12 JAMMU Q THURSDAY Q AUGUST 13, 2020 B A C K P A G E CMYK Owner/Printed/Publisher by: Sahil Mahajan and Published from 13-B/C, Gandhi Nagar Jammu Pin: 180004 and Printed from The Himalayan Mail Printing Press, Jeevan Nagar/Deeli, Jammu Editor:- Harinder Mahajan Phone: 0191-7968906, Fax: 0191-7968906, Phone Marketing: 0191 -7968906, 94191-19286, E-mail : [email protected] www.himalayanmail.com The Himalayan Mail MUMBAI: Majeed Memon, a former Rajya Sabha (RS) member of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), triggered a row on Wednesday, when he said that the later actor Sushant Singh Rajput found more fame after his death by sui- cide than while he was alive. He said Rajput is grab- bing the headlines more than, perhaps, Prime Min- ister Narendra Modi or US President Donald Trump. The NCP quickly dis- tanced itself from Memon’s statement and said it was his personal opinion. The party did not support the statement. Memon also clarified that his statement should not be misinterpreted, as he, too, sought justice for the late and popular actor. “Rajput was not as fa- mous during his lifetime as he is after his death. The space in the media he is oc- cupying nowadays is, per- haps, more than our PM or President of US!” Memon said in a series of tweets on Wednesday afternoon. “When a crime is at an in- vestigation stage, secrecy has to be maintained. Publi- cising every development in the process of collecting vital evidence adversely affects the interest of truth and jus- tice,” he further tweeted, while criticising a section of media for their dispropor- tionate coverage of Rajput’s death. “The statement made by Majeed Memon on Twitter is his personal opinion and not of the NCP. Our party does not endorse or support his statement in any form or manner. He is not a spokesperson of the NCP, which must be noted by all,” said Nawab Malik, spokesperson, NCP, and the minister for minority af- fairs minister, Maharash- tra. “There is so much noise on my tweet on Rajput. Does it mean that Rajput was not popular during his lifetime or that he should not get justice? Certainly not. Misinterpretation should be avoided. The tweet does not in any way insults or belittle him,” the ex-RS member clarified through another tweet. Central Bureau of Inves- tigation (CBI) is probing the death of Rajput, who was found dead at his Bandra apartment on June 14. Sushant was not as famous during his lifetime as after death: Majeed Memon NEW DELHI:Two days after the Congress high command brokered peace between Sachin Pi- lot and Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot, the party’s leader in the Lok Sabha, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said Wednes- day that the horse-trading politics of BJP has been de- feated. “Rajasthan episode has destroyed the myth that BJP and its theatrics cannot be beaten. Horse-trading politics of BJP has been de- feated,” PTI quoted Chowd- hury as saying.For over a month, Gehlot had consis- tently accused the opposi- tion BJP of horse-trading in an attempt to bring down his government. The Congress has put up a united front after Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra ensured that differences between Pilot and Gehlot did not worsen. On Wednesday, Gehlot extended an olive branch to Pilot saying that those who had gone away from the party are finally back and that he hoped to work to- gether for the benefit of the state although it was natural for MLAs to be upset at the chain of events over the past month. Pilot, who returned to Jaipur on Tuesday, said he has not demanded any post from the party but under- lined that there should be no vendetta against MLAs who supported him on a range of issues. The patch up has boosted the ruling Con- gress party ahead of an As- sembly session on August 14. BJP’s horse-trading politics defeated in Rajasthan, says Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury NEW DELHI:The empty coffers and clamour from devotees and employ- ees has forced major shrine boards in Kerala to open doors of temples shut since the lockdown in March. The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), which runs 1000-odd temples in south Kerala, has decided to open all shrines under its control from August 17, Malayalam New Year Day, except Sabarimala hill temple. The TDB feels that if Sabarimala temple is opened there will be a steady stream of devotees from neighbouring states and it will affect the ongoing Covid-19 control measures so it deferred its decision on the hill temple. Earlier it planned ‘darshan’ for devo- tees who made online book- ing after furnishing Covid- free certificates, but excess enquiries forced the TDB to defer it for now. “We are planning to open all temples with ‘Ganapati Homam’ (special offering for Lord Ganapati) on Au- gust 17. The special offering will mark the auspicious oc- casion. There will be a strict tab on devotees and entry will be restricted under Covid protocol,” said TDB president N Vasu, request- ing elders and children be- low 10 years to wait for some more time. He said there is an estimated loss of Rs 400 crore due to closure of temples in the last five months. Though the Union Gov- ernment had eased restric- tions on religious places in May, many temples, churches and mosques de- ferred opening in view of big spurt in virus cases in June first week. Some churches and mosques were opened on special oc- casions but temples re- mained closed. After lockdown drained its coffers badly, many tem- ple bodies took the e-route to bolster their financial health but virtual offerings failed to catch up with devo- tees, statistics show. Rev- enue of Sabarimala was used to fund smaller tem- ples in south Kerala and for salaries of 3,500-odd em- ployees of the TDB. But af- ter Sabarimala’s closure, many temple employees were forced to suffer salary cuts. In another major shrine, Sree Krishna temple in Gu- ruvayur, the hundi (dona- tion box) collection every month was anywhere be- tween Rs 4 crore and five crore. Besides currency, it often used to get gold, silver and at times diamond and daily poojas also con- tributed enough money to coffers. Despite big public- ity to online offerings, it failed to attract devotees. “With devotees’ return, we hope our financial position will improve,” said a senior temple official. The church, which runs many educational institu- tions, hospitals, and other establishments, also suf- fered. Most of the institu- tions are directly linked to chapels and are finding it difficult to maintain upkeep costs and salaries of the people engaged. After the lockdown, the government had halted admissions and interviews in educational institutions. They also in- troduced virtual offerings to tide over the crunch situa- tion but failed to attract be- lievers. Now some churches and mosques are function- Kerala shrines under Devaswom Board to open next week; Sabarimala stays shut NEW DELHI:Working towards better solid waste management, the Uttarak- hand government has now started working on the process of generating elec- tricity from solid waste in the state. Madan Kaushik, minis- ter for urban development in the state has asked offi- cials to make a detailed plan regarding the setting up of six plants where elec- tricity can be generated from solid waste in the state. These plants will be set up in Roorkee, Rudra- pur, Kashipur, Haldwani, Rishikesh and Kotdwar. “A biogas plant should be set up with the help of the Indian Oil Corporation in Haridwar and a waste-to- energy plant in Roorkee. An action plan should be prepared for the upcoming plants in Haldwani, Ka- shipur, Rishikesh, Rudra- pur and Kotdwar. Along with making the action plan, monitoring should be done in all the municipal bodies for proper waste segregation, making com- post, and other activities for proper solid waste management,” said the minister. He further said that ur- ban local bodies should sell waste to concerned depart- ments after segregation. “After the segregation of waste, urban local bodies should get income by sell- ing material to the Agricul- ture Department and Hor- ticulture Department for making compost. The money received by the 14th Finance Commission will be spent in Solid Waste Management until 100% door-to-door collection and source segmentation is done,” said Kaushik. As per the records of the pollution control board, around 300 megawatts of electricity can be generated from the waste generated in the state. According to the latest State of Environment Re- port released by Uttarak- hand Environment Protec- tion and Pollution Control Board, “It is estimated that about 900 metric tonnes/day solid waste is being generated from the urban local bodies in Ut- tarakhand. Currently, two waste management plants are working in Haridwar (Sarai) out of which about 50% of waste is being lifted and dumped at unidenti- fied locations.” Uttarakhand starts process of setting up 6 plants for generating electricity from solid waste NEW DELHI:The In- dian Air Force (IAF) has ob- jected to the portrayal of its work culture in Dharma Production’s soon to be re- leased movie Gunjan Sax- ena…The Kargil Girl. In its letter to Dharma Production, Netflix and the Central Board of Film Cer- tification (CBFC), IAF said certain scenes and dia- logues in the movie and trailer, which were for- warded to it for viewing, were found to “portray the IAF in an undue negative light”. According to an initial un- derstanding, Dharma Pro- duction had agreed to rep- resent IAF with authenticity and make all efforts to en- sure the film helps to in- spire the next generation of IAF officers. The movie’s trailer was released recently on the over the top (OTT) plat- form, IAF said in its letter. IAF said according to its in- formation, the movie is be- ing released on Wednesday. “In the aim to glorify the screen character of ‘Ex-Flt Lt Gunjan Saxena’, M/s Dharma Productions pre- sented some situations that are misleading and portray an inappropriate work cul- ture, especially against women in the IAF,” the let- ter said. It added IAF as a service has always ensured the or- ganisation is gender neutral and provided equal oppor- tunities to male and women personnel. IAF has also provided a summary of scenes and di- alogues that it considers ob- jectionable and an incorrect presentation of the gender bias. The letter said the pro- duction house was in- formed about the objection- able portions of the movie and advised to delete or modify these. “However, the produc- tion house has not deleted the scenes but had pro- posed a media plan in the run up to the release and in- serting a disclaimer in the movie,” the letter said, adding IAF considers these measures inadequate. CBFC does not regulate OTT platforms such as Net- flix even though the infor- mation and broadcasting ministry is working to pre- pare a regulatory frame- work for them. The Centre has been looking at self-reg- ulatory mechanisms for these platforms. Last month, the defence ministry wrote a letter to CBFC, Mumbai, drawing attention to producers of movies and web series dis- torting the image of the In- dian Army and said they should obtain a no-objec- tion certificate from the ministry before airing their movies or shows. The headcount of women in the armed forces is up- wards of 3,300, including 1,300 in IAF, but combat roles were off limits to them until IAF took the lead in crushing internal resistance to grant them equal oppor- tunities in 2015, when they became eligible for the fighter stream. Warships, tanks and combat positions in in- fantry are still no-go zones for women, who were al- lowed to join the armed forces outside the medical stream for the first time in 1992. The army is currently in the process of granting per- manent commission to short service commissioned women following a Supreme Court verdict. In February, the Supreme Court ruled women should be considered for command roles and all women officers are entitled to permanent commission. It asked the army to give them perma- nent commission within three months in a major boost to gender parity. IAF objects to ‘negative portrayal’ of work culture in Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl NEW DELHI:Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Te- jashwi Yadav on Wednes- day slammed chief minister Nitish Kumar over the col- lapse of the approach path to the newly inaugurated Bangra Ghat Mahasetu bridge in Gopalganj. The collapse occurred earlier in the day as flow from Saran Dam increased following the damage to the dam. Yadav’s acerbic remarks came as CM Nitish Kumar had inaugurated the bridge in Gopalganj through video conferencing earlier in the day. Yadav said that the chief minister is in haste to inaugurate projects. “On one hand, the CM was inaugurating Bangra Ghat Mahasetu in Gopal- ganj, on the other hand, the approach path to the bridge collapsed. Same path had collapsed 12 days ago also. The CM is in a haste to inau- gurate new projects, what if lives were lost in this col- lapse?” Yadav said. This comes a month after Bihar opposition leaders took a dig at CM Kumar after a newly inaugurated bridge, constructed at the cost Rs 263.47 crore, collapsed within a month of its open- ing. A portion of Sattarghat Bridge on Gandak River, that was inaugurated by CM Nitish Kumar in June in Gopalganj, collapsed last month after water flow in- creased in the river due to heavy rainfall. ‘In haste to launch new projects’: Tejashwi Yadav’s dig at CM over another bridge fiasco NEW DELHI:The Na- tional Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Jagdalpur has declined to hand over the FIR lodged by a Congress leader in Bastar seeking a probe in the alleged conspiracy behind the Jheeram Valley attack to the NIA, for which the agency had moved an application in June. The court ruled that the case will be investigated by the state police. However, NIA’s counsel said that the agency will move the state high court challenging the or- der of Jagdalpur sessions court. Twenty-seven people, in- cluding senior Congress lead- ers Nand Kumar Patel, Ma- hendra Karma, Dinesh Patel and VC Shukla were killed al- legedly in an attack by a group of 150 Maoists in 2013. On May 26, 2013, the NIA regis- tered a case on this attack and started investigations. Recently, on May 25, 2020, Jitendra Mudaliyar, son of Congress leader Uday Mu- daliyar, who was also killed in Darbha Valley attack (also re- ferred to as the Jheeram Val- ley attack), registered an FIR in Bastar district with regard to the attack on the Congress convoy. The NIA moved an application on June 16 in Jag- dalpur NIA court seeking handing over of the case regis- tered by Mudaliyar to NIA for further investigation. “Bastar police presented its view point before the NIA court mentioning that this case is different from the 2013 case, because the new case would mainly investigate the conspiracy angle of the inci- dent. On 10th of August 2020, Jagdalpur NIA court rejected agency’s application for trans- ferring the Jheeram case (FIR registered in May 2020) to NIA for further investigation,” Inspector General of Police, Bastar Range, Sunderaj P told HT. On the other hand, NIA’s counsel said the agency will challenge the order in the state high court. “We have argued that as per the NIA Act and also the CrPC, there cannot be two FIRs for a single offence and it falls within NIA’s jurisdiction be- cause the agency is already in- vestigating the matter pertain- ing to the same offence,” said Kishore Bhaduri, NIA’s coun- sel talking to HT. Bhaduri also alleged that the NIA court had incorrectly re- lied solely on section 10 of the NIA act. “The order was made rely- ing on section 10 of NIA act to decline handing over of the file of FIR to NIA. The sessions court has omitted to consider the implications of section 6 and partially read the provi- sion under section 10 of the NIA act, which is always sub- ject to section 6. We will move to high court,” said Bhaduri.State unit of the Con- gress party has welcomed the court order.“We welcome the order of Jagdalpur court and secondly we want to know why the conspiracy angle should not be investigated? Why NIA doesn’t want the state police to investigate, which will un- fold the conspiracy behind the Darbha Valley killing,” said Congress spokesperson Shailesh Nitin Trivedi. Chhattisgarh court refuses to hand over Jheeram attack conspiracy case to NIA NEW DELHI:Senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said on Wednesday his comments about the re- lationship between Bolly- wood actor Sushant Singh Rajput and his family was based on the information he has, according to news agency ANI. A cousin of Rajput, who was found dead in his apartment in Mumbai’s Bandra in June, has sent a legal notice to Raut. Neeraj Singh Babloo, who is also Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader in Bihar, had demanded a public apology from Raut on Monday within 48 hours, failing which he said he will take legal action against him. “If there has been any kind of miss on our part, we will think about it. But I will have to look into it. What I have said so far is based on the information I have, Sushant’s family is speak- ing on the basis of informa- tion they have,” Sanjay Raut said, according to ANI. Raut had claimed in his weekly column in the Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamana’ that the actor didn’t share good relations with his father KK Singh. “I have received such information. How many times did Rajput visit his fa- ther in Patna in the last few years?” Raut, who is Saa- mana’s executive editor, asked. Raut also said Bihar’s di- rector general of police (DGP) Gupteshwar Pandey was working for a political party and alleged he tried to contest an election on a BJP ticket. “What can you ex- pect from such a police force?” he asked. Rajput’s maternal uncle, RC Singh, said an attempt is being made to divert the direction of the probe being conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Singh also said Ra- jput had a very good rela- tionship with his father and his father had not remar- ried as alleged by Raut. The 34-year-old was found dead in his home on June 14. The case was being investigated by the Mumbai Police but the Bihar Police launched a separate probe after the actor’s father filed a First Information Report (FIR) against his son’s girl- friend Rhea Chakraborty and others in Patna, alleg- ing abetment to suicide. Af- ter a turf war between the two police forces, the probe has now been taken over by the central agency. Will look into it: Sanjay Raut says over apology demanded by Sushant’s family NEW DELHI:Light to moderate showers were re- ported over the past 24 hours in Mumbai and its suburbs barring certain in- tense spells at isolated places. Santacruz and Colaba weather observatory, repre- sentative of the suburbs and Mumbai; and south Mum- bai, respectively, have re- ceived intermittent moder- ate rainfall between 8:30 am on Tuesday and Wednesday. Santacruz and Colaba weather stations reported 30.7 millimetres (mm) and 16.7 mm rainfall, respec- tively, which can be cate- gorised as moderate, ac- cording to India Meteorological Department (IMD) authorities’ classifi- cation. IMD considers rainfall between 15.6 and 64.4 mm as moderate. On Wednesday morning, negligible rainfall was recorded at both the weather stations, but iso- lated areas across the city recorded a downpour. The maximum rainfall was recorded in the north- western suburbs of Mumbai between 8:30 am and 12.30 pm. Dahisar recorded 19.5 mm rain, followed by Thane (18.7 mm), Borivali (15.6 mm), Goregaon (15.5 mm), Malad (15.4 mm), Bhayan- der (13 mm), Powai (10.2 mm), and Bandra (10.6 mm). IMD authorities have predicted that cloud cover with moderate rainfall would persist coupled with a possibility of a downpour over isolated areas. “More rain intensity has been reported towards the north-western suburbs of Mumbai over the past 24 hours. This trend is likely to continue. Radar and satellite images have indi- cated dense cloud cover over the north Konkan coast, which may lead to heavy showers in the Mumbai Metropolitan Re- gion (MMR), surrounding areas and the Western Ghats over the next 48 hours,” said KS Hosalikar, deputy director-general (D-G), western region, IMD. Across Maharashtra, the maximum rainfall was re- ported from Matheran (72.2 mm), followed by Mahabaleshwar (58.6 mm), Dahanu (43 mm), Thane (37 mm), and Mum- bai (30 mm). Mumbai suburbs have re- ceived 63% of excess rainfall between June 1 and Wednesday (August 12), while the corresponding fig- ure for south Mumbai is 70%. Maharashtra has recorded 8% of excess rain- fall at 713.1 during this pe- riod, as compared to a nor- mal of 657.3 mm. Light to moderate showers reported in past 24 hours in Mumbai, suburbs