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Archives for July 2018

Lorry operators begin nationwide undetermined strike

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The undetermined strike by the lorry operators affiliated to the All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) across the country to highlight removal of toll plazas on the national highways and other charters of demands commenced in the state on Friday.

The indefinite strike was to press the demands of reducing fuel price and for a uniform national pricing with quarterly revision, transparency and reduction in third party insurance premium.

Abolition of tax deduction at sources, rationalization of presumptive income under Sections 44 AE of Income Tax Act were the other demands. The AIMTC also demanded the government to address the E-Way Bill operational issues, abolish direct port delivery scheme and streamline port congestion.

Three lakh lorries off the roads
C. Dhanaraj, secretary, Tamil Nadu Lorry Owners Federation, one of the constituents of the AIMTC, told The Hindu that the association accounted for 4.60 lakh lorries, of which three lakh lorries were already off the road from Friday.

About 1.5 lakh lorries have carried loads of onion, dhal and other perishable items to north Indian states and they too were returning back to Tamil Nadu.

Mr. Dhanaraj said that in Salem district alone, about 40,000 lorries were off the road and this has affected the transportation of vegetables, fruits, textiles, sago.

Mr. Dhanaraj said that despite the discussion the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari, had with the office-bearers of the AIMTC on the removal of toll plazas on Thursday, no compromise could be reached on the issue.

The lorry operators are firm on continuing the strike till all their just demands were conceded by the Centre, Mr. Dhanaraj said.

The lorry booking agents who have expressed their support to the strike call suspended the booking of consignments since July 15. According to P. Rajavadivel, president of the Tamil Nadu Booking Agents Association, due to this about 15,000 lorries which used to carry the loads to other states daily, were not being operated from Friday.

Due to the commencement of the strike, all the major lorry sheds in Salem and Namakkal districts were overflowing with the vehicles. The grounded lorries have also occupied all the space available in the lorry bays on national highways and in the fuel retail outlets. [Read more…]

DCM tells to increase women’s safety to police patrolling in plainclothes.

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Karnataka deputy chief minister (DCM), Dr G Parameshwar, has instructed senior police officers to increase the number of police personnel in plainclothes on patrol duty to bring down cases of atrocities over women in the state. He issued this instruction during the second meeting about app-based taxi services, which was held at his office on Thursday, July 19.

Parameshwar noted that ensuring the safety of women who use app-based taxi services is very important and that it should be ensured that atrocities on women never happen when using these services. He asked the police to hold discussions with the concerns operating such services and take suitable steps to improve safety aspects relating to women.

The DCM noted that although there have been a number of laws and programmes aimed at handling atrocities on women, there is lack of proper knowledge about them among the people. He, therefore, asked the officials to see that knowledge about the laws governing women’s safety, programmes and information about the helpline effectively reach the populace through advertisements. Noting that there are enough grants under Nirbhaya scheme, he asked the police to use this grant to buy 5,000 CCTV cameras, a thousand two-wheelers, as well as jeeps and deploy additional police in plain clothes for patrolling during nights to keep an eye on such activities.

Parameshwara also held discussions with a delegation from Bavaria, a federal state in Germany, which has offered to train Belagavi police during November this year. Similar training had been imparted for Mysuru police earlier. He wanted the delegation to come up with ideas to increase the number of police stations and also the percentage of women personnel in the police force.

Fake mark sheet, degree gang busted in UP

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Police here have busted a gang which used to provide fake mark sheets of class 10, 12, B.A, B.Tech, Pharmacy and MBA, officials said on Friday.

Five persons, including a former secretary of the National Students Union of India (NSUI) — the youth wing of Congress, have been arrested in this connection, police said.

A police officer said the gang used to provide fake mark sheets, diplomas and other degrees for students for varsities spread over Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

One laptop, 133 degrees, five mobile phones, a sports utility vehicle (SUV) and two colour printers have also been seized from the gang members, who have been sent to jail after interrogation.

They have been identified as Uma Shankar, Ajay, Anil Kumar, Rajesh and Salman. Most of them are from the National Capital Region (NCR).

WhatsApp to limit message forwarding to 5 chats in India

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As the government served WhatsApp with a second notice asking it to check the spread of fake and provocative content, the Facebook-owned platform on Friday said it is launching a test to limit forwarding that will apply to everyone in India.

“In India where people forward more messages, photos, and videos than any other country in the world, we’ll also test a lower limit of 5 chats at once.

“We will also remove the quick forward button next to media messages,” WhatsApp said in a blog post.

In its second notice, the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) on Thursday said WhatsApp has been requested to come out with more effective solutions that can bring in accountability and facilitate enforcement of the law in addition to their efforts towards labeling forwards and identifying fake news.

“It has been conveyed to them in unmistakable terms that it is a very serious issue which deserves a more sensitive response,” MeitY said.

WhatsApp said that with new changes, which it will continue to evaluate, “will help keep WhatsApp the way it was designed to be: a private messaging app”.

“We are deeply committed to your safety and privacy which is why WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted, and we’ll continue to improve our app with features like this one,” it added.

In its first reply, WhatsApp wrote to the IT Ministry, saying the company is horrified by terrible acts of violence.

The IT Ministry had asked WhatsApp to ensure that the platform is not used for malafide activities over the growing instances of a lynching of innocent people owing to a large number of irresponsible messages filled with rumours.

WhatsApp, which has over 200 million monthly active users in India, listed several measures it is taking — including labeling Forwarding messages — to control the spread of misinformation and abuse on its platform.

Several people have lost their lives in the past one year by lynch mobs after rumours of child lifting triggered via messages on WhatsApp.

Of a friend, girlfriend and the storm

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Flick through a crime thriller that explores how a woman’s blind trust in her friend leads to the tragic accident of her son; read the story of a woman, perfect as a girlfriend, trying to get a guy back into her life; skim through a complex tale, featuring many ways in which families love, betray, honour and sacrifice for one another; and know how women can identify self-defeating behaviour that holds them back.

The IANS bookshelf has all this on offer this weekend.

1. Book: The Friend; Author: Teresa Driscoll; Publisher: Thomas and Mercer/Westland; Pages: 292; Price: Rs 399
On a train with her husband, miles from home and their four-year-old son, Ben, Sophie receives a phone call. Two boys are in hospital after a tragic accident. One of them is Ben.

She thought she could trust Emma, her new friend, to look after her little boy. After all, Emma is a kindred spirit, someone Sophie was sure she could bare her soul to, despite the village rumours. But Sophie can’t shake the feeling that she has made an unforgivable mistake and now her whole family is in danger.

Because how well does she know Emma, really? Should she have trusted her at all? Time is running out. Powerless to help her child, still hours from home, Sophie is about to discover the truth. And her life will never be the same.

Author Teresa Driscoll is a former BBC TV news presenter. Having covered crime for long, she was deeply moved by the haunting impact on relatives, friends and witnesses and it is those ripples, she explores now in dark fiction.

2. Book: The Perfect Girlfriend; Author: Karen Hamilton; Publisher: Wildfire Books/Hachette India; Pages: 358; Price: Rs 399
Juliette loves Nate. She will follow him anywhere. She has even become a flight attendant for his airline, so she can keep a closer eye on him. They are meant to be.

The fact that Nate broke up with her six months ago means nothing. Because Juliette has a plan to get him back. She is the perfect girlfriend. And she’ll make sure no one stops her from getting exactly what she wants. True love hurts, but Juliette knows it’s worth all the pain. Read this book to know where her qualities eventually land her.

The author is a recent graduate of the Faber Academy and, having now put down roots in Hampshire to raise her young family with her husband, she satisfies her wanderlust by exploring the world through her writing. “The Perfect Girlfriend” is her first novel.

3. Book: The Storm; Author: Arif Anwar; Publisher: Aleph; Pages: 348; Price: Rs 599
Shahryar, a recent PhD graduate and father of nine-year-old Anna, must leave the US when his visa expires. In their last remaining weeks together, we learn Shahryar’s history, in a village on the Bay of Bengal, where a poor fisherman and his wife are preparing to face a storm of historic proportions.

That story intersects with those of a Japanese pilot, a British doctor stationed in Burma during World War II, and a privileged couple in Calcutta who leave everything behind to move to East Pakistan following the partition.

Inspired by the 1970 Bhola cyclone, in which half a million-people perished overnight, the structure of this novel mimics the storm itself. Building up to a series of revelatory and moving climaxes, it shows the many ways in which families love, betray, honour and sacrifice for one another.

4. Book: How Women Rise; Author: Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith; Publisher: Penguin; Pages: 242; Price: Rs 494
Do you hesitate about putting forward ideas? Are you reluctant to claim credit for your achievements? Do you find it difficult to get the support you need from your boss or the recognition you deserve from your colleagues? If your answer to any of these is “Yes”, then “How Women Rise” will help get you back on track. Inspiring and practical by turns, it identifies 12 common habits that can prove an obstacle to future success and tells you how to overcome them.

In the process, it points the way to a career that will satisfy your ambitions and help you make the difference you want to make in the world.

How women rise is a great read for any woman who wants to identify self-defeating behaviours that are holding her back, gain insight into why she engages in those behaviours and develop skills to confidently achieve her goals.

Myanmar joins International Solar Alliance

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Myanmar on Thursday joined the India-initiated International Solar Alliance (ISA), becoming the 68th member of the grouping that is aiming at the optimum utilization of solar energy.

Myanmar Minister for International Cooperation Kyaw Tin handed over the ISA Framework Agreement to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj during a bilateral meeting here on the margins of this year’s Delhi Dialogue, the premier annual track 1.5 event to discuss politico-security, economic and socio-cultural engagement between India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc.

“Myanmar became the 68th signatory to the Framework Agreement of the International Solar Alliance,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted following the meeting.

Launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then French President Francois Hollande at the Paris climate summit in 2015, the ISA was conceived as a coalition of solar resource-rich countries to address their special energy needs and provide a platform to collaborate on dealing with the identified gaps through a common, agreed approach.

It is open to all 121 prospective member countries falling between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.

Kumar also said that the two sides also exchanged views on cementing bilateral cooperation.

India is a key development aid partner for Myanmar and is implementing a number of infrastructure projects in that country.

These include the Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project connecting Mizoram with Sittwe port in Myanmar, the Trilateral Highway Project connecting India with Myanmar and Thailand and the Rhi-Tiddim road.

India is also offering economic and humanitarian aid to its eastern neighbor’s Rakhine State in the wake of the Rohingya refugee crisis.

India, Singapore discuss strengthening bilateral ties

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India and Singapore on Thursday discussed ways to strengthen bilateral ties during a meeting between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Singaporean counterpartVivian Balakrishnan here.

“Strengthening bilateral cooperation was the focus of discussion,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted following the meeting that was held on the sidelines of this year’s Delhi Dialogue, the premier annual track 1.5 event to discuss politico-security, economic and socio-cultural engagement between India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) bloc.

Singapore is currently the chair of Asean, which comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

India-Singapore ties were elevated to that of a Strategic Partnership during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to that Southeast Asian city state in 2015.

There are five areas of cooperation to enhance bilateral relations – referred to as the 5S Plank – which direct the relationship: scaling up trade and investment; speeding up connectivity; smart cities and urban rejuvenation; skill development; and state focus.

Singapore is India’s second largest trading partner in Southeast Asia.

After the two sides signed the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement in 2005, bilateral trade touched $16.7 billion in 2016-17.

Chidambaram victim of Modi government’s vendetta: Congress

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As the CBI on Thursday filed a charge-sheet against former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and his son Karti in the Aircel-Maxis case, the Congress said the senior party leader is “a victim of vendetta” of the Narendra Modi government.

“The kind of vendetta that Modi government unleashes every day is extremely unfortunate and one of the victims of that vendetta has been former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram,” said Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala.

“Modiji is blind in his rage against Congress leadership,” he added.

Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma said the government is misusing its power and authority as well as the agencies.

“This is the first time that we are seeing this thing happening in the country. There are multiple agencies registering the case for the same alleged offense.

“The CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) registers one case, then there is constant harassment, interrogation, bail, then the ED (Enforcement Directorate) comes with the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002) method and then the Revenue Intelligence moves in,” said Sharma.

EC dismisses Congress allegation of irregularities in MP electoral roll

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The Election Commission has dismissed the allegations made by Congress about large-scale entries of “invalid and false” voters in the electoral roll of Madhya Pradesh as “unsubstantiated”.

In a communication to the party to Monday, the EC said: “In view of the reports of the extensive door-to-door field verifications and facts.. your allegations of large-scale duplicate, repeat, invalid, and false electors in the electoral roll are not substantiated.”

The Congress had alleged large-scale irregularities in the state electoral roll in a complaint on June 3.

“The Commission immediately sent teams of officials to four assembly constituencies namely, Narela, Bhojpur, Hoshangabad and Seoni-Malwa ACs to enquire into the allegations made in your complaint,” said the EC in its letter.

“With regard to the allegation of abnormal increase of electors against population, there is an increase in electors from 3,68,48,021 in 2008 to 4,60,29,289 in 2013 and from 4,60,29,289 in 2013 to 4,97,97,657 as on July 2, 2018 i.e. an increase of 37,68,368 (8.1 per cent).

“This increase has been progressive on annual basis and is reasonable in view of the awareness among the electorates as well as various SVEEP measures adopted by the commission. This resulted in enrolment of a large number of first-time electors as well as left out electors,” it added.

The EC stated that the officials physically verified 26,76,231 electors in the 91 assembly constituencies in the state.

It said 22,918,10 voters were found to be present, while 3,307,11 voters were either deleted already or not found enrolled in the respective constituencies.

In 31,059 cases, the electors were found absent and 12,987 electors were found dead, EC stated.

“Only names of 9,644 electors were found in the repeated entry category against which appropriate action has already been initiated.”

Goa bans sale of alcohol in border village

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The Goa government on Thursday banned the sale of liquor in North Goa’s Surla village for 30 days to curb the nuisance caused by tourists.

Issued by North Goa Collector Levinson Martins, the order shuts down about a dozen liquor bars and restaurants serving liquor, liquor shops, pubs, provision stores, etc in Surla, located on the Goa-Karnataka border, around 60 km from here.

The prohibitive order is aimed at curbing the “menace, annoyance and nuisance created by tourists who primarily visit the place for drinking alcoholic beverages”.

“Particularly to ensure total protection to the vulnerable inhabitants of the village, i.e. children and women who are presently living under the possible threat of being targetted by the unruly behavior of drunken youth tourists visiting the village,” the order said.

Surla has a tiny population of around 500 residents, but its location along the border of Karnataka attracts a large number of tourists who want to enjoy the splendour of the Western Ghats in the rains when numerous waterfalls sprout, and also to buy alcohol, which is available at cheaper rates, thanks to Goa’s low tax regime on alcohol.

Over the years several drownings, as well as law and order-related incidents, have occurred in the forested areas near Surla, where tourists have either drowned or engaged in drunken brawls.

In a signed resolution addressed to Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar earlier this month, dozens of local residents, as well as students, listed the fallouts of alcohol abuse by tourists in their village.

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