Archives for May 2023

NEW DELHI: President Droupadi Murmu on Sunday welcomed the inauguration of the new parliament building by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said it is a matter of pride and immense happiness for the entire country.

In her message at the inauguration, the president said the inauguration of the new Parliament building will be written in golden words in the country’s history

Her message was read out by Rajya Sabha deputy chairman Harivansh.

Noting the parliament is a guiding light for the country, President Murmu said the new Parliament building “is an important milestone in our democratic journey”.

“The occasion of the inauguration of the new parliament building will be written in golden words in the history of India,” Murmu said.

RAIPUR: The obsession with cows in Indian politics is nothing new. In Chhattisgarh, where the polls are scheduled for later this year, the issue seems to have taken centre stage with the BJP targeting the Congress-led state government’s flagship programme on gauthans (premises to house cows).

The leaders and cadres of the saffron party have launched a statewide campaign called ‘Chalbo gauthan, kholbo pol’ (Visit gauthan, expose irregularities). It claimed that the implementation of the Gauthan scheme is not just in disarray but the programme is being run allegedly through fraudulent means by diverting the funds of Central schemes like MGNREGA and that of panchayats.

“It’s a fraud being committed in the name of cows. The scale of corruption is around Rs 1,300 crore,” said Arun Sao, state BJP president, who led his party cadres to inspect such cattle shed units located in the Mungeli district.

In Chhattisgarh, there are 8412 villages with such units operating under the Suraji Gaon Yojana, which is said to have given a boost to rural economic activities across the state. BJP leaders claimed that they found the arrangement of water, fodder, sheds etc inadequate and that cows were missing in some of the gauthans.

The Congress denied the BJP’s allegations, saying it was an attempt to defame the scheme aimed at serving the cows and had got universal appreciation.

“As the elections are approaching, the BJP has begun thinking about gauthans. What were they doing during the last three years when the programme had been initiated? They should better give constructive suggestions that we can follow and improve upon the working of gauthans,” said Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel.

NEW DELHI: A court here on Wednesday posted the hearing on a plea for a fresh passport by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, an accused in the National Herald case, on May 26.

Gandhi had moved the court Tuesday seeking a ‘no objection certificate’ to secure a fresh “ordinary passport” after having surrendered his diplomatic travel document upon his disqualification as an MP.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vaibhav Mehta posted the matter on Friday for the filling of written submissions and the arguments of BJP leader Subramanian Swamy.

“The applicant ceased to be a Member of Parliament in March 2023 and as such he surrendered his diplomatic passport and is applying for a fresh ordinary passport … By way of the present application, the applicant is seeking permission and no objection from this Court for issuance of fresh ordinary passport to him,” the application said.

The court had on December 19, 2015 granted bail to Gandhi and others in the case.

AHMEDABAD: A Gujarat court on Tuesday issued a fresh summons to Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and AAP MP Sanjay Singh to appear before it on June 7 in a criminal defamation case filed by the Gujarat University over PM Narendra Modi’s academic qualifications.

The court of additional chief metropolitan magistrate SJ Panchal issued the summons after being told that the previous summons asking them to appear on May 23 didn’t seem to have been received by the duo as they were not present in the court.

“On April 15, the court had ordered both defendants, Kejriwal and Singh, to appear in court. The hearing was scheduled for today. However, it appears that the summons lacked clarity, so the judge ruled that the accused should get a new summons and copies of the complaint. The next scheduled hearing date is June 7,” Amit Nayak, petitioner’s attorney, told the media.

In a previous criminal defamation charge, the court of additional chief metropolitan Magistrate Jayesh Chovatiya had summoned the AAP leaders for making “sarcastic” and “derogatory” remarks against the Gujarat University regarding PM Modi’s academic degree.

However, AAP’s Gujarat legal cell leader Pranav Thakkar stated, “We learned through reports that summons were issued but neither Kejriwal nor Singh received them. They will appear only after receiving the summons.”

Chovatiya, in response to a complaint made by Gujarat University registrar Piyush Patel, issued a summons on April 15 after concluding that there appeared to be a case against Kejriwal and Singh under the relevant IPC section.

BENGALURU: Former Minister and five-time Congress MLA U T Khader on Wednesday was unanimously elected as the new Speaker of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly.

Khader (53) will be the first Muslim leader to serve as Speaker of Karnataka Assembly.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah proposed Khader’s name for the post of Speaker and it was seconded by Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar.

As there was no other contender for the post, Protem Speaker R V Deshpande put the proposal made by the Chief Minister to vote, and it was unanimously adopted by the House.

As per convention, the ruling party’s nominee is generally elected unanimously as the Speaker.

Khader had served as Deputy Leader of Opposition in the previous Assembly and also as a minister in the past.

NEW DELHI: The first day of exchanging Rs 2,000 currency notes passed off largely peacefully as it was business as usual in most banks and there were no large crowds as seen in the aftermath of the 2016 demonetisation.

Note exchange was a low-key affair in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha and Telangana, where people chose not to rush to banks to replace Rs 2,000 notes with lower denomination ones.

In Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad and Vijayawada, residents tried to dispose of the pink notes at petrol pumps, supermarkets and other business establishments.

While no major untoward incident was reported from any state, Delhi, Chennai and Bhubaneswar reported isolated incidents of confusion and chaos in some bank branches.

At some banks in Delhi, heated arguments took place between customers and bank staff who allegedly refused to accept notes without identity proof despite the government’s clarification that no document is required to exchange notes.

Some Chennai banks also demanded Aadhaar card while others wanted to know the mobile numbers of those who came with Rs 2,000 notes. The city also recorded high activity with some bank branches collecting Rs 2,000 notes worth over Rs 60 lakh on Tuesday. A few Bhubaneswar banks, too, insisted on identity documents such as Aadhaar card along with the requisition slip to deposit and exchange notes. There were widespread complaints of petrol pumps refusing to accept high-value notes.

Meanwhile, no rush was witnessed in jewellery shops as well with most jewellers reporting business as usual. However, some jewellers in Telangana and Karnataka said some people are making payments in Rs 2,000 notes. Across Karnataka, the Rs 2,000 note exchange rush was seen more at petrol stations, jewellery stores, malls and stores than at the banks.

Kerala witnessed a slow start to the exchange of Rs 2,000 notes with very few people turning up at banks to exchange the pink notes. “There is ample time till September 30 to exchange the notes. Also, many customers are making full use of digital banking and UPI payments and hence they do not have big currencies in their possession. In case of bulk payments such as Rs 5-10 lakh or more, customers are depositing it in their accounts as normal procedure,” said the manager of a nationalised bank in Kochi.

In Chennai, bank branches in residential areas wore a desolate look with fewer footfalls while those in Purasawalkam, Vepery and other commercial areas saw people arrive in small numbers to exchange as well as deposit Rs 2,000 notes. The manager of the nearby Federal Bank said only less than 10 persons came to the bank for exchanging money. The bank collected their Aadhaar card details as identity proof.

KP Murali, president of Tamil Nadu Petroleum Dealers Association, said they are getting a lot of Rs 2,000 notes. “We urge RBI to direct banks to provide us with adequate change so we can transition through this period smoothly,” he said.

Banks in Delhi, unlike other cities, witnessed brisk activity and crowds. However, there was confusion among customers about the procedure to exchange and deposit notes. Heated arguments broke out at some branches with bank staff allegedly refusing to provide the correct information and demanding identity proof. There were also complaints of banks refusing to exchange notes and forcing customers to deposit money in their accounts.

In Andhra Pradesh, there was no rush in banks to exchange Rs 2,000 denomination notes. People tried to expend the money through commercial establishments, petrol filling stations and jewellers but they were reluctant to accept the notes.

Realtors, however, said they would be ready to accept the notes if people come forward as it would be a push to the sector, which is yet to recover fully from the slump. Alla Siva Reddy, Chairman of CREDAI, said: “No realtor in the state is having money as there is no business in the state for the past few years. We are ready to accept Rs 2,000 notes until September 23.”

Meanwhile, in a bid to cash in on the situation, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has announced an offer for house owners to pay property tax in Rs 2,000 notes. There was no panic rush to banks in Odisha. Very few people turned up to either deposit or exchange notes.

NEW DELHI: India is increasingly becoming a hot spot for crowd accidents, with religious festivals emerging as the most likely situation to result in a dangerous crush, according to a study.

The researchers created the most comprehensive database of deaths and injuries caused by crowd accidents ever compiled, which they hope will improve safety at mass gatherings across the world.

The directory features details of 281 major global incidents occurring between 1900 and 2019 that resulted in at least one death, or 10 people being injured.

“India and, to a somewhat lesser extent West Africa, appear to be hot spots for crowd accidents.

These are rapidly developing regions, with a quick increase in population and where infrastructure is struggling to keep pace with the inflow of people from rural to urban areas,” said Milad Haghani from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Australia.

“Northern India, in particular, is a densely populated area with solid religious traditions leading people to gather in millions over short period of times,” Haghani said in a statement.

The study, published in the journal Safety Science, found that almost 70 per cent of the accidents which occurred in India between 2000 and 2019 were related to religious events.

Many of those accidents occurred close to rivers or in areas near water, according to the researchers, including those from the University of Tokyo, Japan.

Accidents have frequently occurred on bridges — which act as a bottleneck — at ferry terminals or on riverbanks where people enter the water to later reverse their direction, thus creating a complex and conflicting motion pattern.

However, train stations or transportation terminals have also often been the theater for disasters in the region, they said.

“I think the problems we see from the data in India, where there are a large number of accidents linked to religious festivals, is mostly about financial constraints,” Haghani said.

“They know these deadly crowd events are happening and they know they should be doing something more, but probably they do not have access to the same money and the same technology that is available in wealthier countries,” he added.

Haghani also noted that there is a difference in the level of knowledge in terms of crowd safety at religious festivals compared to sports events.

Apart from India, the other areas where numerous deadly incidents have occurred in the past few years include South-East Asia and the Middle East.

Overall, serious crowd accidents across the globe have risen dramatically over the past 20 years—from an average of around three per year between 1990 and 1999, to nearly 12 per year between 2010 and 2019, the researchers said.

They acknowledged that some of these numbers may be due to the growth of the internet and social media which ensures incidents are more widely reported.

“Just in the past 20 years alone around 8,000 people have been killed in crowd accidents and more than 15,000 have been injured,” Haghani said.

“Over time, the share of sport events in crowd accidents has declined, and instead, religious gatherings have become more notably present in the statistics,” the researcher added.