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Archives for November 2018

French territory rejects independence

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Noumea (New Caledonia) Voters in the French Pacific territory here have rejected a bid for independence prompting President Emmanuel Macron to say that it showed “confidence in the French republic”.

“I have to tell you how proud I am that we have finally passed this historic step together,” Macron added.

Final results showed that 56.4 per cent chose to remain part of France while 43.6 per cent voted to leave — a tighter result than some polls had predicted.

Turnout was about 81 per cent in this island that is one of UN’s 17 “non-self governing territories” where the process of decolonisation has not been completed.

The vote was promised in a 1988 deal that put an end to a violent campaign for independence, the BBC reported.

Although the referendum passed peacefully but some unrest was reported post polls closed. Cars and a shop were set ablaze in the capital, Noumea, media reports said. The high commissioner’s office said some roads were closed by protesters.

New Caledonia has large deposits of nickel, a vital component in manufacturing electronics, and is seen by France as a strategic political and economic asset in the region.

(IANS)

Jammu-Srinagar highway shut after fresh landslides

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Jammu Landslides in Ramban district on the Jammu-Srinagar highway on Monday blocked the road that was restored for one-way traffic less than a day ago, a senior traffic department official said.

Landslides hit the Battery Chashma area earlier. “Traffic was restored from Jammmu to Srinagar last evening. Today it was scheduled to open for those travelling from Srinagar to Jammu,” he said.

It would harm the apple business as the untimely snowfall has caused damage to the orchards in the valley and majority of trucks moving from Srinagar to Jammu carry apples for sale in the terminal markets.

Delay in delivery due to the landslides was likely to cause huge losses to the Jammu and Kashmir Horticulture industry.

[IANS]

15 days after his ‘funeral’, Kerala man returns home to shocked family

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‘Dead’ man Saji told the police he left the house on September 3 over a quarrel with his neighbour and did not keep in touch with his family since.

On October 16, a family in Aadikolly, Wayanad, buried the decomposed body of their 48-year-old son at St Sebastian Church. However, 15 days later, on October 31, they received the shock of their life when their son Saji returned home after allegedly going missing for nearly 62 days. The body they had buried was not their flesh and blood.

On September 3, Saji, a labourer, left his home in Aadikolly in Pulpally and had been, reportedly, missing since then. The family, however, did not file a missing person complaint. On October 13, Beechanahalli police station in Karnataka contacted Pulpally police station, which is its border police station, informing them about a decomposed body of an unidentified person.

“A few weeks ago, Saji’s younger brother Jinesh was summoned to the Pulpally station in relation to a case,” Prajeesh, a Civil Police Officer at the station, said.

“While Jinesh was at the station, we received a call from Beechanahalli police station, enquiring if we had received any missing person complaint. We had no missing cases in our record then. Jinesh, who heard the conversation, told us that his elder brother had been missing for three weeks. He said he would like to see the body. We then alerted the Beechanahali police station. After completing the necessary formalities, he was let off on bail,” the CPO said.

Jinesh and Saji’s mother Philomena then reached Mananthavady hospital in Wayanad to identify the body. “The family claimed that Saji had an injury mark on his leg. The slippers, too, resembled the ones that he wore. Besides, Jinesh told us that Saji used to frequently travel to Karnataka,” the CPO added.

Once the family identified the body to be Saji’s, the Beechanahalli police handed over the body to the family. After post-mortem and other formalities, the decomposed body was buried on October 16 at the St Sebastian church, where Saji and his family are parishioners.

According to the police, Jinesh claims to have received Saji’s death certificate from Karnataka. On Wednesday evening, Saji, who was claimed to be dead, reached the station, along with the brother.

In his statement to the police, Saji said, “I left the house on September 3 over a quarrel with my neighbour. Since I do not have a phone, I was not in contact with my family and hence that led them to believe that I was dead. I was doing labour work in several parts of Kannur. I reached Aadikolly on October 31 by 4 pm.”

Since Saji could not be contacted directly, media contacted his brother. The latter, however, was evidently infuriated over the whole episode. “I am a busy man. My life does not revolve around Saji. I have incurred a huge monetary loss because of burying a wrong man,” he said.

The Pulpally police station has informed the Beechanahali police station, which would take the matter forward.

An office-bearer of St Sebastian church said the parish has not received any information on retrieving the body from the burial ground. “The police can take the body; we will not stop them,” he said.

A police official at Beechanahalli police station, meanwhile, said that the body has been cremated and not buried. “We have the photo of the decomposed body. We will send it to other police stations to see if there are any missing cases,” he said.

TNM

 

Karnataka High Court gets 5 new judges,

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The Karnataka High Court on Friday got five new judges, a development which has brought down the number of vacancies to 27. The five judicial officers named by President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday to be promoted as additional judges were Ashok G Nijagannanavar, HP Sandesh, K Natarajan, PG Mutalik Patil and AS Bellunke, who will be appointed as the new additional judges, according to a government notification.

Thursday’s announcement comes just three days after the Supreme Court dismissed a Public Interest Litigation to fill up the vacant position of judges at the Karnataka HC. The PIL, filed by Bengaluru-based advocate GR Mohan, stated that the vacancies were against Article 21 which guarantees access to justice.

In February, lawyers practising at the High Court had gone on a week-long hunger strike over the delay in appointment of judges. The strike was organised by Members of the Advocates Association Bengaluru and the Karnataka Bar Council. At that time, there were only 24 judges at the High Court against the sanctioned strength of 62.

Speaking to media then, senior lawyer DLN Rao had said, “Karnataka has the highest number of vacancies of judges. Judges are being overworked and cases are taking longer to dispense because of this. We have requested the Chief Minister and the Chief Justice of Karnataka several times over the last few years but no appointments have been made.”

He added, “This is the worst thing that could happen to a litigant. What is the purpose of justice if the case is not decided in your lifetime? There are so many undertrials languishing in prisons, thousands of bail applications and property dispute cases just piling up. This will lead to a breakdown of the law. Hence, we are left with no option but to protest.”

Karnataka HC lawyers go on week-long hunger strike over judicial vacancies

Karnataka HC over the past years has been in the news for having one of the worst ratios of working and the sanctioned number of judges. Even on October 1, the last comparative data available on the Union Law Ministry, Karnataka had one of the worst ratios.

According to those figures, Karnataka HC was worst functioning with 46% sanctioned strength of judges, the Allahabad HC which had the highest vacancies (71) had 55% of its sanctioned strength of judges. According to the same data, combining all vacancies in the HCs and the Supreme Court, 40% of the judges’ posts remain vacant.

 

TNM

Pushpa Amarnath appointed as president of Karnataka Mahila Congress

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The former Mysuru Zilla Panchayat president was also previously the General Secretary of State Women Congress Committee.

Dr Pushpa Amarnath, the former general secretary of the Karnataka State Women’s Congress Committee, was appointed as president of the Karnataka Mahila Congress, replacing Dr Lakshmi Hebbalkar, the All India Congress Committee announced on Friday.

“Hon’ble Congress President Shri Rahul Gandhi has approved the name of Dr. B. Pushpa Amarnath as President of Karnataka Mahila Congress,” stated the press release issued by the AICC.

Pushpa Amarnath is known for being outspoken against the GST levied on sanitary napkins and had started an online campaign to revoke the GST charges placed on the same in 2017. Her petition also called for the provision of free sanitary pads and tampons to women and girls living in families below the poverty line. The petition garnered more than 2,000 signatures.

She hails from Mysuru and was the former president of the Mysuru Zilla Panchayat. She is a relative of Hunsur MLA HP Manjunath. Other members of the AICC from the same region include former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Minister of Public Works Department Dr HC Mahadevappa, and MP R. Dhruvanarayan.

Former president Lakshmi Hebbalkar told media, “When I became the MLA for Belagavi Rural, I wrote to the party’s national president asking him to relieve me of my duties as the president of the Congress Mahila Morcha. I had served as its president for a total of three years and nine months, and wanted to concentrate on carrying out works in my constituency. The high command had asked me to submit suggestions for my successor and I had compiled a list of 15 names. Out of the 15, five names had been shortlisted a while back and the final decision was announced today.”

It was reported that Dakshina Kannada (DK) District Women’s Congress President Shalet Pinto, Pushpa Amarnath, and dentist Dr Nagalakshmi were the top contenders for the position, with Pushpa finally being named the president of the Karnataka Mahila Congress.

TNM

India aim to continue dominance over Windies in T20 series

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Sans the towering presence of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Rohit Sharma will lead an Indian team brimming with confidence against the West Indies in the first of the three T20 Internationals here at the Eden Gardens on Sunday.

Dhoni has been left out of India’s T20 squad for the home series against West Indies and, more significantly, India’s tour of Australia.

Although according to regular skipper Virat Kohli, who has also opted out of the series, Dhoni remains an integral part of India’s plans, it is widely believed that the 37-year old is being phased out owing to his poor run since the turn of the year.

Besides leading India to their maiden and only T20 World Cup triumph in 2007, Dhoni is also the most capped player in the shortest format, featuring in 93 of India’s 104 matches.

In 2018, Dhoni, who has also captained India to 50-over World Cup glory in 2011, managed only 245 runs at 27.22 in 17 matches.

The emergence of young wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant has added to the problem with the 21-year old claiming a place in the side in all the three formats.

Coming to the T20 games, India will start as favourites after cantering to a 3-1 ODI series win and two test victories prior to that.

The Windies are a different team when it comes to T20s, with the likes of Keiron Pollard, Andre Russell, skipper Carlos Brathwaite, Dareen Bravo and latest sensation Shimron Hetmyer in their ranks.

It is a different matter that the current world champions have not had a great year even in this format. The Windies have won only twice — the victory against ICC World XI included — in 2018, losing two games to Bangladesh in their last couple of encounters.

In Tests, they were no match to India with the rubbers ending in three days, and while there was some hope in the ODIs, the tourists crumbled sensationally in the last two matches after posting an impressive win in the third game.

The Indian team has been on a roll at home for quite some time and against a weakened Windies have looked invincible for most parts of the series.

Keeping in mind the World T20 in 2020, India have picked three uncapped players (Krunal Pandya, S Nadeem and Khaleel Ahmed) for this and the Australia series, aside from bringing back the likes of Shreyas Iyer and Washington Sundar to the squad.

The hosts would want skipper Rohit to lead from the front and continue his purple patch with the bat. The seasoned Mumbai batsman was the second highest scorer behind Kohli, scoring 389 runs at 129.66, that included two hundreds.

Besides, Eden is also a happy hunting ground for Rohit. The 31-year old has a world record score of 264 in ODIs here in 2014, a Test ton (177) and two IPL titles won on this ground. The classy opener also made his first-class debut at Eden and got his first IPL ton here.

The three matches will also give another opportunity to young pacer Khaleel Ahmed who drew a lot of praise from skipper Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri during the ODIs.

The tourists will depend on their famed T20 specialists who play in different leagues across the globe to come good.

While Darren Bravo is set to play for West Indies for the first time in two years, dashing all-rounder Pollard will don the national jersey for the first time in a year.

Hetmyer, 21, is also in superb form scoring 259 runs in the ODI series including the counter-attacking 106 in Guwahati.

Captain Brathwaite, who famously clubbed four consecutive sixes off Ben Stokes to win the World Cup here two years ago, will also be counted on as a match winner for the side missing the services of talisman Chris Gayle who declined selection. Mystery spinner Sunil Narine is also absent.

The Windies will also miss offie Ashley Nurse who picked up an injury during the ODIs and has been ruled out. The Eden track promises a run feast with a bit of grass on the surface affording even bounce and the ball expected to come on to the bat nicely.

West Indies lead India 5-2 in the eight matches they have played so far.

Squads:

India: Rohit Sharma (c), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Dinesh Karthik, Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Krunal Pandya, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Bumrah, Khaleel Ahmed, Umesh Yadav, Shahbaz Nadeem.

West Indies: Carlos Brathwaite (c), Fabian Allen, Darren Bravo, Shimron Hetmyer, Obed McCoy, Keemo Paul, Khary Pierre, Kieron Pollard, Rovman Powell, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Andre Russell, Sherfane Rutherford, Oshane Thomas

SJM, Modi government want Patel out of RBI: Chidambaram

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Former Union Minister P. Chidambaram on Saturday said the Raghuram Rajan story is being repeated as Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying to remove RBI Governor Urjit Patel from his post because the Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) wants Patel to exit from the office.

“Swadeshi Jagran Manch wants Urjit Patel out. That means the Modi government wants him to go. It is a repeat of the Raghuram Rajan story,” Chidambaram tweeted.

In another tweet, he quoted US Federal Reserve former Chairman Janet Yellen as saying: “Whittling away the legitimacy and stature of institutions the public has traditionally some confidence in, ultimately undermines social and economic stability,” adding, “How true of India!”

SJM reportedly insisted that Reserve Bank of India (RBI) officials should exercise the discipline of restraint or resign.

IANS

Kovind calls for more participation in education

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President Ram Nath Kovind on Saturday exhorted people from all streams of the society to ensure their participation and contribution to education.

Speaking at an event at the Patanjali University after inaugurating the two-day ‘Gyan Kumbh’ here, the President urged the participants to find solutions to the challenges to quality education.

Lauding the efforts of Patanajali for organising the event in which higher education ministers of 18 states, higher education secretaries and vice-chancellors of 131 universities are taking part, Kovind said coming together of such a wide galaxy of people involved in education augured well for the education sector.

He said it is the responsibility of all to ensure that every child is educated and that the teachers inculcate in students not only the basics of education but also our rich heritage and culture.

He also remembered Dalit icon B.R. Ambedkar, former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, and educationist and politician Madan Mohan Malaviya for their contribution to education.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat stressed on the need for more research and rued that only 39 per cent of the 903 varsities conducted research. He said of the 39,000 degree colleges, only 40 per cent had higher education facilities.

Yoga guru Baba Ramdev said through education India has to be transformed into a ‘Vishwa Guru’ (world leader).

IANS

Sabarimala temple comes under total police control

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Kerala’s Sabarimala town where the famed Lord Ayyappa shrine is located came under complete police control on Saturday ahead of its day-long opening on November 5, a senior official said.

In a verdict on September 28, the Supreme Court allowed women of all age groups to enter the temple which led to mass protests.

According to Pathanamthitta district Superintendent of Police T. Narayanan, 1,500 police officials have been deployed in the temple town and will remain till the midnight of November 6 when the temple will close again.

He said as of now, there have been no requests from women to enter the shrine.

“If there are any requests, the police will see that the apex court verdict is carried out. None other than the pilgrims would be given permission to the designated areas of the temple,” said Narayanan.

The security arrangements were being monitored by Additional Director General of Police Anil Kanth.

According to the police, no one is allowed to remain in the pathway that leads to the temple, right from the Pamba base camp and also in the areas closer to the sanctum santorum of the temple.

Restrictions have been clamped for the media and they will only be allowed to reach the temple town on November 5.

As of Saturday, the police have registered 536 cases and arrested 3,719 persons, who protested last month when the temple opened for six days.

Only around 100 are still in jail, while the rest have secured bail.

IANS

US journalist slams Akbar’s ‘consensual’ statement

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A US journalist, who has accused former Union Minister M.J. Akbar of raping her 23 years ago, on Saturday slammed his statement where he said that they had a “consensual relationship”, saying that it wasn’t.

In a first person account in The Washington Post published on Friday, Pallavi Gogoi, now the Chief Business Editor at National Public Radio, gave a detailed account of how she was allegedly raped by Akbar and narrated her ordeal of working under him when he was the Editor of The Asian Age newspaper years ago.

Akbar on Friday said they had a “consensual relationship” even as his wife accused Gogoi of lying.

Dismissing Akbar’s statement, Gogoi tweeted: “Rather than take responsibility for his abuse of me and his serial predation of other young women who have courageously come forward, Akbar has insisted- just like other infamous serial sexual abusers of women–that the relationship was consensual. It was not,”

She attacked the former Minister by saying that “a relationship that is based on coercion, and abuse of power, is not consensual.”

“I stand by every word in my published account. I will continue to speak my truth so that other women who have been sexually assaulted by him know it is okay for them to come forward and speak their truth too,” Gogoi said.

With over a dozen journalists accusing him of sexual harassment and assault, Akbar quit as Minister of State for External Affairs on October 17.

Denying the charges, he filed a criminal defamation case against journalist Priya Ramani who was the first to accuse him.

IANS

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