Archives for 2021

They also allegedly demanded Rs 5 lakh for getting a government job for her husband and forced her to leave her job, the official said quoting the woman’s complaint.

THANE: Thane police have registered an FIR against a woman’s husband, in-laws and five other people from Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district for allegedly harassing her, an official said on Monday.

According to the 27-year-old Kalyan-based woman, the accused, including two persons who facilitated her alliance, allegedly harassed her between June 2019 and March 2020 over various domestic issues, including her failure to cook non- vegetarian food and inability to conceive, he said.

They also allegedly demanded Rs 5 lakh for getting a government job for her husband and forced her to leave her job, the official said quoting the woman’s complaint.

She also alleged that those who facilitated her alliance did not inform that her husband had an affair with a woman before the marriage and was addicted to liquor, he said.

Based on the woman’s complaint, the Kolshewadi police registered the FIR on Saturday under Indian Penal Code Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 498-A (cruelty), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention).

No arrest has been made so far, the official said.

However, the classes will operate only at half the strength of the total students and other protocols of coronavirus have to be followed strictly.

PATNA: Educational institutions including schools, colleges, universities, coaching institutes will reopen in Bihar from Monday after a gap of over nine months since the outbreak of COVID pandemic

Slide in number of coronavirus cases and high recovery rate of 97.61 per cent in the state seem to have boosted the confidence to resume studies physically in the educational institutions.

However, the classes will operate only at half the strength of the total students and other protocols of coronavirus have to be followed strictly, Education Department Principal Secretary Sanjay Kumar told PTI on Sunday.

As per the health departments bulletin, the state had till Saturday recorded 2,53,651 COVID-19 cases out of which 2,47,579 people have recovered from the contagion, thus taking its recovery rate to 97.
61 per cent.

The state has 4669 active cases with COVID-19 death toll mounting to 1403, the bulletin said.

The state government has issued a list of COVID-19 safety guidelines for students and staff to follow in the schools, colleges and other education institutions resuming operation from Monday.

Notably, the decision to reopen educational institutions including schools, both government and private, for class IX to XII from January 4, 2021 was taken at a meeting of Crisis Management Group (CMG) on December 18, 2020.

The schools, which will open for class IX to XII, will be run with only 50 per cent strength in order to maintain social distancing in the classrooms besides wearing masks on the campus.

“Wearing mask for all school students on the campus has been made mandatory without which they will not be allowed to enter the premises. Besides, classes from IX to XII will be run with 50 per cent strength in order to ensure that social distancing is maintained inside the classrooms.”

“This means only half the strength of a class will join physical session at a time,” Kumar said.

Two masks each will be distributed among the school children, he said and added that teaching faculty will be made aware about the COVID-19 guidelines to be followed in the classroom.

The institutes management will ensure and maintain cleanliness and sanitation on their campuses, Kumar said while adding that “school authorities will keep a tab on whether any student is suffering from fever or having any symptoms of the virus.” 

The medical examination of students will be conducted on “random” basis in government schools, the Principal Secretary said.

The coaching centres will have to submit a plan on starting physical classes while maintaining social distancing inside the classrooms to the regional officer and seek prior permissions from him, sources said.

The Bihar government had on March 13, 2020 announced the closure of all schools, colleges, coaching institutes, zoos and public parks till March 31 as a precautionary measure against coronavirus pandemic.

The educational institutions remained closed since the state government enforced a statewide lockdown on March 22, 2020 followed by the centres nationwide lockdown announced on March 25, 2020.

The educational centres remained closed following the rising numbers of COVID cases.

Earlier, the state govenrment had announced to reopen schools from classes IX to XII from September 28, 2020 but due to rising COVID-19 cases the schools were remained shut.

After reviewing the situation and obtaining proper feedback on how things went during the past 15 days, the government will take a call on resuming physical classes for the students of class VIII and below on January 18, the Principal Secretary said.

The miscreants indulging in vandalism have been instigated and aided by vested interests and our business rivals, it said

MUMBAI: Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), through its subsidiary Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, in a petition mentioned to be filed in Punjab and Haryana High Court today, has sought urgent intervention of Government authorities to bring a complete stop to illegal acts of vandalism by miscreants, said RIL.

These acts of violence have endangered the lives of thousands of its employees and caused damage and disruption to the vital communications infrastructure, sales and service outlets run by its subsidiaries in the two states, RIL said in a media statement.

The miscreants indulging in vandalism have been instigated and aided by vested interests and our business rivals. Taking advantage of the ongoing farmers’ agitation near the national capital, these vested interests have launched an incessant, malicious and motivated vilification campaign against Reliance, which has absolutely no basis in truth, it said.

The falsehood of the campaign becomes crystal clear from the following irrefutable facts, which we have placed before the Honourable High Court. These facts establish that Reliance has nothing whatsoever to do with the three farm laws currently debated in the country, and in no way benefits from them. As such, the sole nefarious purpose of linking the name of Reliance to these laws is to harm our businesses and damage our reputation, said RIL.

“Reliance Retail Limited (RRL), Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL), or any other affiliate of our parent company, i.e., Reliance Industries Limited have not done any ‘corporate’ or ‘contract’ farming in the past, and have absolutely no plans to enter this business,” RIL said in its statement.

Neither Reliance nor any of our subsidiaries has purchased any agricultural land, directly or indirectly, in Punjab/Haryana or anywhere else in India, for the purpose of “corporate” or “contract” farming. We have absolutely no plans to do so, it added.

Reliance Retail is an unmatched leader in organised retail business in India. It retailsproducts of all categories including food grains and staples, fruits and vegetables, items of daily use, apparels, medicines, electronic products of various brands belonging to independent manufacturers and suppliers in the country. It does not purchase any food grains directly from farmers, according to RIL.

It has never entered into long-term procurement contracts to gain unfair advantage over farmers or sought that its suppliers buy from farmers at less than remunerative prices, nor will it ever do so.

“We at Reliance have immense gratitude and the greatest respect for India’s kisans, who are the ‘ANNA DATA’ of 1.3 billion Indians. Reliance and its affiliates are committed to doing everything to enrich and empower them. As customers of their services, we believe in building a strong and equal partnership with Indian farmers on the basis of shared prosperity, inclusive development and an equitable New India,” said RIL.

Therefore, Reliance and its affiliates fully share and support the aspiration of Indianfarmers to get a fair and profitable price on a predictable basis for what they produce with exemplary hard work, innovation and dedication. Reliance seeks significant augmentation of their incomes on a sustainable basis, and pledges to work towards this goal.

Indeed, we shall insist on our suppliers to strictly abide by the Minimum Support Price(MSP) mechanism, and/or any other mechanism for a remunerative price for farmproduce, as may be determined and implemented by the government, RIL added.

Far from hurting the interests of Indian farmers, the businesses of Reliance have actually benefited them and the Indian public at large. 

The functionaries of these parties say DMK’s move to rope in Owaisi into Tamil Nadu political space is unwanted.  

TIRUCHY: DMK has extended an invitation to AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi for a meeting in Chennai in January first week.

Sources said this move of DMK has disappointed the functionaries of other Islamic parties in the state. 

DMK’s minorities welfare wing secretary Dr. D Masthan along with AIMIM’s state president Vakkil Ahamed went to Hyderabad on Friday to invite Owaisi for the meeting in Chennai. 

Owaisi was strongly criticized and blamed for the defeat of RJD in the Bihar elections.   

However, The DMK in a late-night statement said it had only invited its alliance partners. No other parties had been invited, the DMK said

Many of the Muslim people in Tamil Nadu also came down heavily on Owaisi when the Bihar election results were being declared and charged him for the split in the opposition votes that paved way for the BJP alliance emerging victorious. 

The criticism was obvious as the social media platforms were flooded with posts in Tamil against Owaisi the next few days after the Bihar election results. Many such posts alleged Owaisi as the B team for the BJP. 

On the other hand, there were some voices too in support of Owaisi. 

In this situation, the functionaries of the other Muslim parties have been seeing the act of the DMK to rope in Owaisi into Tamil Nadu’s political space as unwanted.  

As the news about the invitation spread on social media platforms, it has caused abuzz among the Muslim community widely.   

Many opine that Owaisi’s presence in the DMK’s alliance will not be of any use in the upcoming elections as the AIMIM does not have any base here.

Noor Muhammed, a resident of Tiruchy, said: “Owaisi definitely will not help in getting more votes from the Muslim community to the DMK alliance. But his introduction of Tamil Nadu politics may bring down the morale of the cadre of other Islamic parties in the state. This move of the DMK is uncalled for.”
 
Sources said that the DMK’s invite to Owaisi has already upset many of the grass-root level workers of its coalition parties like IUML and Manithaneya Makkal Katchi.

The PMC Bank has been put under restrictions, including limiting withdrawals, by the RBI, following the unearthing of a Rs 4,355-crore scam

NEW DELHI:The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday told the Delhi High Court that to avoid delays in the process of withdrawals from scam-hit PMC Bank on hardship grounds, the authority for approving such requests was delegated to the bank.

The submission by the country’s central bank was made in an affidavit filed in the high court in response to the court’s observation that instead of leaving it to the PMC Bank to decide which emergencies cited by its depositors were to be considered for disbursal of Rs 5 lakh to them, the RBI should have been taking the call.

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan had said that since the RBI has imposed withdrawal restrictions on the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank, the central bank should have been the one taking the decision on allowing disbursals on hardship grounds.

“The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was to apply its mind and not act as a post office. If you (RBI) have imposed the restrictions, then you have to apply your mind. You cannot accept what PMC Bank says as gospel truth.

You cannot leave it to PMC bank to decide to whom it will disburse funds,” the high court had said during a hearing on December 1 last year.

The PMC Bank has been put under restrictions, including limiting withdrawals, by the RBI, following the unearthing of a Rs 4,355-crore scam.

The observations came while hearing an application by consumer rights activist Bejon Kumar Misra seeking directions to the RBI to consider other needs of PMC Bank depositors such as education, weddings and dire financial position, not just serious medical emergencies as being done at present.

The application was filed through advocate Shashank Deo Sudhi in Misra’s main PIL seeking directions to the RBI to ease the moratorium on withdrawals from the PMC Bank during the coronavirus pandemic.

In its affidavit filed pursuant to the December 1 hearing, the RBI has said that it had in January last year revised withdrawal guidelines on hardship grounds for all banks by permitting withdrawals up to a ceiling of Rs 5 lakh for treatment of critical life threatening ailments.

“Further RBI has also clarified to the bank (PMC) that COVID-19 may be considered as critical life threatening ailments and payments under the revised guidelines may be made in such cases,” it has said.

It has also said that the PMC bank has invited expressions of interest (EoI) from eligible investors for investment or equity participation for its reconstruction and the last date for submission of EoI was December 15, 2020.

The PMC Bank has informed RBI that four proposals were received in response to the EoI and they were being examined with regard to their viability and feasibility which would take some time, the central bank has said in its affidavit.

The matter is expected to come up for hearing on January 4.

The court on May 28 had asked the Centre, the RBI and the PMC Bank to appreciate the difficulties faced by the depositors on withdrawals during COVID-19 pandemic.

NEW DELHI: Former Union home minister Buta Singh died at the AIIMS here on Saturday morning.

He was 86.

The senior Congress leader was in a coma since October last year when he was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) after he suffered a brain hemorrhage.

His family said Singh died around 5.30 am.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi have condoled his demise.