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After Punjab, now Rajasthan government to bring bill against Centre’s farm laws

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Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot announced this on Twitter, hours after the Punjab assembly unanimously passed four bills and adopted a resolution against the Union government laws.

Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot

JAIPUR: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Tuesday said his government will bring a bill against the Centre’s farm laws on the lines of Punjab.

The chief minister announced this on Twitter, hours after the Punjab assembly unanimously passed four bills and adopted a resolution against the Union government laws.

“INC under the leadership of Smt #SoniaGandhi ji& #RahulGandhi ji stands absolutely with our annadatas and will continue to oppose the anti-farmer laws passed by NDA Govt. Today Congress Govt in #Punjab has passed Bills against these laws.

Earlier, the Congress leadership had suggested states where the party is in power to pass laws of their own, negating the central legislation.

In the meeting of the state council of ministers held at the chief minister’s residence, the effects of Centre’s three new laws on the farmers were discussed.

The council of ministers decided that a special session of the Legislative Assembly will be convened soon and amendment bills will be brought to preserve the interests of the farmers, an official statement said.

The council also emphasised on the imperative of procurement of crops at minimum support price (MSP).

The council observed that the removal of the maximum limit of stock of various agricultural commodities under normal circumstances under the Essential Commodities Act after the implementation of the new agricultural laws will increase black marketing, unauthorised storage and rise in prices.

It was also discussed in the meeting that the provision of MSP in the Contract Forming Act will be in the interest of the farmers of the state, the statement said.

The meeting also discussed the coronavirus situation in the state government’s efforts to deal with it.

The council decided that the mass movement against COVID-19 in the state should be extended for a month till November 30.

New COVID-19 cases remain below 60,000 mark for the third consecutive day, India tally nears 77,000

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A total of 54,044 fresh infections were reported in a day, while the death toll climbed to 1,15,914 with 717 fatalities being registered in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed

NEW DELHI: The number of new coronavirus infections reported in India in a span of 24 hours remained below 60,000 for the third consecutive day, taking the COVID-19 caseload to 76,51,107, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday.

A total of 54,044 fresh infections were reported in a day, while the death toll climbed to 1,15,914  with 717 fatalities being registered in a span of 24 hours ,the data updated at 8 am showed.

As many as 67,95,103 people have recuperated from the disease so far pushing the national recovery rate to 88.81 per cent while the case fatality rate due COVID-19 has dropped to 1.51 per cent.

The active cases of coronavirus infection remained below 8 lakh for the fifth consecutive day.

There are 7,40,090 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which comprises 9.67 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23 and 40 lakh on September 5.

It went past 50 lakh on September 16,  60 lakh on September 28 and crossed 70 lakh on October 11.

According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 9,72,00,379 samples have been tested up to October 20 with 10,83,608 samples being tested on Tuesday.

The 717 new fatalities include 213 from Maharashtra, 66 from Karnataka, 61 from West Bengal, 50 each from Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu, and 41 from Delhi.

A total of 1,15,914 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 42,453 from Maharashtra followed by 10,741 from Tamil Nadu, 10,608 from Karnataka, 6,714 from Uttar Pradesh, 6,481 from Andhra Pradesh, 6,180 from West Bengal, 6,081 from Delhi, 4,037 from Punjab and 3,651 from Gujarat.

The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

“Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research,” the ministry said on its  website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.

Anti-triple talaq crusader Shayara Bano gets minister rank in Uttarakhand

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The move comes just ten days after Bano, who was the first Muslim woman to question the constitutionality of the practice of triple talaq in the Supreme Court, joined the BJP.

Shayara Bano was the original petitioner in the case against triple talaq.

DEHRADUN: Anti-triple talaq crusader Shayara Bano, who recently joined the BJP, has been given minister of state status by the Uttarakhand government.

The move comes just ten days after Bano, who was the first Muslim woman to question the constitutionality of the practice of triple talaq in the Supreme Court, joined the BJP here in the presence of its Pradesh president Bansidhar Bhagat and a host of other leaders.

Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat’s media coordinator Darshan Singh Rawat said ,Bano is among three women, who were appointed vice presidents of the State Women’s Commission besides being accorded MoS status on Tuesday.

The other two women appointed to the post are Jyoti Shah from Ranikhet in Almora district and Pushpa Paswan from Chamoli district.

The three posts in the commission had long been vacant.

It is the chief minister’s gift to the women of the state during Navratri, he said.

Bano was the first to challenge the constitutionality of the practice of triple talaq in the apex court in 2014, four months after being divorced by her husband through speed post.

She is a resident of Udham Singh Nagar district in Uttarakhand.

Air Pollution is the highest health risk for newborns in India: Study

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More than half of these deaths were associated with outdoor  PM 2.5 and others were linked to use of solid fuels such as charcoal, wood, and animal dung for cooking.  

Delhi Pollution

NEW DELHI: A comprehensive analysis  of  air  pollution’s  global  impact  on  newborns  finds  that outdoor  and household  particulate  matter  pollution  contributed  to the  deaths  of  more than 116,000 Indian infants in  their  first month of  life  in 2019,  according  to a  new  global  study, State of Global Air 2020 (SoGA).  

More than half of these deaths were associated with outdoor  PM 2.5 and others were linked to use of solid fuels such as charcoal, wood, and animal dung for cooking.

Long-term  exposure  to outdoor  and  household  air  pollution  contributed to  over  1.67 million annual  deaths from  stroke, heart  attack, diabetes, lung  cancer, chronic  lung  diseases, and  neonatal diseases, in India  in 2019.  

For  the  youngest infants, most deaths were related to complications from low birth weight  and preterm birth.  

The  report  highlights  the  ongoing  challenge  of  high outdoor  air  pollution — South Asian countries including India, Bangladesh, Pakistan  and Nepal  feature  among  the  top  ten  countries  with the highest  PM 2.5  exposures  in 2019;  all of these  countries  experienced increases  in  outdoor  PM2.5 levels  between  2010 and  2019. 

Use  of  solid fuels  for  cooking, however,  presents  a  pattern of  moderate  success. Since  2010, more than 50  million fewer people  have  been exposed  to household  air  pollution. The  Pradhan  Mantri Ujjwala  Yojana Household  LPG program  and  other  schemes  have helped  to  dramatically  expand access  to  clean  energy,  especially  for  rural households.

 This report  comes  as  COVID-19 — a disease for  which  people with  heart  and  lung  disease are particularly at  risk of  infection and  death — has  claimed  more than  110,000  lives  in India. 

Although the  full  links  between air  pollution  and  COVID-19  are  not  yet  known, there  is  clear evidence  linking  air  pollution  and  increased  heart and  lung  disease  creating  a  growing  concern that  exposures  to high  levels  of  air  pollution, during  winter  months in South Asian countries  and East  Asia, could  exacerbate the effects of  COVID-19. 

“An  infant’s  health  is  critical  to  the future of  every  society,  and  this newest  evidence suggests  an  especially high  risk for  infants  born  in  South Asia  and sub-Saharan  Africa,” said  Dan  Greenbaum,  President  of  HEI. 

“Although  there  has  been slow  and steady reduction  in  household  reliance  on poor-quality fuels, the  air pollution from  these  fuels  continues  to be  a  key factor  in the  deaths  of  these  youngest  infants,” he added. 

Infants  in  the  first  month  of  life  are  already  at  a  vulnerable  stage. But  a  growing  body of scientific  evidence from  multiple  countries,  including  recent ICMR-supported  studies  in  India, indicates that  particulate  air pollution exposure  during  pregnancy is  linked  to low  birth weight  and pre-term  birth.

These  latter  conditions, both of  which are  associated with  serious  complications, already account for the vast majority of  deaths in the neonatal period  (455,000  in  2019).  

The  new  analysis  reported  in the  State  of  Global Air  this  year  estimates  that nearly  21 per cent of neonatal deaths from  all  causes  are  attributable  to ambient and household air  pollution. 

“Addressing impacts  of  air  pollution on  adverse  pregnancy outcomes  and newborn  health  is  really important  for low- and middle-income  countries, not  only because of the high prevalence  of low  birth weight, preterm  birth, and child  growth deficits but  because  it allows the design of strategic  interventions  that  can be  directed  at  these vulnerable  groups,”  said  Dr.  Kalpana Balakrishnan,  an  air pollution and health expert who was not involved with the study.   

The  State  of  Global  Air  2020  annual  report  and accompanying  interactive  website  are  designed and implemented  by the  Health  Effects  Institute  in cooperation with  the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME2) at  the  University of  Washington,  and  the  University  of  British Columbia; its findings  are  based  on the most  recent  Global  Burden  of  Disease (GBD3)  Study  published  in the  international medical  journal, The  Lancet on October  15, 2020.

If Nitish Kumar wins elections by mistake, Bihar will be ruined: Chirag Paswan

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Paswan also said his party’s manifesto is based on the vision of ‘Bihar first Bihari first’.

PATNA: Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief Chirag Paswan on Wednesday attacked Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar saying that if Kumar wins the upcoming election by mistake then the state will be on the verge of getting ruined.

“If the current Chief Minister again wins this election by mistake then our state will lose. Our state will again stand on the verge of getting ruined. I wonder how he promotes casteism. It is not appropriate to imagine the development of Bihar under the leadership of a person who promotes communalism,” Paswan said while launching the party’s manifesto for the Bihar assembly polls.

Paswan said his party’s manifesto is based on the vision of ‘Bihar first Bihari first’.

“Today, with the release of our party’s manifesto for the Bihar Assembly polls, I put forward our vision of ‘Bihar first Bihari first’ which will resolve various problems that the people of Bihar have been facing for long,” he said.

Building a web portal where employers and job seeker can connect, constituting Yuva Commission, separate toilets for women in all the block headquarters, gram panchayat headquarters and markets are among the main poll promises made in the manifesto.

“The posts of all the departments of the government-approved will be filled soon. All the employees working in the state government on the contract will be regularised. To prevent flood and drought, all the rivers of the state will be connected by canals,” the manifesto said.

The party, which was part of the ruling National Democratic Alliance in Bihar, has decided to field candidates against Janata Dal-United (JD-U) and not against the BJP. Paswan has been slamming Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over some of the promises made by the JD-U.

Elections to the 243-seat Bihar Assembly will be held in three phases — October 28, November 3 and 7 — and the counting of votes will take place on November 10.

P V Sindhu in London as practice in national camp wasn’t happening properly, clarifies her father

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New Delhi: World Champion P V Sindhu is in London to prepare for next year’s Asia leg of the Badminton World Federation’s calendar as “her practice was not happening properly” at the ongoing national camp in Hyderabad, her father PV Ramana has said.

The Olympic silver-medallist has been in London for the last 10 days and posted a picture with sports nutritionist Rebecca Randell of the Gatorade Sports Science Institute (GSSI), her training base, on her social media page on Monday.

“She has been in London for last 10 days. We can’t stay with her for two months, so she went alone,” Ramana, who has often spoken on behalf of the shuttler told PTI, refuting reports that she left because of an unspecified dispute in the family.

Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the BWF has been forced to move the World Tour Finals (Jan 27-31) and the two Asia opens (Jan 12-17 and Jan 19-24) to Bangkok in January next year.

Ramana said that the celebrated shuttler was not happy with her training at the national camp.

“Her practice was not happening properly here. After the 2018 Asian Games, Gopi (chief coach Pullela Gopichand) didn’t take interest in her training. He didn’t provide a proper practice partner to train with her.

“She was not having enough quality practice and was fed up with the treatment,” he claimed.

When contacted, Gopichand confirmed that Sindhu had informed him about her move to London but refused to respond to Ramana’s remarks.

“She has gone for that Gatorade training academy, that is the information we have. They have a training institute there. I don’t know the exact details or duration of the program,” he said.

“I don’t want to respond to what her father has to say, if Sindhu says something, I will respond,” he added.

Ramana said Sindhu had informed the Badminton Association of India (BAI) regarding her trip to London and had also kept Gopichand in the loop.

“She had sent a letter to BAI last week about her trip, with a copy to Gopi…and since she will be there for at least eight weeks, she will be practicing with England team. So, she requested BAI to put in a word to Badminton England,” Ramana said.

Sindhu has been part of the national camp for Olympic hopefuls and was training with her Korean coach Park Tae Sang ever since Kim Ji Hyun resigned last year.

She skipped the recently-concluded Denmark Open Super 750 tournament and will next be seen in action at the Asian leg of the adjusted BWF World Tour 2020 in January.

The Hyderabadi will not get a direct entry in the rescheduled World Tour Final as the BWF has decided against handing automatic invitations to current world champions in the season-ending tournament.

Three of a family attempts suicide by jumping in river in Karnataka; one dead, two rescued

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Mysuru: Three persons of a family on Monday attempted suicide by jumping in a river here. While one of the person died of suicide, two others were rescued and were shifted to hospital for treatment.

The incident was reported from Nanjanagondu Taluk in Mysuru district where a mother, her daughter and granddaughter attempted suicide by jumping into the river.

The three were reportedly residents of JSS Layout in Mysuru.

The deceased woman has been identified as Rashmi (35) while her mother Ankamma and daughter were rescued and shifted to hospital.

The exact reason that prompted the family to take the extreme step, is yet to be ascertained. A case has been registered at Nanjanagondu Rural Police Station in this regard.

Jewelry worth over 40 lakh stolen from temple in Bhatkal, priest missing

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Bhatkal: Bhatkal’s Durgaparameshwari Temple on Monday reported that its jewelry worth over 40 lakh rupees which were donated to the ‘Devi’ (Goddess) of the temple by the people, were stolen from the temple premises.

The temple authorities further added that a priest who was working at the temple was also missing ever since the incident came to light.

The temple administration in the police complaint identified the missing priest as Sathish Bhat, a resident of Yellapur. In the complaint, it is added that the incident came to the light when the Chief priest of the temple opened the jewelry box on the occasion of Navratri, to put the jewelry on the goddess.

The temple authorities reportedly tried contacting Sathish over the phone as he had the keys to jewelry locker. Unable to contact him over the phone, the administration decided to break open the locker on Saturday, as it was the ritual of the temple to put jewelry on the Goddess. It was then, the incident came to the light.

Sathish was working at the temple for the last one year but had not reported to the duty for over a month now. The authorities further added that they last spoke to Sathish on phone on Friday, but were unable to contact him on Saturday.

A case in this regard has been registered at Bhatkal Rural Police Station and investigations are underway. A special team has also been formed by Yellapur Police to trace Sathish Bhat.

ED grills Farooq Abdullah for six hours in JKCA graft case, People’s Alliance says it’s vendetta

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ED grills Farooq Abdullah for six hours in JKCA graft case, People's Alliance says it's vendetta

Srinagar: The Enforcement Directorate on Monday questioned National Conference President Farooq Abdullah for over six hours in connection with a multi-crore scam in the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association, prompting accusations of a “political vendetta” by the newly-formed People’s Alliance comprising several mainstream parties.

The 82-year-old former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister received the ED summons a day after the formation of the People’s Alliance led by him was announced on October 15. He was questioned at the agency’s regional office here in the case connected to the embezzlement of more than Rs 40 crore of JKCA funds during his tenure as president of the association.

The CBI has already filed a chargesheet against him and the ED is probing the money laundering angle in the case.

Emerging from the ED office after the questioning, Abdullah told reporters that courts would decide on the merits of the case. “I am not worried. Why are you worried? The only regret I have is that I could not have my lunch as I had not brought it along.”

The ED, he said, was doing their job and he was doing his.

“Our struggle (for Article 370) will go on whether Farooq Abdullah is alive or Farooq Abdullah is dead. Our resolve has not changed and our resolve will not change even If I were to be hanged,” Abdullah said.

ED officials said Abdullah’s statement was recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The Lok Sabha MP and former JKCA president, who was also questioned in the case in Chandigarh in July last year, is understood to have been questioned about his role and decisions taken when the alleged fraud took place in the association.

The questioning took place four days after Jammu and Kashmir’s mainstream political parties, including the NC and the PDP, met at Abdullah’s residence and formed the People’s Alliance for ‘Gupkar Declaration’.

The Declaration resolves to campaign constitutionally for the restoration of Article 370, under which the erstwhile state enjoyed special status. On August 5 last year, the Centre revoked the state’s special status and bifurcated the state into two union territories, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

The Alliance strongly condemned Abdullah’s questioning and termed it “part of the vindictive politics practised by the central government to kill dissent and disagreement across the country and in present case to silence the genuine demand of reversal of unilateral and unconstitutional” abrogation of Articles 370 and 35-A.

The ED case is based on an FIR filed by the CBI, which booked former JKCA office-bearers, including general secretary Mohammed Saleem Khan and former treasurer Ahsan Ahmad Mirza.

The CBI later filed a chargesheet in 2018 against Abdullah, Khan, Mirza as well as Mir Manzoor Gazanffer Ali (former JKCA treasurer) and former accountants Bashir Ahmad Misgar and Gulzar Ahmad Beigh for the “misappropriation of JKCA funds amounting to Rs 43.69 crore” from grants given by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to promote the sport in the state between 2002-11.

The ED said its probe found that JKCA received Rs 94.06 crore from BCCI in three different bank accounts during financial years 2005-2006 to 2011-2012 (up to December 2011).

The ED alleged that several other bank accounts were opened in the name of the JKCA into which the funds were transferred. The bank accounts along with the existing bank accounts were later used for laundering JKCA funds.

Abdullah’s son and NC leader Omar Abdullah said the ED action was “…nothing less than political vendetta” and came days after the formation of the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration.

Other leaders also spoke out on the issue.

The NC’s long-term rival, PDP, which has joined the Alliance, also condemned the ED’s action. PDP president and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, who was released after 14 months last week, deplored the “use of agencies to browbeat mainstream parties in JK”.

She said the ED’s “sudden summons to Farooq sahab displays the extent of GOIs nervousness about mainstream parties in JK fighting as one unit”.

(It) Also reeks of political vendetta and won’t in the least blunt our collective resolve to fight for our rights,” she said on Twitter.

People’s Conference leader Sajjad Lone echoed her.

“What a sorry state of affairs. Dr Farooq sahib summoned by ED. Reeks of vendetta. Contrary to what they want to coercively achieve this will certainly have the opposite impact,” he tweeted.

The National Conference said in a statement that the summons is clearly the result of the unity that Dr Sahib has been able to forge among mainstream political parties in Jammu and Kashmir .

“This is the price one faces when opposed to BJP’s ideology and divisive politics. Recent history is a witness to how BJP has been employing coercive and intimidative measures through various departments to target opposition leaders across the country…,”it said.

The NC said “the timing of the recent summons is very clear” as his previous summons was just before August 5 last year.

The statement said its president continues to maintain “his innocence and will cooperate with the authorities in what is nothing but a witch hunt”.

In February this year, the ED attached assets worth Rs 2.6 crore of Mirza and Gazanfer, a member of the finance committee of the JKCA. The agency alleged that Mirza transferred huge amounts into his personal bank accounts, and the money was further transferred or withdrawn in cash.

“Out of the laundered amounts, Rs 1.31 crore was received by Gazanffer who was a member of the finance committee of JKCA between 2006 to 2009.”

The ED claimed the committee was arbitrarily constituted by Abdullah, the then JKCA president.

According to the agency, the then “duly elected treasurer Mukhtar Kanth resigned in 2004. Farooq Abdullah appointed Mirza as JKCA treasurer without holding elections as mandated under the JKCA Rules, 1957”.

“In the JKCA elections held in 2006, Gazanfer was elected as Treasurer of JKCA and there was a brief court stay upon his acting as Treasurer of JKCA when Farooq Abdullah continued Mirza as the treasurer of JKCA,” the ED said.

The court stay was vacated the same year and Gazanfer was not given charge of treasurer. Instead, Farooq Abdullah constituted a finance committee comprising Mirza and Gazanfer and both were empowered to jointly operate JKCA bank accounts, it said.

The two “opened a personal bank account” in their joint names with Jammu and Kashmir Bank and crores of funds belonging to JKCA were transferred into it, the agency alleged. The funds were either withdrawn in cash or transferred to other bank accounts including the bank account of Mirza’s firm, it added.

In 2011, Mirza was elected JKCA general secretary and Farooq Abdullah president.

During the period, JKCA funds were continuously laundered, the ED alleged.

ICC Chairmanship: Only NZ’s Gregor Barclay and Singapore’s Imran Khwaja file nominations

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New Delhi: New Zealand Cricket’s Gregor Barclay and Imran Khwaja of Singapore are the only two prominent names who will be fighting for the ICC chairman’s post to replace Shahshank Manohar.

October 18 was the last day for filing nominations and a one-month window has been kept by the ICC Board to see if it can have an unanimous candidate.

“As of now, it looks like there will be an election between Barclay and Khwaja, who is ICC’s acting chairman. They are the only two who have filed nominations. Both have their share of support in board,” a senior official, privy to developments in ICC Board

In a 17-member ICC board, 16 can cast their vote (17th member is CEO Manu Sawhney without voting rights) and as per the existing rules, either Barclay or Khwaja would need 11 votes (2/3rd of board) to become the next chairman.

In case Cricket South Africa (CSA) gets suspended by the ICC over government interference, then the number of voters will come down to 15.

However, in case Barclay fails to get 11 votes, Khwaja can still continue as the acting chairman of the ICC. A lot of major Test-playing nations are expected to rally behind Barclay.

While Colin Graves, the former England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chairman was the favourite to become the next ICC chief, it was learnt that he didn’t file his nomination after it became certain that neither he is an unanimous choice nor does he have the numbers to win an election.

There is a buzz that the BCCI will lend support to Barclay against Khwaja, who is known to be close to a former ICC head, who will actively take interest in the election if it happens.

“Khwaja has some backing from at least two former ICC heads — one who is also among the current Board of Directors and another who is still believed to have control of at least five votes,” the senior official said.

The time in the interim will be used for hectic lobbying and in ensuring that one of the two (ideally Khwaja) pulls out, leading to an unanimous candidate.

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