Narayanpur: A church was vandalised and six police personnel, including an IPS officer, were attacked and injured on Monday during a protest by tribals in connection with an alleged religious conversion in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur city, police said.
Narayanpur superintendent of police (SP) Sadanand Kumar suffered a head injury during the protest on Monday afternoon.
According to Narayanpur district officials, tribals had gathered to protest against a clash that had taken place between two communities over alleged religious conversion in Edka village in the district on Sunday.
“Around 2,000 people were present for a meeting held in Narayanpur. Local tribal leaders Rupsai Salam, Narayan Markam and few others were leading the gathering,” Inspector General of Police (Bastar range) Sundarraj P told PTI.
After the meeting, the crowd separated into groups. Armed with sticks they charged towards a church located in a school, he said.
When the police and district officials tried to stop them, some anti-social elements from the crowd hurled stones and attacked policemen with sticks, he said.
They entered the church and vandalised it.
“Narayanpur superintendent of police Sadanand Kumar and five to six other policemen sustained injuries in the attack. They were administered preliminary treatment. Their condition is stated to be stable,” the IG said.
Police personnel have been deployed in large numbers in the city, located around 300 km away from the state capital Raipur after the protest turned violent. Extra vigil is being maintained in sensitive areas.
An FIR will be registered and further action will be taken accordingly, the IG added.
Some visuals from the spot showed protesters barging into the premises of the church and ransacking it.
Talking to reporters at the hospital, SP Kumar said the protestors arrived near Viswadeepti High School in the afternoon and tried to charge towards the church located on the school premises.
“I rushed to the spot with other officials and tried to pacify the protestors. They seemed convinced and were about to return, but suddenly someone hit me with a stick on my head,” the police officer said.
Narayanpur Collector Ajeet Vasant said the meeting was held by the people belonging to a community to protest against alleged religious conversion in the area.
The community leaders had assured the meeting would be peaceful, but it turned violent, he said.
Last month, a large number of people belonging to the Christian community staged a protest in front of the Collector’s office in Narayanpur alleging “atrocities” against them.
Protestors from at least 14 villages of the tribal-dominated district had claimed they were allegedly assaulted and evicted from their homes for following the Christian faith and sought action by the administration into the matter.
Archives for January 2023
JD(S) an endangered party which will become extinct after Karnataka Assembly polls: Tejasvi Surya
BJP MP Tejasvi Surya
Ahmedabad: BJP MP Tejasvi Surya on Monday said the JD (S) is an “endangered party” which will become extinct in Karnataka after the upcoming Assembly elections.
He slammed JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy for calling Union Home Minister Amit Shah a “reincarnation” of Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, saying his words reflect political frustration.
Addressing a press conference here, the Bengaluru South MP said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will retain power in Karnataka with a thumping victory similar to Gujarat.
Kumaraswamy on Saturday called BJP a party full of “hypocrisies and lies” and Amit Shah “a political chameleon” and “reincarnation” of Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.
“The unparliamentary words used by Kumaraswamy reflect his political frustration. JD(S) is an endangered party and it will become extinct in Karnataka after the upcoming Assembly elections. That is the reason why he is making such statements,” said Surya, who heads BJP’s student wing Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM).
“The kind of statements the leaders of Congress and JD(S) from Karnataka are giving for the last 10-15 days, it is clear they know the results of the upcoming elections. Like Gujarat, the BJP will register a thumping victory in Karnataka,” said Surya.
In recently-held Gujarat Assembly elections, the BJP won the seventh straight term with a record mandate by winning 156 of 182 seats.
Surya said the BJP will also win the elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, due this year.
Surya was in Ahmedabad as part of BJYM’s “Sushasn” or good governance Yatra wherein the youth wing members from different states will tour Gujarat to understand how the state achieved development under the BJP rule.
Some of the institutions they will visit during this two-day tour include the IFFCO plant, GIFT City, railway stations, Vidya Samiksha Kendra and Forensic Sciences University campus among others.
“At least 50 BJYM workers from other states will also try to understand how the state unit of BJYM helped the BJP register a sweeping victory in the state elections,” said Surya.
“The Gujarat elections have already written a foreword for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. BJYM played an important role in BJP’s victory in Gujarat. During this tour, our workers from other states will also study and understand Yuva Morcha’s role during polls and we will prepare our state units in other states as per this Gujarat model,” he said.
Speaking on former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy’s announcement on the formation of a new political party, Surya said the “people of Karnataka and workers of BJP will give a befitting reply to those who indulge in such misadventure”.
He lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union minister Amit Shah for the Centre’s war on drugs and added “drug mafias” will be eliminated from the country in the next 2 to 3 years.
Speaking on a border row between Karnataka and Maharashtra, Surya said the people of Karnataka have full confidence in Shah, who is handling the issue.
“Such issues are connected with people’s emotions. Amit Shah held a meeting with the CMs of both states to find a lasting solution. The people of Karnataka are confident that everyone will get justice when a leader like Shah is handling this issue. We are confident that not even one per cent injustice will be done,” said Surya.
Moscow says Ukrainian rocket strike kills 63 Russian troops
Kyiv: Ukrainian forces fired rockets at a facility in the eastern Donetsk region where Russian soldiers were stationed, killing 63 of them, Russia’s defense ministry said on Monday, in one of the deadliest attacks on the Kremlin’s forces since the war began more than 10 months ago.
Ukrainian forces fired six rockets from a HIMARS launch system and two of them were shot down, a defense ministry statement said. It did not say when the strike happened.
The strike, using a US-supplied precision weapon that has proven critical in enabling Ukrainian forces to hit key targets, delivered a new setback for Russia which in recent months has reeled from a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
The Ukrainian military has not directly confirmed the strike, but seemed to acknowledge what appeared to be the same attack that Russian authorities reported.
The Strategic Communications Directorate of Ukraine’s Armed Forces claimed Sunday that some 400 mobilized Russian soldiers were killed in a vocational school building in Makiivka and about 300 more were wounded. That claim could not be independently verified. The Russian statement said the strike occurred “in the area of Makiivka” and didn’t mention the vocational school.
Meanwhile, Russia deployed multiple exploding drones in another nighttime attack on Ukraine, officials said Monday, as the Kremlin signaled no letup in its strategy of using bombardments to target the country’s energy infrastructure and wear down Ukrainian resistance to its invasion.
The barrage was the latest in a series of relentless year-end attacks, including one that killed three civilians on New Year’s Eve.
On Monday, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that 40 drones “headed for Kyiv” overnight. All of them were destroyed, according to air defense forces.
Klitschko said 22 drones were destroyed over Kyiv, three in the outlying Kyiv region and 15 over neighboring provinces.
Energy infrastructure facilities were damaged as the result of the attack and an explosion occurred in one city district, the mayor said. It wasn’t immediately clear whether that was caused by drones or other munitions. A wounded 19-year-old man was hospitalized, Klitschko added, and emergency power outages were underway in the capital.
In the outlying Kyiv region a “critical infrastructure object” and residential buildings were hit, Gov. Oleksiy Kuleba said.
Russia has carried out airstrikes on Ukrainian power and water supplies almost weekly since October.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of “energy terrorism” as the aerial bombardments have left many people without heat amid freezing temperatures. Ukrainian officials say Moscow is “weaponizing winter” in its effort to demoralize the Ukrainian resistance.
Ukraine is using sophisticated Western-supplied weapons to help shoot down Russia’s missiles and drones, as well as send artillery fire into Russian-held areas of the country.
Moscow’s full-scale invasion on February 24 has gone awry, putting pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin as his ground forces struggle to hold ground and advance. He said in his New Year’s address to the nation that 2022 was “a year of difficult, necessary decisions.”
Putin insists he had no choice but to send troops into Ukraine because it threatened Russia’s security an assertion condemned by the West, which says Moscow bears full responsibility for the war.
Russia is currently observing public holidays through January 8.
Drones, missiles and artillery shells launched by Russian forces also struck areas across Ukraine.
Five people were wounded in the Monday morning shelling of a Ukraine-controlled area of the southern Kherson region, its Ukrainian Gov. Yaroslav Yanushevich said on Telegram.
The Russian forces attacked the city of Beryslav, the official said, firing at a local market, likely from a tank. Three of the wounded are in serious condition and are being evacuated to Kherson, Yanushevich said.
Seven drones were shot down over the southern Mykolaiv region, according to Gov. Vitali Kim, and three more were shot down in the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, Gov. Valentyn Reznichenko said.
In the Dnipropetrovsk region, a missile was also destroyed, according to Reznichenko. He said that energy infrastructure in the region was being targeted.
Ukraine’s Air Force Command reported Monday that 39 Iranian-made exploding Shahed drones were shot down overnight, as well as two Russian-made Orlan drones and a X-59 missile.
“We are staying strong,” the Ukrainian defense ministry tweeted.
A blistering New Year’s Eve assault killed at least four civilians across the country, Ukrainian authorities reported, and wounded dozens. The fourth victim, a 46-year-old resident of Kyiv, died in a hospital on Monday morning, Klitschko said.
Multiple blasts rocked the capital and other areas of Ukraine on Saturday and through the night. The strikes came 36 hours after widespread missile attacks Russia launched Thursday to damage energy infrastructure facilities, and the unusually quick follow-up alarmed Ukrainian officials.
In Russia, a Ukrainian drone hit an energy facility in the Bryansk region that borders with Ukraine, Bryansk regional governor Alexander Bogomaz reported on Monday morning. A village was left without power as a result, he said.
Ram temple chief priest wishes Rahul Gandhi success for Bharat Jodo Yatra
Ayodhya (UP): A day before Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra’ is set to enter Uttar Pradesh, the chief priest of Ram Janmabhoomi temple here on Monday wished that the blessings of Lord Rama be always upon the Congress leader.
In a letter to Gandhi, the chief priest Acharya Satyendra Das extended his support to the former Congress chief over his move to unite the country.
“I hope and pray that the mission for which you are fighting may get success. I bless you for your long life,” the letter stated.
“You are working for the noble cause that is ‘sarvajan hitay sarvjan sukhaay’ in the interest of people and for the happiness of the people. I wish the blessings of Lord Rama be upon you always,” it added.
Bus catches fire in Thane passengers escape unhurt
Thane: Sixty five passengers travelling in a bus had a narrow escape after the vehicle caught fire in Maharashtra’s Thane city on Tuesday, a civic official said.
The incident took place at around 8 am near Utaleshwar in the city limits, Thane Municipal Corporation’s regional disaster management cell (RDMC) chief Avinash Sawant said.
The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) bus carrying at least 65 passengers was on way to neighbouring Bhiwandi town from Thane, he said.
After noticing the fire, the driver immediately stopped the bus and raised an alarm following which the passengers got down, the official said.
The bus was partly burnt, he said.
Local firemen and a team of the RDMC rushed to the spot after being alerted and doused the blaze in half-an-hour, he said.
A short-circuit is suspected to have caused the fire in the bus, which belonged to the Bhiwandi depot, the official said.
Demonetisation move was short-term pain but it increased digital transactions: Pune traders
Pune: Traders in Maharashtra’s Pune city feel the government’s demonetisation decision in 2016 caused temporary hardships, but the move led to a spike in digital transactions in the subsequent years.
The Supreme Court in a 4:1 majority verdict on Monday upheld the Centre’s 2016 decision to ban Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes, saying the decision-making process was neither flawed nor hasty and that it is “not relevant” whether the stated objectives were achieved or not.
Recalling the move, Pune-based pharmaceuticals wholesaler Mahendra Pitalia said, “Everybody, be it traders or common people, had to face hardships after the demonetisation exercise was announced. Everyone was in limbo about the fate of the scrapped notes they had. Banks were not immediately accepting cash from traders.”
He said the positive outcome of the note ban move was the spike in digital transactions by people.
Maharashtra Plastic Association’s former secretary Pramod Shah said that in hindsight, note ban was a good move.
“Though nothing came concrete out of that exercise, it was a good move. Those who had black money, they had to face the consequences, not everyone,” he said.
Shah said former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had predicted a depreciation of three per cent in the country’s economy, but currently the Indian economy is stronger compared to other countries.
“Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram had expressed apprehensions about digital payments. See today, the digital payments have increased many-fold,” he said.
Milind Shalgar, who owns a readymade garments brand in Pune with the same name, also said the hardships were temporary.
“After demonetisation, we could not accept cash and only card payments were accepted. For 10 -15 days, the business declined, but later it came back on track. We traders knew it was a transitional period and we were mentally prepared because the entire exercise was huge. We knew it would require some time before things settle down,” he added.
Shalgar also said the digital payment system was very well adopted in subsequent years.
“Today, we are so relieved that we do not have to handle the cash in our business like we used to do as more than 80 per cent of payments are done through online mode,” he said.
However, Federation of Traders Associations of Pune (FATP) president Fatehchand Ranka differed and claimed the note ban decision was taken without consulting the Reserve Bank of India.
“The economic condition continued to deteriorate as it (exercise) did not gain success,” he said, adding that the move hit small businesses.
“Several traders had to close their businesses. All businesses were affected but at least 15 per cent of small-time traders had to close their businesses,” he said.
Culprits should be punished severely: Kejriwal on woman’s death after being dragged by car in Delhi
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal
New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday condemned an incident in which a 20-year-old woman was killed after her scooty was hit by a car and her body dragged for four kilometres from Sultanpuri to Kanjhawala.
Taking to Twitter, Kejriwal said the incident was “shameful” and the culprits should be “punished severely”.
“What happened to our sister in Kanjhawala is very shameful. I hope that the culprits will be punished severely,” the national convenor of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said in a tweet in Hindi.
Five men have been arrested in connection with the woman’s death. The victim’s two-wheeler was hit by a car in which the accused were travelling on Sunday, police said.
A video purportedly showing the woman’s body without clothes and broken legs has surfaced on social media.
SC to pronounce verdict on pleas against demonetisation on Monday
New Delhi: The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce its judgment on Monday on a batch of pleas challenging the government’s 2016 decision to demonetise currency notes of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 denominations.
A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Justice S A Nazeer, who will retire on January 4, is likely to pronounce its verdict on the matter on January 2, when the top court will reopen after its winter break.
According to Monday’s cause list of the top court, there will be two separate judgements in the matter, which will be pronounced by Justices B R Gavai and B V Nagarathna. It is not clear whether the two judgements will be concurring or dissenting.
Besides Justices Nazeer, Gavai and Nagarathna, the other members of the five-judge bench are Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian.
The top court had, on December 7, directed the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to put on record the relevant records relating to the government’s 2016 decision and reserved its verdict.
It heard the arguments of Attorney General R Venkataramani, the RBI’s counsel and the petitioners’ lawyers, including senior advocates P Chidambaram and Shyam Divan.
Calling the scrapping of the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes deeply flawed, Chidambaram had argued that the government cannot on its own initiate any proposal relating to legal tender, which can only be done on the recommendation of the RBI’s central board.
Resisting the apex court’s attempt to revisit the 2016 demonetisation exercise, the government had said the court cannot decide a matter when no tangible relief can be granted by way of “putting the clock back” and “unscrambling a scrambled egg”.
The RBI had earlier admitted in its submissions that there were “temporary hardships” and that those too are an integral part of the nation-building process, but there was a mechanism by which the problems that arose were solved.
In an affidavit, the Centre told the top court recently that the demonetisation exercise was a “well-considered” decision and part of a larger strategy to combat the menace of fake money, terror financing, black money and tax evasion.
The Supreme Court has heard a batch of 58 petitions challenging the demonetisation exercise announced by the Centre on November 8, 2016.
11 coaches of Suryanagri Express derail in Rajasthan’s Pali
Jaipur: Eleven coaches of the Bandra Terminus-Jodhpur Suryanagri Express derailed in Rajasthan’s Pali district early Monday morning, an official said.
No loss of life has been reported, a spokesperson of the North Western Railway (NWR) said and added that several trains have either been cancelled or diverted due to the derailment of train number 12480 on the Rajkiyawas-Bamodara route at 3.27 am.
The railways has opened helpline numbers and Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw is monitoring the situation, the official said.
Former Tata Sons director RK Krishnakumar passes away in Mumbai
R Krishnakumar, a close confidant of Ratan Tata and a group veteran, died Sunday evening, officials said. Kerala-born Krishnakumar, who had served at multiple positions in the group, including heading its hospitality arm Indian Hotels, was 84.
The Padma Shri awardee suffered a heart attack at his home in the financial capital on Sunday, they said.
Tata Sons’ current chairman N Chandrasekaran offered condolences for Krishnakumar’s “enormous contribution” to the Tata Group.
“I had the good fortune of knowing him and what stood out was his deep sense of compassion as a human being. He always wanted to help the less privileged and positively impact their lives. We pray for his departed soul and will sorely miss him,” Chandrasekaran said in a statement.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan tweeted that Thalassery-born Krishnakumar helped strengthen the ties of the group with the southern state and offered condolences to the family.
Krishnakumar had been active with the Tata Trusts after his retirement from executive roles and was reportedly a part of the team which worked alongside Ratan Tata in the Cyrus Mistry ouster episode. Krishnakumar’s cremation will be held at Chandanwadi Crematorium here at 4.30 pm on Monday.