Archives for February 2023

SRINAGAR: Amid the outcry over the imposition of property tax by the government in Jammu and Kashmir, Lt Governor Manoj Sinha on Friday said people have money for purchasing I-phone and internet but there is hue and cry over the imposition of nominal property tax.

“In small Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, where power and water fee is not being paid, there is hue and cry over the imposition of nominal house tax,” Lt Governor Manoj Sinha said while addressing a function in Jammu on Friday, adding, ” they (people) want every service but don’t want to give money for these services.”

Sinha said it is the responsibility of the government to look into the interest of the people. “But the influential people, if they don’t pay tax for the services…. for purchasing iPhone, there is money; for using internet data, there is money and for playing games and videos throughout the day, there is money.”

“I think people need to think over it and through consultations create a road for moving forward,” he said.

The administration has issued a notification announcing the imposition of property tax in Municipalities and Municipal Councils of J&K from April 1. The residential and non-residential properties have been included in the collection of the property tax.  

The government has said small houses having built-up area up to 1000 square feet have been exempted from property tax and maintained that the proportion of taxes is considerably lesser in J&K than that levied in other parts of the country.

The government’s decision to impose property has evoked strong resentment from the public, political parties, civil society groups, lawyers, traders etc.

Political parties have asked the Lt Governor administration not to take policy decisions and leave them for the popular and elected government.

Jammu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) president Arun Gupta said instead of giving relief to the public, the government is imposing the property tax.

“Jammu chamber strongly opposed the imposition of property tax.  The entire Jammu wants the withdrawal of the property tax and if the property tax is not withdrawn, then the Chamber will be forced to call for Jammu bandh, he said.

Jammu Bar Association president M K Bhadwaj has threatened street agitation in both Kashmir and Jammu if the property tax was not withdrawn.

The lawyers in Jammu stayed away from the work in courts for a day and staged protests to demand the revocation of the property tax.

NEW DELHI:  Both the AAP and the BJP have registered complaints with Delhi Police following clashes between councillors in the MCD House, officials said on Saturday.

The police have received complaints from both parties and further action will be taken accordingly, a senior police officer said.

A fight broke out in the MCD House as BJP and AAP members kicked, punched and pushed one another amid shouting after Mayor Shelly Oberoi declared one vote invalid in the election to the key six-member standing committee on Friday.

During the ruckus, which forced the adjournment of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) House proceedings till February 27, a councillor, Ashok Manu, collapsed. He was rushed to a nearby hospital.

Both the BJP and the AAP blamed each other for the incident that forced the mayor to adjourn the House.

One video showed councillors from both parties hurling water bottles and apples at each other inside the House while in another, women councillors could be seen hitting each other.

Karachi: A minor Pakistani girl who went missing from her home in Hyderabad city in the southern Sindh province last September and was arrested from Bengaluru in January has returned back, her family said on Tuesday.

The girl, identified as Iqra Jeevani, entered India in September through the porous India-Nepal border. She married a 25-year-old security guard from Uttar Pradesh, whom she met through a gaming app.

The girl’s father, Sohail Jeewani, said they had already gone through a lot of pain and embarrassment and just wanted to move on.

“I don’t want her or anyone else in my family to speak on this issue. What has happened has happened. Yes I confirm she has been returned to us and we are leaving from Lahore tonight,” Sohail told PTI over phone before hanging up.

The girl’s case has garnered a lot of attention in both countries after she was recovered by the Indian authorities in January in Bengaluru.

Iqra, who is 16 years of age, left her home in Shahi Bazar in Hyderabad for her college – Federal Government Girls College – on September 19, 2022 and was found four months later in Bengaluru when police arrested a young boy she was living with.

It transpired she had developed a friendship and then relationship with the Indian man, Mulayam Singh Yadav, and apparently married him.

“She had called us from India in early January to inform us she was safe and married to this Indian man,” her uncle Afzal Jeewani said.

A senior police official said the family informed them about the call and they got in touch through required channels with the Pakistan foreign office who then contacted their Indian counterparts to help find and recover the girl.

A few days after her contact, she was arrested along with her purported husband.

Afzal claimed that the Indian man had deceived his niece by posing as a Muslim boy when the two met on social media while playing online Ludo games.

According to reports, Bengaluru police arrested Yadav, accusing him of bringing a Pakistani girl to India after befriending her.

Iqra was subsequently handed over to the Foreigners Regional Registration Office officials, who later remanded her to a state home for women.

She was handed over to the Pakistani authorities on Sunday at the Wagah border.

Mumbai: In a pan-India operation, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) busted a gold smuggling syndicate involving Sudanese nationals operating through the Indo-Nepal border and seized 101.7 kg of the yellow metal valued at around Rs 51 crore and also arrested ten persons, an official said on Tuesday.

The smuggled gold was confiscated after interceptions at Patna, Pune and Mumbai and at least ten persons linked to the syndicate — seven Sudanese nationals and three Indians — were arrested during the crackdown named ‘Operation Golden Dawn’, he said.

Indian and foreign currency notes worth more than Rs 1.35 crore were also recovered during the DRI action.

The seized gold, mostly in paste form, was brought to Patna through the Indo-Nepal border and then transported via trains or by air to different parts of the country, largely to Mumbai, said the official.

Acting on specific information, DRI officials intercepted three Sudanese nationals on late Sunday night while they were boarding a Mumbai-bound train at the Patna railway station, he said.

Gold paste containing gold weighing 37.126 kg and hidden in 40 packets was recovered from two Sudanese nationals, who had ingeniously concealed the precious metal in a specially made cavity of the sleeveless jackets worn by them, the official said.

The third foreign national was a handler coordinating smuggling activity at border areas and arranging transport of smuggled gold, he said.

A second set of two Sudanese women were intercepted on Monday in Pune while they were travelling from Hyderabad to Mumbai in a bus with 5.615 kg of smuggled gold, the official said.

The seized yellow metal was in an assorted form and concealed in handbags, he said.

A third set of two Sudanese nationals travelling to Mumbai from Patna were intercepted at a railway station in the financial capital on Monday. Gold paste containing gold weighing 38.76 kg and concealed in 40 packets was recovered from them, the official informed.

In all, the DRI seized approximately 101.7 kg gold valued at Rs 51 crore along with Rs 74 lakh worth of foreign currency and Rs 63 lakh in Indian notes, he said, adding further investigation was in progress.h

Ranchi: The Jharkhand government has been on alert after bird flu cases have been reported in a state-run poultry farm in Bokaro district, officials said.

The presence of H5N1, a type of avian influenza A virus that causes disease in birds, was confirmed among a protein-rich breed of chicken, popularly known as ‘Kadaknath’, at the farm in Lohanchal, they said.

“Kadaknath chickens died due to bird flu in a government poultry farm located in Lohanchal, as per report received from the laboratory…Areas within one km radius have been declared as affected zone and areas within 10 km radius declared as surveillance zone.

“Sale of chicken/duck will be banned in these areas,” an official statement issued by Bokaro district administration said on Tuesday.

Additional Chief Secretary, Health, Arun Kumar Singh said that the state was “on alert”.

According to Bokaro Deputy Commissioner Kuldeep Chowdhary, a medical team has been constituted to keep a vigil on the border areas of the district and sampling of chickens/ducks from large poultry farms.

Besides, the medical team has been asked to collect samples of people living in the infected zone, while a separate ward has been set up at Sadar Hospital for the treatment of anyone infected with bird flu.

The administration has urged people to refrain from eating chicken/duck for a few days.

Symptoms of the infection in humans include severe upper back pain, fever, cough, shortness of breath, cold and blood in the sputum, the statement said.

Guwahati: A Guwahati Police team has recovered some body parts of a man who, along with his mother, was killed, cut into pieces and thrown in gorges of neighbouring Meghalaya allegedly by his wife and her two friends, a senior official said.

Body parts of the man’s mother were found on February 19 near Cherrapunji.

Assisted by the Meghalaya Police, the Guwahati Police team carried out an intensive search operation in the gorges of Khasi Hills on Dawki Road in Meghalaya to recover body parts in the ‘double murder’ case.

On Tuesday morning, the special team formed to probe the case went to Meghalaya taking the three arrested accused with it to locate the exact place where the body parts were disposed of.

“We conducted search operations the whole day at different locations. The result is positive and we found some body parts of the man,” a senior official said on condition of anonymity.

The murders of Shankari Dey (62) and her son Amarjyoti Dey (32) took place in July and August last year respectively by the wife of the man along with two of her accomplices.

The wife, who is the prime accused, has been identified as Bandana Kalita (32), while her two “close friends” are Dhanti Deka (32) and Arup Deka (27).

Guwahati Police Commissioner Diganta Barah told reporters earlier in the day said that after getting the body parts of the two persons, the police would proceed to make the case foolproof so that a strong chargesheet can be filed in court.

Bandana and Arup were arrested from Guwahati, while Dhanti was apprehended from Tinsukia district.

After strangulating Shankari Dey to death at her house with a pillow on July 26, the three cut her body into three pieces, went to Meghalaya in Dhanti’s car and threw the body parts and the weapons used in the crime in different areas by 10 am the next day, the police said.

On August 17, Bandana along with her two partners in crime attacked Amarjyoti with a rod at his flat in Narengi, where the couple used to live. After he died, the body was chopped into five pieces and the same process was repeated to dispose of the severed limbs.

New Delhi: An Air India flight from Newark to Delhi was diverted to Stockholm on Wednesday due to an oil leak in one of the engines, according to a senior official.

The senior DGCA official said the flight, operated with Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, had an oil leak in one of the engines.

Following the oil leak, the engine was shut down, and later the flight landed safely in Stockholm, the official added.

During the ground inspection, oil was seen coming out from the drain mast of engine two, the official said, adding that the inspection is in progress.

An airline official said the flight en route from Newark in the US was diverted to Stockholm in Sweden due to a technical issue.

On Monday, an Air India flight from New York to Delhi was diverted to London due to a medical emergency.