CHENNAI: Chief Minister and DMK president MK Stalin on Wednesday exhorted the office-bearers of 23 wings of the party to ensure victory in all the 40 seats in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Sources said DMK deputy general secretaries A Raja, I Periyasamy and Kanimozhi Karunanidhi have been tasked with overseeing the functioning of the 23 wings. 

According to sources, Stalin told the office-bearers to begin election preparations and counter the disinformation campaign of the BJP and the AIADMK. Stalin, in a tweet, directed the party apparatus to protect TN from reactionary forces that were attempting to establish themselves in TN by exploiting caste and religious inequalities. The functionaries and cadre should take the achievements of the Dravidian-model government and its welfare schemes to the people.

The DMK president also underscored the importance of strengthening booth committees on a war-footing and bolster social media activities to counter allegations against the incumbent government. DMK general secretary Durai Murugan, treasurer TR Baalu, youth-wing secretary Udhayanidhi Stalin and headquarters office-bearers attended the meeting. 

Later, responding to the charge of BJP national president JP Nadda that DMK was functioning for a single family, DMK spokesperson TKS Elangovan said: “I say the BJP is a party functioning as a broker for the two rich men in Gujarat and to hand over public sector undertakings to them; let Nadda respond to this view.” Asked whether there was any discussion on the Lok Sabha elections, Elangovan said the DMK’s task went beyond elections. “With the arrival of the BJP, the DMK has responsibilities like protecting Tamils.” 

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on January 2 a fresh plea seeking directions to the Centre and states to take stringent steps to control fraudulent religious conversions by “intimidation, threatening, deceivingly luring through gifts and monetary benefits”.

A bench of Justices M R Shah and C T Ravikumar is likely to take up the plea filed by advocate Ashutosh Kumar Shukla which has also sought creation of a special task force to keep check on deceitful religious conversions.

Contending that the State is obliged to protect fundamental rights of the citizens, the plea said the right to propagate one’s religion does not give a right to convert any person to one’s own religion.

“The tribal belts are mostly illiterate regions. According to research statistics, conditions of health, education, diet and drinking water are rated as poor among the tribals who inhabit these areas.

“These areas are the most socially backward. This social backwardness opens opportunities for missionaries to work among deprived classes for their socio-economic, cultural, educational development and through that spread message of gospel which eventually results in conversion,” the plea alleged.

The PIL contended that the State must take appropriate steps to prevent the religious conversion of socially and economically underprivileged sections of society, particularly belonging to Scheduled Castes Scheduled Tribes.

Asserting the purpose of charity should not be conversion, the top court had earlier reaffirmed that forced religious conversion is a “serious issue” and against the Constitution.

Forced religious conversion may pose a danger to national security and impinge on the religious freedom of citizens, the apex court had said recently and asked the Centre to step in and make sincere efforts to tackle the “very serious” issue.

The court had warned a “very difficult situation” will emerge if proselytisation through deception, allurement and intimidation is not stopped.

KOCHI: After the Union Government banned the Popular Front of India (PFI), the National Investigation Agency (NIA) is continuing its crackdown on PFI and on Thursday conducted raids on the premises of those who were earlier associated with PFI in Kerala. A special team of NIA raided the residences of several PFI leaders across the state.

Official sources said the simultaneous raids began on Wednesday night in 56 places spread across Ernakulam, Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Palakkad, Alappuzha and Malappuram districts. The raids were conducted following inputs that a few leaders were still actively coordinating the functioning of the PFI despite the ban.

The raids were specifically focused on the premises of those leaders who were earlier active functionaries of the PFI. Sources said the NIA has been tracking the activities of several PFI leaders after the ban and received inputs that many of them have been conducting secret meetings at various places in Ernakulam, Alappuzha, Malappuram and Thiruvananthapuram. As part of the raids, the NIA team is also collecting the bank account details of a few suspects to track fund transfers.

NEW DELHI: The Serum Institute of India (SII) has offered two crore doses of Covishield vaccine to the central government free of cost amid a rise in COVID-19 cases in some countries, official sources said on Wednesday

According to an official source, Prakash Kumar Singh, Director of Government and Regulatory Affairs at the Serum Institute, has written to the Health Ministry offering the doses worth Rs 410 crore free of cost.

It is learnt that Singh has sought to know from the ministry how the delivery can be made.

SII has so far provided more than 170 crore doses of Covishield to the government for the national immunisation programme.

Amid a spike in COVID-19 cases in some countries, including China and South Korea, the government has sounded an alert and asked states and Union territories to prepare for any eventuality.

India has stepped its surveillance and genome sequencing of Covid positive samples.

With only 27 per cent of the eligible adult population having taken the precaution dose, government officials have appealed to those due for it to take it.

Official sources on Wednesday cautioned that the next 40 days will be crucial as India may see a Covid surge in January.

Even if there is a wave, deaths and hospitalisation will be very low, the Health Ministry sources said.

The government made random coronavirus testing mandatory for two per cent of passengers arriving in each international flight from Saturday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya have held meetings to assess the country’s preparedness to deal with a fresh surge in cases.

Mock drills were held at health facilities across India on Tuesday to check operational readiness to deal with any spurt in COVID-19 infection.

MUMBAI: An employee of a civic-run hospital in Mumbai who had performed postmortem of Sushant Singh Rajput in June 2020 on Monday claimed the actor didn’t die by suicide and his body had marks of fracture.

Roopkumar Shah, who retired from service last month from Cooper Hospital, didn’t present any proof to back his claims.

Rajput was found hanging in his flat in suburban Bandra on June 14, 2020.

“When I saw Rajput’s body, there were marks of fracture and some marks around his neck due to some pressure. The marks of strangulation and hanging are different as I had been performing autopsies for nearly 28 years,” Shah, who worked as a mortuary assistant, told news channels.

He said he was speaking about the case now because he retired from service in November this year.

“I tried to intimate my superior when I noticed the different markings on Rajput’s body but he ignored me,” he claimed.

Starting with the Mumbai Police, the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) were brought in to investigate various angles in the death of the 34-year-old actor.

AHMEDABAD: A Pakistani boat with 10 crew members carrying arms, ammunition and 40 kg of narcotics worth Rs 300 crore was intercepted off the Gujarat coast in the early hours of Monday, the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) said.

Based on specific inputs shared by the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad, the Coast Guard deployed its fast patrol ship ‘ICGS Arinjay’ for patrolling in the area close to the International Maritime Border Line (IMBL) on the intervening night of December 25 and 26, the ICG said in a release.

In the early hours of the day, the Pakistani fishing boat ‘Al Soheli’ was observed moving suspiciously in Indian waters.

The Coast Guard eventually managed to intercept and stop the boat.

As per the release, arms, ammunition and nearly 40 kg of narcotics worth Rs 300 crore were found on the boat. The 10 crew members and boat are being brought to Okha port for further investigation.

This is the seventh joint operation by the ICG and Gujarat ATS in the last 18 months, and the first apprehension wherein arms and ammunition along with drugs were recovered.

A total of 346 kg of heroin worth Rs 1,930 crore has been seized and 44 Pakistani and seven Iranian crew have been apprehended in the last 18 months, the release said.

MYSURU: In a tragic incident, three labourers were killed when a boulder rolled down on them at a stone quarry at Bisalavadi village in Chamarajanagar district on Monday morning

While two of the victims, Shivaraju (29) and Kumar (40), died on the spot, the third victim, Siddaraju, succumbed to his injuries at a hospital. All three were from Kagalavadi Mole village in Chamarajanagar.

The incident took place at survey number 172 belonging to one Renuka Devi. It may be recalled that in March, three labourers died in a similar incident at a white stone quarry at Madahalli village in Gundlupet taluk of Chamarajanagar.

Nanjundaswamy, deputy director, department of mining, said, “We have shut the quarry and filed a criminal case against its owner,” he said.