Kolkata: After sending two missives to Nobel laureate Amartya Sen for allegedly occupying parts of land leased to his family in an “unauthorised manner”, Visva-Bharati University on Thursday said it will conduct a joint survey of the land along with the economist’s side.
In a statement, the university sought a suitable date and time from Sen for the exercise.
“With reference to our earlier letters, this is to inform you that the university wants to survey/demarcate jointly the land mutated in your favour for the residual period of lease as per lease deal executed on October 27, 1943 vide resolution no 8 dated September 3, 2006 of the executive council of Visva Bharati and communicated to you on October 31, 2006,” the letter said.
The varsity, in the letter, said the joint survey will be conducted on at least two days, and sought to know a suitable date and time from Sen.
One of the previous letters issued by the university to Sen on January 27 stated, “You are in possession of 1.38 acre of land which is in excess of your legal entitlement of 1.25 acre. Kindly return the land to Visva Bharati as early as possible “
On January 24, the central university had issued a similar letter to Sen.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee last week came out in support of the economist and handed over land-related documents to the octogenarian during a visit to Birbhum.
LIC chairman says, will meet Adani Group top management soon
Mumbai: The LIC management will soon meet the top management of the crisis-ridden Adani Group and seek clarification on the crisis being faced by the diversified conglomerate, chairman M R Kumar said here on Thursday.
LIC’s investment into Adani group firms’ stock has come under criticism by the opposition parties as well as investors after US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research made a litany of allegations against the Gautam Adani-led group, saying its companies manage and manipulate share prices, run offshore shell companies for round-tripping and lacking in corporate governance practices.
“Though our investor team has already sought clarifications from the Adanis, our top management could not contact them yet as we have been busy preparing the results. We are soon going to call them to meet us and explain. We want to understand what is happening in the market and in the group,” the chairman told reporters at the earnings conference on Thursday.
“We’ll be calling them in sometime soon to know how are they managing the whole crisis,” Kumar added.
Kumar, however, refused to give a timeline of the meeting between LIC and Adani group officials.
LIC, which is the nation’s largest institutional investor, is the second largest shareholder in most of the listed Adani group companies, with a cumulative investment of Rs 36,474.78 crore as of January 27, which in percentage terms is 4.23 per cent of the total public holding in those companies. But for LIC’s Rs 44.76 lakh crore investment asset under management, this is only 0.97 per cent.
As of January 27, this investment was valued at over Rs 56,000 crore, LIC had said on January 30, but since then these shares have further lost — cumulatively about USD 100 billion or about 60 per cent of their January 24 market value.
When asked, the chairman categorically said, “Our investments are still in the green and we have not made any provisions either for equity, which is the vast majority or for the debt. Our equity holding in the group is 4.23 per cent of the total public holding of those firms. But from our total market investment of Rs 44.76 lakh crore, this is only 0.97 per cent.”
He said the Irdai (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India) norms on investment caps it at 15 per cent of a company’s equity, but “we have some exception wherein we hold more than 30 per cent in some companies”.
“Why should we be making provision when they are in the green. To some of the group companies (ACC and Ambuja Cements) our investments go back to more than two decades,” he said.
On January 30, LIC issued a public statement saying: “Our total holding in the Adani group companies under equity and debt a on date is Rs 36,474.78 crore. This was Rs 35,917.31 crore as of December 31, 2022. Total purchase value of these equities of the group companies, bought over the past many years, is Rs 30,127 crore and the market value for the same at close of market hours on January 27, 2023 was Rs 56,142 crore.”
LIC has exposure to all the 10 listed Adani group companies. However, it did not disclose about its exposure on an individual company basis.
Even after the Hindenburg report, LIC invested about Rs 300 crore in buying 9,15,748 shares in Adani Enterprises’ Rs 20,000-crore follow-on public offer as an anchor investor.
Kumar said, the book value of its Rs 44.75 lakh crore market asset under management is only Rs 6.87 lakh crore, and according to the same book value its exposure to the Adani group companies is only 4.23 per cent.
Since the publication of the Hindenburg report on January 24, three days before the launch of the group’s flagship Adani Enterprises’ Rs 20,000-crore follow-on public offer (FPO), the value of the group companies’ stocks have lost more than USD 100 billion or about 60 per cent from their January 24 value.
The FPO was fully subscribed but called off a day later by the management.
U’khand: Protest by youths against recruitment exam paper leaks turns violent
Dehradun: A protest by youths against recruitment examination paper leaks in Uttarakhand turned violent when the protestors clashed with police personnel and hurled stones at them here on Thursday.
The police resorted to a lathicharge to disperse the protestors. Some youths were injured in police action.
The clash between the protesters and the police caused a long traffic jam from Clock Tower to Rajpur Road.
Unemployed youths had staged a dharna here on Wednesday demanding a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in different recruitment examinations held by the Uttarakhand Public Service Commission.
Reacting to the police lathicharge on protesting youths, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said they were subjected to brutality for raising their genuine demands.
“The BJP government’s corruption in Uttarakhand is ruining the lives of youths. They were brutally lathicharged when they were staging a demonstration with their genuine demands against paper leak of recruitment examinations,” Gandhi said in a statement.
The youths were angry as police had allegedly forced them to lift their dharna on Wednesday.
The Uttarakhand Congress too reacted sharply to the “coercive manner in which the voice of youths was being silenced” by the state government.
The party will hold demonstrations in every district on Friday in protest against the atrocity against the youths, PCC vice president Mathura Dutt Joshi said.
Earlier on Thursday, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami appealed to the youths not to let themselves be misled by anyone, saying efforts are on to ensure that recruitment examinations are held in the state in a transparent way.
“We are soon going to bring the strictest anti-copying law in the country. It will be ensured that use of unfair means in recruitment examinations stops completely and they are held in a transparent manner. We will see to it that no injustice is done to the youth,” Dhami said.
“Our government is making decisions in favour of the youth. We have granted reservation to our sisters and daughters in government jobs. Everyone’s interest will be protected. My request to the youth is that they should not allow themselves to be misled by anyone,” he said.
The government has got irregularities in recruitment examinations thoroughly probed and the guilty have been sent behind bars, the chief minister said.
Destination UP: Stage set for three-day mega biz summit
LUCKNOW: The stage is set for the three-day UP Global Investors; Summit (GIS-2023) beginning tomorrow. Billed as the state’s biggest business meet, it aims to push the state towards becoming a trillion-dollar economy. State capital Lucknow is being decked up to welcome around 10,000 delegates, including 400-plus international investors from nearly 41 countries, apart from top industry leaders, Union ministers, political bigwigs, ministers from participating countries and diplomats along with the CEOs of many leading companies and banks.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the event on Friday, President Draupadi Murmu will attend the meeting at the closing ceremony on Sunday. As many as 30 technical sessions based on different sectors such as IT, aviation, health, defence, animal husbandry and dairy, handloom, textiles, media, entertainment, sports and energy, among others, are planned for the meeting. As the preparations for the summit peaked on Thursday, a list of five industry captains, including Reliance Group chairman Mukesh Ambani, Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Manglam Birla, chairman of Tata Sons N Chandrasekaran, chairman of Dixon Technologies Sunil Vachani and CEO, Zurich Airport Asia Daniel Bircher is kept in advance. They are expected to speak briefly before PM Modi. Moreover, teams representing Birla Group, RP Sanjiv Goenka Group, Hiranandani Group, Mahindra Group, among others, will also be a part of the summit.
Besides inaugurating the mega event, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also launch the global trade show and Invest UP 2.0. He will visit the exhibition hall and have a photo session with top industry leaders and special guests on the occasion. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will address the gathering while Uttar Pradesh minister for industry Nand Gopal Nandi will deliver the welcome address. Arrangements have been made for a live telecast of the inaugural session in all the districts.
Having set an initial target of receiving investment proposals worth Rs 10 lakh crore which was revised to Rs 17 lakh crore through this event, the UP government has already receive d proposals of over Rs 27 lakh crore through over 17,000 MoUs till the summit eve. It stands out to be around seven times the investment proposals (Rs 4.68 lakh crore) received during the previous summit in 2018.
CM Yogi Adityanath has asked all officials to conduct local investors’ summits at the divisions and district levels in addition to the international and domestic roadshows that the state government’s teams organized in 21 cities in 16 countries and eight cities in India. While the foreign roadshows fetched around Rs 7.12 lakh crore investment intents by signing 108 MoUs , the intents received through the roadshows in eight cities, including Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and Chandigarh, stood out at Rs 8.93 lakh crore.
These proposals received through UPGIS-2023, when fully implemented, are expected to bring a job boom by creating around 2 crore employment opportunities in the state. To invite investments, the state government had released policies for 25 different sectors, offering subsidies, grants, land etc. A special Nivesh Sarathi portal was set up for signing MoUs online and tracking them to ensure effective and quick implementation.
Drone show
CM Yogi Adityanath has told officials to conduct local investors’ summits at district levels. For the first time, investors and entrepreneurs from all 75 districts will participate in the opening ceremony. Cultural events and a drone show will also be conducted.
Turkey rushes to find survivors of disaster of the century Death toll hits 21,000
KAHRAMANMARAS: Rescue workers made a final push Thursday to find survivors of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria that rendered many communities unrecognizable to their inhabitants and led the Turkish president to declare it “the disaster of the century.” The death toll topped 21,000.
The earthquake affected an area that is home to 13.5 million people in Turkey and an unknown number in Syria and stretches farther than the distance from London to Paris or Boston to Philadelphia. Even with an army of people taking part in the rescue effort, crews had to pick and choose where to help.
The scene from the air showed the scope of devastation, with entire neighborhoods of high-rises reduced to twisted metal, pulverized concrete and exposed wires.
In Adiyaman, Associated Press journalists saw someone plead with rescuers to look through the rubble of a building where relatives were trapped. They refused, saying no one was alive there and that they had to prioritize areas with possible survivors.
A man who gave his name only as Ahmet out of fear of government retribution later asked:
“How can I go home and sleep? My brother is there. He may still be alive.” The death toll from Monday’s 7.8 magnitude catastrophe rose to nearly 21,000, eclipsing the more than 18,400 who died in the 2011 earthquake off Fukushima, Japan, that triggered a tsunami and the estimated 18,000 people who died in a temblor near the Turkish capital, Istanbul, in 1999.
The new figure, which is certain to rise, included over 17,600 people in Turkey and more than 3,300 in civil war-torn Syria. Tens of thousands were also injured.
Even though experts say people could survive for a week or more, the chances of finding survivors in the freezing temperatures were dimming. As emergency crews and panicked relatives dug through the rubble — and occasionally found people alive — the focus began to shift to demolishing dangerously unstable structures.
The DHA news agency broadcast the rescue of a 10-year-old in Antakya. The agency said medics had to amputate an arm to free her and that her parents and three siblings had died. A 17-year-old girl emerged alive in Adıyaman, and a 20-year-old was found in Kahramanmaras by rescuers who shouted “God is great.”
In Nurdagi, a city of around 40,000 nestled between snowy mountains some 35 miles (56 kilometers) from the quake’s epicenter, vast swaths of the city were leveled, with scarcely a building unaffected.
Even those that did not collapse were heavily damaged, making them unsafe.
Throngs of onlookers, mostly family members of people trapped inside, watched as heavy machines ripped at one building that had collapsed, its floors pancaked together with little more than a few inches in between.
Mehmet Yilmaz, 67, watched from a distance as bulldozers and other demolition equipment began to bring down what remained of the building where six of his family members had been trapped, including four children.
He estimated that about 80 people were still beneath the rubble and doubted that anyone would be found alive.
“There’s no hope. We can’t give up our hope in God, but they entered the building with listening devices and dogs, and there was nothing,” Yilmaz said.
Mehmet Nasir Dusan, 67, sat watching as the remnants of the nine-story building were brought down in billowing clouds of dust. He said he held no hope of reuniting with his five family members trapped under the debris.
Still, he said, recovering their bodies would bring some small comfort.
“We’re not leaving this site until we can recover their bodies, even if it takes 10 days,” Dusan said. “My family is destroyed now.”
In Kahramanmaras, the city closest to the epicenter, a sports hall the size of a basketball court served as a makeshift morgue to accommodate and identify bodies.
On the floor lay dozens of bodies wrapped in blankets or black shrouds. At least one appeared to be that of a 5- or 6-year-old.
At the entrance, a man wept over a black body bag that lay next to another in the bed of a small truck.
“I’m 70 years old. God should have taken me, not my son,” he cried. Workers continued to conduct rescue operations in Kahramanmaras, but it was clear that many who were trapped in collapsed buildings had already died. One rescue worker was heard saying that his psychological state was declining and that the smell of death was becoming too much to bear.
In northwestern Syria, the first U.N. aid trucks since the quake to enter the rebel-controlled area from Turkey arrived, underscoring the difficulty of getting help to people there. In the Turkish city of Antakya, dozens scrambled for aid in front of a truck distributing children’s coats and other supplies.
One survivor, Ahmet Tokgoz, called for the government to evacuate people from the region. Many of those who have lost their homes found shelter in tents, stadiums and other temporary accommodation, but others have slept outdoors.
“Especially in this cold, it is not possible to live here,” he said. “If people haven’t died from being stuck under the rubble, they’ll die from the cold.”
The winter weather and damage to roads and airports have hampered the response. Some in Turkey have complained that the government was slow to respond — a perception that could hurt Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a time when he faces a tough battle for reelection in May.
“As you know, the earthquake hit an area of 500-kilometer (311-mile) diameter where 13.5 million of our people live, and that made our job difficult,” Erdogan said Thursday.
In the Turkish town of Elbistan, rescuers stood atop the rubble from a collapsed home and pull
Rescue teams urged quiet in the hopes of hearing stifled pleas for help, and the Syrian paramedic group known as the White Helmets noted that “every second could mean saving a life.”
But more and more often, the teams pulled out dead bodies. In Antakya, more than 100 bodies were awaiting identification in a makeshift morgue outside a hospital.
With the chances of finding people alive dwindling, crews in some places began demolishing buildings. Authorities called off search-and-rescue operations in the cities of Kilis and Sanliurfa, where destruction was not as severe as in other areas. Vice President Fuat Oktay said rescue work was mostly complete in Diyarbakir, Adana and Osmaniye.
Across the border in Syria, assistance trickled in. The U.N. is authorized to deliver aid through only one border crossing, and road damage has prevented that thus far. U.N. officials pleaded for humanitarian concerns to take precedence over wartime politics.
It wasn’t clear how many people were still unaccounted for in both countries.
Turkey’s disaster-management agency said more than 110,000 rescue personnel were now taking part in the effort and more than 5,500 vehicles, including tractors, cranes, bulldozers and excavators had been shipped. The Foreign Ministry said 95 countries have offered help
World Bank to provide Turkey $1.78 bn for recovery after quake:
The World Bank announced Thursday $1.78 billion in aid to Turkey to help relief and recovery efforts after a massive earthquake hit the country and neighbouring Syria, claiming more than 21,000 lives.
“We are providing immediate assistance and preparing a rapid assessment of the urgent and massive needs on the ground,” said World Bank President David Malpass in a statement.
“This will identify priority areas for the country’s recovery and reconstruction as we prepare operations to support those needs,” he added.
Immediate assistance of $780 million will be offered via Contingent Emergency Response Components from two existing projects in Turkey, said the bank.
“The assistance will be used for rebuilding basic infrastructure at the municipal level,” the Washington-based development lender added.
Meanwhile, an added $1 billion in operations is being prepared to support people affected amid recovery and reconstruction from the catastrophe, the bank added.
The country’s needs are “immense and span the whole range from relief to reconstruction,” said Humberto Lopez, World Bank Country Director for Turkey.
Freezing temperatures
The crossing is the only way UN assistance can reach civilians without going through areas controlled by Syrian government forces.
A decade of civil war and Syrian-Russian aerial bombardment had already destroyed hospitals, collapsed the economy and prompted electricity, fuel and water shortages.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged the Security Council to authorise the opening of new cross-border humanitarian aid points between Turkey and Syria to deliver aid.
Four million people living in rebel-held areas of northwest Syria have had to rely on the Bab al-Hawa crossing as part of a cross-border aid operation authorised by the Security Council nearly a decade ago.
“This is the moment of unity, it’s not a moment to politicise or to divide but it is obvious that we need massive support,” Guterres said.
Temperatures in the Turkish city of Gaziantep plunged to minus five degrees Celsius (23 degrees Fahrenheit) early Thursday, but thousands of families spent the night in cars and makeshift tents — too scared or banned from returning to their homes.
Parents walked the streets of the city — close to the epicentre of Monday’s earthquake — carrying their children in blankets because it was warmer than sitting in a tent.
Gyms, mosques, schools and some stores have opened at night. But beds are still at a premium and thousands spend the nights in cars with engines running to provide heat.
“I fear for anyone who is trapped under the rubble in this,” said Melek Halici, who wrapped her two-year-old daughter in a blanket as they watched rescuers working into the night.
International rescuers have said the intense cold has forced them to weigh whether to use their limited fuel supplies to keep warm or to carry out their work.
Racing against the clock
“Not a single person has failed to mention this, the cold,” Athanassios Balafas, a Greek fire official, said in Athens. “Obviously we chose to keep operating.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan acknowledged on Wednesday that there were “shortcomings” in the government’s handling of the disaster.
Monday’s quake was the largest Turkey has seen since 1939, when 33,000 people died in the eastern Erzincan province.
Officials and medics said 17,674 people had died in Turkey and 3,377 in Syria from Monday’s 7.8-magnitude tremor, bringing the confirmed total to 21,051.
Experts fear the number will continue to rise sharply.
Anger has mounted over the government’s handling of the disaster.
“People who didn’t die from the earthquake were left to die in the cold,” Hakan Tanriverdi told AFP in Adiyaman province, one of the areas hardest hit.
Despite the difficulties, thousands of local and foreign searchers have not given up the hunt for more survivors.
Two dozen children and some of their parents from northern Cyprus — 39 Turkish Cypriots in all — were on a school trip to join a volleyball tournament when the quake hit their hotel in southeast Turkey’s Adiyaman.
Their home region’s government has declared a national mobilisation, hiring a private plane so they could join the search-and-rescue effort for the children.
Ilhami Bilgen, whose brother Hasan was on the volleyball team, looked at the frightening pile of concrete slabs and heavy bricks that used to be the hotel.
“There’s a hollow over there. The children may have crawled into it,” Bilgen said. “We still haven’t given up hope.”
This man ‘topi-pehnau-ed’ this wonderful nation: TMC MP Mahua Moitra on Adani in LS
New Delhi: TMC MP Mahua Moitra on Tuesday launched a stinging attack on the government over the Adani-Hindenburg issue and said the billionaire businessman had ‘topi-pehnau-ed (duped)’ the country.
While participating in the debate on the ‘Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address’ in Lok Sabha, Moitra, without naming Adani, said that a famous person whose name starts with ‘A’ and ends with ‘I’ and is not Advani, who stinks of crony capitalism, had duped everyone.
Soon after she concluded her speech, there were angry exchanges between Trinamool Congress (TMC) and BJP members. Moitra was heard using certain objectionable words to which the Chair objected and urged members to avoid cuss words.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi asked Moitra to apologise out of morality and said if she does not it would reflect on her culture.
Moitra brought two birthday caps in the House to press her argument that the businessman being most talked about had “topi-pehnau-ed” the government.
She demanded that an enquiry be ordered against the activities of the Adani group.
Beginning her address by quoting from President Droupadi Murmu’s address, Moitra said, “Every word I utter is going to be an oblation and offering a truth into my ‘maha yagna’ of nation building.”
“I want to start off by saying as an ex-investment banker, I want companies to thrive. But I want honest, hardworking Indian companies to strive and not trapeze artists. As an MP colleague of mine likes to say the Chair always asked me not to get angry. I will not be angry for what I have to say. I will only say that we’ve all been fooled,” she said.
Moitra also alleged that the businessman gives the impression that doing things for him means that one would be in the prime minister and home minister’s good books.
Referring to a statement by the Adani group in which it had said that short-seller Hindenburg’s report was a calculated attack on India, she said, “The pride of India is not the wealth of one individual, pride of India lies in the robustness of its institutional structures.”
She said a company which is in infrastructure makes five to 15 per cent returns if they are lucky and if they get everything right, but the multiple with which this company ‘A’ was trading was absolutely outrageous.
Even Google, Amazon and Microsoft don’t trade on such multiples, she said.
“Honourable home minister, he has topi-pehnau-ed you…he is getting security clearances from the ministry of home affairs…Madam, finance minister he has topi-pehnau-ed you,” the TMC leader said.
“This man has been allowed to use LIC, SBI to get money as and when he likes. Honourable civil aviation, he has ‘topi-pehnau-ed’, you shipping minister, he has topi-pehna-ed you petroleum minister, he has ‘topi-pehnau-ed’ oil PSUs…power minister he has topi-pehnau-ed you,” she said.
“India is on its way to becoming the third largest economy in the world. Don’t let him smear your time in government, with a stink of crony capitalism. Please immediately order a full complete and thorough investigation into all matters…Our country’s reputation is at risk,” Moitra said.
She also said the House too has historically seen some of the greatest debates, some friendly, some not so friendly sparring matches.
“But it is more and less a sacred place where elected representatives could speak their minds without fear of favour…Today and I say this with a heavy heart, Lok Sabha is a space which stands out more for what cannot be said in this hall, then what can we say. The list of unmentionables is actually far longer than the list of mentionables,” she claimed.
“We cannot say China, we cannot say Pegasus, we can not say BBC, we cannot say Morbi, we cannot say Rafael, and sometimes we cannot even say Modi ji…,” she said.
The opposition has been demanding a joint parliamentary committee probe or a Supreme Court-monitored investigation into the allegations of fraud and manipulation made by the US-based short seller Hindenburg Research against billionaire Gautam Adani’s companies that triggered an unprecedented stock crash. The group has denied the charges.
The opposition parties have alleged that the meltdown in Adani Group shares is a ‘mega scam’ that involves common people’s money as public sector LIC and SBI have invested in them and have questioned the government on steps taken by it.
Petition in Bihar court accuses RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat of denigrating Brahmins
Muzaffarpur: A complaint was filed before a Bihar court on Tuesday, against RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat for allegedly denigrating Brahmins in a recent speech.
The petition was filed before the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate of Muzaffarpur by advocate Sudhir Kumar Ojha who has cited media reports of Bhagwat’s address on Sunday at Mumbai where he was attending a function held on the occasion of birth anniversary of Sant Ravidas, a medieval mystic poet and Dalit icon.
In his speech, in Marathi, the RSS chief had blamed “pandits” (the priestly class) for the rigid caste hierarchy that prevails in the Hindu society.
Some media outlets reported that Bhagwat spoke about “Brahmins”, who have been associated with priestcraft.
A statement was issued later by the RSS, the parent body of the BJP , denying that Bhagwat had referred to any particular caste and asserting that by the word “pandits” he implied the scholars of yore who condoned caste system.
Nonetheless, Ojha, a serial litigant who remains in news for his petitions against celebrities of all hues, has prayed that Bhagwat, be booked under IPC sections relating to hurt caused to religious feelings and breach of public peace.
Interestingly, Ojha has also ended up calling Bhagwat the chief of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh as well as Vishwa Hindu Parishad, an RSS affiliate.
The court has posted the matter for hearing on February 20.
No place for Left Wing Extremism violence in ‘self-reliant’ India: Amit Shah
New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said there is no place for violence and Left Wing Extremism ideas in the “self-reliant New India” under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Chairing a meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Tuesday, he said the ministry’s policy in dealing with Left Wing Extremism (LWE) has three main pillars strategy to curb violence with a ruthless approach, better coordination between the Centre and states, and eliminating support for extremists through public participation in development.
Shah said the Modi government has adopted a policy of zero tolerance towards LWE and all kinds of violence.
There is no place for violence and LWE ideas in the “self-reliant New India” under the leadership of Modi, he said.
The home minister said the three-pronged strategy has given historic success in curbing LWE in the last eight years.
He said for the first time after nearly four decades, in 2022, the number of deaths of civilians and security forces has been brought under 100, and there is a 76 per cent reduction in violent incidents related to LWE in 2022 in comparison to 2010.
Besides, the number of civilian and security personnel who lost their lives in LWE incidents has come down by 90 per cent to 98 in 2022 in comparison to 1,005 in 2010, and the number of LWE-affected districts fell to 45 from 90.
He said the MHA is determined to destroy the entire ecosystem of LWE by financial choking.
The BSF air wing has been strengthened with the induction of new pilots and engineers in the last one year to aid operations in LWE-affected areas and save the lives of the country’s soldiers, he said.
Shah said the Modi dispensation has made several successful efforts for better coordination with governments of LWE-affected states without any party or ideology-related bias.
The Modi government is providing funds for modernisation of state police forces and assistance related to construction of fortified police stations in the affected states without any discrimination, he said.
The minister added that security as well as accelerated development in LWE-affected areas is the main focus of the government’s policy and it is taking several steps for the all-round development of these areas.
Meghalaya: 60 sitting MLAs among 379 candidates file nomination for assembly polls
Shillong : Meghalaya Chief Electoral Officer FR Kharkongor said a total of 379 candidates, including 37 women, have filed their nominations for the February 27 election to the 60-member assembly in the state.
Kharkongor had earlier said that 334 nominees have submitted papers in all.
Tuesday happened to be the last day for filing nomination papers.
All 60 sitting MLAs, including Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, Speaker Metbah Lyngdoh and Leader of the Opposition Mukul Sangma, have submitted their papers seeking re-election.
Conrad Sangma, who is the president of the National People’s Party, will once again contest the polls from South Tura constituency in West Garo Hills district.
Metbah, the United Democratic Party chief, is seeking re-election from Mairang constituency in Eastern West Khasi Hills district.
Former chief minister Mukul Sangma, who was elected as a Congress candidate in the 2018 election, is contesting as a Trinamool Congress nominee this time from two seats Songsak in East Garo Hills and Tikrikilla in West Garo Hills.
BJP MLAs Sanbor Shullai and AL Hek are seeking re-election from South Shillong and Pynthorumkhrah constituencies in the state capital here, Kharkongor said.
Congress MP Vincent H Pala, who is also the state party president, has filed his nomination papers from Sutnga-Saipung constituency in East Jaintia Hills district.
Regional party leaders — Banteidor Lyngdoh of the People’s Democratic Front (PDP), Ardent Basaiawmoit of the Voice of the People, Martle Mukhim of the Hills State People’s Democratic Party (HSPDP) have also submitted nomination papers, the CEO said.
All relevant documents will be scrutinised on Wednesday.
The last date for withdrawal of candidature is February 10. Votes will be counted on March 2.
9-year-old girl suffers seizures after application of ‘mehndi’ on hand, doctors call it unusual case
New Delhi: Doctors at a leading private hospital here on Tuesday said they have reported an “unusual” case of a nine-year-old girl who suffered epileptic seizures triggered by the smell of “mehndi” applied on her hand.
The case study has been published in the January 2023 edition of the Clinical Neurophysiology, the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital said in a statement.
The department of neurology at the hospital recently reported “an unusual case” of a nine-year-old girl who was suffering epileptic seizures after application of “mehndi”, it said.
When she had suffered her first convulsion after application of “mehndi”, she had “abrupt loss of consciousness, leading to fall and convulsions for 20 seconds”, doctors at the hospital said.
Recently, she was brought to the hospital for further check-up, they said.
“Mehndi” is the art of making designs on someone’s hands with “henna”, a reddish-brown herbal dye.
According to Dr (Col) P K Sethi, senior consultant, department of neurology at the hospital, “This was an unusual case of reflex epilepsy, where epileptic seizures are consistently induced by identifiable and objective-specific triggers as against other epileptic seizures which are usually unprovoked.”
“In our reported case, seizures were consistently induced by the application of ‘mehndi’,” Sethi said.
In the hospital settings, “mehndi” was applied to the right hand of the patient.
“Henna” has a very distinctive earthy smell and as soon as the “mehndi” applied on her hand was brought near to the chest of the patient, she started having seizures, doctors said.
“Video-electroencephalography revealed an organised background with a posterior rhythm of 9 hz. The patient became restless which were followed by seizures,” the hospital said in the statement.
“In our patient, seizures were not triggered by mere application of ‘mehndi’ on hands and feet, rather it was the fragrance which acted as the stimulus leading to stimulation of functional anatomic networks,” Sethi said.
The patient was prescribed sodium valproate and parents were advised to avoid exposure to “mehndi”. The patient is stable now with no reported case of seizure, doctors said.
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