Archives for January 2023

Mehbooba Mufti

Srinagar: Separatism is an idea which cannot be confiscated or jailed and has to be addressed through dialogue and reconciliation, the PDP has said.

It also said the Centre’s current approach is only “serving to further alienate” Kashmiris and strengthen the separatist sentiment.

In the January edition of its monthly newsletter ‘Speak Up’, which was released here on Tuesday, the party said the gulf of “mistrust” between Kashmiris and other Indians is now “wider than ever”.

“That is why on top of Aaadhar and other mandatory ID documents, Kashmiris will now be required to have a ‘JK family ID’ that ties individuals to their families so they can avail social benefits. This unique family ID will be just another way for the government to tighten its iron grip around us so they can profile and surveil Kashmiris wherever they go,” the PDP said.

The party, led by Mehbooba Mufti, said Kashmiris were nothing more than the inhabitants of a coveted piece of land – a fact that is made evident by the different land laws that are thrown us at every few months.

“The latest of these is the Land Grant Rules-2022 under which leased land will have to be surrendered to the government. This is another land grab by GOI that will uproot local businesses, hotels and other establishments,” it said.

The land will eventually be taken over by “their corporate friends” just like many airports, railways stations, LIC and other national assets, it claimed.

“These drastic changes to our land laws in the name of reforms that end owners’ rights to their properties is another attempt to disempower our citizens and take away their land,” the newsletter said.

The PDP said the figures presented in Parliament about the actual investment in Jammu and Kashmir after 2019 have “called off GOI’s bluff” about the deluge of investments that Kashmir received post the abrogation of Article 370.

“The figures for the last year were less than half of what we received in 2017-18. Contrary to GOI’s false assertions, the abrogation was not the panacea to our problems. Despite leaving no stone unturned, having unleashed every government agency and using every anti-terror law possible, GOI’s thirst for vengeance has not been quenched,” it claimed.

The party said the measures to deal with Kashmir are only becoming more stringent with time as properties worth hundreds of crores that belonged to Jamaat-e-Islami have been seized by the State Investigation Agency (SIA) on the pretext of cracking down on separatism.

“But separatism is an idea and it can’t be confiscated or jailed,” the PDP said.

The party said separatism has to be addressed through dialogue and reconciliation.

“However, through their current approach, GOI is only serving to further alienate Kashmiris and strengthen the separatist sentiment,” it added.

While the Centre claims to be following former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayjee’s footsteps in Kashmir, “this statement couldn’t be further from the truth”, it charged.

“Unfortunately, the chances of this government realizing Vajpayjee’s vision for Kashmir and engaging in dialogue are about the same as the dog eating your homework,” the party said.

Referring to the recent encounter in Sidhra area of Jammu in which four militants were killed, the PDP said it has “exposed false claims” of end of militancy in Jammu and Kashmir.

“The recent encounter in Sidhra, if it was an encounter at all, has exposed false claims of the end of militancy in J-K which has now spread to the Jammu region that was relatively more peaceful. And now another heartbreaking incident at Dongri where six people including two children were killed,” it said.

Erode/Chennai:Congress MLA from Erode East constituency in Tamil Nadu and son of former Union minister E V K S Elangovan, E Thirumahan Everaa, died on Wednesday following illness, the party said. He was 46.

The MLA is the great-grandson of rational leader E V Ramasamy ‘Periyar.’ The legislator is survived by his wife and a daughter.

TNCC President K S Alagiri condoled his party colleague’s death and expressed his sympathies with Elangovan, a former chief of the Congress’ state unit.

In a condolence message, Alagiri expressed shock and anguish over Everaa’s demise and hailed him as a progressive youngster. Everaa died following illness, he added.

“All of 46, his demise is an irreparable loss to the Congress,” Alagiri said.

PMK founder Dr S Ramadoss also condoled Everaa’s death.

Sonia Gandhi

New Delhi: Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi was admitted to Ganga Ram Hospital here on Wednesday for routine check-up, sources said.

Her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra accompanied her to the hospital, they said.

According to them, Sonia Gandhi has been suffering from a respiratory infection.

Sources added that Sonia Gandhi has been unwell since Tuesday which is why Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had returned to Delhi after walking seven kilometres in the Bharat Jodo Yatra that entered Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday evening.

The Congress’ Bharat Jodo Yatra resumed its journey at 6 am on Wednesday after halting for the night at Mavikalan in Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat.

Priyanka Gandhi did not, however, join Rahul Gandhi at the yatra’s resumption. She is likely to join after noon, party sources said.

New Delhi: Over 5.7 crore Indians are affected by serious fungal diseases, 10 per cent of which are from potentially deadly mold infections, according to a review of over 400 published research articles.

Fungal disease is frequent in India, but its incidence and prevalence are unclear. This review is the first to define the frequency or burden of various fungal infections in the country.

Researchers from All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, AIIMS Kalyani, West Bengal and PGIMER, Chandigarh, along with The University of Manchester, UK, estimate that 57,250,826 (over 5.7 crore) — or 4.4 per cent of India’s population — are likely to be affected.

“The total burden due to fungal diseases is huge but underappreciated,” said Animesh Ray of AIIMS Delhi, the lead author of the article.

“While tuberculosis affects less than three million people in a year in India, the number of Indians affected by fungal disease are several times higher,” Ray said.

The review, published in the journal Open Forum Infectious Diseases, found that vaginal thrush — or yeast infection of vagina — affected around 2.4 crore women of reproductive age, with repeated attacks.

Hair fungal infection — known as tinea capitis — in school-age children affected a similar number. It causes a painful infected scalp and leaves many with hair loss, according to the study.

Major contributors to death were mold infections of lungs and sinuses, affecting over 250,000 (2.5 lakh) people, the researchers said.

Another 1,738,400 (over 17 lakh) people had chronic aspergillosis — an infection of respiratory system caused by a type of mold — and there were 35 lakh people with serious allergic lung mold disease, they said.

The review shows that over 10 lakh people are thought to have potentially blinding fungal eye disease, and nearly two lakh had mucormycosis, so called “Black mold’.

This total burden of serious fungal infections is over 10 times the annual incidence of tuberculosis in India, indicating an enormous population of patients affected by fungal diseases, the researchers said.

Professor David Denning from The University of Manchester and Global Action For Fungal Disease noted that there have been major diagnostic improvements in recent years, with public health services in India catching up with private hospitals in terms of capability.

“However, fungal disease continues to be threat to public health and a cause of significant morbidity and mortality representing a considerable socioeconomic burden to those who are infected by them,” Denning said.

“And there remain large parts of India with limited diagnostic capability, as evidenced by our inability to estimate some important diseases such as histoplasmosis and fungal asthma in children,” he added.

New Delhi: The CBI has booked an assistant divisional engineer posted at Central Railway in Nagpur for allegedly amassing assets worth Rs 1.62 crore in six years, which are disproportionate to his known sources of income, officials said.

In its FIR registered on Tuesday, the probe agency alleged that Awadh Bihari Chaturvedi, while posted as an assistant divisional engineer (south), Central Railway Bhusawal and Nagpur, indulged in “corrupt and illegal practices” between January 1, 2016, and March 31, 2022.

It claimed that during the period, Chaturvedi amassed over Rs 1.62 crore illicit assets, which is 219 per cent more than his known sources of income.

The agency has invoked provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act against the official.

The CBI has alleged that Chaturvedi, who started as a junior engineer in 1994, had assets of Rs 86.89 lakh in 2016, which spiralled to over Rs 2.72 crore in March 2022.

By computing his assets and liabilities, the CBI deduced that he had amassed Rs 1.62 crore, which he could not satisfactorily account for.

Etawah (UP): A 32-year-old woman died after she was allegedly thrown off the third-floor of a building by her husband following a dispute over some issue, police said on Tuesday.

The incident took place late Sunday night in the Kotwal area, they said.

Rajeev Kumar, a teacher in a private school, threw his wife down from the third-floor of the house. She suffered serious injuries and was rushed to a hospital where she was declared as brought dead, Superintendent of Police (City) Kapil Dev Singh said.

According to the eight-year-old daughter of the deceased, her father came to her mother’s room and started quarreling with her over some issue. He then dragged her while holding her throat and threw her down the building, Singh said.

The body has been sent for postmortem, he said, adding the accused is absconding.