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ASI lynched in MP village

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An Assistant Sub-Inspector who had gone to arrest a wanted criminal was brutally done to death by a group of criminals and their supporters in Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh, police said on Wednesday.

Eight persons have been taken into custody in the case.

Umreth police station ASI Dev Chand Nagle had gone to Jamunia Jethu village to arrest Johar Singh, against whom an arrest warrant had been issued, when the group of 8-10 persons armed with axes and batons attacked him on Tuesday night, Additional Superintendent of Police Neeraj Soni told IANS.

The ASI was accompanied by another police official, apart from a revenue official. However, the police personnel was unarmed.

India willing to address trade deficit with Uganda: Modi

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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that his country is willing to address the current trade imbalance with Uganda.

“If I compare India-Uganda trade ties, I can see that we are in a win-win situation,” Modi said while addressing the Uganda-India Business Forum here.

“But we are falling short and to correct that we need to strategize,” he said.

Stating that Ugandan President is right in saying that there is trade imbalance between India and Uganda, the Prime Minister said: “India is willing to take steps to address the trade deficit between India and Uganda.”

He exhorted the business community to fully exploit the favourable conditions for doing business between India and Uganda.

“India is ready to work with Uganda in the fields of capacity building, human resource development, skill development, innovation and also in adding value to the abundant natural resources available in this country,” Modi stated.

He also stressed on innovation saying that without this the world cannot go ahead.

“Uganda can go ahead if the youth of Uganda and India work together,” he said, adding that the East African country can play an important role in the overall development of Africa.

On his part, Museveni, while exhorting the business community from both countries to tap the opportunities available for enhancing trade and investment, said: “You are in the right place in the right time.”

Modi arrived here on Tuesday from Rwanda on the second leg of his five-day, three-nation tour of Africa that will also take him to South Africa.

This is the first Prime Ministerial visit from India to Uganda in over 20 years.

For Modi, this is his second visit to this East African nation after his visit in 2007 as Gujarat Chief Minister.

Hardik Patel gets 2 years in jail for rioting in 2015

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A Gujarat court on Wednesday sentenced Patidar agitation spearhead Hardik Patel and two of his associates to two years in jail on charges of vandalizing a BJP legislator’s office in Mehsana district in 2015.

This was after a rally demanding reservations for Patidar youth in government jobs and educational institutions turned violent in Visnagar town.

A mob of around 3,000 to 5,000 people vandalized BJP MLA Rushikesh Patel’s office.

In all, 17 people, including Hardik Patel, were charged with arson, rioting, and criminal conspiracy.

Patel was arrested and released on bail, and subsequently barred by the court from entering Mehsana district.

Karnataka has removed Mahadayi conduit blockages: Goa Minister

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Two of the three blockades, built on water diversion conduits by the Karnataka government along the Mhadei river, have been removed and water is already being diverted from the Mhadei river to the Malaprabha river basin in the Southern State, Water Resources Minister Vinod Palienkar said on Wednesday.

“The rear end of the conduit was checked and it was observed that water was flowing through two of the three conduits… The issue is being taken very seriously and an application will be presented before the Tribunal immediately,” Palienkar told the state assembly while replying to a Calling Attention Motion moved by Congress MLA Aleixo Reginaldo and Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Rajesh Patnekar.

The contempt petition will be filed on Friday, Palienkar said.

“We are taking up the issue. We know the seriousness and any government will try to defend its own position… We have to protect our state’s interest,” Parrikar said, adding that it was irrelevant whether the Congress or the BJP was in power in Karnataka.

Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra are currently battling a dispute over the controversial Kalsa-Bhandura dam project across the Mhadei river at a central Tribunal.

Mhadei or the Mandovi river is known as a lifeline in the northern parts of the State. It originates in Karnataka and meets the Arabian Sea in Panaji in Goa, while briefly flowing through the territory of Maharashtra.

Seventy-eight per cent of the basin of the Mhadei river lies in Goa, while 42.79 per cent of the basin is located in Karnataka, and a small portion is located in Maharashtra.

Karnataka also plans to build seven dams at various points along the river, including at Kalsa village, to divert the flow to the “water-starved” Malaprabha basin in North Karnataka.

Six killed as Pakistan votes to elect new government

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Six persons, including a political worker, were killed and several injured on Wednesday in sporadic incidents of violence as millions of voters queued up outside polling stations across Pakistan to elect a new government.

While polling stations officially opened for voting at 8 a.m., enthusiastic citizens queued up outside their respective stations as early as 7 a.m, Dawn News website said. Polling stations will remain open for voting till 6 p.m. and counting is being done simultaneously.

Results are expected to trickle in immediately after the polling ends with the final outcome likely by Thursday morning or afternoon, according to election officials.

The website reported that five people were killed and 12 injured in a blast that took place in Quetta. Polling was underway at a school nearby, when a police van was targeted in the attack, it said.

A Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) worker was killed and two others injured as party activists clashed with Awami National Party (ANP) workers outside a polling station in Nawan Kali in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Swabi.

The workers of the two parties clashed in Mardan as well. Several people have been injured in the firing incident. Following the clash, police took control of the affected area, the Dawn reported.

Two people were also injured in a firing incident in Dera Murad Jamali in Balochistan.

In a separate incident, four people were injured in a blast outside a political camp in Larkana, in Sindh province, the home of the Bhutto family, reported Express Tribune.

Independent candidate Jibran Nasir said that Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan supporters attacked a facilitation camp he had set up in Chandio Village in Karachi.

As many as 12,570 candidates are contesting for a total of 849 seats of national and provincial assemblies in the general election. Nearly 106 million people are eligible to vote.

The battle is set to come down to three parties: Shahbaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Imran Khan’s PTI.

In an effort to increase voter participation the Election Commission of Pakistan has declared a public holiday on Wednesday.

Prominent people who cast their votes include former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Mustafa Kamal and chief of the Pak Sarzameen Party.

Over four lakh security personnel has been deployed at polling stations across the country to maintain law and order and take action against harassment, after the nation witnessed one of the bloodiest campaignings on July 13.

According to a poll official, 5,878 polling stations have been declared “highly sensitive” — official euphemism to mean they are prone to violence — in Sindh; 5,487 in Punjab and Islamabad; 3,874 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA and 1,768 in Balochistan.

According to the reports, women voters were being denied the right to vote in a PK-65 constituency of Nowshehra in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.

Geo TV said a suspicious person was detained when he tried to enter Karachi’s Lyari Bihar Colony polling station in NA-246, claiming to be a police officer.

“The suspicious person has been taken to Chakewara Police Station,” a police officer said, adding that the polling process was halted for about 20 minutes.

The elections are being held as emotions run over a graft case that led to the imprisonment of ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam.

Sharif’s PML-N has condemned the legal cases facing its members and reported pressures to leave the party along with harassment to prevent it from returning to power after its absolute majority in 2013.

These elections are the second in Pakistan’s history in which a government was able to complete its term to make way for another government after being ruled by military dictators for half of the 71 years of its existence since its founding in 1947.

‘Anti-trafficking bill ignores consenting sex workers’

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Geeta (name changed), a resident of Sangli village in Maharashtra, was 19 when she became a sex worker, not as a victim of trafficking but as an option to feed herself and support her family financially.

Now 32 and a mother of 10-year-old son, Geeta is facing a new hurdle — that of forced rehabilitation by the government of sex workers. And she expressed her anxiety that if Parliament clears an anti-human trafficking bill pending before it, it causes chaos in her life.

“I don’t want to go to any rehab center, I don’t want to learn stitching work or making pickles. Nobody forced me to be a sex worker; it was my choice and I am earning well enough to survive with my son,” Geeta told IANS.

This is not just the voice of Geeta — many other sex workers to believe the anti-trafficking bill will create turmoil in their lives.

Kusum, 40, who only uses her first name, lives in one of the brothels on Delhi’s GB Road. She said she is not ashamed of being known to the world as a sex worker and insisted on not changing her name.

“I had chosen to go ahead as a sex worker, nobody pressurized me. This is my profession, just like other jobs. Had I wanted to move out of it, I could have done so a long time ago. Now, the government is pushing for rehab but they don’t understand that sex worker are not perceived by the society with dignity,” said Kusum, who is also President of the All India Network of Sex Workers (AINSW).

“Not all sex workers are victims of human trafficking and the government needs to understand the difference between the two. There are many like me who have chosen it as a source of income,” she added.

As the monsoon session began on July 18, the Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection, and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018, was tabled in the Lok Sabha by Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi.

According to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) figures, around 8,100 cases of trafficking were recorded in India in 2016 and around 23,000 victims of trafficking were rescued the same year (61 percent of these were children).

Trafficking, under the Section 370 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), has been defined as “any act” of physical and sexual exploitation, slavery or practices similar to slavery and servitude.

Legal experts and social activists also expressed their worry that the bill might have a direct negative impact on the lives of many sex workers as it does not address the legal and real-time challenges in trafficking in persons.

“The clauses of the bill do not directly point at sex workers; however, some of the clauses are linked to them,” Samarjit Jana, Director, Sonagachi Research and Training Institute, Kolkata, told IANS.

According to the activists, the bill must clearly state that it does not include consenting adults and they should be enabled to continue with their chosen occupation.

“Trafficking of persons into forced or coerced labour should not be equated with sex work undertaken by consenting adults. This conflation can lead to misuse and over-broad application of the provisions in this bill,” Jana, who has for long been associated with the rights of sex-workers, stated.

Another issue that the experts are concerned about is that the government does not offer a proper rehabilitation programme.

“What the government is offering as rehabilitation cannot be called a substantive package for surviving. In the name of rehabilitation, all they offer is stitching classes. How can a sex-worker, who is also a mother, earn enough through simply sewing work,” asked Aarthi Pai, an activist, and lawyer associated with the Bengaluru-based NGO Sangram.

“There is also the social-stigma factor which the government has been totally ignoring. Indian society will never accept an individual who has been a sex worker. The government needs to have a deeper insight into such factors,” she noted.

Jana pointed out that certain guiding principles were shared with the government, asking the WCD Ministry to consider certain factors before drafting the bill — but these have been ignored.

Earlier this month, around 4,300 sex workers had also written to Maneka Gandhi appealing to her to ensure that the new law does not lead to their incarceration. There has apparently been no action on this either.

State Siddaramaiah suspends state government official for delapidation of duty

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Following heading from the former chief minister and Badami MLA Siddaramaiah, a government official has been suspended for dilapidation of duty by the state government on Tuesday, July 24.

The state government on Tuesday, July 24 ordered the suspension of Venkatesh Nayak, from his service as an assistant engineer of drinking water department.

On July 18, Siddaramaiah amid KDP meeting sought for data of execution of local authorities in the region. Amid the meeting, Siddaramaiah learned that the official was not performing his duty efficiently. Thus, he quickly called CEO Vikas Suralkar and ordered to suspend him.

It is learned that 163 water purification units out of 165 were not working. When Siddaramaiah looked for a response for the same and took the official to task.

The official requested not to suspend for his negligence. However, Siddaramaiah ordered for his suspension and furthermore cautioned of strict action against the officials for dereliction of duty.

As campaigning closes, Pakistan’s Imran Khan makes final push

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by Asad Hashim, Al Jazeera

Electioneering officially came to a close ahead of Pakistan’s general election later this week in what has been a fraught campaign, with all three major parties accusing each other of wrongdoing.

In the eastern city of Lahore, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan made a final push at a series of rallies across the city on Monday, aiming to displace the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party from its political heartland.

Pakistan votes in a general election on Wednesday with 272 national parliamentary seats up for grabs, as well as for each of its four provincial assemblies.

PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif addressed a rally in the central town of Dera Ghazi Khan, urging the nation to “give respect to the vote”, a party rallying cry that refers to their allegation that the military and judiciary have been interfering in the political process.

Earlier this month, Sharif’s elder brother Nawaz – a three-time prime minister – was convicted and jailed by an anti-corruption court. Nawaz’ daughter Maryam and son-in-law Muhammad Safdar were also imprisoned.

Nawaz Sharif claims he did not receive a fair trial, and that the judiciary was influenced by the country’s powerful military, which has ruled Pakistan for roughly half of its 70-year history. Both institutions deny the allegation.

At a colourful rally attended by thousands in Lahore’s Walton area, Khan dismissed as a foreign conspiracy accusations that the military has aided his party by threatening opponents.

“The Western media is concerned that there is rigging going on in Pakistan, and that the military is doing it,” he said.

“I wonder how the … media has become so concerned about rigging. When I was on the roads for 126 days protesting against vote rigging, where were they?”

Khan was referring to a four-month protest in 2014 against the results of the country’s last general election.

“The man who did the rigging was the favourite of India … and of the international establishment. That’s why no one said anything!”

Time for change?
At an earlier PTI rally near Lahore’s historic Data Darbar shrine, supporters said they believed Khan was the man to bring change to Pakistan.

“I will vote for Imran Khan because he will bring about the change the others have proved unable to do,” said Adnan Ali, 20, who will be voting in his first election.

Abdullah Butt, 54, a retired civil servant who was at the rally with his grandson, felt similarly.

“My whole life, I’ve only seen these two parties in power,” he said, referring to the PML-N and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), led by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. “Isn’t it time we saw a change?”

Not all voters, however, have been convinced by Khan’s ambitious promises to end corruption and bring about systematic change to how power functions in the country.

“I will vote for Nawaz Sharif because he has been wrongly imprisoned,” said 30-year-old Muhammad Tariq, who sells toys off a pushcart a few hundred metres away from the site of the PTI’s rally.

“I am not looking at the party, I am only looking at Nawaz Sharif. I think he’s a very good man.”

Ahead of the campaign’s close, Sharif released an audio message from jail exhorting supporters to go to the polls to register their protest at his arrest.

“Imprisoned people of my free nation, you must change all of this,” he said. “The time has come for you to … show such a verdict that buries all those other verdicts that have made Pakistan a graveyard for justice.”

Press intimidation
The run-up to the polls has been marred by widespread allegations of pre-poll engineering and censorship of the press by the military.

On Monday, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) said journalists in the country faced a sustained and concerted series of curbs, including disruptions and closures of the country’s top news organisations.

“Overall, continuing intimidation and the perceived need to self-censor has severely hampered objective journalism,” the report said.

It documented instances where television channels had been forced off the air, as well as how news coverage of Sharif’s conviction was shaped by the “establishment”, a common euphemism in Pakistan for the military and intelligence services.

“It has become very difficult to tell the truth,” said HRCP spokesperson Ibn-e-Abdur Rehman. “Often it is a threat to one’s life.”

Journalist Marvi Sirmed, also a member of the HRCP, said her work had been targeted, with managers pressured to censor her work.

“Free and fair elections are just a dream, which is not going to be realised any time soon,” she told Al Jazeera. “This is not elections, this is a joke, this is a selection.”

Several killed, hundreds missing after Laos dam collapses

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Several people have been killed, hundreds remain missing and around 6,600 are homeless after a hydroelectric dam under construction collapsed in Laos, authorities said on Tuesday.

Officials did not specify the exact number of fatalities. The Xepian-Xe Namnoy dam, situated around 550 km southeast of the capital, collapsed on Monday, unleashing flash floods in six villages, Lao News Agency reported.

The administration of the province of Attapeu, where the dam was built, requested basic humanitarian assistance for the affected. Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith postponed government meetings and went to the affected area in Sanamxay district with senior officials to monitor relief efforts, the state media said.

Pictures showed villagers stranded on the roofs of submerged houses and boats carrying people to safety. “The disaster claimed several human lives (and) left hundreds of people missing,” according to the agency.

The Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy Power Company (PNPC) began building the dam in 2013 and it was due to begin generating power this year.

Thai company Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding, a partner in the PNPC project, said that the collapse occurred due to continuous rain, which caused a high volume of water to flow into the project’s reservoir.

“Xe-Pian Xe-Namnoy Power Company Limited and related agencies had evacuated the people who reside around the area to temporary shelters (…). In addition, urgent assessment of the situation is being made in order to be able to immediately resolve the situation once the water level of the dam has decreased,” the company said in a statement.

Delhi Police chief bans flying of objects until I-Day

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The Delhi Police Commissioner on Tuesday banned flying of objects in the national capital from July 25 as a precautionary measure for the Independence Day.

The order by Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik will remain in force up to August 15.

It prohibits flying of “sub-conventional aerial platforms” like paragliders, para-motors, hang-gliders, UAVs, UASs, microlight aircraft, remotely piloted aircraft, hot air balloons, small sized powered aircraft, quadcopters, or para jumping from aircraft.

“It has been reported that certain criminal, antisocial elements or terrorists inimical to India may pose a threat to the safety of the general public, dignitaries and vital installations by using sub-conventional aerial platforms,” Patnaik said in his order.

Hence, he said, flying of objects over the jurisdiction of National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi on the occasion of Independence Day celebrations 2018 is prohibited and shall be punishable as per the law.

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