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We are not garbage collectors, SC tells Centre

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday came down heavily on the Centre for filing an 845-page affidavit containing incomplete information about solid waste management across the country and said the apex court is not a “garbage collector”.

The top court declined to take the affidavit on record and said the government cannot dump “junk” before it.

“What are you trying to do? Are you trying to impress us? We are not impressed. You are trying to dump everything on us. We are not going to accept it,” a bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta said.

“Don’t do this. Whatever junk you have, you dump it before us. We are not garbage collectors. Be absolutely clear about this,” the bench said.

The bench directed the Centre to file a chart within three weeks indicating whether the states and union territories have constituted state-level advisory boards in accordance with the provisions of Solid Waste Management Rules 2016.

It also directed the government to state in its chart the date the advisory boards were constituted in the states and UTs, names of members of the boards and also details of any meetings conducted by them.

At the outset, the counsel appearing for the Centre said they would file an 845-page affidavit in the matter during the course of the day.

However, when the bench posed certain queries, the counsel was unable to answer them properly.

The counsel informed the court that they have received information from 22 states about constitution of state-level advisory boards and have compiled data received from the respective states.

“There is no point in filing affidavits if they contain nothing. We are not taking this affidavit on record … You have not seen it and you want us to see this affidavit,” the bench observed.

The court had on December 12 last year asked the Centre to follow up on the matter of solid waste management with all states and UTs and furnish details before it.

The court had earlier expressed grave concern over the deaths due to vector-borne diseases like dengue and chikungunya and said lack of waste management was the cause of several lives being lost across the country.

It referred to the Solid Waste Management Rules 2016 and said the duties of various ministries, like the Ministry of Environment and Forests and the Ministry of Urban Development, were specified in it.

In 2015, the apex court had on its own taken cognizance of death of a seven-year-old boy due to dengue. He had been allegedly denied treatment by five private hospitals and his distraught parents subsequently committed suicide.

(PTI)

Mosque door gutted in Kasganj, police say situation calm

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The door of a mosque was set ablaze on Monday by unidentified persons in Uttar Pradesh’s Kasganj district, leading to brief tension in the area that was singed by violence and clashes on Republic Day. Police said the situation is calm.

Tension gripped the Sabzi Mandi area on Monday morning when unidentified persons set ablaze the door of the mosque in Ganjdundwara in an attempt to disrupt the communal harmony in the area, a police officer said.

The fire was doused by locals and a fire tender but the door had been gutted by then, he said.

Residents from the area had gathered in large numbers on the streets near the Sabzi Mandi and raised slogans, downed shutters, demanding the guilty be immediately arrested.

Senior district and police officials led by District Magistrate R.P. Singh and Superintendent of Police Piyush Srivastava had to rush to the spot to pacify the angry residents.

District authorities had a hard time pacifying them and additional police force was sent to the area to ensure that the situation did not get out of control, an official informed IANS.

Senior police officers at the Director General of Police (DGP) office though refused to take calls.

Violence had erupted in the district on January 26, during the ‘Tiranga Yatra’ taken out by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) after which one person was killed and many injured.

(IANS)

Syria’s Idlib being bombed ‘day and night’

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The main hospital in Idlib’s Maaret al-Numan stopped working after it was hit by air raids, according to aid workers [Abdullah al-Saad]

by Zena Tahhan, Al Jazeera

Images of death and destruction from the northern province of Idlib in Syria have flooded social media, with local activists and aid workers saying shelling by Russian and Syrian government warplanes in the area has intensified.

Rescue workers from the Syrian Civil Defence (SCD), a volunteer search and rescue team, say that at least 18 civilians have been killed and more than 45 wounded in the continuous bombardment and a gas attack on the rebel-held province since Sunday night.

“The Russians are in a frenzy. They’re going mad. The shelling is ongoing throughout the day and night. The warplanes are hitting residential areas,” Hadi Abdullah, a local journalist, told Al Jazeera by phone from the town of Kafr Nabl in the northwestern Syrian province bordering Turkey.

“The massacres started yesterday night. The whole area was vib

The main hospital in Idlib’s Maaret al-Numan stopped working after it was hit by air raids, according to aid workers [Abdullah al-Saad]

ating. About 12 homes came crumbling down,” continued Hadi, describing the attacks on the town on Sunday night.

The uptick in attacks comes after fighters from the Hay’et Tahrir al-Sham group shot down a Russian warplane and killed its pilot on Saturday.

While Russia – the Syrian government’s main ally – says it is targeting rebel fighters, locals say the majority of the attacks have been on residential neighbourhoods and hospitals.

The shelling spanned several areas, including Massaran, Khan al-Sabil, and Idlib city, where aid workers say many remain trapped under the rubble.

The main hospital in Maaret al-Numan, east of Kafr Nabl, has stopped working after it was hit by air raids, according to the SCD – also known as the White Helmets.

“About 10 air raids hit the hospital. It was a disaster,” said Hadi, who had rushed to the scene.

“The most difficult and heartbreaking scene was when the volunteers were quickly pulling the babies out of the hospital. I can’t get the image out of my head,” he recalled with a trembling voice.

At about 1am, Hadi headed to film events in Idlib city, where they had heard a Russian warplane targeted a residential building.

“A whole seven-story building came crashing down. The level of destruction is unreal,” said Hadi.

Chlorine gas attack
Volunteers with the SCD also reported a suspected chlorine gas attack on the town of Saraqeb on Sunday night, which wounded nine, including three aid workers. This is the second gas attack in two weeks.

“At about 9:20 pm local time (7PM GMT), two warplanes dropped two barrels containing chlorine on a heavily populated civilian area in Saraqeb,” Laith Abdullah, an aid worker, told Al Jazeera from Saraqeb.

“There was gas and smoke everywhere. Everyone was suffocating – people were screaming out ‘ambulance’,” Laith continued.

“It is difficult to describe; it is difficult to explain the amount of pain we were in and how much we were suffering.”

‘Doomsday’
Idlib province is one of the few remaining areas in Syria where fighters opposed to President Bashar al-Assad’s government are putting up a fight.

While Idlib city is dominated by Hay’et Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – a former al-Qaeda affiliate – some 40 other armed groups loyal to the Free Syrian Army (FSA) also operate in other areas of the province.

The FSA is a loose conglomeration of armed brigades made up of Syrian army defectors and civilians, which receive financial and logistical support from the United States, Turkey, and several Gulf countries.

Idlib was included in a Russian-Iranian-Turkish deal for de-escalation zones aimed at halting fighting and offering safety to civilians, but it has continuously been targeted.

The province is strategically important for the Syrian government and Russia due to its proximity to the coastal region where the Russian-operated Syrian Khmeimim airbase sits.

Reporting from the Turkish-Syrian border, activist Ibrahim Ismail estimated there were “more than 150 raids in just half an hour” on Sunday night.

“Yesterday night was horrible. People are describing it as Doomsday and saying there were more than eight warplanes in the air. The shelling is heavy and arbitrary,” Ismail told Al Jazeera.

Amidst BJP allegations, Gov Vajubhai says Karnataka Govt maintaining law and order

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Bengaluru: Under opposition flak over a spate of killings of Hindu and BJP workers, the Siddaramaiah government in Karnataka today asserted it had taken effective steps to maintain law and order and dealt firmly with sporadic incidents of communal violence in the state.

“My government has taken effective steps to maintain law and order in the state and ensured communal harmony and public order,” Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala told a joint session of the state legislature, the last ahead of Assembly polls slated to be held later this year.

Sporadic incidents of communal violence had been firmly dealt with, he said. The reference to law and order comes amid a charge by the principal opposition BJP that the Siddaramaiah government was being “soft” towards “Jihadi forces” whom it had blamed for the killings of Hindu, BJP and Sangh Parivar workers.

The assertion also comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched an all-out attack on the government at a public rally here, accusing it of creating new records in corruption and dubbing it a “10 percent commission government”.

Modi during his speech had also alleged that criminals were ruling the roost and “ease of doing murders” was being discussed in the state while his government talked about “ease of doing business”. In his address, the governor also spoke about the state government’s commitment to fighting corruption.

“My government continues to fight corruption in public services. A series of e-governance initiatives have increased the transparency and efficiency of public service,” he said. Pointing out that an anti-corruption bureau (ACB) was set up to effectively deal with corruption cases, he said it had registered 404 cases — “278 trap cases, 65 raid cases and 61 other cases”.

Since its creation, out of the 106 cases received by the government, prosecution sanction order was given in 72, he said, adding that awareness was being created on the working of the ACB by conducting public awareness meetings.

Vala held that the Karnataka government had made “remarkable strides” in achieving economic growth and securing social justice and welfare for all sections of society in the last five years. It had also made “notable progress” in reaching the goal of a “hunger-free Karnataka”, he said.

Highlighting the fiscal prudence of the state government, he mentioned concerns on the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax. “GST has been implemented in the country with effect from July 1, 2017. While we were completely ready for implementation, taxpayers have been facing various challenges in complying with the legal requirements envisaged under GST on the IT platform developed for this purpose,” Vala said.

“In addition, we have been witnessing frequent changes being carried out in the initial months,” he said, adding that because of these reasons, GST collections had been fluctuating. “But the shortfall is expected to be made good by the compensation due from the central government,” he said. The governor also reiterated the state government’s commitment towards ensuring justice to the state on the issue of water from the Cauvery and Krishna basins.

He said the government would also continue to make all efforts to ensure the rightful share of water for the people of Karnataka from the Mahadayi basin, the issue on which the state has locked horns with neighbouring Goa.

(PTI)

SC seeks BCCI response on Sreesanth’s plea against life ban

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New Delhi: The Supreme Court Monday sought a response from BCCI on controversial cricketer S Sreesanth’s plea challenging the life ban imposed on him by the apex cricket body.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud asked the Board of Control for Cricket in India and two office bearers of its Committee of Administrators (CoA) to file their responses within four weeks.

The court, however, refused to grant any interim relief sought by senior advocate Salman Khurshid, representing the cricketer, that he may be allowed to play.

Sreesanth, who had been absolved in the IPL spot-fixing case, was successful when he filed a plea before the single judge bench of the Kerala High Court challenging the life ban imposed on him by BCCI.

However, the division bench of the high court had set aside the single judge bench and upheld the ban.

The cricketer has now challenged the high court verdict in the apex court.

(PTI)

Agra Muslims attempt ‘Tiranga Yatra’ to highlight grievances

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Agra: Muslims in Agra on Monday tried to take out a “Tiranga Yatra” but were held back at the Shahid Smarak, where they presented a memorandum to a district official, listing a set of demands and grievances.

The Tiranga Yatra was in response to a similar yatra last week by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.

Over a 100 Muslims, comprising youth, senior community leaders, Ulemas and Maulvis, led by Shabana Khandelwal, gathered at the Shahid Smarak with the national tricolour. But senior police officials said due to Section 144 being in force, the procession could not be permitted.

Khandelwal told IANS: “Our Tiranga Yatra was non-political and through this we want to demonstrate our firm solidarity with the nation and our patriotism including our love for the national tricolour.

“For no rhyme or reason Muslims were being targeted and branded as being opposed to the national patriotic fervour. The Muslims have made tremendous sacrifices both during the Independence movement and after during the wars and in the national developmental process.”

The demonstrators shouted “Pakistan Murdabad”.

In their memorandum addressed to the President of India, they demanded fair treatment, and safety to Muslims and their institutions.

“In the name of ‘Vande Matram’, many people were pointlessly harassed. This should stop. Also in the name of ‘Love Jihad’ and cow slaughter, many Muslims have suffered.”

They demanded a judicial probe in the Kasganj incident and fair compensation to the family of Chandan Gupta, who was killed in sectarian violence in the Uttar Pradesh town last month.

(IANS)

Rahul meets two newly elected Congress MPs, MLA from Rajasthan

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New Delhi: Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Monday met the party’s two newly elected MPs and an MLA who won the bypolls in Rajasthan by trouncing candidates of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

They are Karan Singh Yadav, who won the Alwar Lok Sabha seat, Raghu Sharma, who won the Ajmer Lok Sabha seat and Vivek Dhakar who won from the Mandalgarh Assembly constituency.

The three were accompanied by Rajasthan Congress chief Sachin Pilot, senior party leader C.P. Joshi and several party leaders from Rajasthan.

Earlier in the day, Yadav and Sharma took oath as members of the Lok Sabha.

The Congress did not win a single seat in Rajasthan in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

The election to the three seats were held on January 29 and the results were declared on February 1.

The elections to the Lok Sabha constituencies were necessitated by the deaths of Sanwarlal Jat (Ajmer) and Mahant Chand Nath Yogi (Alwar).

The election in Mandalgarh was necessitated by the death of BJP MLA Kirti Kumari due to swine flu in August last year.

(IANS)

‘Promise toothpaste’: Actor Prakash Raj takes jibe at BJP over Modi rally

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Bengaluru: Actor Prakash Raj has taken a jibe at the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA government at the Centre, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally in Karnataka.

Prakash on Monday took to Twitter and wrote a cryptic message that said “Promise toothpaste sold in 2014” failed to bring smiles to “distressed farmers or jobless youth”.

“Promise toothpaste sold in 2014 (forget brushing the teeth) could not bring a smile on distressed farmers or jobless youth of my country. Do you believe Promise Toothpaste sold yesterday in Karnataka rally? Will bring it? Just asking,” Prakash tweeted.

Modi on Sunday launched a no-holds barred attack on the Congress as he addressed the people at the culmination of BJP’s 90-day long “journey to build a new Karnataka” rally, across the poll-bound state.

The BJP could take Karnataka to “new heights” with a focus on improving the lives of farmers and creating better infrastructure”, Modi said.

Sounding the election bugle, the Prime Minister urged people to throw the “corrupt and dynastic” Congress out of power in the state assembly polls due in late April or early May.

“There are still seven lakh homes in Karnataka which are in the dark with no access to electricity even years after Independence. Electricity will brighten their lives,” Modi said.

The Union Budget’s announcement of a suburban train network for Bengaluru could benefit nearly 15 lakh passengers, the Prime Minister said.

The party’s state unit had opened an online registry and used social media to personally invite the youth, techies, educated class and prominent citizens to the venue, assuring them of seating arrangements.

The “Nava Karnataka Nirmana Parivartana Yatra”, held with a view of bringing the BJP back to power in the state on the plank of transforming Karnataka through development, was led by its state unit chief and former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa.

The BJP came to power on its own for the first time in 2008 but lost to the Congress after five years in the May 2013 assembly election.

(IANS)

Bengaluru: Students donning degree robes sell pakodas near Modi’s rally venue

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Bengaluru: A group of college students, donning degree robes and selling ‘pakodas’ to passers-by in a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remarks over job creation, were today whisked away by the police, hours before the PM’s rally here.

The students appeared near the Mehkri Circle, a few metres away from Palace Ground where Modi is scheduled to address the rally, in protest against his recent remarks linking pakoda (snack) selling and job creation.

On being asked about inadequate job creation in the last four years in a recent interview to a news channel, the prime minister had said that a person selling pakodas outside their (channel’s) television studio and earning Rs 200 a day should also be perceived as ’employed’.

The young students sold ‘Modi Pakodas’, ‘Amit Shah Pakoda’ and ‘Dr Yeddy Pakodas’, a reference to Karnataka BJP chief Yeddyurappa, to those passing by, including the BJP workers and visitors on their way to the rally.

The police later removed the degree robes of the protesting students and took them into custody.

(PTI)

CBI books billionaire Nirav Modi in Rs 280 cr cheating case

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Celebrity jeweler Nirav Modi has been charged by the CBI in a multi crore cheating case, said officials on Monday. Mr Modi has been accused in a Rs. 280 crore cheating case, related to the Punjab National Bank, according to CBI officials.

CBI has registered a First Information Report (FIR) for criminal conspiracy and cheating against Nirav Modi, his brother Nishal, wife Ami and Mehul Chinubhai Chowski of Diamond R and Stellar Diamonds, for causing a loss of Rs. 280 crore.

The FIR also names a bank official, Manoj Hanumat and a retired deputy manager, Gokulnath Shetty for abusing public position. The investigative agency has also filed cases against unknown bank officials for corruption.

On January 29, the Deputy General Manager of PNB, Avineesh Nepalia, of Mumbai branch complained to the CBI, saying that some of its officials were causing loss to the bank.

The bank claimed in its complaint that two of its officials had issued Letters of Understanding (LoU), without following proper procedure and skipping entries in the banking systems. Eight fraud LoUs amounting to Rs. 280 crore were issued for Hong Kong-based banks.

The billionaire was raided by Income Tax officials on January 31; his offices in Delhi, Surat and Jaipur were allegedly under I-T department’s scanner.

Mr Nirav Modi is the founder of $2.3 billion Firestar Diamond and counts among his clients several world renowned celebrities. Firestar in a statement said,”This matter has no affiliation, legal or otherwise with Firestar International Limited, which is the flagship enterprise of Mr. Nirav Modi.”

Mr Modi has designer jewellery boutiques across three continents – in London, New York, Las Vegas, Hawai, Singapore, Beijing and Macau. In India, Mr Modi has his stores in Mumbai and Delhi.

(Agencies)

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