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Amritsar/Chandigarh: Shiv Sena leader Sudhir Suri was shot dead by unidentified people in Punjab’s Amritsar on Friday, police said.
The incident took place outside a temple in the city where Suri and some other leaders of the party were holding a protest, they said.
Dr K Sudhakar, Minister for Health and Family Welfare
Bengaluru: Dr K Sudhakar, Minister for Health and Family Welfare, has said that four staff members of the Tumakuru district hospital, accused of causing the death of a mother and her newborns by denying medical attention, will be dismissed if the charges are proven true.
“Strict legal action will also be taken against them,” the minister said in his post on social media on Friday.
The commissioner of the Department of Health and Family Welfare issued an order suspending a doctor and three nurses of the Tumakuru district hospital on Thursday, as a woman and her newborn children in the city died after being denied timely medical attention at the hospital, said sources.
In his post, Dr Sudhakar has said that, at the outset, it seems an act of dereliction of duty by the doctor and the three nurses of the Obstetrics Ward in the hospital, and the four staff members have been suspended by the Department.
“The government and the Health Department have considered this matter very seriously. A high-level committee has been formed, led by the Commissioner of the Department, for further investigation of the incident. The committee members have also been told to submit a report within two weeks,” the minister said.
Reminding that it is the foremost duty of medical staff, including doctors and nurses, to provide medical attention and treatment to a patient, the minister has said, “The government has already ordered medical professionals not to demand a patient to produce any sort of record. The order is being re-issued.”
Chandrashekhar
Shivamogga: Former Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa has said that the death of MLA and chief minister’s political secretary M P Renukacharya’s nephew Chandrashekhar seems to be a case of murder, at the outset, and will be thoroughly investigated.
Chandrashekhar’s body was found in a decomposed state inside his car which was lifted from the Tunga canal near Kadadakatte, Davanagere, on Thursday. The youngster had been missing since October 30.
Addressing reporters here on Friday, Yediyurappa said, “The death of Chandrashekhar will be further investigated. I will also speak to the chief minister and urge to ensure the investigation is conducted urgently.”
Shivamogga MP B Y Raghavendra visited the house of Renukacharya in Honnali and offered his condolences to the family members, said sources.
Raghavendra said, “Chandrashekhar was active in politics and his death is a loss to the BJP,” and concurred that the matter should be investigated, the sources added.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the validity of the Employees Pension (Amendment) Scheme of 2014 but quashed the threshold limit of Rs 15,000 monthly salary for joining the pension fund.
The 2014 amendment had capped the maximum pensionable salary (basic pay plus dearness allowance) at Rs 15,000 per month. Prior to the amendment, the maximum pensionable salary was capped at Rs 6,500 a month.
A bench of Chief Justice UU Lalit and Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sudhanshu Dhulia, however, read down certain provisions of the scheme.
Employees who have not exercised the option to join the pension scheme must do so within six months, the bench said.
It added that eligible employees who could not join the scheme by the cut-off date should be given an additional chance as there was a lack of clarity on the issue in view of judgments passed by the high courts of Kerala, Rajasthan and Delhi.
The bench further held as invalid the condition in the 2014 scheme that required employees to make a further contribution at 1.16 per cent on salary exceeding Rs 15,000.
It held that the condition to make additional contribution on the salary exceeding the threshold limit to be ultra vires but added that this part of the judgment would be kept in suspension for six months to enable the authorities to generate funds.
The Employees Provident Fund Organisation and the Centre challenged the verdicts of the high courts of Kerala, Rajasthan and Delhi, which had quashed the 2014 scheme.
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday dismissed with Rs 25,000 costs a plea seeking to implead Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk as party to a petition challenging suspension of a user’s account for an alleged violation of its rules.
Justice Yashwant Varma termed the application to be “thoroughly misconceived”.
“This application is thoroughly misconceived. It cannot possibly be disputed that a corporate entity is thoroughly represented and therefore, there was no need to file such an application. Accordingly, it is dismissed with a costs of Rs 25,000,” the judge said.
At the outset, the court said “even we need entertainment” and asked the counsel for the petitioner if he was serious in prosecuting the application.
To this, advocate Raghav Awasthi, appearing for the petitioner, said his instructions were to press the application.
He said Musk was not only the director but also holds substantial shares in Twitter and was a necessary party in the matter.
The application said that Musk has a very different approach to free speech and, therefore, his views were important to be heard.
Elon Musk has a very different stand on free speech whereby his opinion is that as long as speech does not violate the law of the land in question, the same should not be curtailed by the respondent no. 2 (Twitter), it claimed.
The high court was hearing a petition by Dimple Kaul, who claimed that her Twitter handle had more than 2,55,000 followers and was used to post educational content in relation to history, literature, politics, archaeology, Indic culture, non-violence, equality, and women rights.
The petitioner’s counsel had contended that Twitter was deleting profiles as per its own sweet will and they have no right to do so in law and asserted that the account be restored during the pendency of the petition.
The high court had earlier sought the stand of Twitter on the petition challenging the out of the blue illegal suspension of a user account for alleged violation of its rules.
Twitter’s counsel had said a writ petition was not maintainable against Twitter which is a private entity. He had said granting any interim relief in the present cases would be as good as granting final relief.
Kaul has submitted that she was informed by Twitter that her account, which was followed by several eminent personalities , was suspended for violating the platform’s rules against ban evasion even when there was no such prior incident.
She has claimed that she was not granted any opportunity of being heard and the illegal action of the respondent No.2 (Twitter) has caused the petitioner to face the kind of mental and emotional trauma which cannot be expressed in words .
Petitioner along with her research team put a lot of money and time on researching educational content and posted various threads for information and knowledge of the general public. (On January 20, 2022) Out of the blue, the petitioner received an email from respondent no.2 regarding the suspension of the Twitter account created by the petitioner, the petition filed through lawyer Mukesh Sharma has said.
The petitioner has asserted that Twitter performs a public function and is bound by Sections 79 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 as well as the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
There is no sanction for the suo-motu actions of the respondent No.2 in suspending the Twitter Account of the Petitioner under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 either. As a matter of fact, the same could lead to the Respondent No.2 losing its intermediary status (under the law), the petition has argued.
It has further contended that the suspension is in violation of Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution as it is an impairment of the right to free speech and is arbitrary.
Cheongju (South Korea): The Indian men’s team, led by the seasoned Saurav Ghosal, clinched its first-ever gold at the Asian Squash Team Championships with a 2-0 win over Kuwait in the final here on Friday.
Star player Ghosal sealed the victory after Ramit Tandon had given India the lead with a fluent straight games win over Ali Aramezi (11-5, 11-7, 11-4).
Ghosal then made short work of Ammar Altamimi 11-9, 11-2, 11-3 to give the team an unassailable lead.
The third match between Abhay Singh and Falah Mohammad was not played as the tie had been decided following wins for Tandon and Ghosal.
Having finished with the silver medal on two previous occasions, the Indian men, seeded one, justified its billing and emerged victorious with a dominant performance.
They topped Pool A with an all-win record, recording victories over Qatar, Pakistan, Kuwait, South Korea, and Chinese Taipei 3-0 before edging out Malaysia 2-1 in the semifinal.
The women’s team settled for the bronze medal after losing 1-2 to Malaysia in the semi-finals
The women’s Indian team finished second in Pool B with two wins and a loss. The women beat Iran and Singapore 3-0 before going down 0-3 to Hong Kong in the preliminary phase.
Results: Men: Final: India beat Kuwait 2-0 (Ramit Tandon beat Ali Aramezi 11-5, 11-7, 11-4; Saurav Ghosal beat Ammar Altamimi 11-9, 11-2, 11-3).
Mumbai: An undertrial gangster brought a plastic bottle filled with dead mosquitoes to a court here to highlight their menace in the jail he is lodged in.
Gangster Ejaz Lakdawala on Thursday brought the bottle and sought a mosquito net, but his plea was rejected by the sessions court.
Lakdawala, a former associate of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim, is facing multiple criminal cases, including those under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). He was arrested in January 2020 and has been lodged at the Taloja prison in neighbouring Navi Mumbai since then.
He had recently filed an application in court seeking permission to use a mosquito net. Lakdwala, in his application, said that in 2020 when he was remanded in judicial custody, he was permitted to use one but in May this year, the prison authorities seized the net citing security concerns.
On Thursday, when Lakdawala was produced before the sessions court, he showed a plastic bottle filled with dead mosquitoes and said the inmates of Taloja jail have to face this problem everyday. But the jail authorities opposed the plea citing security reasons.
The court while rejecting the application said the accused applicant (Lakdawala) could use Odomos and other mosquito repellents.
Apart from Lakdawala, several undertrials from the Taloja prison have also filed similar applications.
In some applications, the request was allowed, but in others they were rejected.
Gangster D K Rao was permitted by the court to use mosquito net by one judge, but another judge did not permit the same to a few accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case and a direction was given to the prison authorities to take all necessary precautions to curb the mosquito menace.
In September this year, activist Gautam Navlakha had also filed an application seeking permission to use a net, which is still pending.
Parmesh S Jain
Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said today was an important day for the development of Bengaluru as well as infusing a biggest strength for the Department of Fire Services.
Speaking after dedicating 90 meter Aerial Ladder Platform vehicle on behalf of Karnataka Fire and Emergency Services and flagging of ‘Green Deepavali’, a public awareness campaign on the stairs of Vidhana Soudha here on Thursday, he said the 90 meter aerial ladder platform is a most essential and important facility and this modern ladder will work as a real friend in need.
The whole world is growing in a big scale and it is a most essential service especially in all important metropolitans without which building permission is not given.
Fire Safety and its rules are equally important. It was essential for the Department of Fire & Emergency Services to have all facilities to reach hi-rise buildings during an emergency.
Ready to serve
The CM said till now,the Bengaluru Fire Department had only a 50 meter ladder and the state capital is growing fast both horizontally and vertically.
After Mumbai City,Bengaluru has become the second city in the whole country to have a 90 meter Aerial Ladder Platform system.
Efforts were made to procure this in the last two and a half years and while he was the Home Minister the grants had been released.
But it got delayed due to some reasons such as Covid-19 and production problems.The new ladder will be put into use in BBMP limits, he added.
The Government is capable of solving problems
Bommai said Bengaluru City is growing fast and several definitions are made without understanding issues.
The recent rains had created floods only in two constituencies and not in all 26 Assembly segments.
But it was projected as if the whole Bengaluru City had submerged.In fact,Bengaluru is an important city both in national and international level and the government is capable of solving any problems of the city.It is important to present facts correctly.
There are over 100 personnel working in SDRF to deal with flood situations.The State Capital has both NDRF and SDRF teams and they are capable of rescuing anyone from any part of the city.
The government had already released Rs.20 crore to buy the new equipment and another Rs.20 crore was released recently.
The government’s intention is to strengthen SDRF. Instructions are given to form another two companies of SDRF for which ex-servicemen will be appointed.
Already,over 100 retired defense personnel were appointed and more personnel will be recruited directly for the proposed two companies.
Along with modernisation and increasing numbers,even training and empowerment are also given given importance.
The SDRF had helped during the recent floods in different districts,he added.
He said permission has been given to strengthen the Department of Fire Services by sanctioning various schemes and one of them was the procurement of 90 meter aerial ladder platform.
This department rescues people in any fire mishap that occurs in any corner of the city all the 24 hours.
The CM said 5,000 new vehicles are added to the fleet of vehicles daily whereas the roads have remained the same.
Despite this,the police department has been managing traffic by using several technologies including synchronizing for free flow of traffic.
As many as 7500 cameras are installed under the Nirbhaya scheme and it will be used to address the problems of traffic density and for women safety.They work on artificial intelligence and revolves 360 degree.
Steps are taken to fill up potholes across the city. New potholes have emerged due to incessant rain.Even they too are being filled up on the war-footing.
It was possible to do quality works in case rain reduces.Whatever repair works done would not last long during continuous rain.But all the potholes will be filled up,Bommai said.
The CM wished the people on the occasion of Deepavali festival and asked them to celebrate by using green crackers.
The citizens must use the crackers of less than 125 decibels.Home Minister Araga Jnanendra, Ministers,Kota Srinivasa Pujari,S.T.Somashekar, Shivaram Hebbar, MP P.C.Mohan,MLA Niranjan Kumar,Additional Chief Secretary (Home Department) Rajneesh Goel and DGP (Fire Services) A.K.Pandey were present.
Parmesh S Jain
The capacity and capability to save lives of people in fire mishaps and to check fire accidents have increased,opined Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai.
Speaking after dedicating 90 meter Aerial Ladder Platform vehicle on behalf of Karnataka Fire and Emergency Services and flagging of ‘Green Deepavali’,a public awareness campaign on the stairs of Vidhana Soudha here on Thursday, he said in the whole country,except Mumbai,only Bengaluru has 90 meter aerial ladder platform to rescue people who are struck in hi-rise buildings during the fire mishaps.
I will compliment Home Minister Araga Jnanendra,Home Department and senior officials of Department of Fire Services for bringing this ladder to Bengaluru”.
Earlier, the CM went in the newly dedicated aerial ladder platform along with others.Asked about his experience,Bommai said,I was surprised to see the design of Vidhana Soudha dome.
In those days, they had taken this stone to the top of the building. I was elated to see the Ashoka Pillar from a close angle. The solace is that with the new ladder it is possible to save lives of people in fire mishaps”.