COLOMBO: The Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) has thwarted an illegal migration attempt by making an arrest of 67 individuals during a special operation conducted in the Sallisampaltivu and Trincomalee sea on Monday night.

During the raid, two three-wheelers, a cab, and a van were seized, which were used for the purpose of a migration attempt. In the special search operation, the Sri Lankan Navy spotted a suspicious local multiday fishing trawler.

While intercepting the fish vessel, the navy managed to apprehend another 55 individuals, belonging to the age range of 3-53 years of age who were believed to be on an illegal migration attempt to a foreign country via the Trincomalee sea, reported Colombo Page.

Meanwhile, arrangements are being made to hand over the arrested individuals to the Nilaveli and Uppuweli Police for further legal proceedings. The Sri Lankan Navy has urged the public to refrain from risking their lives by embarking on perilous sea voyages. 

CHANDIGARH:  Giving a dramatic push to probity in public life, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday sacked his health minister Dr Vijay Singla and got him arrested for seeking cut money for awarding government contracts and clearing payments.

The FIR said Singla’s OSD Kumar had demanded that the officer fetch 2% commission for a construction contract worth Rs 41 crore the minister had already cleared and for a separate payment of Rs 17 crore made to contractors in March. Since the total amount involved was Rs 58 crore, 2% works out to Rs 1.16 crore.

When Rajinder Singh brought the harassment to Mann’s notice, he was asked to gather proof. The officer then taped a meeting he had with Singla and Kumar, where they reiterated their demand for bribe and said the cut money should be paid to his nephew. The officer handed over the explosive tape to the Chief Minister’s Office.

Mann is learnt to have then confronted the minister with the recording and asked if the voice on the tape was his. Singla reportedly replied in the affirmative and was sacked. He is a first-time MLA and minister, as are most ministers in the Punjab ministry.

Mann put out a video message making the announcement. “We found substantial proof of his corruption. I do not care if the opposition wants to use this to hit out at us,” he nonchalently claimed. Mann also sought to take the high moral ground saying this is the second time in the country’s history that a minister has been sacked by his own party for graft. The first one, he added, was in 2015 when AAP founder and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal chucked his own food supplies minister Asim Ahmed Khan on charges of corruption and handed him over to the CBI for questioning.

Kejriwal, of course, was suitably impressed. “Your action has brought tears to my eyes,’’ he told Mann. But the Opposition mocked Kejriwal for claiming earlier that corruption had been completely eradicated in Punjab within just 10 days of the Mann government in the saddle.

Whistleblower’s dramatic complaint

About a month ago, Rajinder Singh, Superintending Engineer in Punjab Health Systems Corporation, was called by Pardeep Kumar, OSD to Singla (pic), to room number 203 of Punjab Bhavan

Singla was in a hurry to leave, but told the officer to fully trust Kumar. “Whatever Kumar says is what I intend to say,” he assured and left

Kumar mentioned allotments of construction works worth L41 crore and a separate Rs 17 crore already paid to contractors in March

2% of the total Rs 58 crore or Rs 1.16 crore should be paid as bribe, they said

The officer refused and requested that he be sent back to his parent department. He is due to retire on November 30

NEW DELHI: Omicron’s BA.4 and BA.5 – the two sub-variants responsible for South Africa’s ongoing fifth COVID-19 wave and have been listed as a ‘variant of concern’ – will not trigger another COVID-19 surge in India, said experts.

While one of the patients, a 19-year-old woman from Tamil Nadu, “has been found infected with the BA.4 variant of SARS-CoV-2. The patient has shown only mild clinical symptoms and has been fully vaccinated; she had no travel history”.

The other patient is an 80-year-old man from Telangana who tested positive for the BA.5 variant of SARS-CoV-2. The patient has shown only mild clinical symptoms, has been fully vaccinated too and had no travel history either.

India’s top virologist T Jacob John said he is not expecting any surge in COVID cases in India after the two Omicron sub-types were detected in India. “The two subtypes have been classified as variants of concern, but that is a bit of overkill. We are at the endemic stage now,” he said adding that India’s dominant variant during the third wave was BA.2 and that provided “some immunity” to fight against these two sub-variants.

On May 12, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) reclassified the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants of the Covid-19 coronavirus as variants of concern (VOC), up from being variants of interest (VOI).

Dr Rajeev Jayadevan, a renowned epidemiologist and co-chairman of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), said, “I do not think a massive surge will happen. BA.4 and BA.5 are sublineages of Omicron and are not new variants.”

“They caused the fifth wave in South Africa, but it settled down quickly. India has high levels of hybrid immunity and about 90 per cent adult vaccination coverage, which is much more than South Africa,” he told The New Indian Express. 

During India’s third wave of COVID-19, BA.2 was the dominant sub-variant, and it accounted for 62 per cent of the sequences from India over the last two months. Contact tracing of the BA.4 and BA.5 patients is being undertaken as a precautionary measure, the INSACOG has said.

The two Omicron sub-variants are circulating globally. They were reported first from South Africa earlier this year. These variants have not been associated with disease severity or increased hospitalisation.

New Delhi: Loudspeakers at mosques in Uttar Pradesh have either turned down their volume or been removed, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Sunday and added the uninstalled public address systems are being donated to schools and hospitals.

The chief minister further said there were no riots in the BJP-ruled state during and after the recent assembly polls.

Virtually addressing a media conclave organised by RSS-linked weeklies ‘Panchjanya’ and ‘Organiser’, Adityanath said, “In many states there were riots after the elections were over. There were no riots in UP during or after the elections. After the formation of the government, Ram Navami was celebrated with fervour. Hanuman Jayanti celebrations passed off peacefully. This is the same UP where small issues led to riots earlier,” he said.

“Now, you must have seen for the first time that Eid Namaz was not performed on roads. Now, you must have heard that either the volume of the mosque loudspeaker has gone down or the loudspeaker has been removed completely. Now these loudspeakers are being donated to schools and hospitals for their use,” Adityanath said.

Talking about the issue of stray cattle in the state, he listed several steps taken by the government to deal with it.

“…when our government came to power in the state, it shut down all illegal slaughterhouses. And then stray cattle were roaming on roads and in the fields. Earlier they were smuggled into illegal slaughterhouses. To meet this challenge, we set up over 5,600 stray cattle shelters,” he said.

He said a new system is being set up for producing CNG from cow dung, which will be bought from people at Re 1 per kg, Adityanath said, adding that all necessary steps will be taken to protect cows.

He also talked about the grand Ram temple being built in Ayodhya and the renovated Kashi Vishwanath temple complex.

In every assembly constituency in the state, the government is developing a pilgrimage site, he said.

He also spoke about the economic progress of Uttar Pradesh under the “double engine” government — same party rule at the Centre and in the state.

Mumbai: Punjab Kings beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by five wickets in an inconsequential last league match of the IPL here on Sunday.

Punjab chased down the target of 158 with 29 balls to spare with Liam Livingstone top-scoring with 49 not out off 22 balls. Shikhar Dhawan chipped in with 39.

For SRH, Fazalhaq Farooqi took two wickets for 32 runs.

Earlier, opting to bat, Sunrisers Hyderabad posted 157 for 8.

Abhishek Sharma top-scored for SRH with 43 while Romario Shepherd and Washington Sundar chipped in with 26 not out and 25 respectively.

For Punjab, Harpreet Brar and Nathan Ellis took three wickets apiece.

Brief Scores:

Sunrisers Hyderabad: 157 for 8 in 20 overs (Abhishek Sharma 43; Harpreet Brar 3/26, Nathan Ellis 3/40).

Punjab Kings: 160 for 5 in 15.1 overs (Liam Livingstone 49 not out; Fazalhaq Farooqi 2/32).

New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Amanatullah Khan has sent a legal notice to the Delhi Police through his lawyer demanding an “unconditional public apology” for allegedly violating his and his family’s “fundamental rights”.

Khan, an MLA from Okhla, was recently arrested during an anti-encroachment drive in Madanpur Khadar and had earlier been declared a “bad character” by the Delhi Police. He is currently out of jail on bail.

“Delhi Police is constantly targeting me. This time Delhi Police attacked my right to live with dignity besides defaming my family. Delhi Police is weaving imaginary stories about me without any evidence,” Khan tweeted Sunday sharing the copy of the notice.

The legal notice sent to Delhi Police Commissioner on Saturday by Khan’s lawyer demanded an “unconditional, written, public apology” to his wife and children allegedly for “brazen infraction” by the force of their fundamental rights.

The notice claimed that Khan, who is also the chairman of Delhi Waqf Board, was “peacefully” protesting against the anti-encroachment drive by South MCD in the interest of the local public on May 12.

The proposal for declaring Khan a “bad character” was sent on March 28 by the Jamia Nagar Police Station in Southeast district and was approved on March 30.

A total of 18 FIRs have been registered against him, the document said.

According to the police, a person who has involvement in several cases, including that of murder and attempt to murder, and can disturb peace in an area is declared a “bad character”. Police keep an eye on such people.

Khan and five others were arrested on the changes of rioting and obstructing public servants from discharging their duty hours after he took part in the protest against an anti-encroachment drive in the Madanpur Khadar area.

The drive sparked violent protests and pelting of stones, with many locals alleging that authorities bulldozed legal structures too.

Ranchi/Pakur/Dumka: A 16-year-old boy was apprehended from Jharkhand’s Dumka district on Sunday after a video clip shared on social media showed him raining kicks on a girl in school uniform, a police officer said.

Retweeting the video clip shared by a Twitter user, who claimed that the incident had happened in Pakur, Chief Minister Hemant Soren directed the district police to take appropriate action in the matter.

The police immediately initiated a probe into the matter and found out that the boy, a student of Class 9, was the resident of Dumka district.

“The Dumka Police is now carrying out further investigation into the case,” Pakur Superintendent of Police (SP) Hrudeep P Janardhanan told PTI.

Prima facie, it seems to be a case of a love affair, said Dumka sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) Noor Mustafa Ansari.

The incident happened around a fortnight ago, but the video came to light only recently, the SDPO said.

“Both the boy and the girl are from tribal communities. They have been brought to Gopikandar police station for interrogation. The boy will be sent to a remand home as he is a minor,” Ansari added.

Mumbai: A day after the Centre reduced excise duty on fuel, the Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra government on Sunday reduced the Value Added Tax (VAT) on per litre petrol by Rs 2.08 and diesel by Rs 1.44.

A statement issued by the government said the state exchequer will have to bear an annual loss of Rs 2,500 crore as a result of this decision.

After reducing the VAT on fuel, the per month revenue from petrol will come down by Rs 80 crore, while that from diesel by Rs 125 crore, it said.

The central government on Saturday announced a record Rs 8 per litre cut in excise duty on petrol and Rs 6 reduction on diesel.

Meanwhile, senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis said the reduction in VAT on fuel done by the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government was inadequate and termed it as a “cruel joke” played on the people.

“An announcement which suits the economic condition of Maharashtra was expected. Our share in the country’s GDP is 15 per cent. The central government was bearing a financial burden of Rs 2,20,000 crore and the state should have borne at least 10 per cent of the burden,” the Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly said.

While other state governments were giving relief of Rs 7 to Rs 10 per litre, the Maharashtra government announced a VAT reduction of only Rs 1.5 and Rs 2, he said.

“This is a cruel joke on the people. The government should have shown a large heart,” the former chief minister added.

Kolkata, May 22: In a jolt to the saffron camp in West Bengal, BJP MP Arjun Singh on Sunday rejoined the Trinamool Congress, ending weeks of speculation over his possible switchover to the ruling party.

Singh was welcomed into the party by TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee at his office in south Kolkata.

“Warmly welcoming former Vice President of @BJP4Bengal and MP from Barrackpore, Shri @ArjunsinghWB into the All India Trinamool Congress family. He joins us today in the presence of our National General Secretary Shri @abhishekaitc,” the TMC said on its official Twitter handle.

Singh, one of the prominent Hindi-speaking leaders of the TMC, had joined the saffron camp just ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in 2019 and went on to win from the Barrackpore Lok Sabha seat.