Archives for September 2020

Addressing the gathering, the CM slammed the Centre for bringing the farm laws, saying they would “destroy” the farming community.

KHATKAR KALAN: Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday said his government would approach the Supreme Court over the issue of new farm laws.

He also slammed the BJP-led central government, accusing it of snatching the rights of states.

“Will it (Centre) leave anything with them to run their states,” Singh asked.

Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, along with AICC general secretary and Punjab Affairs in-charge Harish Rawat, Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar along with other leaders on Monday paid tributes to Shaheed Bhagat Singh at Khatkar Kalan village.

Amarinder Singh, Rawat and others held a sit-in protest here against the new farms laws.

Addressing the gathering, the CM slammed the Centre for bringing the farm laws, saying they would “destroy” the farming community.

“I have said we will take this matter forward.

The president has passed these bills and now we will take this matter to the Supreme Court,” Singh said.

Stating that his government would take every possible step to protect the interest of the farming community, he said, “Two advocates from Delhi are coming here tomorrow and we will discuss this matter with them”. President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday gave assent to three contentious farm bills that have triggered protests by farmers, especially in Punjab.

According to a gazette notification, the president gave assent to three bills — the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2020.

Defending farmers for holding protests over the farm laws, the CM said they had the right to do so as “you are taking away their livelihood”.

He accused the central government of snatching the rights of states.

“Now you have taken away (right over) the farm sector. Which thing will you leave with states? Will you leave it or not? You have taken away everything (from states). How will we run our states?” he added.

RANCHI: Jharkhand School Education and Literacy Minister Jagarnath Mahto was admitted to the Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Ranchi after he tested positive for COVID-19.

The minister, who underwent a COVID-19 test after he complained of cold, cough and breathing problems, was found to be positive on Monday.

Mahto had hit the headlines recently for gifting cards to state toppers of the Class 10 and Class 12 examinations. The minister, who himself is completing his schooling at the moment, also promised to adopt toppers from the next year so that they can finish their studies without any hurdle.

The minister was in his home constituency Bokaro from where he was rushed to RIMS by a special 108 ambulance.

“Friends, I am a bit unwell for the last few days and going to RIMS for treatment due to which all my programmes remains cancelled,” said Mahto on his Twitter handle.

Mahto is also said to have recorded a drop in oxygen level due to which he was rushed to the Trauma Centre of RIMS on Monday.

Expressing hope that he would be perfectly alright soon, Patil requested all those who had come in his contact in the last few days to get themselves tested as a precaution.

BENGALURU: Senior Congress MLA in Karnataka H K Patil on Monday said he had tested positive for coronavirus.

“I have been tested positive for #Covid19. I am asymptomatic but quarantined myself for 10 days,” Patil, a former minister and Congress in-charge of Maharashtra, tweeted this morning.

Expressing hope that he would be perfectly alright soon, Patil requested all those who had come in his contact in the last few days to get themselves tested as a precaution.

He is the third MLA to have attended the recently concluded Karnataka Assembly session and tested positive for COVID-19.

Prior to him, Deputy Chief Minister Govind Karjol and Gandhinagar MLA Dinesh Gundu Rao tested positive for coronavirus among those who had attended the assembly session recently.

Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, Health Minister B Sriramulu, Forest Minister Anand Singh, Tourism Minister C T Ravi, Agriculture Minister B C Patil, Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah and Congress state chief D K Shivakumar are among those who were tested positive and recovered.

Karnataka has lost the Belagavi BJP MP and former Minister of State for Railways Suresh Angadi, BJP Rajya Sabha member Ashok Gasti and Basavakalyan Congress MLA B Narayan Rao due to coronavirus.

A few former public representatives too died due to COVID-19 in Karnataka.

As on Sunday evening, cumulatively 5,75,566 COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state, which includes 8,582 deaths and 4,62,241 discharges.

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) opposed in the top Court a plea seeking postponement of the prelims amid the pandemic and the floods.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Monday asked the UPSC to apprise it by tomorrow the “logistical arrangements” made for conducting civil services preliminary exams on October 4 in view of alarming spurt of COVID-19 cases as also floods in various parts of the country.

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC)  a plea seeking postponement of the prelims amid the pandemic and the floods.

In a hearing conducted through video conferencing, a bench comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar, B R Gavai and Krishna Murari asked the UPSC to file an affidavit by Tuesday.

The bench will take up the plea for hearing on Wednesday “You file your affidavit tomorrow.

Whatever logistical arrangements are there you put them in a short affidavit,” the bench ordered.

The UPSC counsel said the Civil Services exams were fixed on May 31 and it was impossible to defer them again.

“This is an examination for the core services of the Government of India. Several candidates have already downloaded their e-admit card for the examination,” the UPSC lawyer said.

The bench asked the UPSC to serve the copy of its affidavit to lawyer Alakh Alok Shrivastava, the counsel for the petitioner Vasireddy Govardhana Sai Prakash and 19 other aspirants who have filed the petition for the postponement of the examination.

The top court had said earlier that it would take up on September 28 a plea seeking postponement of civil services 2020 examinations in view of alarming spurt of COVID-19 pandemic and floods.

It had granted the liberty to the petitioner to serve advance copy of the petition on the Standing Counsel for the UPSC as well as on the Standing Counsel for the Central Agency representing Union of India through email/online.

The petitioners have sought postponement of the Civil Services Exam for two to three months, so that the flood/ incessant rains recede and the COVID-19 curve flattens.

The plea submitted that the UPSC decision to conduct the exam in accordance with the impugned Revised Calendar, violates the rights of the petitioners and those similarly situated, under Article 19 (1) (g) of the Constitution to practice their chosen profession/ occupation of serving the public.

According to the plea this 7-hour offline exam, will be taken by approximately six lakh aspirants at test centres in 72 cities.

“Conducting the aforesaid examination across India at such perilous time, is nothing else but putting lives of lakhs of young students (including Petitioners herein) at utmost risk and danger of disease and death. Also, the natural calamities like flood, incessant rain, landslides etc. are likely to directly affect the life and health of the Petitioners and many similarly situated students.”

“Hence, the impugned Revised Calendar is utterly arbitrary, unreasonable, whimsical and patently violative of the “Right to Health” and “Right to Life” of the Petitioners herein and lakhs of similarly situated students, under Article 21,” the petition stated.

The plea said the Civil Services Exam, being a recruitment examination, is altogether different from an academic examination and in the event of its postponement, there would not be any question of delay or loss of any academic session.

It said that due to non-availability of exam centres in their home towns, many aspirants are facing “unimaginable” hardship due to non-availability of or unsafe health conditions in, the PG accommodation/ hostels/ hotels etc., where they are forced to stay with their family members, once they are travelling to an outstation Examination Centre.

“It is pertinent to mention here that despite alarming spurt in COVID-19 pandemic, UPSC did not increase the number of Examination Centres, resulting into a situation where many candidates from rural areas will be forced to travel for around 300-400 Kilometres, in order to reach to their Examination Centres and there will be high probability of such aspirants, getting affected while using public transportation for such travel,” the plea said.

Dry weather is likely to prevail over parts of north India for the next five days. The official rainfall season in the country starts from June 1 to September 30.

NEW DELHI: The southwest monsoon retreated from parts of west Rajasthan and Punjab on Monday, 11 days after his normal withdrawal date, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

Conditions are becoming favourable for its further withdrawal from some more parts of Rajasthan and Punjab and some parts of Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh during next two to three days, the IMD said.

“The southwest monsoon has withdrawn from some parts of west Rajasthan and Punjab today, September 28th, 2020,” it said.

Dry weather is likely to prevail over parts of north India for the next five days. The official rainfall season in the country starts from June 1 to September 30.

This year, the monsoon made an onset over Kerala on June 1, its normal onset date. It covered the entire country on June 26, nearly a fortnight more than its normal schedule.

According to the revised date, the new normal date for the monsoon to cover the entire country is July 8.

The earlier normal date for the monsoon to cover the entire country was July 15. The monsoon has also withdrawn late this year.

The new normal withdrawal date for the monsoon to retreat from west Rajasthan is September 17, while the earlier normal date for the monsoon to withdraw from west Rajasthan was July 15.

While the monsoon was retreating from parts of north India, other parts of the country will continue to receive rainfall.

A trough runs from a cyclonic circulation over east Bihar to west-central Bay of Bengal, off Andhra Pradesh coast across Gangetic West Bengal and coastal Odisha.

Under the influence of this system, scattered to fairly widespread rainfall with moderate thunderstorm and lightning are very likely over south peninsular India during the next three days, the weatherman said.

Isolated heavy rainfall is very likely over Tamil Nadu during the next two days, the IMD added.

According to the weather department, monsoon is set to end on an above-normal note. Until September 27, the country had received 9 per cent more rainfall than the normal.

Rainfall in the range of 96-104 per cent of the Long Period Average (LPA) is considered as ‘normal’; 104-106 per cent of the LPA as ‘above normal’.

Anything beyond 110 per cent is considered as ‘excess’.

Last week Singh’s lawyer Vikas Singh had expressed “helplessness” over the slow pace of the CBI probe into Rajput’s death.

NEW DELHI: The CBI has not reached any conclusion in the death case of actor Sushant Singh Rajput and all aspects are under investigation, the agency said on Monday.

“The Central Bureau of Investigation is conducting professional investigation related to death of Shri Sushant Singh Rajput in which all aspects are being looked at and no aspect has been ruled out as of date,” a CBI spokesperson said in statement.

  Rajput, 34, who made his silver screen debut in the critically acclaimed ‘Kai Po Che’ seven years ago, was found dead in his apartment in suburban Bandra in Mumbai on June 14 this year.

The CBI had taken over the probe from Bihar Police into the alleged abetment to suicide case filed by the actor’s father K K Singh in Patna against Rajput’s girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty and her family.

Singh in his complaint to Bihar Police had alleged that Chakraborty along with her family members had misappropriated Rajput’s wealth, which was denied by Chakraborty in TV interviews.

Last week Singh’s lawyer Vikas Singh had expressed “helplessness” over the slow pace of the CBI probe into Rajput’s death.

The pace of the CBI probe into Sushant Singh Rajput’s death has suddenly slowed down and all attention is being diverted to drugs-related issues with the NCB conducting “fashion parade” of Bollywood stars, the late actor’s family lawyer Vikas Singh had alleged on Friday.

“Today, we are helpless as we don’t know which direction the case is going in. Normally, a press briefing is done by CBI. But in this case, till today, CBI has not done a press briefing on what they have found out. This is a very serious issue,” Singh had alleged at a press conference.

The probe agency had earlier also issued a statement calling media reports attributed to it as speculative.

“Certain media reports attributed to CBI investigation are speculative and not based on facts.

It is reiterated that as a matter of policy, CBI does not share details of ongoing investigation,” the agency had said on September 3 “CBI spokesperson or any team member has not shared any details of investigation with media. The details being reported and attributed to CBI are not credible,” it had said.