Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh

Dehradun: Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Sunday said his governement will honour the driver and conductor of the Haryana Roadways bus who came to the rescue of cricketer Rishabh Pant during a road accident near Roorkee.

“By saving the life of the cricketer at the risk of their own lives, the Haryana Roadways driver and conductor have set an example for others.

“The state government will honour them on January 26,” Dhami said at the inauguration of a hostel here.

While going to Roorkee, his hometown, on Friday, Pant slept on the wheel and rammed his car into the divider on the Delhi-Dehradun highway.

Bus driver Sushil Kumar and conductor Paramjit, who were around and witnessed the accident, rescued Pant from the car.

They pulled him out of the car and called the police.

New Delhi: Nearly 31,000 complaints of crimes committed against women were received by the National Commission for Women (NCW) in 2022, the highest since 2014.

In 2021, the NCW had received 30,864 complaints while in 2022, the number slightly increased to 30,957.

Of the 30,957 complaints, the maximum of 9,710 were related to the right to live with dignity that takes into account the emotional abuse of women, followed by those related to domestic violence at 6,970 and dowry harassment at 4,600, according to NCW data accessed by PTI.

About 54.5 per cent (16,872) of the complaints were received from the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh.

Delhi recorded 3,004 complaints, followed by Maharashtra (1,381), Bihar (1,368) and Haryana (1,362).

According to the data, the highest number of complaints related to the right to live with dignity and domestic violence were received from Uttar Pradesh.

The number of complaints received by the NCW in 2022 is the highest since 2014, when the panel had received 33,906 complaints.

As many as 2,523 complaints were received regarding the offence of outraging the modesty of women or molestation, 1,701 were related to rape and attempt to rape, 1,623 were in connection with police apathy against women and 924 complaints were related to cyber crimes, according to the data.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce its judgment on Monday on a batch of pleas challenging the government’s 2016 decision to demonetise currency notes of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 denominations.

A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Justice S A Nazeer, who will retire on January 4, is likely to pronounce its verdict on the matter on January 2, when the top court will reopen after its winter break.

According to Monday’s cause list of the top court, there will be two separate judgements in the matter, which will be pronounced by Justices B R Gavai and B V Nagarathna. It is not clear whether the two judgements will be concurring or dissenting.

Besides Justices Nazeer, Gavai and Nagarathna, the other members of the five-judge bench are Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian.

The top court had, on December 7, directed the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to put on record the relevant records relating to the government’s 2016 decision and reserved its verdict.

It heard the arguments of Attorney General R Venkataramani, the RBI’s counsel and the petitioners’ lawyers, including senior advocates P Chidambaram and Shyam Divan.

Calling the scrapping of the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes deeply flawed, Chidambaram had argued that the government cannot on its own initiate any proposal relating to legal tender, which can only be done on the recommendation of the RBI’s central board.

Resisting the apex court’s attempt to revisit the 2016 demonetisation exercise, the government had said the court cannot decide a matter when no tangible relief can be granted by way of “putting the clock back” and “unscrambling a scrambled egg”.

The RBI had earlier admitted in its submissions that there were “temporary hardships” and that those too are an integral part of the nation-building process, but there was a mechanism by which the problems that arose were solved.

In an affidavit, the Centre told the top court recently that the demonetisation exercise was a “well-considered” decision and part of a larger strategy to combat the menace of fake money, terror financing, black money and tax evasion.

The Supreme Court has heard a batch of 58 petitions challenging the demonetisation exercise announced by the Centre on November 8, 2016.

Agartala: Senior Tripura minister and BJP’s ruling ally IPFT’s founder-president N C Debbarma on Sunday died following a massive cerebral stroke.

The veteran tribal leader was 80, and is survived by his wife, four sons and three daughters.

The state revenue and forest minister was not keeping well for the last few months as he was suffering from chronic diabetes, Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) spokesperson Amit Debbarma said.

He suffered a massive cerebral stroke on Saturday and was admitted to a state-run hospital here, where he underwent surgery but breathed his last at 2.45 pm on Sunday, the spokesperson said.

Debbarma floated IPFT in 2009 after his retirement as the director of All India Radio (AIR), Agartala.

He forged a political alliance with the BJP ahead of the 2018 assembly elections and toppled the Manik Sarkar-led Left Front government, which was in power for 25 years at a stretch.

The IPFT, under his leadership, won eight of the nine ST-reserved constituencies in the last assembly election.

Debbarma, along with Mevar Kumar Jamatia, was inducted into the cabinet of Biplab Kumar Deb.

Chief Minister Manik Saha expressed deep condolence over Debbarma’s death.

“I am deeply saddened by the passing away of a senior member of the state cabinet — NC Debbarma and my deepest condolence to the bereaved family. May his departed soul rest in peace,” he said in a Facebook post.

NEW DELHI:  Hope floats for Congress as 2022 has woken up the grand old party from its deep slumber. Two important events the election of a non-Gandhi as the party president and Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra are expected to give a fresh lease of life to its sagging fortunes.

With the next two years packed with several Assembly elections and the crucial Lok Sabha polls, it is set to be a do-or-die battle for Congress. Challenges are plenty for the party, as it hopes to cash in on the goodwill and momentum gained by the Bharat Jodo Yatra, which covers 3,500 km over 150 days between Kanyakumari and Srinagar. Though the party hopes that the yatra will give Rahul a makeover from a party leader into a national leader, it is too early to say if he can translate the march into votes.

However, the recent Gujarat Assembly election results and Delhi MCD poll have illustrated Congress’ unpreparedness and complacency while taking on the mammoth machinery of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The win in Himachal Pradesh polls may be a consolation for the party which has seen successive electoral setbacks. 

However, the Gujarat debacle turned out to be a big blow. With the party facing an unprecedented challenge from Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab, Gujarat, Delhi and Goa, the Congress machinery will have to work overtime to turn the tide in its favour.

For the new party president Mallikarjun Kharge, the immediate challenge is to reclaim the seat of power in Karnataka, his home state. The upcoming elections in Tripura, Meghalaya, and Nagaland will also be a litmus test as the polls will set the tone for the general elections.

Besides bracing for the poll battle, setting the house in order will be the Karnataka stalwart’s crucial test in the days to come. Though the party has been successful in keeping factionalism in poll-bound Rajasthan under control for now, the cracks may resurface anytime.

Likewise, the internal strife in Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana may spell trouble for its electoral prospects there. The Congress is also aware that the battle against the BJP can be won only through a strategic alliance with regional satraps. Many feel that Kharge can work out a mutually beneficial tie-up with regional parties.

In terms of internal workings, Congress has a long way to go as its presidential poll was marred by charges of lack of democracy. The questions raised by the ginger group G-23 are still relevant, they say. With the party’s plenary session scheduled in February, the key question of holding an election to the Congress Working Committee will be keenly watched.

Party facing do-or-die battle in next two years
With the next two years packed with several Assembly polls and the Lok Sabha polls, it is set to be a do-or-die battle for Congress. Challenges are plenty for the party, as it hopes to cash in on the goodwill and momentum gained by the Bharat Jodo Yatra

BHUBANESWAR: Expressing concern over the impact of the deaths of two Russian tourists in the Rayagada district, the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Odisha (HARO) wrote to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik urging him to ensure a proper investigation.

In a letter to Patnaik, it said that a strong action plan should be chalked out for the safety and security of visitors, especially foreign tourists, coming to the state during the Hockey Men’s World Cup, which will begin on January 13.

“We request your esteemed office to kindly examine the case Of two Russians who Daied under mysterious circumstances and necessary steps and investigation may kindly be taken immediately to avoid further spreading of the negative news,” HARO chairman JK Mohanty said in the letter.

Noting that the deaths of the two tourists were having a negative impact on the prospects of tourism in Odisha in terms of safety, he said the incident is likely to slow down the arrival of foreign tourists to the state.

Prior to the pandemic, Odisha witnessed around 1.5 lakh foreign tourist arrivals each year, Mohanty said.

The state CID has stepped up its investigation into the deaths of Pavel Antov (65), a Russian lawmaker who died after allegedly falling from a Rayagada hotel’s third floor on December 24, and Vladimir Bidenov, his fellow traveller who was found dead in his room at the same hotel on December 22.

They were part of a four-member group, which along with their Delhi-based travel guide Jitendra Singh had checked in to the hotel on December 21.

The post-mortem report of the Russian MP indicates that he died of internal injury after a fall, while that of Bidenov points to a heart attack as the cause of death, police said.