Archives for April 2022

MUMBAI:  In the sedition case involving the Rana couple, the Mumbai police on Friday filed an affidavit before a special judge alleging that the couple was part of a larger conspiracy of the BJP to topple the Maha Vikas Aghadi government. 

Independent MLA Ravi Rana and his wife Navneet Rana, a Lok Sabha MP, recently announced recitation of Hanuman Chalisa outside Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s residence. They were arrested on sedition and other charges.ADVERTISEMENT

Opposing bail for the couple, public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat on Friday submitted a 19-page affidavit of the Mumbai police against the Rana couple. The affidavit said the couple faced serious charges of forgery and attempt to murder. The court will hear the bail application on April 30. 

The affidavit claimed that the alleged conspiracy was meant to create a law and order situation. “Some BJP leaders who have been deprived of power are strongly opposing the administrative policies of the present government and criticizing Shiv Sena for their stand on Hindutva. Therefore, political parties including independent MLA and Lok Sabha MP are raising a non-issue alleging that the Chief Minister is against Hindutva,” said the affidavit. 

CHANDIGARH:  With an unprecedented heat wave this April, forest fires in Himachal Pradesh have also seen a spurt. On an average, the state has seen 24 forest fires daily this month with a total of 645 blazes reported till Wednesday. 

A total of 4,977 hectares of area have been affected by the fires, which have caused maximum damage to pine trees that constitute about 15 per cent of the total forest cover in Himachal.  The forest fire season in Himachal usually lasts from April 1 to June 30. This year, the fires started two weeks early due to a sudden rise in temperature and prolonged dry spell, a senior official of the department said.

“Some 9,000 forest fire volunteers have been roped in to help the forest department staff to report and contain the fires. Home guard volunteers and ITBP and police personnel also are extending help. We have identified 150 most vulnerable forest ranges and are taking extra precautions there. The Forest Fire Alert Messaging System is being updated quarterly,” the official said.

Forest officials claim that most fire incidents are caused by human negligence and start in and around habitations. Specific instructions have been issued to all the field officers to ensure publicity material is distributed to people to make them aware about consequences of forest fires.

Environmentalists have suggested that a policy should be framed and the inflammable pine should be replaced with broad-leafed trees in the lower hills. “While most reports put the blame of fires on rising mercury and rural miscreants, much of the blame also lies with the afforestation policies, which till the 1980s pushed pine monocultures,” said environmentalist Manshi Asher. 

NEW DELHI: India saw a single day rise of 3,688 new coronavirus infections taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 4,30,75,864, while the active cases increased to 18,684, the government said on Saturday.

The active cases constituted 0.04 per cent of the total infections, while the national recovery rate was recorded at 98.74 per cent, the health ministry said.

An increase of 883 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of last 24 hours. The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.74 per cent and weekly positivity rate at 0.66 per cent, the data said.

The number of people who have recovered from the disease has increased to 4,25,33,377, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.22 per cent.

The number of doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 188.89 crore.

India’s COVID-19 tally crossed the two crore-mark on May 4 and three crore on June 23 last year.

Out of 50 fatalities, 45 were reported from Kerala, two each from Delhi and Maharashtra, and one from Uttar Pradesh.

Of total deaths so far, 1,47,842 have been reported from Maharashtra, 69,011 from Kerala, 40,099 from Karnataka, 38,025 from Tamil Nadu, 26,174 from Delhi, 23,507 from Uttar Pradesh, and 21,201 from West Bengal, among other states.

The health ministry has 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.

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab government on Saturday suspended mobile internet and SMS services, except voice calls, in Patiala district a day after clashes between two groups over an anti-Khalistan march left four people injured.

The order to suspend the services was issued by the home affairs and justice department and heavy police security was deployed at the site of the clashes outside the Kali Mata temple in Patiala.ADVERTISEMENT

“In exercise of power conferred upon me by virtue of temporary suspension of telecom services (public emergency or public safety) rules, 2017, I Anurag Verma, principal secretary, home affairs and justice, do hereby order suspension of the mobile internet services (2G/3G/45/CDMA), all SMS services and all dongle services etc provided on mobile networks except voice calls in the territorial jurisdiction of the district of Patiala from 9:30 am to 6 pm on April 30,” the order read.

Four people were injured as the two groups clashed and hurled stones at each other on Friday and police fired in the air to bring the situation under control.

New Delhi: The Left parties staged a protest here on Thursday against the Delhi civic bodies’ anti-encroachment drives, alleging that the ruling BJP and the RSS are pursuing “destructive bulldozer politics” and creating an environment of hate in the name of removing illegal constructions.

Nearly 100 people belonging to the Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) gathered at Jantar Mantar, demanding the Centre to put a stop to such activities.

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, party leader Brinda Karat and CPI-ML politburo member Kavita Krishnan were present in the demonstration.

“The BJP and the RSS are creating an environment of hate in the name of removing encroachments in Delhi. We have seen this happening in Jahangirpuri and now they are planning to conduct similar activities at other locations in the national capital too. We are demanding the government to end such practices, CPI-ML Delhi secretary Ravi Rai said.

The BJP-ruled South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) on Tuesday cracked down on encroachers in all its four zones and removed temporary structures and illegal hoardings, and impounded vehicles, freeing a nearly five km road stretch, officials said.

The move came after Delhi BJP chief Adesh Gupta wrote to mayors of South Delhi and East Delhi corporations on April 20, seeking removal of encroachments by Rohingya, Bangladeshis and anti-social elements” in their areas.

Last week, an anti-encroachment drive conducted by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) in Jahangirpuri area, which witnessed violence between two communities on April 16, had drawn widespread criticism. The Supreme Court had to intervene to stop the demolition drive there.

Chennai : The Tamil Nadu government on Thursday hit back at the Centre and reiterated its earlier demand to reduce the cess and surcharges levied on fuel prices and merge them with basic tax rates so that states receive their rightful share from the union taxes.

Minister for Finance and Human Resources Management Palanivel Thiaga Rajan said the taxes on fuel prices levied by the Centre continue to be “exorbitant” and it was neither ‘fair’ nor ‘feasible’ for the State to further reduce it.

The remarks by the Minister were in response to the comments made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday that the Centre reduced excise duty to lower the burden of fuel prices on November 2021, while some states reduced it, some did not provide that benefit to the people.

Modi in his meeting with Chief Ministers had said Maharashtra, West Bengal, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu did not heed to its request and public continue to be burdened.

Rajan, in a statement on Thursday, referred to the Tamil Nadu government’s cut on the Value Added Tax in August 2021 resulted a relief of Rs 3 per litre soon after his party assumed office in May 2021.

Continuing his attack on the Centre that the levies on petrol increased substantially in the past seven years, Rajan said, though the revenue to the Union government increased ‘manifold’ there was no matching increase in the revenues to the states. “This is because the Union Government has increased the cess and surcharge on petrol and diesel while reducing the basic excise duty that is shareable with the states.”

The Minister said, in August 2014 the basic price of petrol was Rs 48.55 per litre while diesel it was Rs 47.27 per litre. The Central government taxes were Rs 9.48 per litre on petrol and Rs 3.57 per litre on diesel. The state government taxes were at Rs 15.67 per litre on petrol and Rs 10.25 per litre on diesel, he said.

Following the reduction of taxes by the Centre in November 2021 at Rs 5 per litre on petrol and Rs 10 per litre on diesel, the union government still levies an additional tax of Rs 18.42 per litre for petrol and Rs 18.23 per litre on diesel, he pointed out.

The Tamil Nadu government levies taxes of Rs 22.54 per litre on petrol and Rs 18.45 per litre on diesel and after the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the states have ‘lost substantial powers’ to levy their own taxes and raise revenue, he said.

The COVID-19 further burdened the state with finances being ‘severely affected’ and also incurring large-scale additional expenditure towards providing COVID relief, he said.

Noting that the GST compensation regime comes to an end by June 30 and several states including Tamil Nadu have requested the compensation to be extended, he said there was no clarity from the Centre on whether the compensation would be extended or not.

DMK have been ardent proponents of “co-operative federalism” and have been practising it from the days of (former Chief Minister) Anna, Kalaignar (the late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi) and continue to do so under present Chief Minister M K Stalin, he said.

“We have repeatedly urged the Union government to reduce the cess and surcharges being levied and merge them with the basic tax rates so that states get their rightful share from the proceeds of the union taxes,” he said.

“Given that the Union government’s taxes continue to be exorbitant, it is neither fair nor feasible for the state government to further reduce taxes. We reiterate that the sole, simple and fair approach for the Centre is to remove the levy of cess and surcharges and revert to the rates that prevailed in 2014,” he said.