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Union home minister Amit Shah |

New Delhi: The newly enacted laws – the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and the Bharatiya Sakshya Act – to completely overhaul the criminal justice system in the country will come into effect from July 1.

The three laws got the Parliament’s approval on December 21 last year and President Droupadi Murmu gave her assent on December 25.

According to three identical notifications issued by the Union Home Ministry, provisions of the new laws will come into force from July 1.

The laws will replace the colonial-era Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Indian Evidence Act of 1872 respectively.

The three legislations aim at completely overhauling the criminal justice system in the country by giving definitions of various offences and their punishments.

New Delhi : Under fire over AI tool Gemini’s objectionable response and bias to a question on PM Narendra Modi, Google on Saturday said it has worked quickly to address the issue and conceded that the chatbot “may not always be reliable” in responding to certain prompts related to current events and political topics.

On Friday, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar had warned that Google’s AI tool Gemini’s response to a question around the Prime Minister is in direct violation of IT rules as well as several provisions of the criminal code.

Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for IT and Electronics, had taken cognizance of the issue raised by verified accounts of a journalist alleging bias in Google Gemini in response to a question on Modi while it gave no clear answer when a similar question was asked for Trump and Zelenskyy.

In an e-mail statement, a Google spokesperson said, “We’ve worked quickly to address this issue.”

Google further said Gemini is built as a creativity and productivity tool and “may not always be reliable, especially when it comes to responding to some prompts about current events, political topics, or evolving news”.

“This is something that we’re constantly working on improving,” the spokesperson said.

Earlier, the minister had marked the post to Google and Ministry of Electronics and IT indicating further action in the matter.

“These are direct violations of Rule 3(1)(b) of Intermediary Rules (IT rules) of the IT act and violations of several provisions of the Criminal code,” Chandrasekhar said on social media platform X.

The journalist has shared a screenshot in which a question was asked to Gemini about Modi. In response, Gemini made uncharitable comments about him but was circumspect when the same query was posed about Trump and Zelenskyy.

In fact, the chatbot’s text-to-image generation feature has been embroiled in controversies.

Recently, the Mountain View, California-based tech giant temporarily paused Gemini Artificial Intelligence chatbot’s images generation of people, after ‘inaccuracies’ were flagged in historical images the chatbot was generating.

Social media platform X (formerly Twitter) has erupted with posts describing Gemini as “too woke” when generating historical images.

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday cancelled the recently held police constable recruitment examination following allegations of question paper leak and ordered a re-test within six months.

The state government also announced a probe into the allegations by the Special Task Force (STF).

More than 48 lakh candidates appeared in the examination conducted on February 17 and 18 across the state.

In a post in Hindi on ‘X’, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said, “There can be no compromise with the sanctity of examinations. Those who toy with the hard work of youngsters will not be spared under any circumstances. Strictest action is certain to be taken against such unruly elements.”

More than 240 people were arrested and detained by police across Uttar Pradesh for allegedly adopting or planning to use unfair means in the recruitment exam.

Accouncing the decision, the state home department said, “On the basis of the information and facts pertaining to police recruitment examination held on February 17 and February 18, the government, while keeping in mind the highest standards of sanctity and transparency, has decided to cancel the examination.”

“The government has directed the recruitment board to register an FIR at the level where laxity has been committed and ensure further action. The government has decided to get the matter probed by the STF. Directions have also been issued to take strictest action against the guilty persons and organisation,” it said in a statement.

According to the statement, a re-examination will be conducted within six months and UPSRTC buses will ferry candidates to the centres for free.

Reacting to the development, senior AAP leader in the state Shekhar Dixit told PTI, “There cannot be anything more saddening than leakage of examination question paper. Earlier, question paper leaks were unheard of in Uttar Pradesh… The leakage of the question paper proves that the education mafia is still very strong in the state.”

New Delhi / Chennai: S Vijayadharani, a Congress MLA from Tamil Nadu for three consecutive terms, joined the BJP on Saturday, asserting that the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is very important for the country.

The development is a shot in the arm for the BJP in the southern state where it has struggled to gain ground.

Vijayadharani is the MLA from Vilavancode, which is part of the Kanyakumari Lok Sabha seat, a constituency the BJP has won in the past.

She posted on X her letter of resignation from the Congress before joining the BJP.

She joined the party in the national capital in the presence of Union Minister L Murugan and the party’s national secretary Arvind Menon, who is the poll in-charge for Tamil Nadu.

Vijayadharani lauded the central government for its various good schemes and lamented that some of those are not being implemented in Tamil Nadu, where the DMK-Congress alliance is in power.

A lot of great things are happening to the country, she said, praising the BJP’s focus on women.

Murugan said people from different sections of society are coming forward to join the BJP to strengthen Modi’s hand.

The BJP was unable to win any of the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu in the 2019 general elections.

Vijayadharani, who is also a successful lawyer, is the first sitting MLA to join the BJP.

Prior to the 2021 Assembly election, former state Minister from the AIADMK Nainar Nagendra joined the saffron party from the southern district of Tirunelveli and he is currently the party floor leader.

The Kanyakumari district from where she hails is represented by senior BJP leader M R Gandhi from Nagercoil in the Assembly House. She joins the increasing list of legislators from the district which sent C Velayutham Pillai from the Padmanabhapuram constituency to the Assembly for the first time in 1996.

The political career of Vijayadharani, an intense debater in TV channels, spans over three decades and she is known for her sense of commitment to public service and a strong focus on welfare of the marginalised.

“Her presence will be advantageous to the BJP as she has established for herself a clean image championing the cause of the people especially the downtrodden,” a senior BJP leader said.

He confirmed that she was in touch with the senior leaders in the party before taking the final plunge to embrace the BJP.

Her conspicuous absence in the Assembly during the brief Budget session which concluded on February 22, raised eyebrows and sparked rumours of her joining the BJP. But, the new TNCC chief Selvaperunthagai denied that she was quitting the Congress.

She was first elected from the Vilavancode assembly constituency in 2011 and romped home the winner in 2016 and 2021 elections. Before joining the BJP, the 54-year-old leader was the general secretary of AICC and chief whip of the Congress Legislative Party in the Assembly.

As a legislator she has been voicing for total prohibition and was instrumental in ensuring the closure of some liquor shops in her constituency. This advocate for women empowerment has been batting for 50 percent reservation for women in civic polls.

Rescue operations underway at the pond

Kasganj (UP): Twenty-four people, including eight children, died when their tractor-trolley overturned and fell into a pond in Uttar Pradesh’s Kasganj district on Saturday morning, police said.

They said 15 to 20 people were injured in the accident that occurred on the Patiyali-Dariyavganj road under the Patiyali police station area when the occupants of the tractor-trolley were going to take a bath in the Ganga river.

Inspector General of Aligarh Range Shalabh Mathur said Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has condoled the loss of lives in the accident and announced financial assistance of Rs 2 lakh to the kin of each of the deceased and Rs 50,000 to the injured.

“Twenty-four people died when the tractor-trolley overturned and fell into the seven to eight-foot-deep pond while the driver was trying to overtake another vehicle. Around 15-20 people were injured and have been hospitalised,” Mathur told PTI.

He added that the deceased included eight children.

“The tractor-trolley was coming from Jaithara in Etah district. I am going to the spot with the divisional commissioner (of Aligarh),” Mathur said, adding that the bodies of the deceased would be handed over to their families after post-mortem examination.

According to the police, 22 of those who died in the accident have been identified as Guddi (75), Shakuntala (70), Meera (65) wife of Digvijay, Meera (55) wife of Rajpal, Gayatri (52), Pushpa (45), Shyamlata (40), Shivam (30), Shivani (25), Anjali (24), Jyoti (24), Ushma (24), Sapna (22), Deeksha (19), Sunaina (10), Kuldeep (7), Devanshi (6), Sandhya (5), Kartik (4), Laddu (3), Siddhu (one-and-half years) and Payal (two months).

Two other bodies are yet to be identified, police said.

In a post on X, Adityanath said, “The loss of lives in a road accident in Kasganj district is extremely heart-wrenching. My condolences are with the bereaved families. District administration officials have been instructed to provide proper free treatment to all the injured. I pray to Lord Shri Ram to grant peace to the departed souls and speedy recovery to the injured.”

As locals searched for trapped children, a woman was seen wailing and searching for her child. An excavator was also pressed into action for the rescue work.

Praveen Kumar, a local involved in the initial rescue operation, told reporters that he fished out 15 bodies from the pond. “We sent the injured to hospital on whatever vehicles were plying on the road that time. The deceased were mostly women,” he said.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati expressed sadness over the incident.

In a post on X in Hindi, Yadav said, “Very sad! The news of a large number of casualties in Kasganj when a tractor-trolley loaded with devotees returning after taking a bath in the Ganga overturned in a pond is extremely sad. Save people’s lives by speeding up relief work. Wish for the speedy recovery of the injured.”

He added that the government should give appropriate compensation to the families of the deceased.

Mayawati, in a post on X in Hindi, said, “The news of the death of about 22 devotees and injuries to many others when a tractor-trolley overturned in a pond in Kasganj district of Uttar Pradesh is very sad. My deepest condolences to the bereaved family. The government must provide all possible help to the affected families as soon as possible.”