Archives for January 2022

Bhopal: A minor girl was injured after some stray dogs attacked her in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal city, officials said on Sunday.

The girl, about two to three years’ old, was later rescued by a man and admitted to a hospital, they said.

The incident, which took place on Saturday evening in Bag Sewania locality, was captured on a CCTV and the footage went viral on social media platforms.

In the clip, five dogs were seen charging at the girl while she was running away in panic after being chased. The canines were seen pulling her down on the road and biting her.

A man then came to her rescue and chased away the dogs by hurling stones at them. The girl received wounds on her head and face.

She has been admitted to the government-run Hamidia Hospital, police inspector Sanjeev Chouksey said, adding that they came to know about the incident through social media.

A policeman was sent to the hospital to enquire about the girl’s identity and health. So far, no one has complained to police about the incident, he said.

The girl is two to three years’ old. She is being given proper medical treatment. She is alright,” Bhopal Municipal Corporation Commissioner KVS Choudary told PTI.

Denying that the stray dog menace has gone up in the state capital, he said the canine sterilisation programme was paused only for two-three months last year during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At least 30 to 40 dogs are being sterilised daily since over a month, he said.

Dehradun: An SIT was constituted on Sunday to look into the recently held Dharma Sansad in Haridwar where hate speeches were allegedly delivered by some participants.

A five-member Special Investigation Team has been set up to probe the matter, Garhwal DIG KS Nagnyal said.

When asked whether some arrests were also likely in connection with the case, the DIG said definitely if the investigation leads to concrete evidence.

“We have constituted an SIT. It will carry out a probe. If solid evidence against those involved is found appropriate action will be taken,” the official said.

An FIR has already been lodged against five people in the case, including Waseem Rizvi who changed his name to Jitendra Narayan Tyagi after converting to Hinduism last month, Sadhvi Annapurna, Dharamdas, a seer named Sindhu Sagar and organiser of the Sansad Yati Narasimhanand, the head priest of Dasna temple in Ghaziabad.

The BJP government in Uttarakhand is under tremendous pressure from different quarters for acting against those who delivered hate speeches against Muslims at the Dharma Sansad held in Haridwar from December 16-19.

Retired police officers, including former DGPs of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, have written to Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami describing the Sansad as a blot on Uttarakhand’s long tradition of peaceful coexistence of different religions.

Written by former Haryana DGP Vikas Narain Rai, former Uttar Pradesh DGP Vibhuti Narain Rai, former UP inspector general SR Darapuri and retired IPS Vijay Shankar Singh, the letter demands action against organisers of the event which spread fear and terror.

Muslims also took out marches in Dehradun and Haridwar on Friday and Saturday demanding immediate arrest of those who delivered the provocative speeches at the Sansad.

Mumbai: Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut on Sunday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should not call himself a ‘fakir’ now with the addition of a “Rs 12 crore” car in his cavalcade.

In his weekly column ‘Rokhthok’ in the Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamana’, Raut also praised former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru for always using an Indian-made car, and late PM Indira Gandhi for not replacing her security guards despite a threat to her life.

On December 28, media reported pictures of a Rs 12 crore car for Prime Minister Modi. A person who calls himself a fakir, a pradhan sevak, uses a foreign made car,” Raut said.

The prime minister’s security and comfort are important, but from now on, the pradhan sevak should not reiterate that he is a fakir (ascetic), the Rajya Sabha member said.

A Mercedes-Maybach S650 Guard was recently added to the prime minister’s cavalcade by the Special Protection Group.

The price quoted for a Maybach car in a section of the media is over Rs 12 crore.

However, government sources had said the new car was a replacement of the BMW used by the prime minister as the German carmaker stopped production of the vehicle.

Official sources had also said the SPG security detail has a six-year norm to replace vehicles used for the protectee and that Modi has not given any preference on which cars to use. They also said that the car costs about one-third of the price quoted in the media.

Raut on Sunday said Modi, who started ‘swadeshi’ initiatives like ‘Make in India’ and ‘Start-Up India’, is using a foreign manufactured car.

Praising Jawaharlal Nehru, the Shiv Sena’s spokesperson said the country’s first prime minister, despite security threat after the partition, always used an Indian-made Ambassador car.

He also said that (former PM) Indira Gandhi, despite a threat to her life, did not change Sikh security personnel deployed for her security. Besides, (former prime minister) Rajiv Gandhi mingled with crowd in Tamil Nadu and got killed by the LTTE, he said.

He (Rajiv Gandhi) should not have dared to mingle with the crowd. But, he did, Raut said.

Targeting the Centre over night curbs in the wake of the rise in COVID-19 cases again in parts of the country, the Sena leader said the Union government has imposed such restrictions at night, resulting in financial losses.

PM Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Samajwadi Party head Akhilesh Yadav address rallies which are attended by lakhs of people. But, the restrictions are only for the common man, Raut said.

New Delhi: The Centre has told the Supreme Court that it has decided to accept the recommendation of a three-member panel to retain the current gross annual family income limit for Economically Weaker Section (EWS) of Rs 8 lakh or less.

In its affidavit filed in a matter related to admissions for NEET-PG, the Centre said the panel has recommended that “only those families whose annual income is up to Rs 8 lakh would be eligible to get the benefit of EWS reservation”.

“I respectfully submit that the central government has decided to accept the recommendations of the committee, including the recommendation of applying the new criteria prospectively,” R Subrahmanyam, Secretary, Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, who filed the affidavit on behalf of the Centre told the top court.

The government had constituted the member committee, comprising Ajay Bhushan Pandey, former finance secretary, VK Malhotra, member secretary, ICSSR and Sanjeev Sanyal, Principal Economic Adviser to Centre, on November 30, last year as per the assurance given to the top court to revisit the criteria for determining the economically weaker sections.

The committee in its report submitted on December 31 last year to the Centre said, “The current gross annual family income limit for EWS of Rs 8 lakh or less may be retained. In other words only those families whose annual income is up to Rs 8 lakh would be eligible to get the benefit of EWS reservation.”

It said that the definition of ‘family’ and income would remain the same as those in the officer memorandum dated January 17, 2019.

The panel recommended, “EWS may, however exclude, irrespective of income, a person whose family has 5 acres of agricultural land and above. The residential asset criteria may altogether be removed.”

On the issue of applicability of criteria, the panel said that it has deliberated upon the vexed question as to from which year the criteria suggested in the report should be used, adopted and made applicable.

The panel said it found that the existing criteria (the criteria applicable prior to this report) is in use since 2019 and the question of desirability of the existing criteria and a possibility of its being revisited arose only recently in the batch of petitions related to admissions in NEET-PG.

“By the time this court started examining the said question and the central government decided to revisit the criteria by appointing this committee, the process with respect to some appointments/admissions have taken place or must have been at an irreversible and advanced stage. The existing system which is going on since 2019, if disturbed at the end or fag-end of the process would create more complications than expected both for the beneficiaries as well as for the authorities,” it said.

The panel said that in case of admissions to educational institutions, sudden adoption of new criteria inevitably and necessarily would delay the process by several months which would have an inevitable cascading effect on all future admissions and educational activities/teaching/examinations which are bound under various statutory or judicial time prescriptions.

“Under these circumstances, it is completely unadvisable and impractical to apply the new criteria (which are being recommended in this report) and change the goal post in the midst of the ongoing processes resulting in inevitable delay and avoidable complications. When the existing system is ongoing since 2019, no serious prejudice would be caused if it continues for this year as well,” the panel recommended.

It said that changing the criteria midway is also bound to result in spate of litigations in courts across the country by the people whose eligibility would change suddenly.

“The committee, therefore, after analysing the pros and cons on this issue and after giving serious consideration, recommends that the existing and ongoing criteria in every ongoing process where EWS reservation is available, be continued and the criteria recommended in this report may be made applicable from next advertisement/admission cycle,” it said.

The panel recommended that data exchange and information technology should be used more actively to verify income and assets and to improve targeting for EWS reservations and also across government schemes.

“A three-year feedback loop cycle may be used to monitor the actual outcomes of these criteria and then be used to adjust them in future,” it said.

On November 25, the Centre had told the top court that it has decided to revisit Rs 8 lakh annual income criteria for determining the EWS category for reservation in admissions and jobs, and the counselling for the NEET postgraduate medical courses will be further postponed by four weeks.

The apex court was hearing a batch of pleas filed by students challenging the Centre and Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) July 29, 2021 notices providing 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Class (OBC) and 10 per cent for EWS category in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-PG) admissions for medical courses for the current academic year.

The top court had posted the matter for further hearing on January 6.

On October 21, the top court had asked the Centre whether it would like to revisit the criteria for determining the EWS category for reservation in NEET-PG admissions.