Archives for 2020

NRC authorities said there was no legacy data of the former Chief Minister available with them.

The name of Assam’s lone woman Chief Minister Syeda Anowara Taimur, who is residing in Australia, is missing from the National Register of Citizens, and she plans to return home to initiate the process of enlisting herself and her family in the register of citizens of the State.

“It is sad that my name is not there in the list. I will return to Assam in the last week of August and then initiate the process to get mine and my family’s name enlisted in the National Register of Citizens (NRC),” the octogenarian told a television channel.

Ms. Taimur headed the State government from December 6, 1980 to June 30, 1981. She has been ailing for some years and is living with her son in Australia.Advertising

The former Assam Chief Minister said she had “requested a relative to submit the application for the family’s inclusion in the NRC, but maybe it could not be done due to some reasons”.

The NRC authorities in Guwahati, however, said there was no legacy data of the former Chief Minister available with them and as such it was not possible for them to ascertain whether she and her family members had applied for inclusion of their names in the draft NRC.

Ms. Taimur had served as a Rajya Sabha member in 1988. She was elected as a member of the State Assembly in 1972, 1978, 1983 and 1991. She left the Congress to join the AIUDF in 2011.

AIUDF general secretary Aminul Islam on August 3 that they, too, had heard from media reports about her name not being in the list.

“We have come to know from media reports that our party member and Assam’s first woman Chief Minister’s name does not figure in the list. There are others like former President Fakhruddin Ali’s nephew whose names do not figure in the NRC. This is a serious matter,” he said.

“The NRC is full of errors and we will soon meet NRC State coordinator Prateek Hajela and then chalk out our future course of action,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ms. Taimur’s Guwahati residence near the Rajdhani Masjid in Dispur is lying vacant.

The complete draft of the NRC released on July 30 included the names of 2.89 crore people, out of the 3.29 applicants, with the names of over 40 lakh people excluded.

Kolkata: The Railways claimed to have suffered losses of properties worth Rs 84 crore in violence related to protests against CAA and NRC in West Bengal from December 13 to 15, according to reports filed by it before the Calcutta High Court.

The Eastern Railway said in an affidavit before a division bench comprising Chief Justice TBN Radhakrishnan and Justice A Banerjee on Friday that it suffered the brunt of the protests with losses amounting to Rs 72.2 crore, with the maximum being in the Sealdah division, which suffered damages worth Rs 46 crore.

The Malda division of ER suffered losses worth nearly Rs 24.5 crore, while the Howrah division’s losses were more than Rs one crore, it said in an affidavit before the court on Friday in connection with a PIL seeking compensation to people and the railways for losses suffered in violence during the anti-CAA and anti-NRC protests.

The South Eastern Railway, in a separate affidavit, said that it suffered losses to its properties worth Rs 12.75 crore, including to trains, stations and tracks.

The matter will be taken up for hearing again four weeks hence, the court directed.

Kannauj (UP): Around 2O people were feared killed on Friday in a massive fire that broke out following a collision between a private sleeper bus and a truck near Chiloi village under Chhibramau police station area here, said police.

Some 20 people are feared to have died in the incident while 21 have been rushed to hospital, Kannauj Superintendent of Police Amrendra Prasad singh said.

Ten to 12 among the injured 21 jumped from the burning bus to save their lives, the SP said, adding the exact number of casualties will be known only later.

There were around 45 passengers in the bus which was on its way to Jaipur from Farrukhabad at the time of incident, police said.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has rushed his ministerial colleague Ram Naresh Agnihotri to the spot and sought a report from the DM Kannauj about the incident.

The chief minister announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh to the next of kin of those who lost their lives and Rs 50,000 to the injured. It is a very unfortunate incident, the CM said, extending his condolences to the bereaved families.

Kanpur’s range Inspector General of Police Mohit Agarwal said 21 people have been rescued and admitted to hospital and efforts are on to contact family members of the victims.

There are chances of casualties in the incident, police said. The blaze has been controlled and rescue operations are on, Agarwal said.

Uttar Pradesh police chief O P Singh in Lucknow said it appears that the diesel tank exploded under the impact of collision and the bus burst into flames. Our first priority is to rescue passengers safely and senior officers are present at the spot, DGP Singh said.

Chief Minister Adityanath has asked the DM and SP to rush to the spot and provide all possible medical attention and help to the passengers of the bus.

New Delhi: The Centre on Friday announced that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act will come into force from January 10.

In a gazette notification, the Union home ministry said the act under which non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan will be given Indian citizenship, will come into force from January 10.

“In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (2) of the section 1 of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (47 of 2019), the Central government hereby appoints the 10th day of January, 2020, as the date on which the provisions of the said Act shall come into force,” the notification said.

The CAA was passed by parliament on December 11.

According to the CAA, members of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have come from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014 facing religious persecution there will not be treated as illegal immigrants but given Indian citizenship.

There have been widespread protests against the act in different parts of the country.

Those who are opposed to the legislation are saying that it is for the first time that India will grant citizenship on the basis of religion which violates the basic tenets of the country’s constitution.

However, the government and ruling BJP has been defending the act saying that the minority groups from the three countries have no other option but to come India when they face religious persecution there.

The home ministry, however, is yet to frame the rules for the act.

Ahmedabad: The BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy said on Friday that the country’s economy was in “dire times”, and “tax terrorism” should be ended to encourage investors.

He also said that every university should have police personnel on the campus, and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), which is in news for a recent incident of violence, should be “closed for two years”.

“The economy is in dire times, everything is going downwards, if the trend continues, banks will close down, NBFCs will close down and (it will) lead to disaster.

He was speaking on the sidelines of a programme at Indus University.

“The measures that can be taken are…first Income Tax needs to be abolished. The tax terrorism in our country needs to be reined in so that people start investing and do not fear taxman,” he said.

“The problem we are facing at present is lack of demand, we have a good supply. So the government needs to print notes and put it in the hands of people to boost demand.

Government needs to build roads, big six-lane, eight-lane roads,” he added.

Asked about the recent violence at JNU in Delhi, Swamy said for the safety of students, every university should have police presence on the campus as in the United States.

“In universities like JNU we should have not only police but CRPF and BSF too,” he said.

JNU should be closed for two years and it’s “good students” should be shifted to other universities like Delhi University, the MP, known for making controversial statements, added.

Bantwal: At least seven people were booked by Bantwal Police for allegedly organizing protest without intimation or permission from local police. Booked people include the Khateeb of Nandavar Masjid, President of the Masjid and Gram Panchayath President.

Nandavar Juma Masjid President Basheer, Khateeb of the Masjid Abdul Majeed Darimi, Gram Panchayath President Mohammed Shareef Nandavar, former President of Masjid Majeed, Arif Nandavar, Mustafa and Abubaker have been named in the FIR in the case.

The said people have been booked for allegedly organizing protest outside Nandavar Juma Masjid on Friday afternoon without intimation or police permission while also causing inconvenience to the vehicles on road and passerby.

Bantwal Town Police registered a suo motto case in this regard naming seven people, further investigations into the matter are underway.

Sharma, Singh, Pawan Gupta, and Akshay Kumar Singh are to be executed together at Tihar jail.

NEW DELHI:  Vinay Sharma and Mukesh Singh, two of the four men sentenced to death in the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case, filed curative petitions in the apex court in what is being seen as their last legal option to escape the noose. Sharma, through his lawyer A P Singh, had approached the top court two days after a Delhi court declared that the four rapists will be hanged on January 22. Hours later,  Singha also filed a curative petition. 

Sharma, Singh, Pawan Gupta, and Akshay Kumar Singh are to be executed together at Tihar jail. All four had reportedly broke down in jail after the death warrant was confirmed. “To eliminate systemic and political bias against the petitioner, it is imperative that this case be reheard in open court by the senior-most judges of this Hon’ble Court without the Damocles sword of an execution warrant hanging over the proceedings (sic),” the plea stated. The Supreme Court has already turned down review petitions against the death sentence from three of the convicts.

In his curative plea, Vinay said his young age has been erroneously rejected as a mitigating circumstance. “The petitioner’s socio-economic circumstances, number of family dependants including ailing parents, good conduct in jail and probability of reformation have not been adequately considered leading to gross miscarriage of justice,” the plea said.

It said the judgment has relied on factors such as “collective conscience of society” and “public opinion” in deciding the sentence to be imposed on him and others. “The impugned judgment is bad in law as subsequent SC judgments have definitely changed the law on death sentence in India allowing several convicts similarly placed as him to have their death sentence commuted to life imprisonment,” the plea said.