Archives for October 2021

Uttar Pradesh minister Upendra Tiwari

Lucknow: Dismissing criticism over the rising fuel prices, Uttar Pradesh minister Upendra Tiwari on Thursday said 95 per cent people have no use for petrol.

Tiwari also argued that fuel prices had not really risen in real terms when the per capita income now is compared with that in 2014, referring to the year when a BJP-led government first came to power at the Centre.

Today, there are just a handful of people who travel in four-wheel vehicles and use petrol. At present, 95 per cent people don’t need petrol, Tiwari told reporters in Jalaun.

Higher fuel costs, however, impact virtually every citizen. For example, they lead to an increase in the price of all commodities — including foodgrain, fruit and vegetables — that are transported from one part of the country to another.

The minister’s remark comes when petrol prices have crossed Rs 100 per litre in most parts of the country, and diesel hovers close to that mark.

He claimed that the opposition doesn’t have any real issue to attack the government.

You see the data before 2014. What is the per capita income after the formation of the Modi and the Yogi governments? he said, referring to the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh.

Today, the per capita income is double,” he claimed.

He also referred to free schooling and the coronavirus vaccination offered by the government.

Puttur: In yet another case of moral policing in Dakshina Kannada district unidentified people on Thursday evening assaulted two people including one student here in Puttur.

The victims have reportedly been hospitalized after the assault. They have been identified as Mohammed Ziyad (17), a student of Government PU College, and Mohammed Ejaz (20). Ziyad reportedly is a resident of Chikkamudnur village while Ejaz is a resident of Jedekallu.

According to the reports, Ziyad was on his way home after finishing his college hours, when a two-wheeler rammed into him after which he fell on the road. When he confronted the two-wheeler rider, the rider and pillion rider reportedly assaulted Ziyad.

When Ejaz tried to intervene, they further assaulted Ejaz and fled from the scene. The two victim youngsters were later taken to hospital where they are being treated.

Puttur Police has registered a case in this regard and is investigating the matter.

New Delhi: India recorded the milestone of administering one billion doses of COVID vaccines across the country. Pro-government social media users were elated at the country hit the one billion doses mark and soon hashtag #OneBillionDose was trending across social media.

However, close to 90% of the one billion doses administered in the country has come from Serum Institute which has as of Monday 18 October, has delivered 86.89 crore doses of its vaccine COVISHIELD, which is more than 36.69 crores more doses than what the company was initially expected to deliver.

NDTV Group Editor, Sreenivasan Jain in a tweet questioned the development adding that has any other comparable country to India has banked so heavily on a single manufacturer?

Taking to his official Twitter account, Jain wrote “As we hit the #OneBillionDoses landmark, noteworthy that close to 90% of that number has come from a single company – Serum Institute. Genuine question: has the vaccination programme of any other comparable country banked so heavily on a single manufacturer?”

One of the users supporting Jain’s question asserted that it was a monopoly and that it was not good for the market for an economy like India.

In May 2021, member Niti Aayog, VK Paul had said between August and December the country would get 216 crore doses, of which SII’s contribution would be 75 crore Covishield doses, Bharat Biotech would make 55 crore doses of Covaxin and Russian Sputnik vaccine would make available 15.6 crore vaccine doses. But these targets were scaled down by June end and as per the government’s affidavit in the Supreme Court, SII was to produce 50 crore doses of Covishield, Bharat Biotech was to produce 40 crore doses of Covaxin, and 10 crore doses by Sputnik.

SII delivered 86.69 crore vaccines which is 36.69 crores more doses than committed. Bharat Biotech has delivered 11.28 crore doses of Covaxin compared to the 40 crores expected from them. Russia’s Sputnik has made a minor contribution of 44.88 lakh vaccines as against 10 crore doses planned from the Russian vaccine maker

Ghaziabad: The BKU, whose supporters and office-bearers led by Rakesh Tikait are camping on the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border in Ghazipur since November 2020, on Thursday said the barriers at the protest site have been put by the Delhi police and not farmers.

The influential farmers’ outfit, Bhartiya Kisan Union, which is part of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), also trashed reports of vacating the Ghazipur border that emerged in the wake of a Supreme Court observation counselling farmers to lift their blockade from roads.

Farmers have the right to protest but they cannot keep roads blocked indefinitely. You may have a right to agitate in any manner but roads should not be blocked like this. People have the right to go on roads but it cannot be blocked, an apex court bench of justices S K Kaul and M M Sundresh said.

The bench made the observation while hearing a public interest lawsuit by a Noida resident Monicca Agarwal complaining of delays in daily commute due to the protesting farmers blocking roads.

The court has asked farmer unions to respond to the PIL within three weeks.

Hundreds of farmers are encamping on the Delhi borders at Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur since November 2020, demanding the repeal of three farm laws and a legal guarantee to retain minimum support price for crops.

Key roads connecting Delhi with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have remained impacted ever since the protests began amid the continued stalemate between the Centre and protesting farmers over the central laws.

We respect the Supreme Court’s directive. We would also like to make it clear that it was the Delhi Police which had set up barricades at the protest site. We also demand that the Delhi police should remove them now for public welfare, Saurabh Upadhyay, a BKU spokesperson, told PTI.

Whether Delhi or Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, nowhere have farmers barricaded any roads. Farmers do not have the power to barricade road but police do, Upadhyay said.

On purported images and videos of social media claiming removal of tents at the Delhi-Meerut Expressway (NH-9) in Ghazipur, the BKU office-bearer said such reports were false rumours.

There is nothing like that. We have just removed one tent which was located on a service lane towards Delhi on the flyover on NH 9 above the UP Gate. The barricading put up by Delhi Police still exists on the lane, he said.

Farmers are going nowhere from the border until the demands are met. The onus of removing barricades is on the police, he added.

Asked if farmers would continue to sit on the expressway, Upadhyay said even the Supreme Court has observed that peaceful protest is a right of citizens.

Mumbai: A special NDPS court here on Thursday extended the judicial custody of Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, and seven others till October 30 in connection with the case of seizure of banned drugs from a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast earlier this month.

Their judicial custody was extended by Special Judge V V Patil, designated to hear cases related to the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, though they were not produced in the court.

On Wednesday, the same court had rejected the bail pleas of Aryan Khan and two other co-accused in the case.

Besides Aryan Khan (23), the other accused whose judicial custody was extended by the court are Arbaaz Merchant, Munmun Dhamecha, Nupur Sarika, Ismeet Singh, Mohak Jaswal, Vikrant Chhoker and Gomit Chopra. Their current judicial custody was till October 21.

The previous day, besides Aryan Khan, lodged in the Arthur Road jail in central Mumbai, the NDPS court had rejected the bail pleas of his friend Arbaaz Merchant (26) and fashion model Munmun Dhamecha (28).

While denying bail to the trio, the special court had noted that the WhatsApp chats of Aryan Khan prima facie revealed he was indulging in “illicit drug activities on a regular basis” and that he was in touch with drug peddlers.

The court also held that Aryan Khan knew his friend and co-accused Arbaaz Merchant was in possession of drugs and hence this amounts to conscious possession even though the NCB (Narcotics Control Bureau) had made no recovery of drugs from him.

Aryan Khan, Merchant and Dhamecha have moved the Bombay High court for bail and their pleas will be heard on October 26.

Meanwhile, the special court on Thursday heard the arguments on bail pleas of three other accused- Achit Kumar, the alleged drug supplier to Aryan Khan, Manish Rajgaria and Avin Sahu.

Advocate Taraq Sayed, appearing for Rajgaria, submitted that his client was arrested right after the cruise ship came back from Goa in connection with alleged recovery of 2.4 grams of ganja, “a nano-small quantity”.

However, he argued that ‘panchnama’ doesn’t mention from where the contraband was allegedly recovered.

Citing the last year’s drugs case related to actor Rhea Chakraborty, Sayed said even in that matter 33 people were arrested, but not all were connected.

He said there can be a connection between people, but the NCB should show their link with drugs.

Sahu’s lawyer Sana Khan claimed nothing has been recovered from her client. The only allegation against Sahu was that he consumed ganja twice while on the cruise, she said.

While making submissions for Kumar, his lawyer Ashwin Thool claimed that Kumar’s custody was illegal as he wasn’t produced before a court within 24 hours of detention.

Citing an application of Kumar’s father, Thool argued he was illegally detained by the NCB from 5.14 pm on October 5.

As per the NCB, he was formally arrested on October 6 and produced before the court the next day. He also relied on a TV report where there is a video of him being taken into the NCB office on October 5.

Refering to the panchnama, Thool argued it is a “fabricated and concocted document”, and cannot be relied upon.

The lawyer argued that Kumar has nothing to do with party on the cruise.

On the probe agency’s claim that he was part of drug network, Thool argued “They say I am part of a ganja network. Have they got even one person to say that a one paisa was taken or given to me? At least one transaction, no.”

The hearing of the bail pleas will continue on October 22.

The NCB has arrested as many as 20 people in connection with the case until now. Further investigation into the matter was on.

BENGALURU: Kannada film actor Sanjjanaa Galrani, accused in the 2020 Sandalwood drug case, has filed a complaint against her ‘best friend’ and a co-accused Rahul Tonse and two others of cheating her of returns from her investments in his casino business in Colombo and Goa. Sanjjanaa and Tonse were among those arrested by the city police in the drug case in September last year. She was later released on bail.

Now, Sanjjanaa has alleged in her complaint that Tonse had lured her into investing in his casino business, but had refused to pay her the returns. She has also accused Tonse — the prime accused — of misusing the money invested by her for “illegal activities” to make profits, while spreading rumours to defame her.

A senior police officer said Sanjjanaa had approached the court after she was cheated by her friends. Based on the court’s directions, the Indiranagar police registered a case against Tonse, and the two others — Ramakrishna and Rajeshwari, charging them under IPC Sections pertaining to cheating and criminal intimidation.

Sanjjanaa has alleged that Tonse, in November 2018, had claimed to be the managing director of the group of casinos while trying to convince her to invest in the business and offered her big returns.

Sanjjanaa had invested in the business by transferring money to Tonse’s account and also into those of his friends. Later, the accused allegedly refused to share the returns despite her repeated requests. She said she trusted Tonse as a ‘brother’ and even transferred money into the account of Tonse’s parents, who too allegedly convinced her to invest in the business.

“It was my hard-earned money. That’s why I demand legal action against them,” she reportedly told the court. The police officer said they have sought phone call records and bank account details of the transactions as part of the investigation, before taking any action against the accused. has decided to float short-term tenders to import Covid vaccines from other countries, to inoculate people in the age group of 18-44.

The announcement was made shortly after the Madras High Court posed questions to the government in this regard. Hearing a suo motu petition on Covid-19 management in the State, the court wondered whether the government had decided to issue any global tenders

LUCKNOW: After promising 40 per cent tickets to women in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections next year, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra announced on Thursday that all class 12 pass girls will be given a smartphone while all graduate girls will get an electronic scooty if her party forms a government in the state.

The Congress national general secretary and in charge of party affairs in UP also attached with her tweet a video of a group of school/college girls interacting with mediapersons, saying they got pictures clicked with her.

One of the students is seen saying that Priyanka Gandhi asked them if they had phones for clicking selfies.

“We said we neither have phones nor are they allowed in colleges. She then asked us if she should get it announced that girls should get phones and we said what more can we ask for our safety,” the student said in the video.

“She asked us to study hard. I want that she continues to meet and talk to us like this,” another student is seen saying in the video.

The girls said Priyanka Gandhi has also told them about the Congress slogan “ladki hoon, lad sakti hoon”.

On Tuesday, the Congress leader had announced that her party will give tickets to 40 per cent women in the coming assembly elections in UP to make women, roughly constituting about half the electorate, a full-fledged partner in power.

The move, she claimed, is aimed at empowering every woman who wants justice, change and unity of her state and also against the efforts to divide them into caste and religion that is stopping them from emerging as a force.