Archives for 2023

Nagpur: A New Delhi-bound Vistara flight was diverted to Nagpur due to a medical emergency involving a 14-month-old baby with a heart problem who was attended by a group of doctors travelling in the aircraft and later admitted to a hospital, an airport official said on Monday.

Due to the medical emergency, the Bengaluru-New Delhi plane was rerouted and it landed at the Nagpur airport on late Sunday night, he said.

Aejaz Shami, Deputy General Manager (Communications) of Nagpur-based KIMS-Kingsway Hospitals, where the baby was admitted, said the toddler fell unconscious after suffering a cardiac arrest during the flight.

“In a remarkable display of preparedness and professionalism, co-passengers from medical background on board promptly initiated life-saving measures by providing CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) to the baby passenger,” said Shami told PTI.

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is a lifesaving technique used if someone is not breathing normally or their heart has stopped (cardiac arrest).

The hospital official said as the situation got critical, the airline team coordinated with the Nagpur airport authorities for an emergency landing.

An ambulance stationed at the airport immediately transferred the baby to the hospital, where the patient was attended by a senior consultant in paediatrics and neonatology, Shami said.

The baby, who was put on a ventilator and administered life-saving drugs, was unconscious, he said.

The hospital provides medical services at the Nagpur airport.

New Delhi: A Puducherry court has sentenced a local resident S Pradeep to five years of rigorous imprisonment in connection with the suicide of MBBS fourth-year student Priyadarshini with whom he was in a relationship, officials said here on Monday.

The case was handed over to the CBI on the orders of the Madras High Court on a petition of the mother of the Priyadarshini. The medical student had hung herself on the night of May 16, 2012, in her hostel room, they said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) found that Priyadarshini was in love with Pradeep who had started avoiding her leading to cropping up of differences between them, they said.

“It was also alleged that the accused had sent an SMS to the victim casting aspersions on her character, which proved to be the breaking point and led to Priyadarshini committing suicide on the fateful late evening/night of May 16, 2012, by hanging from the ceiling fan in her hostel room,” CBI Spokesperson said here.

He said the SMS was recovered by the Forensic Science Department(FSD), Chennai, from the mobile phone of Priyadarshini after which the CBI filed a charge sheet on November 24, 2017, against Pradeep.

After six years of trial, the trial court convicted Pradeep.

“It is difficult to achieve conviction in cases with abetment to suicide charge because there has to be an irrefutable and strong connection that a particular action led the victim to commit suicide like a letter or a written word asking the victim to take her own life. I would say it is one of the few cases where a court has convicted for abetment to suicide,” a former CBI official said.

Kaduru: A 15-year-old young boy reportedly lost his life while attempting to swim, he drowned as he was not familiar with swimming. The incident took place in the Taluk’s Haruvanahalli Village on Monday.

The deceased boy has been identified as Parthasarathi (15) a resident of Kalundi Layout in Kadur Town.

Reportedly, the boy had informed his family that he was going out to play on Sunday afternoon ( August 27) and had not returned home by evening. Despite the parents’ anxious search, there has been no trace of the boy. Meanwhile, the parents of the boy started a desperate search, but found no trace of him.

Meanwhile on Monday morning the relatives of the boy initiated a search near the Kaduru town, in the due course discovered his lifeless body in a lake near Haruvanahalli village. It is being said that he drowned in the river water while attempting to swim in the lake, as he did not know how to swim. Subsequently, a case in connection with the incident has been registered at Kadur police station.

IMPHAL: The crucial one-day session of the Manipur Assembly on Tuesday is likely to hold a discussion on the state’s prevailing situation of ethnic strife, although most of the Kuki MLAs, regardless of party affiliations, are likely to skip the session over safety concerns.

Six of the ten MLAs from Kuki-dominated areas have already sought leave of absence from the speaker of the assembly.

Five legislators had applied for their leave to the speaker on Monday, while Social Welfare and Cooperation Minister Nemcha Kipgen, MLA of Kangpokpi, had sent her application on Saturday, an official said.

The MLAs who sought leave on Monday are Tribal and Hill Affairs Minister Letpao Haokip (Tengnoupal), Churachandpur MLA Khaute, Kimneo Hangshing of Saikul, Haokholet Kipgen of Saitu and Henglep legislator Letzamang Haokip.

The social welfare and cooperation minister, in her application, said that ever since ethnic violence erupted in Manipur on May 3, it has not been possible for her and her family members to stay in Imphal on security grounds.

“Due to the ongoing violent crisis and keeping in mind the law and order situation in Imphal, I will not be able to attend the upcoming one-day session,” she said.

After obituary references, committee reports will be presented and other businesses of the House will be held, the official said.

The state government had last month recommended a session by August 21, but later revised it to August 28 on not getting a green light from the Raj Bhavan.

Last week, the chief minister’s office announced that the assembly will reconvene from August 29.

The previous assembly session was held in March and according to the norms, a session must be held every six months.

The Committee on Tribal Unity (CoTU) and the Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF) had recently denounced the convening of the session saying the present situation is not conducive for Kuki-Zo MLAs to attend it.

In a joint statement on Sunday, both organisations said considering the complete breakdown of law and order and the failure of the state government to protect the lives of the common people and officials, convening the session “is devoid of logic and rationality.”

On Saturday, former Manipur chief minister and Congress leader Okram Ibobi Singh had said the session is an eyewash and not in the public interest.

More than 160 people lost their lives and several hundreds were injured since ethnic clashes broke out in Manipur on May 3.

LUCKNOW:  A division bench of Allahabad High Court, headed by Chief Justice Pritinker Diwaker, on Monday adjourned the hearing of a bunch of petitions challenging the maintainability of the title suit seeking restoration of temple in place of Gyanvapi mosque till September 12. The hearing in the matter had been already concluded by the bench of Justice Prakash Padia on July 23, and had reserved the order to be delivered on Monday.

Earlier, the cases related to Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi mosque title suit were transferred to a different bench, headed by CJ Diwaker on August 25, just a month after the single judge bench of Justice Padia concluded the hearing and had reserved the order to be delivered on August 28. In fact, Justice Padia had been hearing the matter since August 2021.

On the contrary, the opposite side’s (Hindu side) lawyer, Advocate Puneet Gupta said that it was the prerogative of the CJ to withdraw the case from a bench, where even after exhaustive arguments, the judgement was not delivered. He said it was the settled law that the CJ was the master of roaster and that he could decide which bench would hear what matters.

However, the CJ Diwaker said he will decide after the AIM submissions. The matter pending in the court includes a challenge to maintainability of a suit filed before a Varanasi Court, seeking restoration of a temple at the site where the Gyanvapi mosque exists.

The application was filed in a suit filed by the Ancient Idol Of Swayambhu Lord Vishweshwar And 5 Others in the year 1991 claiming the restoration of  the land on which the Gyanvapi Mosque stands to Hindus. The Plaintiffs, in the suit, sought a declaration that the land on which the Mosque is built  on the ruins of the Kashi Vishwanath temple. The suit has been challenged before the HC.

The Supreme Court

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday asked Attorney General R Venkataramani and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to look into the issue of the suspension of Jammu and Kashmir education department lecturer who had argued before the top court in a matter related to the abrogation of Article 370.

A five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud took note of the suspension of Zahoor Ahmad Bhat, who had argued before the top court on August 24 as petitioner in-person in the case.

As soon as the court resumed its hearing, senior advocates Kapil Sibal and Rajeev Dhavan pointed out that Bhat was suspended from his job by the Jammu and Kashmir administration after having argued before the top court.

“He took leave for two days. Argued before this court and went back and was suspended,” Sibal said.

The bench, also comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Sanjiv Khanna, BR Gavai and Surya Kant, asked Venkataramani to talk to the J-K Lieutenant Governor and look into the issue.

“This should not happen. Someone arguing before this court gets suspended ,” the bench said.

Venktaramani replied that he will look into the issue.

Mehta said after the news of Bhat’s suspension was published in a newspaper, he checked with the administration and he was informed that there were various reasons behind the lecturer’s suspension including that he has been regularly filing petitions before different courts.

“We can place before the court all the materials related to his suspension,” Mehta said.

Sibal countered, “Then, he would have been suspended earlier, why now. I have the suspension order of Bhat and it says that he has argued before this court and therefore the suspension. This is not fair. This is not how democracy should function.”

The bench said if there are other reasons then it is another matter but if a person gets suspended in close proximity of arguing before this court, then it needs to be looked into.

Mehta said he agrees that the timing was not appropriate and he will look into it.

On August 24, Bhat had appeared in-person before the top court and argued against the Centre’s August 5, 2019 decision to abrogate Article 370.

Bhat was removed from his place of posting in Srinagar and was attached to the office of the Director School Education, Jammu, while a senior official was appointed as an inquiry officer to conduct an in-depth inquiry into his conduct, according to an official order.

“Pending enquiry into his conduct, Mr Zahoor Ahmad Bhat, Senior Lecturer, Political Science, presently posted at Government Higher Secondary School Jawahar Nagar Srinagar, is hereby placed under suspension with immediate effect for violation of provisions of J&K CSR, Jammu and Kashmir Government Employees (Conduct) Rules 1971, J&K Leave Rules,” School Education Department Principal Secretary Alok Kumar said in an order.

During the period of suspension, the delinquent officer shall remain attached in the office of Director School Education, Jammu.

“Further, it is hereby ordered that Ms Subah Mehta, Joint Director, School Education, Jammu is appointed as inquiry officer, who shall conduct an in-depth inquiry in the conduct of the delinquent officer,” the order issued on Friday read.

Hailing from central Kashmir’s Budgam district, Bhat, who holds a law degree, personally appeared before the Supreme Court which is currently hearing a bunch of petitions challenging the scrapping of Article 370 that granted special status to the erstwhile state.

The central government abrogated Article 370 and bifurcated Jammu and Kashmir into Union territories of J-K and Ladakh on August 5, 2019.

New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said Jan Dhan Yojana-led interventions and digital transformation have revolutionised financial inclusion in the country, as more than 50 crore people have been brought into the formal banking system with cumulative deposits surpassing Rs 2 lakh crore.

On the ninth anniversary of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), which is one of the biggest financial inclusion initiatives in the world, Sitharaman in her message said 55.5 per cent bank accounts have been opened by women, and 67 per cent have been opened in rural/semi-urban areas.

Under the scheme, the number of bank accounts grew 3.4-fold from 14.72 crore in March 2015, to 50.09 crore as on August 16, 2023.

Total deposits too have swelled from Rs 15,670 crore as of March 2015, to over Rs 2.03 lakh crore as of August 2023.

The average deposits in Jan Dhan accounts have increased 3.8 times from Rs 1,065 as of March 2015, to Rs 4,063 in August 2023.

About 34 crore RuPay cards have been issued to these accounts without charge, which also provides for a Rs 2 lakh accident insurance cover.

The zero-balance accounts under the scheme have reduced to 8 per cent of total accounts as of August 2023, from 58 per cent in March 2015.

Sitharaman said, “the 9 years of PMJDY-led interventions and digital transformation have revolutionised financial inclusion in India. With the collaborative efforts of stakeholders, banks, insurance companies, and government officials, the PMJDY stands out as a pivotal initiative, changing the landscape of financial inclusion in the country…”.

Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad said Jan Dhan Aadhaar Mobile (JAM) architecture has enabled successful transfer of government benefits in the accounts of the common man seamlessly.

“PMJDY accounts have become the fulcrum of people-centric initiatives like Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) and have contributed towards inclusive growth of all sections of the society, especially the underprivileged,” Karad said.

The PMJDY was launched on August 28, 2014, with an aim to provide universal banking services through the opening of zero-balance bank accounts for every unbanked household, based on the guiding principles of banking the unbanked, securing the unsecured and funding the unfunded.