Jammu & Kashmir Police chief DilbagSingh on Wednesday
said enemies are looking todisrupt the peaceful atmosphere in the
UnionTerritory and asked officers to remain vigilant.
He said peace had been achieved in Jammu &Kashmir after a
lot of hard work and sacrifices bypolice and security forces.
The director general of police (DGP) made theremarks at security
review meetings during his visitto the twin south Kashmir districts
of Shopian andPulwama.
Accompanied by Inspector General of CRPF(Operations) Rajesh
Kumar and Inspector Generalof Police, Kashmir, Vijay Kumar, Singh
took stockof the situation in the two districts.
“The safety and security of the people is ourprime concern. The
enemies of peace are lookingfor chances to disrupt the peace,”
Singh said.
He said the police, along with its sister agen-cies, have
succeeded in creating a sense of securi-ty among the people. He
directed the officers to bevigilant at all times and work
dedicatedly for thewelfare of the people while taking due care of
theirsecurity. PTI
Barabanki (UP): A 21-year-oldlaw student, who was alleged-ly
gang-raped about fourmonths ago, has been foundhanging at her house
in a vil-lage here, with her motherclaiming that she was
underpressure from the two accused.
The body of the LLB stu-dent was found hanging fromthe roof of
her room at the family’s home in theJahagirabad police station
areahere on Tuesday morning,police said.
The victim’s mother hascomplained that she was underpressure
from the two rapeaccused and committed sui-cide.
She alleged that Shivpaltanand Shivkumar, of Semrava vil-lage
under Kothi police stationarea, had raped the victim fourmonths
ago.
Since Shivkumar is a localheavyweight, the police initiallydid
not lodge an FIR but laterit was registered on the orders
of a court, the mother of thevictim claimed, adding that
noarrest has been made.
Superintendent of PoliceAkash Tomar said the father ofthe
deceased had told the policein writing that his daughtercommitted
suicide and he hadno suspicion on anyone.
“It has come to light dur-ing investigations that the two
accused had lodged a case offraud on the deceased and hermother
for getting a vehiclefinanced and the motherframed them to avenge
it.There are no evidence so far toprove the allegations of
themother. Action will be taken incase anything emerges in fur-ther
inquiry,” the SP added. PTI
Kolkata: Terming the appoint-ment of a Chief of Defence
Staff(CDS) as a welcome move, for-mer Army chief General
(retd)Shankar Roy Chowdhury onWednesday said it had notbeen done
earlier owing to thethen political bosses’ fear of acoup.
He said the appointment ofa CDS was due for a long timeand the
services wanted it to bethere in the country so that the
Army, Navy and Air Forcecome under one umbrella, “butthe problem
was political.”
“The fear of a coup wasingrained among the earlierpolitical
bosses if all the threeforces — Army, Navy and AirForce — were
brought underone umbrella and that was theonly reason that a post
ofCDS was not created,” RoyChowdhury told newspersonshere.
General Bipin Rawat, whoretired as the Army chief onDecember 31,
has taken chargeas India’s first Chief of DefenceStaff the next day
with a mandate to bring in convergence in the functioningof the
Army, Navy and theIndian Air Force and bolsterthe country’s
military prowess.
Gen (retd) RoyChowdhury said the military isalways subordinate
to the civil
authorities in the country, butan “unsubstantiated” fear of
acoup if the forces were broughtunder one head had preventedthe
then political establishment from taking adecision on it.
“This is the single reasonwhy the country did not have aCDS so
far,” the former Armychief said. He said the post ofCDS is
important for the coor-dination of the three forces. PTI
Srinagar: The night tempera-ture in Kashmir stayed close
tofreezing point on Wednesdaydue to recent snowfall, as sunshone on
the Valley after threedays.Srinagar recorded a low ofminus 0.4
degrees Celsius lastnight, almost same as previousnight, an
official of the METdepartment said.
The official said the ski-resort ofGulmarg in north Kashmir
recordedthe low of minus 7.6 degrees Celsiuslast night, 1.6 notches
down fromTuesday.
The night temperature atPahalgam resort, which also serves asone
of the base camps for the annualAmarnath yatra in south Kashmir,
set-tled at a low of minus 2.0 degreesCelsius – nearly two notches
up fromminus 3.9 degrees Celsius Tuesday, hesaid.
The official said Qazigund – thegateway town to the Valley - in
southKashmir recorded a low of minus 0.4degree Celsius.Kokernag
town, also in
south, recorded a low of minus 4.0degrees Celsius, while
Kupwara, innorth, registering a minimum ofminus 2.2 degree Celsius,
the officialsaid.Kashmir is currently under thegrip of
‘Chillai-Kalan’ - the 40-dayharshest period of winter when
thechances of snowfall are most frequentand maximum and the
temperaturedrops considerably.’
Chillai-Kalan’ began on December21 and ends on January 31, but
thecold wave continues even after that inKashmir. The 40-day period
is fol-lowed by a 20-day long ‘Chillai-Khurd’ (small cold) and a
10-day long‘Chillai-Bachha’ (baby cold). PTI
Mumbai: The nationwide strike seems to have failedto evoke much
response in Maharashtra tillWednesday afternoon with transport and
bankingservices remaining largely unaffected in many districts as
well as in the country’s financial Capital.
No untoward incident was reported so far fromany region of the
state. Suburban trains, which arecalled as the “lifeline of Mumbai”
with a ridershipof more than 75 lakh commuters per day,
publicbuses, taxis and autorickshaws are running normallyin the
island city and suburbs.
Similarly, Metro and Monorail services are run-ning smoothly,
officials said, adding that BEST-oper-ated bus services are also
running as per schedule.
Private transport services like taxis and auto-rickshaws are
also plying normally in Mumbai.
Film and TV shoots also remained unaffected.The Federation of
Western India Cine
Employees (FWICE) said all its members were atwork as usual and
nothing was hampered becauseof the strike. In Pune, transport
services remainedunaffected.
“Buses operated by the Pune MahanagarParivahan Mahamandal Ltd
(PMPML) are plyingnormally,” said Shankar Pawar, Director,
PMPML.Educational institutes and commercial establish-ments in the
city remained opened as usual.
Trade union leader Ajit Abhyankar claimed thatat least 15000
people affiliated to various Centraltrade unions, Bhartiya Kamgar
Sena, posts, banks,and other government establishments
participatedin a public rally outside the district collectorate
inPune. PTI
Kolkata: West Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata BanerjeeWednesday said
the CentralGovernment does not providefunds for the
annualGangasagar Mela, which isheld in West Bengal, though
itprovides lots of assistance toKumbh Mela.
“Gangasagar Mela is at parwith the Kumbh Mela. TheCentre
provides funds forKumbh Mela but does notextend financial
assistance forGangasagar.” Banerjee said. PTI
��#+�����+#����� 5��5���
Normal life was considerably hit in Bengaleven as sporadic
violence andarson marked Wednesday’sgeneral strike sponsored byLeft
and Congress trade unionsprompting both Chief MinisterMamata
Banerjee and the BJPto interpret the bandh as a des-perate attempt
by a moribundLeft Front to catch limelightonce again.
Reports of violence pouredin from Barasat, in North 24Parganas,
Kolkata, Howrah,Hooghly, Burdwan, Malda,South Dinajpur, Jalpaiguri
andother places police said adding170 strikers including
CPI(M)Legislature Party leader SujanChakrabarty had been
arrest-ed.
Violence reached itscrescendo at Sujapur in Maldadistrict where
police foughtpitched battle with angry pro-testers opposing CAA
andNRC. About eight vehiclesincluding a few belonging tothe police
were torched alleged-ly by the protesters leading thecops to burst
tear gas shells andfire rubber bullets injuring anumber of
them.
Though life reverted tonear-normal by late noon theLeft and the
Congress took out
long processions in parts ofKolkata demanding immediaterelease
of its leaders. At ParkCircus Maidan (a minoritydominated area)
hundreds ofMuslim women sat on indefi-nite dharna demanding
with-drawal of the CitizenshipAmendment Act and NationalRegister
for Citizens.
The strikers who had ini-tially targeted socio-economicissues as
subject matter of thebandh in the final hours smart-ly included CAA
and NRC towiden the scope of participation. The tacticseemed to
partially pay offwith the strike witnessing morethan 50 percent
success sourcesin the administration saidadding however that
theGovernment offices in thewake of a strong circular fromthe State
secretariat witnessednear-99 percent attendance.
While air servicesremained normal train ser-vices were
substantially affect-ed authorities said addingabout 127 suburban
trainsfrom Sealdah and 47 fromHowrah had to be cancelled.This, in
addition to about theroute of a dozen express gettingchanged due to
the impact ofthe strike.
Sources in the State elec-tricity boards reported lesser
consumption of power indi-cating partial success of thebandh.
“Reports collected at 10am showed the power con-sumption level at
4012 MW,250 MW less than the normal,driving home the fact
thatstrike had its impact despitecontradictory claims made bythe
Government,” said one ofthe striking leaders adding“the power
department stoppedreleasing further reports forobvious
reasons.”
Even as the day peakedreports of violence came infrom various
parts of the State.At Hridaypur in North 24Parganas crude bombs
wererecovered from underneath alocal train. Buses and othervehicles
were vandalised in
Burdwan, Durgapur, Howrahand Kolkata even as the driverswere
seen driving their vehicleswith helmets on.
Traffic were blockaded bythe Left and Congress workersat
Jadavpur and Rashbeharicrossing with their supportersthrowing
burning tryres on theroads. The impact of the strikewas near
complete at Raiganjand Durgapur, the home townof JNSU president
Aishi Ghoshwhere the protesters were seenattacking bikers.
All banks and post officesremained closed causingimmense
hardships to the peo-ple. Schools were however par-tially affected
as the number ofattendance was thin.
Meanwhile the Chief
Minister attacked the Left forsacrificing its ideology. “CPIMhas
no ideology. Plantingbombs on railway tracks isnothing but
‘gundagardi, shesaid. In the name of movement,commuters are being
beaten upand stones are being pelted.This is ‘dadagiri’, not a
move-ment. I condemn this. I will notallow such movements.
The Marxists are trying toget back their relevance butthey will
never be able to dothat unless they change theirstyle of
functioning. I think thecommunists of Kerala are farbetter than
those in Bengal. Atleast they have a policy and actaccording to
ideology. InBengal they are all ruffians.”
Attacking the hoodlumsBJP’s Dilip Ghosh said “theTrinamool
Congress has helpedthe Left Front to make violencea success because
they want theLeft to get some oxygen so asto divide the anti-TMC
oppo-sition in Bengal. But peoplehave understood and will
giveMamata Banerjee a befittingreply.”
The Left leaders includingpolitburo member Biman
Bosecongratulated the people formaking the bandh a success“despite
brutal attack by thepolice and the TMC goons onthe bandh
supporters.”
���� 5��5���
Much the way they did it inUttar Pradesh — and onlywith greater
visibility — a sec-tion of Bengal police men dur-ing the
Wednesday’s generalstrike were found vandalisingvehicles and
torching themincluding the police vans atSujapur in Malda
promptingOpposition Left Front andCongress to demand
impartialinvestigation into the matter.
Visual footages that imme-diately went viral showing howthe
policemen were smashingthe wind screens of cars parkedin a big
field with rifle butts,pouring fuel and then settingablaze
immediately drew large-
scale media attention. The inci-dent took place within metresof
a spot where pro-bandhagitators were barricading thehigh way.
“Such heinous plans totorch the vehicles and thenhold the CPI(M)
workers liablewere fortunately shot by thelocals... The incidents
onlymake clear the real face of ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee.Her
police is no different fromthe police of Yogi Adtiyanath…They did
it in Lucknow toframe the anti-CAA rallyists,the Bengal Police did
it inBengal,” senior CPI(M) leaderMd Salim said adding “in aState
where not a leaf turnswithout the instruction of the
Chief Minister how could theytorch so many vehicles. It mustbe
probed.”
President of the PradeshCongress which also co-spon-sored the
general strikedemanded an “impartialinquiry to get to the core of
theconspiracy.” Another Congressleader and former MinisterManoj
Chakrabarty demanded“judicial probe into the incidentso that things
become clear.”
Eye witnesses said how thepolice men were seen smashingthe
windscreens with rifle buttsand stones. They were also seencarrying
petrol cans to thevehicles, soaking them beforesetting them afire,
sources said.
While there was no word
from the Chief Minister hersenior ministerial colleaguePartho
Chatterjee said the “cul-prits will be brought to
book,” adding it would belooked into details to figure
outwhether some Left miscreantswere doing the mischief in thegarb
of police men or somecops were genuinelyinvolved.
“No one will be spared bycommitting violence… this isthe policy
of our Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee,” he said evenas sources said
the MaldaSuperintendant of Police hadbeen asked to probe the
mat-ter. The SP however could notbe contacted till late in
theevening.
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Patna: A woman was alleged-ly raped at gunpoint after
beingkidnapped from the parking lotof a mall here on Monday,police
officials said.
One person has beenarrested out of four personsnamed in the
FIR.
“We have identified thefour accused persons who werethe (rape)
victim’s acquain-tances. One man raped the girlwhile others were
part of theconspiracy,” CitySuperintendent of Police(Central),
Patna, Vinay Tiwary
told PTI.Asked whether it is a case
of gangrape, Tiwary said, “No,it is not gangrape. It is rape
butothers were part of the con-spiracy.”
One person has beenarrested in connection with thecase while
raids are being con-ducted to nab other culprits,the City SP
said.
The woman is around 20years of age and is pursuingBBA through
correspondence,he added.
The victim’s medical exam-
ination was conducted onTuesday, police sources said.
While talking to reporters,the rape survivor, who had cov-ered
her face with a mask, saidshe was kidnapped by four menat gunpoint
from GV Mall onthe busy Boring road intersec-tion around 7:30 pm
onMonday while she was comingout of an eatery.
As she stepped out of theeatery, one of the four men,who raped
her later, told her atgunpoint to sit in his car in theparking lot
of the mall.
The four then allegedlytook her to a flat located nearP&M
Mall in Pataliputracolony where one person rapedher while three
others stoodwith a pistol, the rape survivorsaid.
The woman said the fourmade a video of the incidentand
threatened to post it onsocial media.
The woman escaped fromtheir clutches and narrated theincident to
her room mate andbrother over phone whoinformed the police. PTI
����'���������1�������� �������������
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Mumbai: A day after the meetingbetween BJP leader
DevendraFadnavis and MNS chief RajThackeray fuelled speculation of
a tie-up in Maharashtra, a senior BJPleader on Wednesday said
“anythingcan happen in the future”.
Fadnavis, a former MaharashtraChief Minister, and Raj
Thackeraymet in Prabhadevi here on Tuesday.The meeting lasted for
nearly twohours, sources had said.
Asked about the Fadnavis-RajThackeray meet, which took place
inthe backdrop of political realignmentin the state, Maharashtra
BJP leader Sudhir Mungantiwar didnot provide any details, but
pointedout that nobody had expected that theShiv Sena will join
hands with the
Congress-NCP.It was a courtesy meeting
between the two leaders... there wasnothing political, but
anything canhappen in the future.
“Nobody had predicted that theShiv Sena would go with
theCongress-NCP. People would termsomeone talking on these lines
ascrazy, but it happened, said the for-mer State BJP president who
was a member of the Fadnaviscabinet. The Shiv Sena, a long-timeally
of the BJP, walked out of the saf-fron alliance in November last
yearand joined hands with the Congress-NCP combine to form the
MahaVikas Aghadi government in theState.
The Maharashtra Navnirman
Sena (MNS), founded by RajThackeray in 2006, fared poorly in
theOctober assembly polls winning justone seat.
Raj Thackeray is expected tohold a public rally on January
23,where he might announce a ‘key’decision, an MNS official had
said onTuesday. It is being widely speculat-ed that Raj Thackeray,
estrangedcousin of Chief Minister UddhavThackeray, may announce a
shift tothe right amid changed political sce-nario in the
state.
Raj Thackeray had become atrenchant critic of the BJP prior to
the2019 Lok Sabha polls and had heldseveral rallies in the State
where hecriticised the Modi Government ona range of issues. PTI
Jammu: Students under thebanner of the All IndiaStudents’
Federation (AISF)on Wednesday staged a peaceful demonstration
hereagainst the recent attack on thestudents and professors at
theJawaharlal Nehru University(JNU) in New Delhi.
The protesters, who werealso joined by some senior cit-izens,
were carrying placardsthat read ‘Danda Mat Chalao-Beti Bachao Beti
Padhao (Don’tuse batons, save and educatethe daughter)’, ‘J&K
in solidar-ity with JNU’ and ‘RemoveJNU Vice Chancellor’.
“We have assembled here
to register our protest againstthe vandalism unleashed on
thestudents and faculty membersin the JNU by theG ov e r n m e nt -
s u p p o r t e dgoons,” Jammu & KashmirAISF president S Kotwal
toldreporters.
The protesters assembled atthe Exhibition Ground andlater
dispersed off peacefully.
G M Sheikh, one of thesenior citizens present at theprotest,
said people were con-cerned over the safety of theirwards in the
aftermath of theattack. “We are standing withthe JNU students,” the
Kashmirresident said. PTI
Jammu : Claiming a “deep-rooted conspiracy” was behindthe
ongoing stir against theamended Citizenship Act, theJammu &
Kashmir BJP allegedon Wednesday that the mainreason behind the
protests is tocreate a “civic unrest” in thecountry.
Addressing a public meet-ing in R S Pura here, BJP stategeneral
secretary(Organisation) Ashok Kaulasked prominent civil
societymembers in the state to createawareness about the Act
andhelp Prime MinisterNarendra Modi in his endeav-ours to
strengthen the nation.
“The series of protests isnot an ordinary protest. Thereis
actually a sinister effort toburn the nation in the name ofCAA.
There is a deep-rootedconspiracy behind theseprotests, one by one,
employ-ing various strategies to keepfuelling the fire and the
ulti-mate link can be traced back tothe power hunger of
theCongress, the Communists andtheir allies,” he said.
Meanwhile, the BJP’swomen wing took out a rally insupport of CAA
from GoleMarket near Swarn Theatre toSatwari Chowk in the city.
PTI
����+"#��"��� )+)��
Close on the heels of it losing power inMaharashtra, the BJP
onWednesday suffered ahumiliating defeat in localbody elections in
the State, asthe ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi(MVA) captured power in
fiveout of six Zilla Parishads andwalked away with
majorityPanchayat Samiti seats in fiveout of six districts where
thepolls were held.
It what came as personalsetback for former ChiefMinister and
senior BJP leaderDevendra Fadnavis, the AmitShah-led party lose
power inthe Zilla Parishad andPanchayat Samitis in his homedistrict
of Nagpur.
The MVA, comprising theShiv Sena, NCP and Congress,captured
power in the ZillaParishads of Nagpur, Washim,Akola (all three in
Vidarbharegion), Nandurbar (in northMaharashtra) and Palghar
(incoastal Konkan region), whilethe BJP managed to come topower in
Dhule ZP in northMaharashtra.
In a repeat performance inthe Panchayat Samiti polls, theMVA won
a maximum of 310seats out of a total 552 seats infive districts —
Nagpur,Washim, Akola, Nandurbarand Palghar, while the BJPmanaged to
maximum of 70out 112 seats in Dhule district.In five districts, the
BJP secured124 seats, while the MVAbagged 32 seats in Dhule
dis-trict.
The MVA put up animpressive performance in theZilla Parishads of
Nagpur,Washim, Akola, Nandurbarand Palghar, where it won asmany as
165 seats out of total276 seats, as against 67 seatswon by the BJP.
However, in
Dhule ZillaParishad, theBJP emerged asthe victor bywinning 39
outof 56 seats.
The ZP andP a n c h a y a tSamiti poll out-come has erodedthe
stock ofFadnavis inVidarbha region
where the BJP has lost powerin all three Zilla Parishads
–Nagpur, Washim and Akola –that went to polls. The BJP’sdefeat in
Nagpur ZP polls hascome as an embarrassment forFadnavis, where the
Congress—which is a constituent of theMVA — has by itself won
amajority of 30 out of total 58seats in the local body.
The poll outcome hascome as a boost to State HomeMinister Anil
Deshmukh of theNCP who hails from Katoltaluka in Nagpur, while
seniorCongress minister K C Padviand BJP Girish Deshmukhshare
credit for the poll per-formances in Nandurbar andDhule districts
of north
Maharashtra. While the MVA — of
which the Congress is a part —has captured power in theNandurbar
Zilla Parishad, theBJP has come to power inDhule ZP. The only
regret forPadvi is that his wife HemlataPadvi was defeated in
theNandurbar ZP polls by a can-didate of the Shiv Sena, whichis
also a constituent of theMVA. There was no pre-pollbetween the MVA
constituentsin the ward where HemlataPadvi contested.
The Opposition BJP maytake a solace for its defeat in thefact
that is for the first time thatthe Shiv Sena, NCP andCongress have
come togetherin the ZP and Panchayat Samitipolls and that too as a
post-pollarrangement in a few of theZilla Parishad.
But, the BJP will have tolive with the home truth that aslong as
the MVA is power inthe state, it will have to stayaway from power
in a maxi-mum number of local bodies— including ZPs,
PanchayatSamitis and municipal bodies— across the State
Srinagar: National Conference MPMohammad Akbar Lone on Wednesday
saidhis party will not contest any election till thespecial status
and statehood of Jammu &Kashmir is restored.
“The National Conference will not takepart in any election till
the pre-August 5 posi-tion of Jammu & Kashmir is restored,”
Lonetold reporters after a party meeting here.
Lone said he was hopeful of a favourableverdict on the petition
regarding the restoration of the special status in the Supreme
Court.
Asked about the new political front ledby former PDP leader Syed
Altaf Bukhari,Lone said “such elements were used byGovernment of
India from time to time since1953 to undermine people’s
aspirations”.“Many of those who are part of this front werethe same
people who brought down theFarooq Abdullah Government (in 1984)
andformed a new Government. Everyone knowshow long that Government
lasted. They willbe used and thrown away,” the Lok Sabhamember from
Baramulla said.
He said the BJP might be able to take theiragenda to people of
Kashmir, the leaders whoare part of the new front did not have any
pub-lic standing. “They will be rejected by peo-ple,” he added. In
response to a question,Lone said the hype around the domicile
lawfor Jammu and Kashmir was of no value.
“We will not even spit on such a law. Ouragenda remains the same
as that of (NCfounder) Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah,” hesaid. When
asked why the NC members didnot resign from the Lok Sabha, Lone
shotback, “What are we going to achieve by that?Will they
(government) release our leaders?Will they grant us what we have
beendemanding?” PTI
Chennai: The rulingAIADMK and principalOpposition DMK
onWednesday accused each otherover the National EligibilityCum
Entrance Test (NEET) inthe Assembly and theGovernment said it has
filed afresh plea in the SupremeCourt challenging the
exami-nation.
As soon as the questionhour ended, Leader ofOpposition M K
Stalin saidNEET went against the tenets ofsocial justice and the
interests ofrural students and accused theruling dispensation of
“hugebetrayal” on the issue.
He sought to know aboutthe state filing a plea against thetest
in the Apex Court just twodays before the last date (6 Jan,2020) to
apply for NEET ended.
Health Minister CVijayabaskar retorted saying if atall it was a
betrayal, the seeds forit were sowed by the DMK whenit was part of
the Congress-ledCentre.
On 27 December 2010, thenotification for the test wasissued by
the Union govern-ment, he said. Only after thenotification, the
national testtook shape and the oppositionto it also had to be
fought in theMadras High Court and later itwent as far as the
SupremeCourt, he noted.
Also, bills were passed bythe Assembly seeking to exempt
Tamil Nadu from the test, headded.
The Minister said the gov-ernment was taking legal stepsand also
handles the matterpolitically to oppose the test.
Asserting that the govern-ment continued to be firm in itspolicy
of opposition to NEET, hesaid, “Now a petition has beenfiled in the
Supreme Courtchallenging section 10 (d) of theIndian Medical
Council Act.The main petition in the matterwas still pending in the
topcourt.”
The NEET was behind con-ducted under section 10 (d) andthis
section was inserted throughan amendment to the IMC Act.Tamil Nadu
filed the fresh pleaafter the top court said duringthe case hearing
last monththat the State had the freedomto challenge this
provision, theMinister pointed out. He alsowanted the opposition to
spec-ify if this move of the govern-ment was “right or not.”
DMKdeputy leader Duraimurugancountered asking what the gov-ernment
intended to achieve byfiling the fresh plea. PTI
Bengaluru: Amid speculation that he will beconsidered for Rajya
Sabha from Karnataka, vet-eran Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge
onTuesday said it will depend on what the Congresshigh command
decides and he was a disciplinedsoldier of the party.
“..Is it in my hands? It is in Congress party highcommand’s
hand. It will depend on what highcommand decides,” Kharge said in
response to aquestion.
Speaking to reporters here, he said “I havenever asked for
anything. I have been working asthe disciplined soldier of the
party.”
Four Rajya Sabha seats from Karnataka rep-resented by Rajeev
Gowda and BK Hariprasad ofthe Congress, Prabhakar Kore of the BJP
and DKupendra Reddy of the JD(S) will fall vacant inJune.
Kharge, who was popularly known as “solil-lada Saradara,” (a
leader without defeat), faced hisfirst electoral loss in his
political life spanning several decades, against BJP’s Umesh Jadhav
inGulbarga by 95,452 votes during the 2019 LokSabha polls.
A nine-time MLA and two-term Lok Sabhamember, Kharge had served
as Congress’ floorleader in the previous Lok Sabha.
Also, there are reports about JD(S) lookingat sending its
patriarch and former PrimeMinister H D Deve Gowda to the Uppper
House.
The regional party will need Congress sup-port for this. Gowda
was defeated in Tumkur con-stituency by hisBJPrival G S Basavaraj
by over13,000 votes.
As the joint candidate of the then rulingCongress-JDS coalition,
Gowda had chosen tocontest from Tumkur at the last minute,
aftervacating Hassan-his home turf, to grandsonPrajwal Revanna (a
current MP). PTI
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In twin developments, theMaharashtra LegislativeAssembly on
Wednesday rati-fied the Constitution (126th)Amendment Bill seeking
exten-sion of quota to SC/STs in LokSabha and State Assemblies
byanother 10 years and passed aunanimous resolution urgingthe
Centre to undertake acaste-based census to ascertainthe population
of OtherBackward Classes (OBCs)across the country.
At a special one-day ses-sion of the State Assembly,Maharashtra
Chief MinisterUddhav Thackeray moved aresolution seeking
ratificationof the ConstitutionAmendment bill passed byParliament
on December 11.Leader of OppositionDevendra Fadnavis supportedthe
resolution. The Houseadopted the resolution unani-mously.
The Assembly also unanimously adopted a resolution — moved suo
motoby Speaker Nana Patole urgingthe Centre for a caste-basedCensus
to find out the population of OBCs across thecountry.
Moving the resolution,
Speaker Patole said that therewas a need for collating data
onOBC population so that OBCscould be given benefits
ofdevelopment.
“The new Census will betaken up in 2021. There is needfor the
data of OBC populationso that they can be given ben-efits of
development.. Manydelegations of OBCs have metme seeking such an
enumera-tion. The House can pass a res-olution seeking
caste-basedCensusto find out the OBCpopulation,” Patole said.
Deputy Chief Minister AjitPawar said the issue can be dis-cussed
in the BusinessAdvisory Committee (BAC)first and then taken up in
theBudget session beginning nextmonth.
Parliamentary AffairsMinister Anil Parab also saidthat only the
business finalisedby the BAC for the day be takenup by the
House.
Leader of OppositionDevendra Fadnavis of the BJPsaid the
opposition would sup-port such resolution whenev-er it was taken
up.
At this point, Patole sug-gested that the caste-basedCensus
issue be taken atWednesday’s one-day special
session itself as postponingthe issue to the Budget Sessionwould
be too late.
Food and Civil SuppliesMinister Chhagan Bhujbal ofNCP agreed
with the chair andsaid the demand for a
caste-based Census was longpending.
After the Speaker read outthe resolution, the Assembly —which
has total 288 members— adopted the resolution by avoice vote.
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Maharashtra GovernorBhagat Singh Koshyarisaid on Wednesday that
theMaha Vikas Aghadi (MVA)Government was giving finaltouches to a
relief package forfarmers whose short-termcrop loan arrears
exceeding � 2 lakh.
Addressing a joint ses-sion of the MaharashtraAssembly and
Council, theGovernor said that in an effortt oencourage the farmers
whowere repaying their crop loanson time, the State Governmentwould
announce new measures shortly.
The Governor’s statementcame less than a month afterChief
Minister UddhavThackeray announced anunconditional waiver of
loansup to � 2 lakh each forfarmers.
As per the “MahatmaJyotirao Phule Farmer LoanWaiver Scheme”
announcedby the CM, farmers whoseloan is up to Rs two lakh
takenbetween April 1, 2015, andMarch 31, 2019,and whichhas not been
repaid till September 30, 2019, will be eligible for thewaiver.
Koshyari said the loanwaiver scheme covered theoutstanding crop
loan amountupto � two lakh, whichincludes the principal amountand
the interest, as onSeptember 30, 2019.
“The scheme covers short-termcrop loan and restruc-tured
short-term croploanavailed during the periodfrom April1, 2015 to
March31,2019. My Government willimplement this schemein atime-bound
manner,” theGovernor said.
The Government wouldalso announce welfareschemes targetting
rural aswell as urban populations.“The people from variouswalks of
life will be benefitted,”he said.
Alluding to safety ofwomen, the Governor saidthat his Government
was committed to implement var-ious security measuresfor the
protection ofwomen.
“Prompt and stern actionwill betaken in respect ofoffences
against women, andappropriate amendments willbe made in the laws
for thatpurpose,” he said.
Paying homage to themartyrs of the ‘Sanyukta (unit-ed)
Maharashtra’ movement,the governor underlined thatthe year 2020
marks 60 yearsof formation of MaharashtraState. “During the last
60years, Maharashtra made aremarkable progress in thefields of
agriculture, industry,information technology, arts,sports, music,
education andother fields of life. TheGovernment will organise
var-ious programmes to celebratethese achievements,” theGovernor
said.
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The previous decade was notewor-thy for a number of reasons,
notleast of which was the sharp risein the number of Internet users
—more than a billion people fromacross the world joined the new
Internetbandwagon in the last six years alone. Thishas had massive
cultural implications,requiring the revision of legal, economic
andtechnological frameworks. IntellectualProperty (IP) frameworks
have receivedmuch importance in this era, especiallybecause they
can impact areas beyond IP. Forinstance, copyright laws can have
implica-tions beyond the digital content ecosystemand can extend to
an array of areas such asfree speech, the flow and availability of
infor-mation and the manner in which culturalproducts such as art,
music, film and the likeare produced and exchanged.
Such cultural products in the creativeindustry play an important
role in a coun-try’s economy. For instance, the Indian cre-ative
industry (largely comprising the mediaand entertainment industry)
is poised to beworth $31 billion by 2020 and is expectedto create
over a million jobs by 2022.However, this industry has repeatedly
high-lighted copyright piracy as a major issue thateats into its
profits significantly. While thisis an issue that has practically
been aroundsince the beginning of the copyright frame-work,
technological advancements havemeant that it is now possible to
make per-fect replicas at a scale almost instantaneous-ly and with
much easier access.
One of the first steps to tackle piracy isto understand its
underpinnings and toassess the factors that contribute to it. A
fewstudies in this regard have been there in Indiaand they indicate
that piracy is influencedby several factors — ranging from
person-ality-based to social and cultural. However,the overall lack
of information about vari-ous aspects of this issue is a problem.
Thereis no recent academic literature on the dri-vers of piracy and
more importantly, thereis a lack of reliable data on the total size
ofthe cultural economy in our country.
This lack of information complicates pol-icy and law-making in
this area. While thestandard legislative response has been to
usestringent penalties for copyright infringementwithout accounting
for differences in the kindsof infringement and infringers, this
approachhas had limited success. Then there are alsoother
challenges that relate to tackling digi-tal piracy. We have an
overburdened judicialsystem, disparate enforcement mechanisms,a
fragmentate supply chain and more gener-ally, the absence of a
widespread understand-ing of “copyright.” Additionally, since “law
andorder” is a State subject under theConstitution, enforcement
relies on respec-tive police forces, making it difficult
toimplement centralised and uniform enforce-ment strategies.
Other measures that have been effectivein controlling piracy
include a reduction in
the “windowing period”between releases abroad and inIndia. This
means lesser thetime taken for a new release tobe made accessible
throughlegal platforms, the more likelyis it that users will
consume suchcontent through legal means.
This can be effective whensuch content is easily availableon
various over-the-top (OTT)platforms for content that ishighly
anticipated. Anotherdevelopment that has beeninstrumental in
reducing pira-cy rates has been the introduc-tion of online
streaming services,making legal content easily avail-able at a
reasonable price.However, the effect of the starkincrease in the
number ofstreaming services, all with theirown catalogues and
separatepricing plans, is yet to be seen.
Nevertheless, other techno-logical measures can be usefulin this
regard. For instance, var-ious forms of water-markingtechniques
have been used toidentify the source of piratedcontent,
fingerprinting andrelated technologies have beenused by platforms
such asYouTube and Facebook, whichhost user-generated content,
tocombat infringement by helpingto identify and block the
illegaluse of copyrighted content.
More recently, blockchaintechnology is also beginning tobe
explored as a means to com-bat infringement, both as away to
establish a chain of con-tact for content and to exposepiracy
through the use ofBitcoin rewards to incentivise
the detection of pirated content.While these methods have
vary-ing rates of success in combat-ing infringement, upgrades
andinnovations in technology, espe-cially those that combine
vari-ous existing methods, can beexpected to make them moreviable
in the future.
The use of soft-lawapproaches along with public-private
partnerships have alsobeen effective in targetting pira-cy,
especially where they targetrevenue models of thoseindulging in
large-scale piracy.For instance, infringing websitelists, which
identify websites thathost pirated content, have beenused to reduce
advertising, there-by disrupting revenues. Suchlists are usually
prepared by lawenforcement or other arms of theGovernment in
partnership withthe private sector. For instance,the UK’s Police
IntellectualProperty Crime Unit partnerswith experts, companies and
lawenforcement agencies in othercountries to counter crime on
aninternational scale. It compiled anIWL as part of its
“OperationCreative” initiative, which helpedreduce advertising on
illegalwebsites.
More localised and country-specific lists are also being usedto
target the revenue of websiteshosting pirated content. In India,the
Maharashtra Cyber DigitalCrime Unit, which is a part ofthe State’s
cyber police force,works on a model that relies oncollaboration
with the privatesector. It has taken down hun-dreds of websites
that host pirat-
ed content and has sent noticesto different brands and
networksadvertising on such websites.
Piracy is, therefore, a com-plex issue with numerous driversand
needs to be addressedthrough multiple strategies tar-getting
different areas of theecosystem. In this context, areport by the
Esya Centre titled,Trends in Copyright Infringementand Enforcement
in India,explores the issue of copyrightpiracy and the challenges
ineffectively countering it. It exam-ines legislative, judicial,
policyand technological best prac-tices both from India and
inter-nationally to inform next stepsin this regard.
What is clear is that in fram-ing responses to piracy that
areeffective and time-sensitive, it isessential to have in place
judi-cial safeguards to ensure that allinterventions are narrowly
tai-lored and aimed only at address-ing piracy. This because of
theimpact that these laws can haveon issues of free speech
andaccess and because it is impor-tant to also account for fair
deal-ing exceptions provided forunder copyright law.
Ultimately,copyright forms a part of larg-er goals of increasing
innova-tion, promoting research,progress in the arts and
sciencesand providing fair wages to cre-ators of various kinds,
amongothers. It is essential to situatecopyright in that larger
contextand tailor remedies for infringe-ment within those
bounds.
(The writer is a junior fellowat the Esya Centre)
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